https://etiennex.com/ Coach of CTOs, compulsive builder. Essays on tech leadership, AI, and the seat. en https://etiennex.com/life-loops/ https://etiennex.com/life-loops/ Mon, 02 Feb 2026 02:57:59 GMT The Missing Layer in World Model Architecture A White Paper on Temporal Experience in Autonomous Agents Etienne de Bruin // February 2026 Abstract World mo https://etiennex.com/brittany-cotton-hosts-etienne-de-bruin-the-business-objective-problem/ https://etiennex.com/brittany-cotton-hosts-etienne-de-bruin-the-business-objective-problem/ Thu, 29 Jan 2026 20:31:41 GMT This month, Brittany Cotton invited me onto the February forum content to dig into something that's been nagging at me since we launched the CTO Compas https://etiennex.com/a-new-algorithm-for-data-compression-by-philip-gage-1994/ https://etiennex.com/a-new-algorithm-for-data-compression-by-philip-gage-1994/ Sun, 25 Jan 2026 18:05:47 GMT In 1994, Philip Gage published A New Algorithm for Data Compression , introducing what later became known as arithmetic coding —a foundational idea that qu https://etiennex.com/the-question-thats-setting-you-up-to-fail/ https://etiennex.com/the-question-thats-setting-you-up-to-fail/ Fri, 23 Jan 2026 19:39:59 GMT I've been watching CTOs nod along in C-suite meetings for years now. They look engaged. They take notes. They leave with "action items." And https://etiennex.com/i-rebuilt-my-2004-side-project-over-christmas-the-llm-made-me-fall-in-love-with-building-again/ https://etiennex.com/i-rebuilt-my-2004-side-project-over-christmas-the-llm-made-me-fall-in-love-with-building-again/ Wed, 14 Jan 2026 23:00:53 GMT The friction that used to kill ideas is gone. That weird thought at 11pm - "what if the signup was a game?" - doesn't die in the gap between imagination and implementation anymore. https://etiennex.com/the-maas-manifesto/ https://etiennex.com/the-maas-manifesto/ Wed, 07 Jan 2026 00:53:50 GMT Why Made as a Service Will Systematically Replace Large Portions of SaaS A whitepaper by Etienne de Bruin Jan 6th, 2026 Executive Summary Software as a Ser https://etiennex.com/welcome-to-2026-the-year-output-became-cheap/ https://etiennex.com/welcome-to-2026-the-year-output-became-cheap/ Fri, 02 Jan 2026 20:00:38 GMT And why that might be the best thing that ever happened to you Last week, I spent four hours building a feature that would have taken me two days eighteen https://etiennex.com/your-organization-isnt-a-machine-stop-treating-it-like-one/ https://etiennex.com/your-organization-isnt-a-machine-stop-treating-it-like-one/ Tue, 16 Dec 2025 16:32:18 GMT I was on a call with a group of tech leaders in New Zealand recently—Auckland, Wellington, Palmerston North—and I started with this: For every initiative y https://etiennex.com/the-hidden-forces-blocking-your-tech-organization-watch-the-talk/ https://etiennex.com/the-hidden-forces-blocking-your-tech-organization-watch-the-talk/ Tue, 09 Dec 2025 16:59:47 GMT I recently gave a talk to a group of tech leaders in New Zealand about something that's been gnawing at me for years: why do so many initiatives die three months after launch? https://etiennex.com/why-your-ceo-operating-system-is-lying-to-you/ https://etiennex.com/why-your-ceo-operating-system-is-lying-to-you/ Tue, 09 Dec 2025 05:48:31 GMT I've spent the better part of two decades watching brilliant technical founders become mediocre CEOs. Not because they lack intelligence, most of them https://etiennex.com/what-if-we-actually-valued-ctos-like-we-value-athletes/ https://etiennex.com/what-if-we-actually-valued-ctos-like-we-value-athletes/ Mon, 03 Nov 2025 00:14:26 GMT I stayed up late last night with this question rattling around in my brain: Why do we know the exact market value of every NBA player but have no idea what https://etiennex.com/what-a-room-full-of-landscapers-taught-me-about-my-own-leadership-failures/ https://etiennex.com/what-a-room-full-of-landscapers-taught-me-about-my-own-leadership-failures/ Sun, 12 Oct 2025 13:42:05 GMT Here is the full video of my talk In September of 2025, I stood in front of 120+ landscaper owner-operators to talk about technology adoption. Me – the CTO https://etiennex.com/the-day-i-realized-i-was-fighting-the-wrong-battle/ https://etiennex.com/the-day-i-realized-i-was-fighting-the-wrong-battle/ Sat, 06 Sep 2025 00:19:12 GMT I was debugging a production issue at 2 AM when it hit me. Not the solution to the bug. That came 20 minutes later. What hit me was this: I was using my Su https://etiennex.com/the-hardest-refactor-youll-ever-do/ https://etiennex.com/the-hardest-refactor-youll-ever-do/ Mon, 01 Sep 2025 15:57:00 GMT I had a conversation with Adam Horner recently that took me back to one of the most painful moments of my career. In 2008, My co-founder pulled me aside and said, "You know you have to stop coding, right?" https://etiennex.com/relearning-the-song-why-your-cto-playbook-keeps-expiring/ https://etiennex.com/relearning-the-song-why-your-cto-playbook-keeps-expiring/ Fri, 01 Aug 2025 21:41:00 GMT I was what felt like hours into my a conversation with Joel Beasley when he dropped something that made me stop mid-sentence. "You gotta relearn the s https://etiennex.com/the-meaning-we-make-how-entrepreneurs-create-problems-that-dont-exis/ https://etiennex.com/the-meaning-we-make-how-entrepreneurs-create-problems-that-dont-exis/ Thu, 27 Mar 2025 05:52:36 GMT I'm sitting across from my co-founder at our weekly strategy meeting, both of us focused on our laptops rather than each other. The silence between us https://etiennex.com/the-hero-cto-syndrome-why-saving-everyone-hurts-everyone/ https://etiennex.com/the-hero-cto-syndrome-why-saving-everyone-hurts-everyone/ Tue, 18 Mar 2025 22:17:40 GMT When Your Hero's Cape Becomes Too Heavy I'm sitting in my favorite coffee shop, reviewing notes from recent coaching calls. The espresso machine hi https://etiennex.com/your-technology-organization-is-brilliant-your-business-is-failing-heres-why/ https://etiennex.com/your-technology-organization-is-brilliant-your-business-is-failing-heres-why/ Thu, 07 Nov 2024 19:47:00 GMT Two years ago, I stood on stage at our 0111 Conference and introduced the CTO Levels framework. We'd been doing hundreds of assessments by then, and th https://etiennex.com/coming-soon/ https://etiennex.com/coming-soon/ Sat, 10 Feb 2024 06:51:30 GMT I want to remember this date, because it's the day etienneX was born. In the mountains of Mammoth. Etienne explores. https://etiennex.com/your-cto-should-be-spending-your-money-and-9-other-things-youre-not-getting/ https://etiennex.com/your-cto-should-be-spending-your-money-and-9-other-things-youre-not-getting/ Mon, 01 May 2023 14:50:00 GMT When it comes to our technology—the thing our entire business is built on—we have this bizarre, almost dysfunctional relationship. https://etiennex.com/the-cto-role-is-not-technical-and-watching-80-ctos-realize-this-in-real-time/ https://etiennex.com/the-cto-role-is-not-technical-and-watching-80-ctos-realize-this-in-real-time/ Wed, 01 Mar 2023 16:27:00 GMT I asked a room full of CTOs to agree with something before they saw it. About 37% raised their hands. The rest stared at me like I'd just asked them to https://etiennex.com/tech-tetris-the-framework-that-stops-you-from-building-the-wrong-thing/ https://etiennex.com/tech-tetris-the-framework-that-stops-you-from-building-the-wrong-thing/ Wed, 01 Jun 2022 16:49:00 GMT You know that feeling in your gut? The one that wakes you up at 3am wondering if you're building your tech organization all wrong? I stood in front of https://etiennex.com/when-the-best-technical-minds-cant-fix-themselves/ https://etiennex.com/when-the-best-technical-minds-cant-fix-themselves/ Sun, 20 Mar 2022 16:39:00 GMT I sat down with Joel Beasley on the Modern CTO podcast last week, and within the first ten minutes, we were talking about people throwing things in meeting