Author: Paul Grenyer

I was recommended Radical Candor as a more contemporary take on Marshall B. Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication, but I think it also works as a more up‑to‑date reference for much of the material covered in What Did You Say? The Art of Giving and Recei…

 I didn’t enjoy Shift as much as the Wool. In a few places it still gripped me when parts of the overarching story were hinted at and later on explained. It was great to know where the Silos came from and why, but I didn’t care at all about Missio…

On Wednesday evening I had the pleasure of speaking to ACCU Oxford about ‘Beyond the Code: Designing Services That Stand the Test of Time’.  I haven’t been to Oxford since 2012 when the ACCU Conference was held there, before it was moved to Bristo…

 Beyond the Code: Designing Services That Stand the Test of Time Wednesday, 26th February 2026 @ 13:45 nor(DEV):conThe Kings Centre, 63-75 King St, Norwich NR1 1PH RSVP  As software engineers, it’s easy to get l…

 When: Thursday, 12th February @ 6.30pmWhere:  Dick’s Bar, 19 Bedford St, Norwich NR2 1ARRSVP: https://www.meetup.com/norfolk-developers-nordev/events/312926991/Norfolk Developers and Dick’s Bar are very kindly hosting my revised, ‘…

Having just finished The Testaments, I found the experience somewhat underwhelming. While it’s undeniably interesting to return to the world of Gilead, the novel takes a long time to gather momentum, and even once it does, it never quite reaches the de…

I didn’t dive into AI. I was a reluctant adopter. Not because I feared it would take my job, but because I assumed the learning curve would be steep, time consuming, and probably frustrating. In reality, it turned out to be none of those things.After s…

 I grew up in the 80s and 90s being told, over and over, that everyone was essentially the same. Treat everyone the same, expect the same, design for the same, that was the message. Reading Invisible Women has shifted that foundation more tha…

  Building Services That ScalePart 2 of Beyond the Code: Designing Services That Stand the Test of Time When we hear the word service, it sounds simple, almost obvious. In practice, defining what a service is can be surprisingly nuanced….

One of the most powerful things you can do as a leader is to talk to your team every day. It sounds simple, but it’s often overlooked, especially in distributed teams. Daily conversations help build and maintain relationships, foster trust, and remind …

 Beyond the Code: Designing Services That Stand the Test of Time Wednesday, 4th February 2026 St Aldates Tavern, 108 Saint Aldate’s, Oxford @ 6pm RSVP  As software engineers, it’s easy to get lost in the exciteme…

This book was recommended to me by a designer I work with and we’re still friends, so it’s not a bad recommendation!I found many of the ideas fascinating, especially the story of how Red Bull was conceived and marketed. At first glance, some of these c…

On the 5th November this year (2025) I had the pleasure of speaking about deploying Lambdas at ACCU York. They were a fantastic group of engineers. I had a fantastic time and they shot this video of me. From Zero to Deployed: Building and Shi…

Alastair Reynolds has long been my favorite author, but this latest book feels like he’s not even trying. Once again, the story revolves around a character who has lost their memory, a trope that’s starting to feel overused. What’s missing is the rich,…

A Series of Random Context Switches So You Think You Can Lead A Team? is a firsthand look into what team leadership means. Bringing real world examples into everyday workplace situations, So You Think… offers practical advice and support for those…

As software engineers, it’s easy to get lost in the excitement of crafting clever business logic: the algorithms, the workflows, the elegant domain models. However, the success or failure of a service rarely hinges on its core logic alone. What really …

The Butlerian Jihad is a middle of the road science fiction story. It lacks the gravitas of Frank Herbert’s original Dune series. The story is different in scope and style, and some of the elements, particularly the intelligent, emotionally curious rob…

When: Wednesday 3rd December 2025 @ 6pmWhere:  The Bradfield Centre, 184 Cambridge Science Park Milton Road, CB4 0GARSVP: https://www.meetup.com/accu-cambridge/events/311991390/ACCU Cambridge are making the most of me in December and letting …

This evening, I had the pleasure of speaking at ACCU York about lambdas, and what an incredible audience they were. Warm, welcoming, and fully engaged from start to finish.I was enjoying it so much that my 45-minute talk somehow turned into 75 minutes!…

Unlearning Masculinity by Cassandra Andrews, is a powerful and thought-provoking read.Full disclosure:I know the author personally. I found the book both useful and genuinely interesting. I only partially overlap with the target audience, as I haven’t …

