Sten Vesterli's Blog

Making IT Live up to its Promise

Invisible Problems

IT Leadership, ,

“We don’t see a problem.” That is the typical response when a company is investigated for unsafe products or features. Latest car in point: Ford’s BlueCruise self-driving feature.

They might be right in claiming that customers have not reported problems to them. But when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) started to take an interest, they could easily compile 2,000 claims of malfunctioning self-driving features.

How are you gathering customer feedback? The fact that you don’t receive any problem reports doesn’t mean there are no problems.

The 996 Fallacy

Spiritual Programmer,

996 working is back in fashion. That means working from 9am to 9pm, 6 days a week. The concept originated in China, but AI startups in The U.S. had taken it up with a vengeance.

It is a stupid idea, conflating effort with results. You need a certain amount of effort to produce a result, but more effort does not translate linearly into more results. The science shows that productivity tapers off after 40 hours a week, and workers doing 70 hours so not produce more than workers doing 50 hours.

If you are working on your own startup or have another good reason, by all means put in some extra effort. But don’t sacrifice your health for someone else’s agenda.

The Missing AI Business Model

IT Leadership,

OpenAI has started running ads in ChatGPT. For now, they say they are “testing” the feature in the U.S., but there is little doubt it will eventually be rolled out globally.

Just like all the other AI companies, OpenAI is burning cash at an unsustainable rate – using more than 10x what they make on the compute they consume. Some of them will fail.

If you are using external AI tools in any of your systems, make sure your developers are plugging in the AI in a way that makes it easily replaceable. As the shakedown starts, you’ll be seeing price hikes on the paid plans as well, and you need to be able to quickly and easily change to another provider. Or run an Open Source model in-house.

Keeping Up With AI

Spiritual Programmer, ,

How are you keeping up with developments in AI? There are several major AI players releasing new versions with new capabilities every few months. They have different strengths and weaknesses, and we are all inundated with news about how AI will take away our jobs. So how can we keep up when we have a day job?

If your organization doesn’t have an AI knowledge-sharing program, establish one with colleagues or friends. Meet over beer and pizza, share your current knowledge, and assign responsibilities. Someone might have the task of keeping up with Claude Code. Someone else might be responsible for investigating Gemini CLI. Meet up regularly and informally share what you’ve found.

The AI field is too big and fast-moving for you to keep up with it on your own.

Unknown AI Policies

IT Leadership, , ,

Does everyone in your IT organization know what your rules are regarding AI use? 60% of employees report using AI tools, while fewer than 20% say they know the company’s AI policy.

That is not because the policies don’t exist. More than 80% of IT leaders report that their organizations have formulated polices for AI use.

How are you going to close that gap?

Detecting Bias in Yourself

Spiritual Programmer, ,

Can you see your own biases? Most people can’t.

I recently posted here and on social media about product design trade-offs and being able to see the downside of a design decision. I used Tesla as an example. Bad choice.

The comment track was immediately swamped with Elon-haters and Tesla fanboys (in about equal measure). Not many people wanted to participate in the discussion about product design decisions and blind spots.

Interestingly, this proved my point exactly: We all have blind spots. Once we have made a point publicly, it becomes part of our identity. And society appreciates people who stand their ground, while people changing their minds are written off as flip-floppers. But if we want to make good decisions, we have to overcome our biases.

Ideally, you have a group of trusted friends you can discuss important issues with before you make a decision. Failing that, you can borrow someone else’s viewpoint: Ask yourself what that other person would say.

Only Outsiders Can See the Faults

IT Leadership, , ,

Would you design a product with a sleek but potentially deadly feature? Most people wouldn’t, but aerodynamics and design have led to at least 15 people dying in burning Teslas when the electric doors wouldn’t open. The Chinese are no longer having it, and are ordering all cars to have a mechanical door release both inside and outside the vehicle from January 1st next year.

Thousands of trade-offs are made when designing products. But some outcomes are so bad that they ought to disqualify a feature. Product owners want a great product with awesome features, and are not capable of imagining all the bad things that could happen. Even if you don’t have a dedicated Red Team, you need someone outside the product team to probe your products for weaknesses. The people building it can’t see them.

Morning Routine

Spiritual Programmer, ,

You don’t need an elaborate morning routine. Online coaches and influencers describe theirs ad nauseam. If you have the time, by all means spend your morning with strength training, affirmations, a home-cooked breakfast in accordance with your chosen macros, a walk outside, meditation, tai chi, and a success visualization. But most of us have a job to do. We get up, shower, brush our teeth, have coffee, and head to the office.

But as so often, there is a grain of truth behind the hype. It is true that your brain is reset when you wake up. But as soon as you open your email, messages, or social media, other people’s concerns and agendas take over your life.

The one thing that matters most in your mornings is to set your intention for the day. Before you reach for your phone, identify one thing you want to achieve this day. Just one. Your brain is not good at holding dozens of tasks simultaneously. It gets confused, and you start task swapping and spinning your wheels. Set your sights on one task in the morning. You’ll find your brain will keep reminding you, and that one task does get completed.

How Many People are Indispensable?

IT Leadership,

How many people are indispensable in your IT organization (you included)? The right answer is zero. The typical answer is in single digits. It is your job as an IT leader to bring this number down.

It happens automatically as you try to reduce headcount. Just as optimizing your supply chain makes it brittle and prone to disruption, cutting headcount to the bare minimum risks chaos when a key person leaves or is hit by a health or family issue.

There should be two people who can handle every important job. Make these buddy teams explicit and allocate a budget for them. It costs you very little to give each two-person team an allowance for a restaurant meal every two months and to let them attend a conference or event together once a year.

Do you have a list of your key people, the jobs they do, and who could take over? If you don’t, it might be a good idea to start one.