Re-Humanizing Tech

(Things I Wish More People in Tech Talked About – Part 2)

Last time, we talked about burnout.
About how easy it is to confuse exhaustion with purpose.

So maybe this time is about the opposite,  how to bring a little humanity back into the systems we build and the lives we lead.

Because underneath the commits, tickets, and sprint cycles, we’re still just people. People who get tired, overthink, care too much, and sometimes forget why we started building in the first place.

The Case for Slow Engineering

There’s something beautiful about slowness. About sitting with a problem long enough to understand it instead of just patching it.

We’ve built an industry obsessed with velocity,  faster releases, faster models, faster everything. But speed without reflection usually leads to repetition. We rebuild the same ideas in new frameworks and call it innovation.

Maybe the next leap forward isn’t about speed. Maybe it’s about care.

The Real 10x Skill

Ask most people what makes someone a “10x engineer,” and you’ll hear things like speed, output, clever hacks. But the older I get in tech, the more I believe the real 10x skill is empathy.

Empathy in how we write docs, review pull requests, or onboard someone new.
Empathy in designing systems that make people’s lives easier instead of just more efficient.

The best teammates I’ve ever had weren’t the fastest coders,  they were the ones who made everyone around them better.

Building for Humans, Not Users

Somewhere along the line, “user” became our favorite word.
But users don’t cry when the job burns them out. People do.

When we say “user,” it’s easy to forget there’s a person on the other side of the API. Someone who’s tired, distracted, or trying their best to navigate a messy world.

Maybe “human-centered design” isn’t just a UX principle, maybe it’s an entire philosophy for how we build, lead, and live.

Culture is a Feature Too

No matter how advanced our stack gets, teams still run on trust.

A good culture isn’t just free snacks or remote Fridays;  it’s the safety to admit you don’t know something, the grace to ask for help, the encouragement to take time off without guilt.

If code reviews make you dread hitting “Submit,” something’s off.
If leadership only celebrates launches and never recovery, something’s off.

A healthy team writes better code because they’re not coding from fear.

Re-Humanizing Ourselves

Maybe the most radical thing we can do in tech right now is remember we’re not robots.

That it’s okay to take a day off. To be curious again. To build things that don’t scale but make you smile.

We build tools that automate everything, maybe it’s time to stop automating ourselves.

So here’s to slower mornings, kinder teams, and projects built with heart.

Because in the end, the future of tech won’t just be measured in innovation. It’ll be measured in how human it still feels.

Question for your weekend:
What’s one small way you try to keep tech human?

With that, we will cache you next week,
– The Cat Cache Team 🐾