Alex Ewerlöf
blog.alexewerlof.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2023
Alex Ewerlöf, an engineering leader, writes about ownership, team structure, reliability metrics, and engineering management.
What HN saysCommenters cite his broken ownership post as a good account of why ownership fails, and also link his guide to local LLMs for coding.
23HN people shared it
6linked it in comments
45stories submitted
261story points
2 months agolast shared
2023people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 16 Archetypes of Broken Ownership5 people · 11 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 2Organization Architecture3 people · 7 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
- 3Service Level Indicator (SLI)3 people · 5 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 4Percentile3 people · 4 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
- 5When a team is too big2 people · 124 points · first shared 2025 · 145 comments on HN
- 6Staff Engineer vs. Engineering Manager2 people · 26 points · first shared 2024 · 8 comments on HN
- 7We invested 10% to pay back tech debt; Here's what happened2 people · 8 points · first shared 2023 · 2 comments on HN
- 8Never be responsible for what you don't control2 people · 6 points · first shared 2024 · 6 comments on HN
- 9AI Systems Engineering Patterns2 people · 2 points · first shared 2026 · discussion on HN
- 10Show HN: Local Browser AI1 people · 17 points · first shared 2025 · 3 comments on HN
- 11Show HN: Service Level Calculator – An education tool for SLI/SLO/error bugets1 people · 5 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 12Best Practice1 people · 4 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
- 13Linkedout: See how much data LinkedIn has on you1 people · 4 points · first shared 2026 · 1 comments on HN
- 14Tech Bet1 people · 4 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
- 15Senior to Staff Engineer1 people · 4 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
ochronus · 2025-01-27
An excellent, relevant blog post: https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/your-business-value
hanifbbz · 2026-06-12
Here's a visual post for using LM Studio and VS Code (and Pi):
https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/local-llms-for-agentic-coding
One way or another local AI is the future. I actually find weaker models more interesting because it keeps me sharp (at the cost of velocity of course).
Bengalilol · 2025-05-22
https://blog.alexewerlof.com/robots.txt
Gives a small hint. It should be respected and effective.
trinsic2 · 2024-07-25
Here is an article on ownership and one viewpoint that I support on why it's broken https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/broken-ownership
_puk · 2023-09-07
This [0] was posted recently and (IMO) really captures the reality of ownership.
Without all 3 of responsibility, mandate, and knowledge there can be no ownership.
0: https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/broken-ownership
Insimwytim · 2026-08-20
It is difficult, this is why it required a whole institution. And not just an institution, but with proper mandate as well.
It is also necessary sometimes.
In fact, Fred Brooks in The Mythical Man-Month, specifically in chapters 3 "The Surgical Team" and 4 "Aristocracy, Democracy, and System Design" explains why strong (even, maybe, authoritarian) central planning is imperative for large [software] projects.
Without proper mandate the work would be undermined constantly. Again, with regard to software projects (which with all accustomed with) a "Broken Ownership" article [0] [1] illustrates (among other things) the necessity of the mandate.
All in all, if you don't have the proper mandate, resources and your project is sabotaged in other ways, you don't need to look too far in the search of why it doesn't go as ...planned.
[0] https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/broken-ownership
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37225397