How I'd do better next time

Hey Reader, Happy birthday to me—I got home late last night from Google I/O. There’s a second day today, but not for me. I wanted to see my family on my birthday. This event has been on my birthday for the last two years. In 2025, the first day fell on my actual birthday. It was an entertaining series of keynotes and opportunities to connect with friends. For dinner, I found a popular spot in Palo Alto and had a delicious celebration. But I spent it away from family and vowed not to repeat that. That’s how I ended up on the 8:01 p.m. flight, the last one of the day from San Jose to Portland. These sorts of “post-mortem” debriefs can be helpful, whether they’re with yourself or with your team. When I used to organize community events, we’d always meet up a day or two afterward to discuss what worked, what didn’t, and what we’d change A retrospective, or retro for short. It’s a simple practice, but a good one. You can apply it to many areas of your life, but NOT all. I was deeply involved in community events around the time I got married. On the honeymoon with my wife, when it still felt very weird to call her that, we were reminiscing about our Big Event a few days earlier. It turns out “here’s what I’d do differently next time” is NOT the way to start a sentence when you’re still celebrating your wedding. You don’t want to invite anybody to take “post-mortem” literally. Thankfully, the list of times when a retro makes sense is longer than the list of times to avoid it. While it’s common to reflect at the end of the year, great leaders build reflection into their regular processes. Google I/O always makes clear just how fast things are moving in our industry. Now is a great time to reconsider how you’re approaching developers. There’s still time to change things up! My birthday comes almost halfway through the year. Maybe that’s the excuse you need to seek a new perspective. If you think I might be able to help, I should have availability over the next couple of weeks to chat about it. Adam — Do you know how LLMs see you — and your competitors?