Hello, I'm Jonathan Cutrell.

Engineering manager with a chosen bias for long-term thinking.

Picture of the author
Recent Posts
Project or Domain Teams?Focus Beats EffortWork With MeThe Health Conscious MonopolySelection bias is everythingNarrative vs IterationMonday Night FootballEmbarrassment InsuranceThe Day I Almost DiedTesting Is A Shared Hallucination About RiskThe Dog Ate the Toast Again.Won't and Can'tThe Spectrum of AI AssistanceThe 39 Hour Work WeekThe Paradox of TranscendenceUsing Docker for Gatsby local developmentThinking MachinePatterns for Long-Term Remote WorkHow Remote First Companies are AntifragileBe Careful Taking ShortcutsView All Posts

Why Long-Term?

Long-term thinking requires a paradigm shift.

Long-term thinking is a forcing function that powerfully aligns organizations and individuals. Thinking long term means valuing:

  • People over products
  • Character over skills
  • Trends over spikes
  • Norms over exceptions
  • Teaching over showing
  • Philosophy over tactics
  • Habits over heroics
  • Smooth over fast
  • Data over anecdotes
  • Impact over hype
  • Causes over symptoms

Most people have a bias for short-term execution. This can be necessary for survival. Only exceptional ventures optimize for the long-term.

My Values

Prioritize High Leverage

Optimize for the Long-Term; Always Be Ahead Of The Ball

Invest First In My Closest Relationships

Growth Through Learning

Peace in Place and Person - "Go Happy"

Giving Is Sharing; Sharing Is Giving

Cultivate Understanding In Context

Competence

Read more about my values
Current Work

Engineering Manager, Guild Education

Supporting engineers responsible for content delivery services for millions of end users.

Host, Developer Tea

A top-100 tech podcast with over 15m all-time downloads by listeners in over 200 countries.
Latest episode: