cate
cate@hachyderm.io
<p>engineering director. coach. quantum particle. in search of adventure; it’s probably fine ✨</p><p>Author of The Engineering Leader, published by O'Reilly</p>
Posts
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Post #4374711
If you're systematically overwhelmed, working harder isn't the answer - and you know that, because if it was going to work it would have by now. The question that gets you out: what would make next week better for future-me? https://cate.blog/2026/08/04/what-would-make-next-week-better/
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Post #3538523
Every company wants you to believe you're lucky to be there. The people telling you this is the best place you'll ever work? Maybe they believe it. But power changes perspective. Google was my first job - how was I supposed to know any different? The message was: you'll never be happy anywhere else. Leaving was scary. But it was great for my career and my mental health. Half a year into taking another risk - and having a similar experience. I'm learning so much. You have to kn...
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Post #3233745
A story about one of my most impactful personal projects: @chiuki and I ran a newsletter (before everyone had one) called &quot;Technically Speaking&quot; about public speaking in tech. It started because we wanted to make something useful for our community - and they supported us from day one 💓 100 subscribers before we&#39;d even launched. People sponsored it because they wanted it to exist. We got to push conferences toward codes of conduct and covering speaker travel. What&...
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Post #3233744
Me in DRI&#39;s &quot;Navigating the AI Shift&quot; course: &quot;Think critically, don&#39;t just accept AI output.&quot; Me using Claude Design: 😍🤩👩🏻💻👩🏻💻👩🏻💻👩🏻💻👩🏻💻🚢🚢🚢 @jyhsu later: &quot;Why are there numbers everywhere? What does this strike through mean?&quot; AKA very valid questions I should have asked myself. I have been quite judgy about people uncritically accepting AI output, but turns out all I needed to fall into the same trap is using it in a space where I c...
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Post #3233743
I&#39;ve been lucky: the right coach at the right time, and a job that paid for it. It was good for my career and good for my well being. Paying that forward as one of 21 coaches offering free scholarships this round to engineering leaders from underrepresented groups in tech. 29 spots. Apply by 30 June 👩🏻💻 https://monkeysthumb.co.uk/coaching-for-engineering-leaders/scholarships/
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Post #3233742
Gossiping with a friend about people who can&#39;t admit they&#39;re wrong. Then realised I needed to do the same - admit I was wrong, and make a new plan. Future-Cate will thank me. https://cate.blog/2026/06/02/making-a-new-plan/
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Post #3233739
&quot;Don&#39;t ask someone to read or review what you haven&#39;t read or reviewed yourself.&quot; @skamille on respectful AI use. This should be common sense... and yet it&#39;s not. Your individual productivity should move things forward, not DDOS your coworkers 👩🏻💻 https://skamille.medium.com/guidelines-for-respectful-use-of-ai-affcc85d7072
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Post #3233738
Day 3 of the cate.blog design refresh. Will to live: gone 🫠 Feelings about WordPress: extremely negative 🔥 Determination: somehow higher than ever 👩🏻💻
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Post #3233737
This stage of capitalism is so gross. Entry level jobs gone? Now you can learn the skills by paying for a subscription in order to do unpaid labour. https://www.extern.com/externships
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Post #3233736
Scaling up and out of the day to day made awareness too expensive to be useful. New post on rebuilding it: the AI skills that route, report, and tell me what&#39;s actually going on. https://cate.blog/2026/06/09/useful-ai-skills-for-engineering-leaders/
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Post #2353532
My partner is quietly looking for his next iOS/macOS role — particular love for accessibility 💖 Ping me if you&#39;re hiring 👩🏻💻 (We live in Cork. Ireland - so remote / Ireland preferred, open to EU).
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Post #2098032
Having so much fun developing again! Reminds me of why I fell for mobile dev: People had started to hate their computers but still loved their phones. That felt like an opportunity to build applications people actually want, not ones corporations subject them to 👩🏻💻📱
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Post #1917930
It&#39;s my birthday next week 🎂 Here&#39;s what I&#39;d tell 18-year-old me: Skip chemistry, go straight to CS. Turns out I&#39;m more 👩🏻💻 than 👩🏻🔬 - plus the market for chemists has been declining for over a decade. So even if things seem hard today, it could have been worse! Oh, and economic history ≠ economics 📚🤦🏻♀️
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Post #1179539
&quot;Relieved, and then immediately guilty about the relief, and then annoyed at myself for feeling guilty about something that is, by any rational measure, a completely reasonable thing to do.&quot; Honest piece on the ethics of AI code tools now that they&#39;re actually good. It&#39;s easy to opt out of something that doesn&#39;t work. It&#39;s a lot harder when your industry is making it a requirement and you still need to pay rent. https://matduggan.com/i-sold-out-...
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Post #1040344
My friend asked if Claude could replace coaching. I started writing about that and ended up somewhere else entirely - on what it means to be seen and challenged by another human being. New issue of What&#39;s My Job Again 👇 https://newsletter.whatsmyjob.club/archive/the-human-weight-of-it/
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Post #911549
Audio book now available! Exciting news, the audio book of The Engineering Leader is out! Available on Amazon or wherever you buy audio books. https://cate.blog/2024/11/19/audio-book-now-available/