I have worked on a lot of projects over the years. In that time, I have had successes and some failures and as the old adage goes it's from the latter that you learn the most about yourself. After nearly 30 years in the industry, I have come to group these learnings into three broad categories.
I build and grow engineering organisations. The work I find most rewarding is developing engineers — turning strong individual contributors into senior and staff engineers, and building teams that can sustain high output in demanding environments.
I ship things. Personal projects are how I stay current and how I explore what AI-assisted development can actually do.
I design systems that are reliable, maintainable, and fit for purpose. In regulated healthcare contexts, that means building for auditability and correctness as much as performance.