Managing up, down, and the robots with Michael Lopp aka Rands

In this episode, Michael Lopp shares what he's learned leading engineering teams at Slack, Pinterest, and Palantir — including why AI is delivering real but modest productivity gains, and why junior engineers churning out AI-generated code is probably slowing teams down.Michael Lopp (Rands) brings three decades of engineering leadership experience to the AI conversation — revealing why he thinks we're experiencing another bubble similar to the dotcom era, but moving much faster. He's bullish on the technology but realistic: AI enables 5-10% productivity gains for complex work, not the revolutionary changes some expect. His framework emphasizes that good leadership still requires empathy, one-on-ones, and actually listening to your team.Find the transcript at: https://www.swarmia.com/podcast/michael-lopp-rands/(0:00) Introduction(2:45) Are we living in another dotcom bubble?(11:12) AI doesn't replace critical thinking(15:34) The problem with measuring the productivity impact of AI(18:01) Your job as a human is to know when you're being lied to(19:40) What junior engineers need to learn now(24:16) Assessing team health and psychological safety at scale(28:12) What happens at 150 headcount(30:21) Are companies buying AI tools without a hypothesis?(33:11) The fakers(35:22) Rands’ advice on leading through hard times(42:18) Why telling managers to stop coding was a bad idea(45:25) Rands’ hot take on the industryFollow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelloppFollow Rebecca on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmurphey/