#4 | Sunday reads for EMs
My favourite reads of the week to make your Sunday a little more inspiring.
👋 Hey, it’s Stephane. This is a new series in which every Sunday I share with you my favourite reads of the week. To accelerate your growth see: 50 Notion Templates | The EM’s Field Guide | CodeCrafters | Get Hired as an EM | 1:1 Coaching
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How to Deal With A Toxic Top-Performer
tl;dr: If you're stuck with a brilliant but toxic team member, the real issue isn't their personality, it's your org's overdependence on their knowledge. Coaching won’t fix a narcissist. Instead, use Dave’s 5×3™ framework to extract and codify their expertise: five core pillars, three examples each. This is a must-read playbook for breaking free from single points of failure.
New Advice For Aspiring Managers
tl;dr: James updates his management advice for the post-ZIRP world: fewer promotions, tighter budgets, and higher scrutiny. New EMs need to be hands-on, efficiency-obsessed, and fluent in AI tools. Growth now means impact, not headcount. You’ll need to justify every hire (and fire), measure obsessively, and build prototypes over process. The message is clear: the bar is higher than ever. If you’re not up for scrappy leadership, this might not be your moment.
How To Vibe Code As A Senior Engineer
tl;dr: Vibe coding isn’t just hype; it’s becoming a superpower for senior engineers. The post offers a tactical guide: use monorepo scaffolds, encode rules in tools like Cursor, manually manage context, and prompt like a pro. Key insight: LLMs are only as useful as your scaffolding, specificity, and feedback loops.
Choosing Where To Spend My Team’s Effort
tl;dr: This guide shows EMs how to translate top-down goals into bottom-up projects using a practical spin on opportunity solution trees. The big idea: pitch initiatives that align with multiple strategies to unlock budget and visibility. You can influence the roadmap even without official authority. Great template for shaping impactful roadmaps without burning out your team.
In Command
tl;dr: Jason defines what it means to be “in command” (vs. “in control”) of your team or org. It’s bringing proactive clarity, making decisive tradeoffs, and taking visible action when things go off-course. This piece helps EMs self-assess: are you reacting intentionally, or just reacting? While less tactical than others, it’s a great mirror for leadership maturity.
Challenging Projects Every Programmer Should Try
tl;dr: A curated list of deep-dive projects (e.g., text editor, compiler, emulator) that build real skills, far beyond tutorials. Each one teaches architecture lessons, data structures, and systems thinking. A great resource for leaders mentoring juniors or for anyone looking to sharpen their engineering edge through hands-on, meaningful side projects.
Most popular from last Sunday
What did you read recently that you would like to share?
I like that it’s a collection of TL;DR as a recommendations of others work. Thanks for sharing!