We took our youngest, Ed (14), to see Katy Perry last night, his first ever gig, and he absolutely loved it. Seeing his excitement made the whole evening worthwhile.Katy Perry is undeniably a talented singer and performer, but the relentless, thumping …

 I first spotted Ego Is the Enemy years ago, sticking out of someone’s bag in the kitchen of an office I rented back in the mid-teenies. The title caught my eye, so I bought the Kindle version there and then. It’s taken me until now to actually re…

 In order to gauge the potential audience for my book, So you think you can lead a team?, I conducted a small survey of my colleagues, co-workers and anyone from Linked. I read regularly, for work and pleasure, and assumed everyone else did too bu…

Having previously read two of James Kinsley’s novels, I was surprised, and impressed, by It’s Hard to Tell You This. While I’ve always associated Kinsley with science fiction, this book takes a different direction, focusing instead on intimate human em…

It’s dull, which is a shame as Nemisis Games had picked up after Cibola Burn. There’s nothing new from the characters. No new characters of interest.  What was an exciting sci-fi series in the beginning has turned into politics and war in spa…

 ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1773137735 I found Lionel Giles’ introduction very boring. In this edition, there are more of his notes than Sun Tzu’s actual text. I gave up on them early, as they didn’t add any value for me.The Art of War itself is 13 short…

I went to see Rob Newman at the Playhouse in Norwich this evening, and he was every bit as brilliant as I’d hoped. At times he came across as a little nervous, but that vulnerability only made the performance feel more genuine and engaging.The Mary Whi…

Isaac Asimov ISBN-13: 978-0007381159 Although the original Foundation trilogy (1950s) laid the groundwork for Asimov’s universe, I’ve always found it rather bland. When Asimov returned to the series in the 1980s with Foundation’s Edge, the le…

By Steve R. CoveyISBN-13: 978-1471195204 This book was recommended to me years ago when I was running my own business, but I only picked it up recently. I wish I’d read it back then, it would have been even more useful.I was expecting the habits t…

 So you think you can lead a team?I’ve been talking and writing a lot about leading a software engineering team in 2025. I started thinking about it more deeply the year before when I decided to give a colleague, who was moving into team leading, …

Liz Phair When I met my wife, nearly nineteen years ago, she was obsessed with Liz Phair and in particular with the song **** and Run. I’m not sure if she was trying to tell me something…. She said she wanted to see Liz Phair live and I assum…

In software development, responsibility and accountability are closely related but have important distinctions, especially when it comes to leadership roles like a team lead. Responsibility refers to the obligation to carry out specific tasks or duties…

by Margaret AtwoodISBN-13: 978-0099740919The Handmaid’s Tale is a haunting, powerful novel that left a deep impression on me. It’s dark and terrifying in places, not because it leans into fantasy, but because its dystopia feels disturbingly plausible. …

by Hugh HoweyISBN: 978-1804940822As I am sure many do, I read the book after watching the first two of the TV series.  They are amazing, the book is better. I like stories where there is lots of mystery, as I hate not knowing things, so Wool keeps…

So you think you can lead a team?I’ve been talking and writing a lot about leading a software engineering team in 2025. I started thinking about it more deeply the year before when I decided to give a colleague, who was moving into team leading, some a…

I had to cut down the “Pick Your Battles” chapter for my book – reviewers all felt it was too dense. That left me with some extra content, portions of which I’m sharing here, unedited, alongside excerpts I kept in the final version to provide context.W…

Sandra A. CroweISBN‑13 978‑0399525407I was recommended this book by a friend. At 260 pages, it is much bigger than the leadership and ‘self help’ type books I’ve been reading and rereading recently. However, it was an interesting title and my friend sa…

  From Zero to Deployed: Building and Shipping an AWS Lambda with TypeScript, Terraform & GitHub ActionsWhen: 1830, 5th November, 2025Where: ACCU York,  Patch, The Bonding Warehouse, Terry Ave, York, YO1 6FA RSVP: http…

Parallels is an interesting and enjoyable read. It kept me guessing about what was actually going on the whole time. A sense of  something more I am missing always keeps me engaged, and I wasn’t expecting the twist until it came, or the final twis…

