Week 06, 2026

Reading & Listening

Marie Kondo - Magic Cleaning Started reading this after dropping Rick Rubin’s book, which felt too philosophical for the moment. Kondo’s practical approach fits perfectly into what’s currently happening at home: we’re swapping bedrooms so our two kids get a bigger shared room, which means less space for us and forces real decisions about what stays and what goes. First batch of books already made it to the public bookshelf. More on why this resonated beyond the bookshelf below.

Thoughts

Decluttering as an Engineering Skill

Less space in the bedroom forces honest decisions. Every book, every item has to justify its place. What surprised me: once I started, it felt genuinely good. Letting go of things that no longer fit creates clarity. You suddenly see what actually matters to you.

And going through this process at home, I keep thinking about how powerful the same approach is in software engineering. Removing an unused abstraction and watching the code become more readable. Cancelling a meeting that lost its purpose and seeing the team use that time better. Simplifying a build pipeline and reducing onboarding friction for new developers. The value isn’t just in what you remove, it’s in what becomes visible and accessible afterwards.

Kondo’s core question “Does it spark joy?” sounds trivial, but translated to engineering it becomes surprisingly useful: Does this code, this tool, this process still serve us well? That’s the same question that came up in the rewrite debate from Week 01. The best engineering decisions aren’t always about adding something new. Sometimes they’re about recognizing what has served its purpose and making room for what comes next.

In the bookshelf as in the repository: making space creates focus. And focus is where the best work happens.