Work loudly
7 min read
In an office, some of your visibility is free. Go remote and it drops to zero. Working loudly makes your impact visible as you do it, not after the fact in a status update nobody reads.
I'm Ben Balter, and I write here about product and engineering leadership, open source, and showing your work.
Popular Posts
How to one-on-one
5 min read
Most 1:1s waste your team's only protected synchronous time on status updates. Here's how to run ones worth showing up for.
How I over-engineered my book
23 min read
My book has a linter, ~5,500 automated checks, and a Pandoc pipeline that rebuilds five formats (EPUB, Kindle, paperback ×2, and web) on every git push. For a book one person wrote. Here's how I built and published it the way I ship software.
The brag doc
5 min read
Why you need a running record of your wins, and how to keep one without dying of embarrassment
15 rules for communicating at GitHub
16 min read
How GitHub used issues and chat for async communication: fifteen rules that eliminate the 'you had to be there' problem in corporate workflows.
GitHub for non-developers: a beginner's guide
10 min read
No coding required. A plain-English guide to GitHub issues, pull requests, Markdown, and notifications for product managers, designers, legal, and ops.
How I re-over-engineered my home network for privacy and security
18 min read
How I used Docker Compose, Ansible, and Caddy to re-over-engineer my network setup for easier maintenance, treating my Raspberry Pi like cattle, not a pet.
Why everything should have a URL
15 min read
When knowledge lives in people's heads and inboxes, it doesn't scale. Giving decisions and processes URLs makes context discoverable, async, and opt-in.
Why you should work asynchronously
6 min read
Async is what makes remote work actually work. It produces better outcomes, improves work-life balance, and unlocks flow beyond Cold War-era workflows.
Out now
OpenandAsync
The collaborative software development playbook for remote and distributed teams. Drawing on over a decade at GitHub. On Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo & more.
Buy it for $9.99 (opens in a new tab)Recent Posts
Accessible by default: writing a book like software
9 min read
The ebook meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1 Level AA) because the format wouldn't let me fake a heading and a browser audits every build, not because anyone scheduled a week for it. The parts Markdown can't check, like color contrast, axe-core catches under Playwright.
Reorgs happen
6 min read
In thirteen years at GitHub I was part of 25 reorgs, almost one every six months. Reorgs are a constant in tech, not a crisis. Here's how to navigate them.
AI-first program management
11 min read
AI-augmented program management is the natural evolution of async-first and engineering-inspired workflows — amplifying human judgment, not replacing it.
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Older Posts
No agenda, no meeting
2 min read
Announcing noagendanomeeting.net — a single-page site advocating that every meeting deserves an agenda, and most meetings deserve to be a document instead.
Agentic workflows and the future of code
9 min read
AI coding agents aren't replacing developers — they're extending the transparency, code review, and collaboration patterns behind open source.
Thirteen years remote at GitHub: what works
6 min read
When I joined GitHub in 2013, I found a company that had rethought how work happens. Thirteen years later, those lessons still shape how I work.
How to run LanguageTool on macOS
5 min read
Set up LanguageTool as a free, open-source Grammarly alternative that runs locally on your Mac. No subscription required.
Silencing dissent isn't crisis management
5 min read
Silencing dissent erodes trust, invites negativity, and stifles learning. The best leaders embrace transparency instead.
Cathedral vs Bazaar People Management
6 min read
What if we applied open source's cathedral vs. bazaar metaphor to management? Cathedral managers control; bazaar managers empower.
How to communicate like a GitHub engineer (external link)
1 min read
How GitHub turned its guiding communication principles into prescriptive practices to manage internal signal-to-noise ratio.
Transparent collaboration is the andon of knowledge work
8 min read
Like Toyota's andon cord, transparent collaboration lets anyone stop the line when they spot a problem in knowledge work.
Remote work requires communicating more, less frequently
3 min read
Async communication is like gzip compression for humans—more upfront processing, but greater throughput with fewer packets.
Pull requests are a form of documentation
3 min read
Pull requests capture not just what changed, but who, why, and what alternatives were considered. Treat every PR as a time capsule for future contributors.
Practice inclusive scheduling
1 min read
Small scheduling choices — writing dates unambiguously, including time zones, and building in breaks — make distributed teams feel included.
Meetings are a point of escalation, not a starting point
3 min read
Most meetings are just information downloads that could've been a doc. Treat them as an escalation based on complexity, not the default starting point.
How to write a great extended leave document
5 min read
A battle-tested template for handing off your responsibilities before extended leave, so your team stays unblocked and nothing falls through the cracks.
Manage like an engineer
8 min read
If issues, pull requests, and project boards are the best way to develop software, should they not also be the best way to manage software development?
Helpful 404s for Jekyll (and GitHub Pages)
3 min read
How to build 404 pages for Jekyll and GitHub Pages that automatically suggest similar URLs to those requested, using Levenshtein distance and your sitemap.
The seven things a corporate Chief of Staff does
12 min read
Seven core responsibilities that define the corporate Chief of Staff role, from tactical office management to strategic advising.
Leaders show their work
10 min read
Great leaders don't just communicate decisions. They explain how and why. Without that context, every decision sounds like "because I said so."
Using GitHub Actions to get notified when an API response (or web page) changes
4 min read
A customizable GitHub Actions workflow that uses cURL, jq, and Twilio to notify you via text message when a web page or API response changes.
Advice for managing open source communities at scale
2 min read
A four-part series on managing open source at scale: setting contributors up for success, automating workflows, governance, and moderation.
Moderating open source conversations to keep them productive
5 min read
Keep open source discussions productive with codes of conduct, community reporting, and tiered moderation tools to de-escalate conflict.