🅺evin 🅶oldsmith 🇺🇦

Today is the day! My book "it depends: writing on technology leadership 2012-2022" is now available everywhere! amazon.com/Depends-Writin…

New ep of It Depends: "Becoming a Business Leader, Not Just a Technical One." Most CEOs hire a CTO hoping for a business partner. Stay in the technical lane, and you're quietly disappointing them. Even when your teams ship well. itdependspod.com/episodes/becom…

"What Really Happens in a Board Meeting". Board meetings aren’t actually mysterious, consequential. Understanding what happens in that room helps engineering leaders feel more confident and prepared for the responsibilities ahead. @KevinGoldsmith blog.kevingoldsmith.com/2026/02/18/wha…

Four mentees brought me the same problem in one week: how do you work with your CEO when the relationship isn't clicking? New article on the four foundations of CEO trust, how to spot erosion early, and when it's a fit problem, not a fixable one. kevingoldsmith.substack.com/p/working-with…

Dario is wrong. He knows absolutely nothing about the effects of technological revolutions on the labor market. Don't listen to him, Sam, Yoshua, Geoff, or me on this topic. Listen to economists who have spent their career studying this, like @Ph_Aghion , @erikbryn , @DAcemogluMIT , @amcafee , @davidautor

🔥Hot off the press: Issue #349 of Level Up, a curated newsletter for leaders in tech #cto #vpeng #engmanager #techlead w/content from @avivby @bence_a_toth @ShaykeC @maybeFrederick & more! See sh1.sendinblue.com/3gkuc59z539pfe…

New ep of It Depends: "Working with the CEO: Close Enough to Influence, Independent Enough to Be Honest" Surprised CEOs don't make good decisions. And if they've lost trust in your judgment, they're already interviewing your replacement. itdependspod.com/episodes/worki…

🔥Hot off the press: Issue #347 of Level Up, a curated newsletter for leaders in tech #cto #vpeng #engmanager #techlead w/content from @KevinGoldsmith @AndrewDavis_io @ploeh @lizziematusov & more! See sh1.sendinblue.com/3gklwqlz539pfe…

New newsletter: "Don't Let Your Boss Do Your Job" When your boss steps in on something in your area, they're not helping you. They're doing your job. And the longer the silence before that happens, the stronger the signal that nobody's in control. kevingoldsmith.substack.com/p/dont-let-you…

New newsletter: "Don't Let Your Boss Do Your Job" When your boss steps in on something in your area, they're not helping you. They're doing your job. And the longer the silence before that happens, the stronger the signal that nobody's in control. kevingoldsmith.substack.com/p/dont-let-you…

New ep of It Depends: "Don't Let Your Boss Do Your Job." My CEO once told me, "If it comes to me, I'm gonna feel obligated to step in. And I'll do the worst job of all of us." That changed how I think about ownership. itdependspod.com/episodes/dont-…

🔥Hot off the press: Issue #345 of Level Up, a curated newsletter for leaders in tech #cto #vpeng #engmanager #techlead w/content from @KevinGoldsmith @matheusml @mheap @ThomasClaburn @shanselman @JanBosch @dpup & more! See sh1.sendinblue.com/3gkdhbxz539pfe…

New in the It Depends newsletter: how to actually develop systems thinking as a skill. Most senior leaders built it by accident. I tried to lay out a path to build it on purpose. kevingoldsmith.substack.com/p/every-organi… #systemsthinking

New ep of It Depends: "Every Organization Is a System. Are You Designing It or Just Living in It?" I've been telling people to learn systems thinking for years without ever teaching how. This episode is my attempt to fix that. itdependspod.com/episodes/every…

New newsletter: "The Director to CTO Path: How to Follow It, or How to Mentor It" You don't get promoted to demonstrate the next level. You get promoted because you have already been. kevingoldsmith.substack.com/p/the-director…

New ep of It Depends: "The Director to CTO Path: How to Follow It, or How to Mentor It." The thing that made you great as a director will hold you back as a VP. The job doesn't just get bigger. It gets different. itdependspod.com/episodes/the-d…

"Are you optimizing to be right, or to be understood?" The answer should always be the latter. New It Depends newsletter on executive communication: what I learned from years of presenting to (and for) senior leaders. kevingoldsmith.substack.com/p/talking-to-e… #TechLeadership #ItDepends

New ep of It Depends: "Talking to Executives: That's Not a Derailment, That's the Meeting." I once got permanently banned from presenting to a VP because I insisted I was right about the word "avatar." I was right. It didn't matter. itdependspod.com/episodes/talki…

The skills that make you a great manager can quietly break when you start managing managers. Staying close to execution feels responsible. It also turns you into a bottleneck. kevingoldsmith.substack.com/p/the-shift-to…

🧭 Learn what it takes to grow from Director to CTO, or help others do it. @KevinGoldsmith at ConFoo Feb 25–27. #LearnAllTheTech buff.ly/DXyqWlM

🔥Hot off the press: Issue #337 of Level Up, a curated newsletter for leaders in tech #cto #vpeng #engmanager #techlead w/content from @joost_minnaar @johncutlefish @leebryant @diego_pacheco @kellogh @Fjellstedt @KevinGoldsmith & more! See sh1.sendinblue.com/3gge7elz539pfe…