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I am planning to spend this Friday evening doing something that has no measurable ROI.
I have a stack of old letters and a fountain pen that needs cleaning. I’ll probably spend an hour just on the ink. No goals, no shipping, no "results." Just the quiet satisfaction of a tool being cared for by a human hand.
To some of you, that sounds like a waste of sixty minutes. To others, it sounds like a luxury you can’t afford. But if you have spent your week inside the "efficiency cult" of modern software development, you know exactly why I am doing it.
We are living through the era of Digital Slop. We are being told:
- If we aren’t using AI to summarize our meetings, we are falling behind.
- If we aren't using Copilot to finish our functions, we are inefficient.
- If we aren't "shipping at the speed of thought," we are obsolete.
But I’ve been around long enough to see the crash that follows the rush. I am a Humanist Architect, and I am here to tell you: Tech without soul is just a slow-motion collision.
The Myth of the Optimized Engineer
In the tech industry, we have a specific kind of dysmorphia. We treat our brains like CPUs and our lives like a CI/CD pipeline.
- We look for "hacks" to sleep better so we can work harder.
- We look for "hacks" to read documentation faster so we can ship sooner.
We have optimized the humanity out of the craft.
When you spend your entire week chasing velocity, you stop being a creator and start being a component. You become a user of models, a passer of tickets, a cog in a machine that values "more" over "better."
The problem with moving fast is that it creates a specific kind of blindness. When you are running at full speed toward a cliff, "efficiency" is just a metric that tells you how much sooner you’ll fall.
The Ethics of Impact
We need to stop asking "How much did we ship?" and start asking "Whose life did we actually improve?"
If our success is measured only by the number of PRs merged or the share price at the end of the quarter—while we leave a wake of stress, burnout, and buggy, thoughtless software—then we have failed.
Software isn't just code. It is a social contract. We shape the lives of the people who build it and the people who use it. When we rush, we break that contract. We ship "digital slop" because we are moving too fast to actually taste what we are making.
Management is about resources. Stewardship is about the guardianship of something precious. As engineers, we need to stop being managed and start being stewards.
Knowledge as Agency
There is a dangerous idea floating around right now: that because AI can generate code, human learning is becoming obsolete. I reject that entirely.
Understanding the "why"—the math, the nature of the systems, the physical reality of the hardware—is the only thing that keeps us from smashing into the wall. When we outsource our thinking to a model, we aren't becoming more powerful. We are becoming more dependent.
The Slow Tech Movement
We need a "Slow Tech" movement, modeled after the Slow Food movement. We must reject the "fast food" of buggy, thoughtless software.
- Moving fast is a vanity metric.
- Moving in the right direction is leadership.
Your Friday Protocol: Reclaiming the Human
I want to challenge you to try a "Zero Velocity" practice. This isn't a productivity tip; it’s a survival strategy. For the next month, I want you to perform these three steps every Friday afternoon.
1. The Analog Buffer
Before you close your laptop, don't jump straight into the next digital stream. Sit for 20 minutes with a physical object. A book, a plant, or even just the view out your window.
2. The No-Verdict Audit
Look back at your week. Find the moment that felt the most "metallic"—the meeting where you felt like a resource. Write down what happened in three sentences on a piece of paper. Do not try to solve it. By naming it, you take away its power.
3. The Physical Signature
Do one thing with your hands that has a physical result. Cook a soup, clean a fountain pen, or fix a door hinge. In a world where our work disappears into the cloud, we need to feel the resistance of the physical world.
Legacy over Velocity
We are building the infrastructure of the future. Do you want them to look at your work and see a pile of optimized failures? Or do you want them to see the work of a human who cared?
A Final Thought
This Friday, the goal is zero velocity. I’m going to clean my pen. I’m going to watch the ink flow into the converter. I’m going to remember that I am a craftsman, not a component.
The world will still be there on Monday. But I will be different. I will be rested. I will be grounded.
How do you plan to spend this Friday?
I help tech leaders stop chasing blind efficiency and start building for human impact. If you want to move away from the "efficiency cult," join me on *Substack** for more reflections on stewardship, legacy, and the human spirit in tech.*
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If you’re feeling the weight of the "efficiency cult" and want to move from being a component to being a steward, I’m here to help. Whether you need to build the foundational confidence to lead or want to master the craft of engineering without losing your humanity, let’s talk.
Reclaim your agency here