Not every project will succeed. I know that. But when one drags for months, drains motivation, and ends in a dead stop - it still stings.

I’ve been consistently writing and journaling for the past 5–6 years. Nothing complicated - just pen and paper, coffee, and it worked pretty well. But over the last 5–6 months, I’ve noticed both the frequency and desire to write starting to decline. At first, it was a gradual slowdown. Now, it feels like a rapid fall.

Managing a team of individual contributors (ICs) is already a demanding role, but once your team grows beyond 12 direct reports, everything changes. The complexity increases, the range of challenges expands, and the strategies that worked for a smaller team may no longer be effective.

Many people start thinking about promotions only when the cycle is approaching—polishing their self-review, gathering achievements, and putting together a compelling case. But by that point, it’s often too late.

After publishing Vanishing Depth of Work, I had several conversations with people across the industry who resonated with the ideas but also challenged and expanded on them in interesting ways. These discussions led me to reflect even deeper on the relationship between deep work, fast shipping, and the dopamine-driven cycles that shape modern work culture. This post is a follow-up to explore those insights further.