LeadByExample(): Jakub Chodounsky on Pragmatic Engineering, the YOLO Mindset, and Why Best Practices Aren't Always Best
Episode Three: Jakub Chodounsky on Building Through Uncertainty
At Iron Software, we've always believed that great engineering leadership isn't about following rules — it's about knowing when to break them. That's why we're excited to feature Jakub Chodounsky in our latest episode of LeadByExample().
Jakub is a co-founder and CTO of Hatch, the New Zealand-based wealth-building platform that was acquired by FNZ in 2021 and continues to grow. He's also the founder of some of the most widely-read developer newsletters in the industry — Programming Digest, C# Digest, React Digest, and Leadership in Tech — which he's been publishing since 2013 and which now reach millions of subscribers every month.
His philosophy? Stop worshipping "best practices" and start building what actually works for your situation.
In this candid conversation, Jakub reveals something that might surprise purists: the system powering his newsletter empire — sending millions of emails monthly — was built without a single automated test. And that was exactly the right call. He also explains why the same approach would have been reckless at Hatch, where his team handles people's real money and a rigorous test suite is non-negotiable.
It's the kind of nuanced, context-driven thinking that separates engineers who ship from engineers who plan forever.
What You'll Learn in This Episode
In this honest, often funny interview, Jakub shares:
- Why "cargo culting" best practices can hurt more than help
- The Aragorn-YOLO meme that defines his approach to uncertainty
- How Hatch's hypergrowth taught him that delegation isn't optional — it's survival
- Why relationships and customers matter more than perfect code
- The unexpected mentors (a classical guitarist and a Turbo Pascal developer) who shaped his pragmatic worldview
Quotes That Stuck With Us
On why he rejects universal best practices:
"There is no silver bullet. There's a lot of cargo culting in technology — lots of things people write, and you kind of have to use what works for your situation."
On the value of starting before you're ready:
"Sometimes you don't have the right answers — but you don't even have the right questions. You find them only when you start going. You can't plan everything ahead."
On what early-career engineers get wrong about tech:
"I thought initially that writing beautiful code was everything, and marketing and sales weren't important. They're just weird guys that ring a bell every now and then."
On what actually matters:
"You can fudge a lot of things with a spreadsheet in the background. You don't have to have perfect code for everything."
Why This Conversation Matters
Jakub's story resonates because it's honest about what leadership actually looks like: messy, iterative, and full of decisions made without complete information. His advice to engineers who want to plan everything upfront? Sometimes you just need permission to start building — even when the picture isn't complete.
Whether you're scaling a startup, launching a side project, or trying to figure out which "best practices" actually apply to your situation, this episode offers a refreshingly pragmatic perspective.
This is exactly the kind of thinking we created LeadByExample() to showcase.
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