The Curious Engineer

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Joel Gascoigne's blog

joel.is

Everything Joel Gascoigne publishes — articles, posts, links & quotes

Essays / personalTech news / industryGeneral

’10’15’20’25
Posts
328 from 21 Nov 2010 to 25 Oct 2026
Posting
weekly (76 in the last year)
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personal blog
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2026 71

  1. Post - October 25, 2026 - 1792981699
  2. Post - October 15, 2026 - 1792102061
  3. Post
  4. Mercury Writing Principles: Authenticity and Conciseness Matter
  5. Post - October 6, 2026 - 1791296071
  6. Post - October 1, 2026 - 1790889532
  7. Post - September 28, 2026 - 1790602419
  8. Post - September 17, 2026 - 1789669402
  9. Post - September 16, 2026 - 1789586405
  10. Post - September 10, 2026 - 1789051204
  11. Post - September 8, 2026 - 1788878402
  12. Post - September 6, 2026 - 1788709901
  13. Post - September 5, 2026 - 1788634193
  14. Post - August 27, 2026 - 1787856888
  15. Post - August 9, 2026 - 1786294747
  16. No real long-term satisfaction is possible in work without treating it as something much...
  17. Quotes
  18. Post - August 2, 2026 - 1785687802
  19. Post - July 31, 2026 - 1785528816
  20. Running Local Models Is Good Now
  21. Going IndieWeb
  22. Opting Out of Unicorn Economics
  23. Post - July 20, 2026 - 1784600668
  24. Post - July 12, 2026 - 1783914026
  25. The Pressure Valve
  26. Post - June 28, 2026 - 1782704287
  27. Most people walk right past the secret of these outliers’ success, focusing instead on...
  28. My book The Lean Startup gave a generation of founders the tools to build quickly, to...
  29. Post - June 12, 2026 - 1781288947
  30. 23 Learnings on Building Community and Holding Space
  31. At What Point Does Delegation Become Self-Erasure?
  32. How Generative and Agentic AI Shift Concern From Technical Debt to Cognitive Debt
  33. People find it hard to balance work with family, family with self, because it might not be...
  34. The more successful an organization is at that first step, the more valuable it becomes as...
  35. We often find that the harder we try to get rid of emotions and thoughts, the stronger...
  36. Post - June 12, 2026 - 1781286786
  37. Post - May 26, 2026 - 1779817350
  38. Post - May 24, 2026 - 1779646293
  39. Post - May 14, 2026 - 1778792779
  40. Post - May 3, 2026 - 1777840884
  41. Post - April 18, 2026 - 1776548767
  42. Post - April 10, 2026 - 1775839491
  43. Post - March 24, 2026 - 1774391113
  44. Post - March 16, 2026 - 1773627682
  45. I Was Inconsiderate but Now I’m Everywhere
  46. Open Source in the Age of AI
  47. The Barbell Method of Reading
  48. Beware of anyone who thinks innovation is about one lone genius or big piles of money....
  49. I used to think I had to choose: build a sustainable business or build something generous....
  50. Post - March 13, 2026 - 1773389121
  51. Post - March 7, 2026 - 1772868667
  52. Post - February 24, 2026 - 1771967349
  53. Post - February 22, 2026 - 1771824883
  54. Post - February 8, 2026 - 1770610992
  55. Post - January 23, 2026 - 1769195608
  56. Cal Newport on Seasonal Productivity, Blank Schedules & Adventure Time
  57. iOS Voice Memos to Obsidian With Claude Code
  58. "🌲 the Konik Method for Organizing Electronic Notes"
  59. Brands and logos and press releases do not resonate with us anymore. We are interested in...
  60. For prolific writers who publish weekly or daily, the ability to see a vast array of...
  61. Simply shipping a product that works is no longer enough, everyone can do that, especially...
  62. Post - January 22, 2026 - 1769115079
  63. Post - January 15, 2026 - 1768508539
  64. Post - January 10, 2026 - 1768046198
  65. Competing With PowerPoint: A Framework for Success
  66. The Profitable Startup
  67. Why I Write
  68. there are no results within the organization. All the results are on the outside. The only...
  69. Too many of us live by the to-do list. We look at what needs to be done, then try to force...
  70. We’re born into stories that keep us from accessing our genius. We grow up among those...
  71. Post - January 4, 2026 - 1767584058

