Lead Prompt Podcast

In this episode of Lead Prompt, I break down why the most powerful thing you can do as a leader is simply listen. We are often conditioned to think that leading means constantly talking, steering conversations, and selling our ideas, but true leverage comes when we learn how to "buy" the perspectives of others. I share how to use intentional silence in your one-on-ones to uncover what your team is really thinking, why I get highly suspicious when my tech leads stop pitching to me, and how flipping the script during a high-stakes job interview landed me a VP of Engineering role. If you are constantly trying to have the smartest answer in the room, you are missing out on critical data, so tune in to learn how to stop selling and start buying. Show notes are here: https://leadprompt.sh/a/749-Smart-Leaders-Buy,-Weak-Leaders-Sell-2026w27 Keywords: leadership, tech leadership, engineering management, active listening, tech lead, management tips, VP of engineering, software engineering, leadership development, career advice, interview tips, engineering manager, communication skills, leadprompt, software development

I have a confession: I struggle to trust a software engineer who doesn't know how to use curl. In this episode of Lead Prompt, I unpack a troubling trend I'm seeing across the industry: the rapid loss of foundational networking skills. As we stack layers of abstraction from cloud providers to AI, too many developers are treating the internet like a magical, infinitely fast black box. I share my thoughts on why this convenience comes at a dangerous cost, how it paralyzes teams when things inevitably break, and why I believe the most resilient systems are built by curious engineers who aren't afraid to peek under the hood and understand the plumbing. Show notes are here: https://leadprompt.sh/a/748-Software-engineers-need-to-know-networking-2026w26 Keywords: software engineering, computer networking, networking for developers, tech leadership, curl command, system architecture, debugging, web development, API troubleshooting, cloud abstraction, AWS, AI software development, software architecture, engineering management, linux command line, leadprompt, john collins

In this episode of Lead Prompt, I explore how toxic concepts in software engineering replicate and spread from team to team like biological viruses. Drawing on Richard Dawkins’ original definition of the "meme" from The Selfish Gene and the cautionary humor of Idiocracy, I break down how even smart developers get infected by bad ideas, like cargo-culting FAANG architectures or carrying over broken management practices, often driven by the Dunning-Kruger effect. To cure this cultural infection and avoid inheriting legacy thinking, I explain why the best technical leaders must act as historians of our industry rather than blindly repeating the costly mistakes of our predecessors. Show notes are here: https://leadprompt.sh/a/747-Bad-ideas-are-carried-forward-by-idiots-2026w25 Keywords: leadprompt, software engineering, technical leadership, engineering management, software architecture, Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, idiocracy, Dunning-Kruger effect, cargo cult programming, tech culture, engineering history, John Collins, tech podcast, software development

The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect is widely praised as a visionary masterpiece of the singularity, but I'm here to tell you it is the absolute worst book about artificial intelligence I have ever subjected myself to. In this episode of leadprompt.sh, I am breaking down exactly why this so-called "hard sci-fi" classic completely derails itself. I get into the horrific opening chapters, the absolute abandonment of actual systems architecture in favor of magical tech hand-wavium, and a bizarre, deeply uncomfortable ending that undoes the entire narrative. If you are looking for genuine explorations of post-scarcity tech, skip this book, but stick around for my full review on why it missed the mark so spectacularly. Show notes are here: https://leadprompt.sh/a/746-A-rant-about-the-worst-AI-book-ever-written-2026w24 Keywords: The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect, Prime Intellect, Roger Williams, sci-fi book review, bad sci-fi, worst books, artificial intelligence, AI fiction, singularity, transhumanism, hard sci-fi, science fiction rant, booktube, post-scarcity, cyberpunk, leadprompt, John Collins, tech leadership, book review, systems architecture

In this episode of leadprompt.sh, I explore why accepting that "everything breaks all of the time" is actually the foundation of a resilient engineering culture. Instead of chasing the impossible goal of perfect uptime, I break down how you can build systems designed for rapid recovery using observability, auto-remediation, and AI predictive tools. Beyond the tech stack, we dive into the reality of managing a Sev-1 outage, where I share my strict "facts only" rule for communicating with business stakeholders and shielding your team while the red lights are flashing. Join me as we unpack why inevitable system failures aren't just an infrastructure problem, but the ultimate test of your leadership. Show notes are here: https://leadprompt.sh/a/745-Everything-breaks-all-of-the-time-2026w23 Keywords: Engineering Leadership, Tech Leadership, SRE, Site Reliability Engineering, DevOps, System Resilience, Incident Management, Software Engineering, LeadPrompt, John Collins, Observability, Blameless Post-mortem, Auto-remediation, Infrastructure as Code, Tech Podcast, Root Cause Analysis, Uptime, Sev-1 Outage