In the civil war between those of us who yearn for the hallway serendipity they got around the office coffee machine, and the ones who unlocked a more productive and joyful way of working from their homes, there can be no winner.

The notion that this debate is reconcilable, that there is a mythical “hybrid” solution that checks all the boxes, that with enough thoughtful compromise we can put this conflict behind us, is blindly foolish, and chasing it is a distraction.

AI is not going to replace the majority of programming jobs, full stop. I roundly reject any argument that presents AI as a solution to converting a set of business requirements into functioning software.

But, if you don’t learn how to use AI, and stay abreast of what it can do, it may very well replace YOU. Let me put that differently: it will be the reason your boss replaces you.

Many times—and it would be hard to try to count at this point—I’ve sat with a team to discuss how we’re working together, and someone asks the question:

What is stand-up for, anyway?

What makes this question so hard to answer? Why do we spend so much time doing something that we aren’t even sure about? Today I bring you those answers and more as we unpack everything that’s wrong with agile software development.

If you haven’t seen this video that WebMD parent company “Internet Brands” sent to their employees telling them that they need to return to the office, you really have to check it out. It’s cringe-inducing, tone deaf, and callous in the way that American business has desperately worked to normalize for decades.

“We work better together,” Internet Brands CEO Bob Brisco states in the video, adding, “We aren’t asking or negotiating at this point.” The video leaked to the public and the reaction was… Predictable.

“Well,” you might say, “CEOs gonna CEO.” That’s true, the withering empathy of the C-suite, unchecked by labor or anti-trust protections dissolved by Ronald Reagan, has allowed the American CEO to evolve into a different species, one which looks upon its employees as “inconvenient gut flora¹.”

But all that aside, the entire stated basis of this message is fallacious, and I’ll tell you why.

In the middle of 2021, a new word exploded through social media: “grindset.” The word may have been new, but the idea was not. Amid a continuing pandemic that upended our norms of work and life, the online world rallied around the notion that exceptionally hard work can transform a “side hustle” into a business.

Everything that was wrong about that idea back then is still wrong now, yet we continue to glorify “disruptors” and “innovators” and believe that the “Protestant work ethic” is the gateway to wealth. Although working hard and committing yourself to a purpose are noble and useful habits, don’t confuse raw, unmetered, self-destructive exertion with good leadership.