 The Great Misconception of Me*I often write about books I’ve read, bands I’ve seen, sometimes films, talks I’m giving, events I’m attending or have attended, technical topics, and more recently, leadership of software teams. Occasionally, I share…

by Kenneth Blanchard, Patricia Zigarmi, Drea ZigarmiISBN-13: 978-0007103416 This one’s a slow burner. I was disappointed at first as The Entrepreneur, who replaces The Young Man from The New One Minute Manager, going around talking to people in the man…

I wasn’t meant to be seeing the Pixies (again), I was just meant to be the taxi driver. Unfortunately, someone couldn’t make it last minute so I had to accompany my wife.I haven’t been to the O2 Academy in Birmingham since Lamb of God and Dimmu Borgir …

by Dale Carnegie ISBN-13: 978-0091906818 How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie is an excellent book which, in my opinion, everyone should read at least once. I’ve read it twice and bought it four times. I was halfway through the…

by George R. R. MartinISBN-13: 978-000746606I’m glad it’s over. I loved the TV series, but the books are awful. Long winded and the amount of unnecessary detail is boring and obscures the story. If George R.R Martin ever completes the next book, I’ll r…

So you think you can lead a team?I’ve been talking and writing a lot about leading a software engineering team in 2025. I started thinking about it more deeply the year before when I decided to give a colleague, who was moving into team leading, some a…

It felt good to be back at the AWS Summit. I got a lot out of last year and this year was interesting too. I attended some sessions on interesting topics and some which reassured me I’m doing the right things.  It was good to catch up with some ol…

by James S. A. CoreyISBN-13: 978-0356504254After the slow start to Cibola Burn, Nemesis Games was straight back on form. I loved the split story lines which made it feel like a proper space opera again. The bad guys were easy to dislike, the good guys …

Ghost is one of the bands that headlined Bloodstock one year and that I was completely non-pleased about, but then I really got into. The light bulb moment for me was the album Prequelle and its follow up Impera. Tonight, in a 21 song set, which includ…

by Will LarsonISBN-13: 978-1736417911Will Larson’s staff engineer archetypes didn’t really resonate with me and neither did the use of the word “staff”, which isn’t really explained. Some of the descriptions of operating as a staff engineer were really…

Last week I was back at the ACCU Conference in Bristol, for the first time since I gave an opening keynote in 2019. In March 2020, COVID hit the UK and I got out of the habit of attending and speaking at conferences. Plus the ACCU Conference, and the o…

So you think you can lead a team?I’ve been talking and writing a lot about leading a software engineering team in 2025. I started thinking about it more deeply the year before when I decided to give a colleague, who was moving into team leading, some a…

Apparently ‘So Good’ stood in at the last minute for someone else who couldn’t make the tour. I know established bands like to help out new bands, and that’s to be applauded, but So Good’s reinvention of Shampoo with worse lyrics should probably have b…

Infectious Generosity by Chris AndersonISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0753560495I was recommended this book, out of the blue, by a colleague. I am not entirely sure why, but now that I’ve finished it I am looking forward to finding out!Infectious Generosity looks a…

 The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkeyby Ken Blanchard, Hal BurrowsISBN-13: 978-0007116980When I made the move to lead engineer from senior engineer my instinct was still to try and fix everything for my engineers rather than get them to complet…

What: So you think you can lead a team?When: 2.45pm, Thursday 3rd April 2025Where: Delta Hotels Bristol City Centre, 2 Lower Castle St, Bristol BS1 3ADMore Info: https://accuconference.org/ Get tickets: https://accuconference.org/bookingSoftw…

In February 2025 I gave a 15 minute version of my “So you think you can lead a team?” talk to my colleagues on park in Devon. You can watch it here:So you think you can lead a Team? Software engineering is hard. Leading a team, as an engineer, can be e…

Today I attended my first DataDog Summit. It was interesting, but at times, it felt like a bit of a slog. Registration began at 9am, and by 10am, we were in the main auditorium for two and a half hours straight – eight back-to-back 15 minute sessions w…

In the first half of 2025 I presented a number of times on team leading. During the talk I reference a number of books which have helped me become a better team leader:The One Minute ManagerKenneth BlanchardISBN-13: ‎978-0008128043The One Minute Manage…

Async functions are a powerful feature in JavaScript and TypeScript, offering a cleaner, more readable alternative to working directly with Promises. However, it’s easy to overuse them or add unnecessary layers of complexity.  By understanding whe…

axios-http-builder is an Axios instance builder for use on client or server side with common features pre-configured:- Timeout- CancellationBy default, Axios does not configure a timeout or a cancellation timeout. However, axios-http-builder sets both …