2025 28

  1. Post - December 28, 2025 - 1766941445
  2. Post - December 21, 2025 - 1766367182
  3. Post - December 14, 2025 - 1765749546
  4. Post - December 1, 2025 - 1764600304
  5. Post - November 11, 2025 - 1762919177
  6. Post - October 12, 2025 - 1760325984
  7. Post - September 24, 2025 - 1758737080
  8. Post - September 22, 2025 - 1758574022
  9. Post - September 20, 2025 - 1758395547
  10. Post - September 18, 2025 - 1758210520
  11. Post - September 17, 2025 - 1758117001
  12. Post - July 27, 2025 - 1753671833
  13. Post - July 13, 2025 - 1752463034
  14. Post - July 6, 2025 - 1751842819
  15. Post - June 22, 2025 - 1750646910
  16. Post - June 8, 2025 - 1749429095
  17. Post - May 28, 2025 - 1748442823
  18. Post - May 13, 2025 - 1747192489
  19. Post - May 2, 2025 - 1746216670
  20. Post - April 18, 2025 - 1745035214
  21. Post - April 14, 2025 - 1744663769
  22. Post - March 23, 2025 - 1742788634
  23. Post - March 2, 2025 - 1740941147
  24. Post - February 23, 2025 - 1740330182
  25. Post - February 14, 2025 - 1739562415
  26. Post - February 7, 2025 - 1738950729
  27. Post - January 29, 2025 - 1738169074
  28. Post - January 23, 2025 - 1737651556

2024 52

  1. Post - December 21, 2024 - 1734802577
  2. Post - December 17, 2024 - 1734464838
  3. Team-Oriented, Outcome-Oriented
  4. What Is Strategy?
  5. Write in the Moment
  6. I cannot imagine any company that wants to make the best product of its kind being staffed...
  7. Identify your superpowers. Because if you identify your superpowers and work in accordance...
  8. write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open. Your stuff starts out being just...
  9. Post - December 2, 2024 - 1733178339
  10. Post - November 30, 2024 - 1732996663
  11. Fourteen years
  12. Article
  13. Post - November 30, 2024 - 1733005124
  14. Post - November 2, 2024 - 1730572761
  15. Post - November 2, 2024 - 1730560340
  16. Post - October 25, 2024 - 1729910925
  17. Post - October 1, 2024 - 1727842805
  18. Post - October 1, 2024 - 1727795563
  19. Post - September 26, 2024 - 1727363703
  20. Founder Mode
  21. Slash Pages
  22. If you're not releasing then you're just journaling. If you're not posting it publicly, if...
  23. You need good constraints to be creative. You need really strong constraints. And people...
  24. Post - September 22, 2024 - 1727057363
  25. Post - September 20, 2024 - 1726835167
  26. Post - September 6, 2024 - 1725653635
  27. Post - September 5, 2024 - 1725592984
  28. Post - August 23, 2024 - 1724436928
  29. 1.0 Is the Loneliest Number
  30. Changing My Approach to Meetings to Take Back Control of My Attention
  31. Worse, but Unique
  32. If you're going to do something that's weird, and potentially disadvantageous in some...
  33. The culture I’m trying to create is one where every year when we celebrate another record...
  34. Post - August 20, 2024 - 1724158289
  35. Post - August 16, 2024 - 1723871100
  36. Post - August 16, 2024 - 1723870908
  37. Post - August 16, 2024 - 1723865368
  38. Post - August 16, 2024 - 1723863956
  39. Post - August 3, 2024 - 1722714092
  40. Post - August 2, 2024 - 1722623996
  41. The significance of Bluesky and decentralized social media
  42. Post - July 30, 2024 - 1722341882
  43. Post - June 25, 2024 - 1719330542
  44. Post - June 24, 2024 - 1719244571
  45. Post - June 18, 2024 - 1718743710
  46. Post - February 27, 2024 - 1709098596
  47. Post - February 26, 2024 - 1708971138
  48. Post - February 27, 2024 - 1708713261
  49. Post - January 25, 2024 - 1706239064
  50. Post - January 24, 2024 - 1706116863
  51. Post - January 19, 2024 - 1705719950
  52. Post - January 12, 2024 - 1705079244

2023 20

  1. Post - November 30, 2023 - 1701384280
  2. Post - October 31, 2023 - 1698777841
  3. Post - October 22, 2023 - 1698008330
  4. Post - October 5, 2023 - 1696527600
  5. Post - September 27, 2023 - 1695864825
  6. Post - September 23, 2023 - 1695475332
  7. Post - September 22, 2023 - 1695413958
  8. Post - September 12, 2023 - 1694534266
  9. Post - September 8, 2023 - 1694197600
  10. Post - September 8, 2023 - 1694195828
  11. Post - September 4, 2023 - 1693869769
  12. Post - September 4, 2023 - 1693863602
  13. Post - September 4, 2023 - 1693863509
  14. Post - September 4, 2023 - 1693862870
  15. Post - September 4, 2023 - 1693862735
  16. Post - September 4, 2023 - 1693862471
  17. Post - August 25, 2023 - 1693003794
  18. Post - July 14, 2023 - 1689392340
  19. Post - June 17, 2023 - 1686960000
  20. Post - June 9, 2023 - 1686348360

2022 22

  1. Crumb Time
  2. How to motivate employees? Don’t.
  3. Spend More Time Alone
  4. The flipped meeting model
  5. Why is scaling past 50 employees so hard?
  6. There’s a difference between criticism and constructive criticism. With the latter, you’re...
  7. Think about your favorite athlete, musician, or actor. Behind the scenes of their public...
  8. Build Week at Buffer: What it is and how we’re approaching it
  9. A guide to curation in community
  10. Beacon is switching to a four-day work week. Here's why.
  11. Optimism Shapes Reality
  12. Supporting the Modern Family in the Workplace
  13. The challenge we all face is how to maintain the benefits of breadth, diverse experience,...
  14. Ultimately, your habits matter because they help you become the type of person you wish to...
  15. 20 years of Atlassian, 20 lessons learned
  16. Leave Me Alone Open Startup Page
  17. Square Defangs Difficult Decisions with this System — Here’s How
  18. Structural transparency vs content-level transparency
  19. Subvert shitty norms
  20. I learned to go slowly when faced with the choice between two things that you need that...
  21. You are not your idea, and if you identify too closely with your ideas, you will take...
  22. Our vision for location-independent salaries at Buffer

2021 2

  1. Welcoming Maria Thomas as Buffer’s Chief Product Officer
  2. Crafting a support network

2020 5

  1. Reflecting on 10 years of building Buffer
  2. Buffer's product journey, and our next step to hire a VP of Product
  3. Snowmelt meetings
  4. We’re trying a 4-day workweek for the month of May
  5. Buffer's investor update on COVID-19 impact and approach

2019 4

  1. My experience with burnout as a startup founder
  2. Buffer’s evolution and expansion
  3. Bright & Early Podcast with Brian Rhea
  4. The Heartbeat Podcast with Claire Lew

2018 3

  1. We spent $3.3M buying out investors: Why and how we did it
  2. My morning routine as a remote CEO and why it’s always changing
  3. I am an investor in 9 companies: How and why I started angel investing

2017 4

  1. The next step in Buffer’s social media journey
  2. 5 varieties of remote working in companies
  3. The power of company retreats: Thoughts after the 8th Buffer retreat
  4. Change at Buffer: The next phase, and why our co-founder and our CTO are moving on

2016 1

  1. From startup to scaleup: What we’re changing as we make the transition

2015 4

  1. 3 reasons you shouldn't outsource your startup, and what to do instead
  2. 11 cities in 3 months: The highs and lows of digital nomad lifestyle
  3. The dream forms over time
  4. The top reason we haven’t sold our startup

2014 13

  1. Why I don't shield my team from bad news
  2. 50 books that transformed my business and my life
  3. Why we have a core value of transparency at our startup, and why the reasons don't matter
  4. How we're trying to stay innovative as a 3.5 year old startup
  5. The different ways of traveling
  6. The choices we make when we build startups
  7. How my co-founder and I structure ourselves as CEO and COO
  8. The quiet pivot
  9. The Yin and Yang of a great co-founder relationship
  10. Why we go on international retreats 3 times a year with our startup
  11. 4 short stories of our attempts to be lean at our startup
  12. What it's really like to grow a team when you're focused on culture-fit
  13. Firing myself, again

2013 25

  1. How we handle team emails at our startup: Defaulting to transparency
  2. Two simple changes that helped increase my happiness and improve my sleep
  3. What no one talks about when building a team: Letting people go
  4. The joys and benefits of working as a distributed team
  5. 6 suggestions for an aspiring founder
  6. Coaching and feedback within startups
  7. Questions I ask myself about working as distributed team
  8. Experimenting with a 7 day work week
  9. Ratio thinking
  10. Dreams come true
  11. The undervalued advantages of being a small startup
  12. 5 things that seem essential that we launched Buffer without
  13. Want to help your hometown? Pack up and leave
  14. Why I'm going to Hawaii with my co-founder
  15. When creating new habits, let yourself be sloppy
  16. The third option
  17. Make progress faster by cooperating: 4 tips to try with your co-founder or co-worker
  18. Expert of nothing
  19. The evening walk
  20. 5 reasons as a CEO you should develop a habit of daily meditation
  21. The paradox of how bugs and downtime can be a good thing
  22. What is failure for you?
  23. Zero notifications
  24. How to gain traction in two sided markets
  25. Focus on the line, not the dot

2012 46

  1. Two important and often overlooked aspects of creating a lasting morning routine
  2. The highs and lows of startup life
  3. How to get more replies to the emails you send: be specific
  4. Thinking about your goal with a startup
  5. The evolution of culture at a startup
  6. Feeling like a fraud while doing startups
  7. Want to create a new habit? Get ready to break it.
  8. The maker/manager transition phase
  9. The Anti-Todo List
  10. What are your top 3 challenges?
  11. Start something small
  12. Thoughts on dropping out to do a startup
  13. Want to be successful? Be inconsistent
  14. The magic of a great startup ecosystem
  15. Maximize your excitement
  16. Thoughts on when to incorporate
  17. 5 realisations that helped me write regularly
  18. How an investor who turned me down ended up sleeping on my couch
  19. The power of ignoring mainstream news
  20. Why context is so important
  21. An invitation to come and hack on Buffer
  22. Why you should continue working on your bad idea
  23. Pricing your product: It doesn't have to be so complicated
  24. 6 things I do to be consistently happy
  25. How to name your startup
  26. How coffee shops helped my startup
  27. Why I'm helping startup founders
  28. Plan or build?
  29. Achieving overnight success: Tom Preston-Werner
  30. Thoughts on travelling with your startup
  31. Your startup is a rocket ship
  32. Want to be happy and successful? Bring happiness to others
  33. Don't register your idea as a company
  34. Are you interested?
  35. Making money with a product: A myth?
  36. Use the happiness advantage
  37. What can we do right now?
  38. Why I crave mistakes
  39. The exercise habit
  40. For the first few people, hire from your network
  41. What online gaming taught me about startups
  42. Work harder on yourself than you do on your startup
  43. Achieving overnight success: Kevin Systrom
  44. Raising funding as a first-time founder
  45. It takes hard work. Do the hard work.
  46. Avoid the 50/50 co-founder model - here's why

2011 25

  1. 10 lessons from my startup journey so far
  2. Achieving scale by doing things that don't scale
  3. Taking time to reflect
  4. Like anything else, we need to practice startups
  5. Founders: failure comes with the territory
  6. Does location really matter for your startup?
  7. I have no idea what I am doing
  8. Why you should start marketing early
  9. Reflecting on ways to bootstrap a startup
  10. What is your coming soon page for?
  11. What are you doing to feel uncomfortable?
  12. Beware of the social ideas
  13. How to start your startup in 4 steps
  14. Creating a sleep ritual
  15. Enjoying the moment
  16. Giving your startup a point of view
  17. Work and rest in a startup
  18. Treat it as finished
  19. Acting with incomplete information in a startup
  20. Healthy naivety
  21. Fear of not shipping
  22. Creating order from chaos in a startup
  23. Steady yourself, those world-changing thoughts are not productive
  24. Ways to bootstrap a startup: on the side
  25. Questioning and adjusting our goals

2010 3

  1. Is making mistakes a necessity for success?
  2. Ways to bootstrap a startup: 'working in waves'
  3. Exercise: a requirement for sleep?