Engineering Notes

Engineering Notes

Thoughts and Ideas on AI by Muthukrishnan
02 Oct 2025

Shape the Environment Instead of Just Managing the Plants

As an engineering manager, it's easy to get trapped in the cycle of managing people and tasks—the individual "plants" i...
02 Oct 2025

The Cognitive Loop of AI Agents with Planner Executor and Memory

## Concept Introduction The **Planner-Executor-Memory (PEM)** pattern is an architectural pattern for autonomous agent...
01 Oct 2025

Your Engineering Org is Your Product

As an engineering manager, it's easy to get trapped in the cycle of shipping features. Your team delivers, the business...
30 Sep 2025

Mastering the Why in High-Impact Engineering Communication

As an engineering manager, your technical skills got you to where you are, but your communication skills will propel yo...
29 Sep 2025

The Art of Strategic Quitting and Knowing When to Say No

As an engineering manager, you're driven to build, innovate, and deliver. But one of the most powerful skills for long-...
29 Sep 2025

Your Team Is Not a Family but a High-Performance System

One of the most common metaphors in team building is the idea of being a "family." While intended to foster closeness, ...
28 Sep 2025

Stop Managing People, Start Managing the System

As an engineering manager, your instinct is often to manage people. You track individual performance, mediate disputes,...
27 Sep 2025

Manufacture Slack as the Counterintuitive Key to High-Performing Teams

As an engineering manager, your instinct is to maximize output by maximizing utilization. Every hour should be accounte...
25 Sep 2025

From Customer Value to Code as the EMs Strategic Blueprint

As an engineering manager, it's easy to get trapped in the cycle of shipping features, closing tickets, and managing sp...
23 Sep 2025

From Business Goals to Code with Backward Thinking

## Stop Building Features, Start Driving Outcomes The most impactful shift an engineering manager can make is to move ...