Something I see a lot, especially in node applications, is duplicate messages logged due to an exception being caught and logged in several places as the stack unwinds. For example with the following (contrived) code:const httpCall = () => {  c…

How we use comments in code has come up a couple of times for me this week and when I looked, I realised we hadn’t captured anything in the my teams’s coding guide lines, so I added something: Uncle Bob Says: “It is well known that I prefer code t…

Orbital: Winner of the Booker Prize 2024Samantha HarveyISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1529922936This book wasn’t for me. It’s a great idea, but it’s poorly realised. This is not a novel and not a textbook. I don’t think it knows what it is. It’s a bit all over the …

Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life: Life-Changing Tools for Healthy Relationshipsby Marshall RosenbergISBN: 978-1-892005-28-1I was sitting in an Amazon Web Services workshop and, as an after lunch ice breaker, the workshop leader asked us to …

What: So you think you can lead a team?When: 27th & 28th February 2025 Where: nor(DEV):con, The Kings Centre, 63-75 King St, Norwich, NR1 1PHMore Info: https://nordevcon.com/Get tickets: https://ti.to/norfolkdevelopers/nordevcon-25Software engineer…

As I’ve said before, I completely fell in love with Winterfylleth at Bloodstock one year. They played again, on the main stage, a few years later and released that performance as a live album and it’s one of my favourites. We went to Manchester to see …

Infected Rain are one of those bands I thought I really ought to be into. A modern, European metalcore band with female vocals, what’s not to like? But I just couldn’t get on with the Ecdysis album. I persevered and when the band released a few tracks …

by James S. A. CoreyISBN: 78-0356504193In some ways Cibola Burn is a lot like Abaddon’s Gate, it’s slow to get going. It takes about half the book, however the second half of the book is really good. One way in which it is different from the stories w…

Would you travel for over 4 hours to spend less than 10 minutes with one of your favourite bands just to get their latest album signed and a photograph? I DID! Although, someone came from Germany, so it wasn’t the longest anyone travelled.I don’t think…

My wife is a massive PJ Harvery fan, but I always found her squeaky, out of tune, unable to play and talentless. And to be fair, some of her songs on some of her albums do sound like that. For one reason or another, we missed PJ Harvery at the Roundhou…

By Frank HerbertISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1473233812Here ends a journey which turned out to be more stubborn determination than enjoyment. As I’ve mentioned before, I first started reading the Dune books as a young teenager after loving the Lynch adaptation of…

When it comes to sound, the Underworld in Camden can be a bit hit and miss and tends to be more miss with heavier bands. I struggled to hear the guitars clearly for Born of Osiris last year and it was the same for both Perpetual Paradox and Phobetor, w…

By George R.R. MartinISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0007548279If this wasn’t the penultimate book written and I hadn’t enjoyed the TV series so much I would be giving up on the book series at this point. A Feast for Crows is boring and long winded. It’s full of a l…

By George R.R. MartinISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0007548279If this wasn’t the penultimate book written and I hadn’t enjoyed the TV series so much I would be giving up on the book series at this point. A Feast for Crows is boring and long winded. It’s full of a l…

Forgive me father, for it has been six months since my last gig.To be fair, my last gig was The Darkness and they played badly and we ended up next to some idiots in the crowd, so we left well before the end. A week or so before that was My Dying Bride…

I’ve used a lot of existing Representational State Transfer (REST) APIs and have created several of my own. I see a lot of inconsistency, not just between REST APIs but often within a single REST API. I think most developers understand, at a high level…

I’ve used a lot of existing Representational State Transfer (REST) APIs and have created several of my own. I see a lot of inconsistency, not just between REST APIs but often within a single REST API. I think most developers understand, at a high level…

James S. A. CoreyISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1841499932Abaddon’s Gate takes a while to get going. About half the book to get going. It’s all new character introductions and building. The second half is more exciting, but drawn out. Chrisjen Avasarala is totally …

James S. A. CoreyISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1841499932Abaddon’s Gate takes a while to get going. About half the book to get going. It’s all new character introductions and building. The second half is more exciting, but drawn out. Chrisjen Avasarala is totally …

Machine VendettaAlastair ReynoldsISBN: ‎ 978-0316462846Machine Vendetta is the final Revelation Space novel we’re getting and the final part of the Dreyfus trilogy and it could have been a lot better. Unlike the previous book in the series, there was o…

