Hello, I'm Jonathan Cutrell.

I am an empathetic engineering manager with over 10 years of experience and a chosen bias for long-term thinking.

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.

Thinking Machine

My perpetual goal is to build a better thinking machine. I've gone back and forth on this for a long time. What do I want to get better at…

Patterns for Long-Term Remote Work

Talking about remote work is en vogue right now, and rightfully so. Coronavirus poses a threat to workplaces around the world, some…

How Remote First Companies are Antifragile

Modern workplaces are being forced to respond with caution as COVID-19 spreads worldwide. As of the writing of this post, over 100k cases…

Current Work

Engineering Manager, Tesorio

Building a fearless team of developers focused on creating the world's best cashflow management platform.

Host, Developer Tea

A top-100 tech podcast with over 15m all-time downloads by listeners in over 200 countries.
Latest episode: Give Up Control, On Purpose

Co-founder, Spec.fm

I co-founded a podcast network called Spec for designers and developers who want to level up in their careers. Spec hosts episodes from 13 different podcasts today, with millions of listens.

My Values

Optimize for the Long-Term

Cultivate Understanding

Fearless Bravery

Go Happy

A Brief History

Clearbit, Senior Engineer
Aug 2018 — Oct 2019
Whiteboard, CTO
May 2010 — Aug 2018
Medium (now-defunct agency), Frontend Engineer
Jan 2010 — Jan 2011
Managing Editor, FuelYourInterface.com
Jul 2009 — Jan 2010
Freelance Frontend Engineer / Designer
2008 — 2011

Education

M.S. Digital Media, Georgia Institute of Technology, 4.0 GPA
B.A. Communications, Graduated Magna Cum Laude, Lee University
Certificate, Management of Technology, Georgia Institute of Technology

Skills

MentorshipSpeakingFront-end ArchitectureTechnical WritingSoftware ArchitectureJavaScript (React, ES6)Ruby (Sinatra, Rails)Decision Science