MATT NIGH'S BLOG
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Writing.
Every essay, note, and external piece I've published. Filter by tag.
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30
engineering
18
ai
11
management
6
copilot
3
favorite
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personal
2
neurodiversity
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prompts
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productivity
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chief-of-staff
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What makes something 'GitHubby'
NOV 2025
favorite
personal
TL;DR
Action (Shipping): We value progress over perfection. We ship to learn, preferring demos over memos.
Openness (Sharing): We default to transparency. If it doesn't have a URL, it didn't happen.
Passion (Nerding): We obsess over details, our passions, and celebrate technical depth.
Respect (Trusting): We expect our peers to be experts in their own area of responsibility.
I’m an Engineering Manager who can’t code
↗
DEC 2021
engineering
favorite
management
TL;DR ↗
You don't need a software engineering background to be an effective EM
Being 'technical' means systems thinking and understanding complexity, not writing code
Focus on what makes work visible — you can't ignore reality when everything is written down
Managed 50+ developers directly and oversaw 450+ without ever writing meaningful code