Machine VendettaAlastair ReynoldsISBN: ‎ 978-0316462846Machine Vendetta is the final Revelation Space novel we’re getting and the final part of the Dreyfus trilogy and it could have been a lot better. Unlike the previous book in the series, there was o…

A Storm of Swords, Part 2: Blood and Gold (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 3)by George R.R. MartinISBN-13: ‎ 978-0007447855At least George R. R. Martin is consistent. I didn’t really enjoy the second part of this book any more than the first. The Red Wedd…

A Storm of Swords, Part 2: Blood and Gold (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 3)by George R.R. MartinISBN-13: ‎ 978-0007447855At least George R. R. Martin is consistent. I didn’t really enjoy the second part of this book any more than the first. The Red Wedd…

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance  by  Robert PirsigISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0099786405 Zen and …

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance  by  Robert PirsigISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0099786405 Zen and …

Prelude To FoundationAsaac AsimovISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0008117481Although, as a child and teenager, I’ve heard an abridged audiobook many times and read Prelude to Foundation the first time more than two decades ago, I loved it more than I can describe and…

Prelude To FoundationAsaac AsimovISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0008117481Although, as a child and teenager, I’ve heard an abridged audiobook many times and read Prelude to Foundation the first time more than two decades ago, I loved it more than I can describe and…

Caliban’s Warby James S. A. CoreyISBN: 978-1841499918I was really keen to read this after Leviathan Wakes was so good and after enjoying the TV series so much. Of course there was the pull of the introduction of Chrisjen Avasarala as well, and she real…

Caliban’s Warby James S. A. CoreyISBN: 978-1841499918I was really keen to read this after Leviathan Wakes was so good and after enjoying the TV series so much. Of course there was the pull of the introduction of Chrisjen Avasarala as well, and she real…

By Alistair ReynoldsASIN: B0C99899GL Take two of my favourite things and my favourite author and what do you get? Formula 1 in space with cyborgs, and who doesn’t love a Sisters of Mercy Reference?From a Formula 1 perspective, there’s so much there. Re…

By Alistair ReynoldsASIN: B0C99899GL Take two of my favourite things and my favourite author and what do you get? Formula 1 in space with cyborgs, and who doesn’t love a Sisters of Mercy Reference?From a Formula 1 perspective, there’s so much there. Re…

By Frank HerbertISBN:  ‎ 978-1473233805I’ve seen lots of people rave about God Emperor of Dune, the first of the second Dune trilogy, which is set several thousand years after the events of Children of Dune. As far as I’m concerned, it’s ok.It con…

By Frank HerbertISBN:  ‎ 978-1473233805I’ve seen lots of people rave about God Emperor of Dune, the first of the second Dune trilogy, which is set several thousand years after the events of Children of Dune. As far as I’m concerned, it’s ok.It con…

Separation of Concerns is a key principle in software engineering. When we used to deploy applications to physical hardware, the two separate concerns of infrastructure and software would often become blurred as an application would often need to tailo…

Separation of Concerns is a key principle in software engineering. When we used to deploy applications to physical hardware, the two separate concerns of infrastructure and software would often become blurred as an application would often need to tailo…

Storm of Swords: Part 1 Steel and SnowGeorge R MartinISBN: 9780007447848I didn’t like the previous book, A Clash of Kings and Storm of Swords isn’t a great deal better, but it is better.  I really enjoyed the multiple threads and, of course, learn…

Storm of Swords: Part 1 Steel and SnowGeorge R MartinISBN: 9780007447848I didn’t like the previous book, A Clash of Kings and Storm of Swords isn’t a great deal better, but it is better.  I really enjoyed the multiple threads and, of course, learn…

A nonofficial, JavaScript, feature complete, client library for sending transactional emails via Bloomreach.The aim of the bloomreach-transactional-email package is to get you going with the Bloomreach Transactional Email API as quickly as possible. Th…

A nonofficial, JavaScript, feature complete, client library for sending transactional emails via Bloomreach.The aim of the bloomreach-transactional-email package is to get you going with the Bloomreach Transactional Email API as quickly as possible. Th…

by James S. A. CoreyISBN-13: 978-0316333429 I was apprehensive about reading Leviathan Wakes as a friend had suggested it was boring compared to the TV series, which I loved. It wasn’t! The Protomolecule is brown goo, rather than bright glittery s…