Stefanie pointed me to a piece in The Atlantic about a new study: Measuring the Impact of Early-2025 AI on Experienced Open-Source Developer Productivity (METR). Programming is often seen as one of AI’s big strengths. The study found the opposite: developers using AI were on average 19 percent slower. The authors explain that this contradiction…
Changing behavior is hard. Anyone who’s ever tried to exercise more, quit smoking, feel less stressed, or walk past a gelateria without giving in to the quiet call of frozen delight knows that. Stanford behavioral scientist BJ Fogg developed the Tiny Habits model to tackle exactly this. The gist is simple. You want to exercise…
Ever sat down to write a grant and somehow ended up reviewing someone’s data, answering Slack messages, approving invoices, and tracking down a missing conference receipt?And then—suddenly—it’s five o’clock, and that grant proposal? Still a blinking cursor on a blank page. Yeah. We’ve been there. Here’s what’s happening: You’re not bad at managing your time.…
I had a conversation this week that stuck with me. A PI told me about a postdoc in her group who is sharp, motivated, and proactive. Exactly the kind of person most of us would be happy to have on the team. Even so, she’s frustrated. The postdoc doesn’t follow certain lab standards. Information is…
by Robert In one of the podcasts I regularly listen to, I came across an interesting topic. Cognitive biases – i.e., a systematic, faulty inclination when perceiving, remembering, thinking, and judging – and how you should deal with them. In this post, however, I don’t want to give a lesson in theoretical bias theory, but…
Happy New Year, Team Leader! May it be a productive, successful, but most of all fulfilling, and joyful year. One of the most frequently asked questions that I receive is: What are your systems and strategies to keep your team on track? Since this is the time of year when people tend to think about…
Today, I want to talk about my start as a leader. Looking back, I now consider this my first real leadership position. However, I actually held such a role much earlier. Nonetheless, I’ll stick with this example because I held that position for a few years, and it was here that the foundation of my…
Who hasn’t experienced this? You’re working with a teammate on something, and somehow, it feels like you’re doing all the work. The small part they’re supposed to contribute ends up being delivered in a way that falls far short of expectations. If that already sounds like a nightmare, try leading a project with multiple collaborators—it…
This acronym first crossed my path around 10 years ago. It attempts to describe the chaos now surrounding us in more detail. Given the current global political situation and, in addition, the results of the U.S. elections and the first announcements of key players in the Trump administration, I thought it’s worth revisiting. Because what…
by Robert You’re probably wondering why it’s been so quiet on our end this past week. Well, we’ve been incredibly busy! First, we had another fantastic Leadership Lab, co-hosted with Ana Pineda. Around 200 people were interested in learning how our P^4 Framework can help them do research without suffering. If you’re interested, you still…