---
title: "Blog — Yao Yue"
description: "Essays by Yao Yue on systems, software, and engineering."
url: "https://yaoyue.org/blog/"
---

# Blog

- [Slow down and sit with it](https://yaoyue.org/blog/2026-slowdown/) — When AI makes software creation nearly effortless, deliberately slowing down—immersing yourself in the problem space—is still how real understanding gets built.
- [AI-induced layoff is (still) a leadership failure](https://yaoyue.org/blog/2026-layoff/) — Citing AI adoption as the reason for layoffs masks the same leadership failure behind most job cuts—and, in the long run, hurts the companies wielding it.
- [Being oncall taught me everything](https://yaoyue.org/blog/2026-oncall/) — Lessons from 7.5 years on call for distributed caching at Twitter—why predictability beats raw speed, why tail latency matters most, and why operational excellence comes from design, not last-minute patching.