November 2026
Engineering Fought Productivity Metrics. AI Ended the Fight.
AI put a new, fast-growing line item on engineering's budget. No single metric can tell you if it's paying off. Attribution and optimization can.
Adam Bergstein writes about engineering leadership, open source, and whatever he can't stop thinking about.
Selected writing
October 2026
The Lighthouse and the Lifeboat
Proactive and reactive leadership are both strengths. The skill is knowing which one the moment, and the company, needs.
October 2026
The Laziness Loophole: How Human Shortcuts Become AI Autonomy
AI is moving from answering to doing. The bigger risk isn't a rogue model. It's the human who stops reading.
July 2026
Wave Three: A Framework for Rolling Out AI on Engineering Teams
AI adoption in software teams has moved through three distinct waves. Wave 3 is where the real work begins: centralized knowledge, autonomous operations, and governance by design.
June 2026
The Day One Mentality
Staying curious, present, and intentional is harder than it sounds — the Day One mentality is a daily practice for keeping work meaningful.
May 2026
The Stump and the Shoot: On Grief, Identity, and Rediscovery
A reflection on losing family, a marriage, and two jobs in quick succession — and what it takes to find yourself again on the other side.
May 2026
Thinking Out Loud, With Better Tools
Rebuilding this site with AI connects back to a lesson I learned the hard way as a new manager: communication is a skill, not a given.
October 2024
A litmus test of an AI application
A one-hour prototype that cost six cents — what building a conversational AI chatbot taught me about how fast this space has moved.