I just got back home recently from Seattle after attending GopherCon 2026. Just like in 2023, I had a great time yet again. I always come back feeling inspired after seeing all the amazing things happening in the Go community. I figured I write up a little recap this time to help reflect on what all went down. Also maybe this post might give someone an idea on what to expect if they’ve never been 🤷🏽‍♂️.

I run a fantasy football league on things get pretty heated during the season. Debates and trash talks go on daily in our GroupMe chat and the guys like to remind each other about their resume. How many wins they have, how many championships, how many times someone beat someone else, you name it. Ideally these status would be easy to check on our ESPN fantasy app, but ESPN’s platform has some shortcomings here.

As my career has progressed over the years, I’ve noticed that the challenges I deal with are less about writing the best code possible and more about creating clarity, leverage, and alignment for my teams. The work itself has shifted from solving problems directly to building systems (technical and organizational) that allow engineers to solve problems well without constant intervention.

These leadership principles are the result of that shift. They reflect how I think about engineering leadership today: how decisions get made, how teams scale, and how responsibility should be distributed as organizations grow. They aren’t hard rules per se, but operating guidelines I use to stay consistent as scope increases and complexity rises.