I'm Gene — co-founder and CTO at Scannable, where we build software that helps safety teams keep track of the gear standing between their people and serious harm. We're a small remote-first team scattered across mountainous parts of the world, and we've been at it long enough to know what we believe and what we're still figuring out.
I grew up around the outdoors and never quite left. These days I live in Queenstown with a lake to one side, a ridge to the other, and a small office where most days start before the sun crosses the Remarkables.
What I write about
Four things, mostly. Leadership in tech— what's worked, what hasn't, what I'm still nervous about. Building high-performing teams — hiring, calibration, culture, the stuff that takes years to get right. AI in the engineering toolchain— what we're actually using, what we've changed in interviews, and what we won't. And building products customers love — the slow loop of taste, listening, and shipping.
I'll throw in the occasional personal essay when a long run produces one worth writing down.
Why this blog
Two reasons. First, I write to think — and I'd rather think out loud, where someone might tell me I'm wrong. Second, I read engineering writing every week that helped me — and almost none of it came from someone who was famous when they wrote it. This is my small contribution to that pile.
If something resonates, the best way to keep up is the Sunday letter — one note every other Sunday, no tracking. Or you can write to me directly. I read everything, even if it takes me a week.