There are over 900 articles and podcasts on Rands in Repose, written and recorded over the past two decades. If you know what you’re looking for, your best search move is using Google or DuckDuckGo to find that specific article, but if you’re here for the first time, I’d like to give you the lay of the land.
Welcome. I’m Rands. That’s not my real name, but that hasn’t stopped me from writing in these parts for a long time. In the beginning, topics were all over the place, but as time passed, I settled into some themes, and article length grew. Much of the recent material is usually 1000+ words. I don’t have a lot of top 10 lists or FAQs; I write longer, substantive pieces that I hope are worthy of your attention.
If this is your first time here, the following is a handful of Rands-defining pieces that will give you a sense of what is going on:
The Nerd Handbook: An article that explains nerds to the significant others of nerds. If you’re a nerd and want to feel like someone is wandering around your head, it’s a good read. If you’re a significant other of a nerd, this will help explain nerd… nuances. (Honorable mention: N.A.D.D.)
Bored People Quit: One of the major themes on this site is engineering leadership. This piece breaks down the different types of 1:1s you’re likely to see on your team and explains how to handle the more complicated parts of people leadership. (Honorable mention: A Glimpse and a Hook)
How To Write a Book: One of the benefits of writing a lot on this weblog is that it’s made it easier to write books. I wrote this piece shortly before the publication of my second book and frequently reread it when writing becomes terrifying. (Honorable mention: Please Learn to Write)
Beyond those three, these are the pieces readers search for, return to, and send to each other. Fifteen of them:
If you lead humans
- The Update, the Vent, and the Disaster · The three types of 1:1s, and how to survive each
- The Wolf · The 10x engineer is not a myth
- How to Rands · The original “how to work with me” user manual
- Shields Down · Resignations begin long before the resignation
- Stables and Volatiles · The two species of engineer; you need both
If you’re new to this
- The New Manager Death Spiral · How doing it all yourself destroys your credibility
- Ninety Days · A field guide to your first three months
- Say the Hard Thing · Every people disaster starts with unsaid feedback
- Managing Up · The helpful version, and the weaponized one
Recent favorites
- Sometimes Your Job is to Stay the Hell Out of the Way · Building a culture where Wolves can exist
- The Ask · The instinct for what’s actually going on in that meeting
- So You Want to Be Promoted, Pt. 1 & Pt. 2 · Promotions don’t just show up
- Three Bad Managers · Field notes from working for three very smart humans
- Barely Treading Water · When you’re drowning: the Yes, No, and Delegate lists
- I Hate Fish · A productivity system you hate is one you won’t use
Wander by category
Every article lives in a category, and I’ve scrubbed and re-scrubbed those categories over the years. If you’re interested in wandering, these are the ones full of quality content:
- Management: I really wish I called this category leadership. One day, I will.
- Tech Life: A mishmash of topics that I believe most nerds and geeks will appreciate considering.
- Tools: I have been known to obsess about the tools I use — here’s the proof.
- Writing: The reason you’re here. While there are far fewer articles than in leadership and nerdery, there are gems here.
- Apple: I used to work at Apple and used to write about it. I work there again, and I don’t write about it anymore. Wait, strike that. Left again.
Follow along
The site is designed to be readable, approachable, and bookmarkable, but there are other ways to keep abreast of the latest and greatest content:
- There’s the full RSS feed and a feed that contains just the long-form content.
- I announce significant pieces on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads.
Elsewhere
There’s the Rands Leadership Slack, where thousands of leaders discuss the craft every day. There’s a podcast, The Important Thing, where Lyle and I talk through these ideas out loud. And there are the Rands Guides — robot-assisted deep research into topics crossing my mind.
Finally, there’s a frequently updated Rands Newsletter. New content is posted here but also links to things that you might find of interest. Maybe.
