The day I stopped coding was the day I started my computer science degree.
Sure, I was still writing code — and still loved it. But what had long been a real passion turned into a series of assignments with little personal meaning.
After graduation, I joined the intelligence corps. Coding quickly became part of my daily routine again: fascinating systems, critical missions, and technical challenges that demanded fast, creative solutions. But buttoned up in uniform and heavy boots, I felt like my creativity — and my thinking — had, too, been forced into formation. Thankfully, Unit 81 had figured this out long before I got there. And when I swapped the standard issue for a polo shirt and sandals, my creativity came back to life. The conclusion was clear — like ideas that appear in the shower, or insights that come just before sleep:
creative thinking demands freedom from mental constraints.
Architect in Slippers is meant to explore exactly that.
Designing complex, resilient systems — from code to architecture, from research to leadership — calls for a mix of clear principles and creative freedom. I started this blog because I noticed that most content online falls into two camps: hands-on experience focused on specific technologies, and abstract academic theory — with a persistent gap between them.
Over many years working in software and technical leadership across very different domains, I’ve gathered — and still do — insights that apply broadly to software systems. Some I learned the hard way, hands-on. Others I owe to brilliant managers and seasoned colleagues who saved me years of trial and error.
That experience of sharing knowledge — and seeing just how powerful it can be — is what led me to start doing so in different ways. Whether it’s bits and bytes, team-building, or architectural problem-solving, this blog aims to distill those lessons into principles and ideas that can be applied in many real-world situations. Its goal is to share practical knowledge, offer useful methodologies, help engineers and managers avoid mistakes I’ve already made, and build more resilient systems — in less time.
I’d love to hear from you — thoughts, questions, feedback, or ideas for future posts:
mike.lindner@gmail.com
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