The Care and Feeding of Software Engineers
summary
A clear playbook for new managers who used to code: create psychological safety so engineers feel safe to fail, run regular one‑on‑ones, and enforce knowledge sharing to raise the bus factor above one. A survey of hundreds of developers shows safety and recognition beat pay (compensation ranks third), and visible praise cuts turnover for years. Practical actions include letting juniors speak first in standups, breaking work into smaller deadlines, delegating travel or admin decisions, protecting the team from unrealistic timelines, and building autonomous time for seniors to preserve flow. recognize contributions
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chapters (15)
- 0:00Start
- 11:22People Buy into the Leader before They Buy into the Vision
- 15:30What Developers Want from the Leaders
- 16:45Feel Safe To Fail
- 17:23You Are Not Infallible
- 21:21Be Flexible
- 23:32Bus Factor
- 29:18Demonstrate Active Listening
- 40:28Delegation
- 45:18How Do You Take Care of Your Junior Developers
- 47:16Co-Worker Pairing
- 51:38How Do You Feed an Introvert
- 52:46How Do You Feed an Extrovert
- 53:48How Do You Feed an Optimist
- 54:20The Pessimist
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