Paul Grenyer

Ghost is one of the bands that headlined Bloodstock one year and that I was completely non-pleased about, but then I really got into. The light bulb moment for me was the album Prequelle and its follow up Impera. Tonight, in a 21 song set, which included 4 songs from an album which isn’t out yet, they played only 5 songs from the albums I like. They didn’t play Spillways, my current favorite, the Pet Shop Boys cover or the Genesis cover. There was no surprise appearance from Def Leppard’s Joe elliot.  … but they were still brilliant! I wasn't sure what to expect. The sound at the O2 can be so hit and miss, but it was fine this time. We knew in advance that our phones would be placed in a sealed bag and handed back to us on the way in. This actually worked really well and they had A LOT of people available at the end to help return our phones to us. They wouldn’t let me keep the bag once I had my phone back though. There was no support band, which was odd, but given the elaborate...

by Will Larson ISBN-13: 978-1736417911 Will Larson’s staff engineer archetypes didn’t really resonate with me and neither did the use of the word “staff”, which isn't really explained. Some of the descriptions of operating as a staff engineer were really good. They taught me a few things and reaffirmed some others. I loved the idea of a Right Hand, which is like the Hand of the King in Game of Thrones. Also, the importance of ‘being in the room’ was well explained. The book overplays alignment with seniors to the point of sucking up to get what you want, which I found disingenuous. If you’re operating at that level you should be prepared to challenge authority. I didn’t relate to the suggested guidance for getting promoted to staff engineer, perhaps because I’ve always done it by moving to a new company - which Larson also covers, but only really gets a light touch. Just over half the book is stories from other staff engineers. I wasn’t sure I’d get value from reading those, so I a...

Last week I was back at the ACCU Conference in Bristol, for the first time since I gave an opening keynote in 2019 . In March 2020, COVID hit the UK and I got out of the habit of attending and speaking at conferences. Plus the ACCU Conference, and the organisation in general, took a big step back towards C++ and that hasn’t been relevant to me for nearly two decades. It’s taken until now, 2025 for me to want to talk again, and I was really pleased to be accepted for the ACCU Conference again. It was just a 20 minute session and I only attended for the day I was speaking. There was enough varied content for it to be interesting to me and I’m hoping to be back for the full conference next year. I really enjoyed attending and it was great to catch up with people I hadn’t seen for years. I felt re-engaged and particularly liked being asked if I’d been to nor(DEV):con . Learning to stop writing code (and why you won't miss it) Daisy Hollman I should have read the summary of the openin...

So you think you can lead a team? I’ve been talking and writing a lot about leading a software engineering team in 2025. I started thinking about it more deeply the year before when I decided to give a colleague, who was moving into team leading, some advice: 'Doing the work' isn't the only way to add value Remember to delegate Pick your battles Talk to your team every day Out of this came a talk, “So you think you can lead a team?” which I gave at work, at meetups and at conferences in various different formats during the first quarter of 2025. Here I am looking at Remember to Delegate and an idea which came out of discussion around the talk, The Triangle of Trust, in more detail. Delegate Delegation is a crucial skill for any team lead, yet it is often one of the most challenging aspects of leadership to master. Many leaders, particularly those who have risen through the ranks as individual contributors, struggle to let go of tasks, fearing a loss of control or a dip in ...