People and Organization
The ledger is balanced, the walls are scaled — the only variable left is people.
The ledger is balanced, the walls are scaled — the only variable left is people.
The six chapters unfold across three vantage points. First, see the job clearly: Chapter 23 strips away the job-title filter to show what a day and a week actually look like; Chapter 24 builds the three-pillar capability model and a twelve-question self-check. Next, walk the path: Chapter 25 covers how engineers make the transition; Chapter 26 switches to the employer's side — when to build a team, and how; Chapter 27 asks whether an individual can go it alone. Finally, Chapter 28 closes the book — does experience hold its value, does the role survive, does the whole structure disappear — landing on one sentence: AI projects stall because nobody is accountable for the last mile, and FDE is what that accountability is called right now.
Written for engineers weighing whether to step in, managers sizing up whether to build a team, practitioners considering going independent — and for the industry observers who have read the whole book and want to test their own judgment against it.