The Balanced Engineer • Issue #43

The Balanced Engineer Newsletter

January 2026 • Issue # 43

It's January!

I've spent the last few weeks cleaning, re-organizing, and spending time with family, and my heart could not be more full. I love the vibes of the New Year. Everything feels fresh and full of possibilities.

Having so much family time has been wonderful, and I'm excited to take those vibes into 2026 and focus even more on finding balance. I love learning, but I also love spending time with these three tiny kids of mine, and balance has never been more important.

🔄 Process & Culture

The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Criticizing AI by Cory Doctorow Summary: In this article, Cory provides an overview of centaur technology (things where tech prioritizes helping humans) and reverse centaur technology (where humans have to prioritize helping tech). He argues that the AI Bubble story for tech is pushing the reverse centaur story and that we should fight back against it. He has some great points about things like how AI art is mostly there to get the public comfortable with AI, and how AGI is likely just science fiction.

Why this resonates: I'm definitely not an AI skeptic at this point, but I do appreciate balanced and measured takes about AI. Where it's actually useful and importantly, what the drawbacks are. The more the industry invested in AI, the more clear it is that AI isn't the job stealer that it was originally sold as. That means we need to eventually find our way out of this AI bubble, which is almost certainly going to be a bit painful.

🎯 Impact & Purpose

Best Laid Plans by Sarah Hart-Unger Summary: This isn't exactly an engineering resource, but it is perhaps the best and most practical productivity book I've ever read. It's an overview of the benefits and methods of the Best Laid Plans planning system. It's an incredibly balanced and realistic take towards productivity, which doesn't shove hustle culture down your throat and is filled with grace and positive attempts to fill your planned hours with joy. I highly recommend it whether you're a big productivity nerd or not!

Why this resonates: I've been listening to Sarah’s podcast, also called Best Laid Plans, for years now. I love following her advice on productivity. She is a doctor, podcaster, mom of three, and now an author. As a fellow working mom who takes on a lot, much of what she says really resonates with me. Much of her podcast is reviewing different planners, which I really enjoy, but this book was so much more. It was a very practical approach to a planning system that I am implementing for 2026, and I'm excited to see where it takes me!

What I've Been Building

A quick look at what I've been working on this month

Blog posts

• WRAP up your backlog with GitHub Copilot coding agent - on the GitHub Blog!
• Representing groups in ATProto
• Build the thing you wish to see in the world

Overcommitted Podcast

• Ep. 36 | Navigating the future of AI agent security with Dan Moore
  • I met Dan through the internet and follow his content, he's an absolute powerhouse in the auth space! This was an illuminating conversation, I loved getting a chance to sit down with him and chat.
• Ep. 37 | Being unreasonable with Jason Lengstorf
  • This may be one of my favorite interviews we've done. Jason is so cool. He's super knowledgeable, very passionate, and overall just a good dude. I love his approach to taking on big things and living life without regrets.
• Ep. 38 | Writing for Developers with Piotr Sarna
  • This episode kicked off the Overcommitted book club for Writing for Developers. It was a lovely chance to chat with Piotr Sarna and Cynthia Dunlop about the book they wrote and get a teaser for the book club. There's still time to join us for the book club if you're interested in Writing for Developers!
• Ep. 39 | Lifting as you climb: Cassidy Williams on DevRel, Mentorship, and Building for Developers
  • This is another one of my absolute favorite interviews. Cassidy was incredibly cool to chat with and is such a lovely human. I've explored the DevRel space for the last year or so as a potential career move, and really enjoyed Cassidy’s perspective on it. She also nerds out about mechanical keyboards at the end and I didn't realize how much I needed that motivation to update my office space!
• Ep. 40 | From Librarian to Software Engineer: Tammy Metz on Career Pivots and Mentorship
  • Tammy also works at GitHub with us, and had a really cool story shared with the org about her volunteering and mentoring. Both Erika and I are career switchers as well, so it was fun to connect with Tammy about that and learn about her journey!

Join the Overcommitted book club!

Join us in Discord to read along and learn from the Overcommitted community for the book Writing for Developers!