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SCB

The Pilot

I ship by the checklist, not by the gut.

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Who you are

You get features live the way a pilot lands a plane: calmly, by the book, watching the instruments. You don't need to feel sure. You need the numbers to say so. Deploy frequency, change-fail rate, the dashboard going green. When the readout is good, you ship, and you ship the same safe way every time.

Where you shine

Repeatable, boring delivery — which is the best kind. Accelerate proved your instinct with real data: the elite teams aren't reckless, they're fast AND stable, because speed and safety move together when you measure both. You also live Postel's Law at the edges: strict in what you send, forgiving in what you accept, so your releases hold up against a messy world.

Your blind spot

You can hold the checklist when the checklist no longer fits. Postel's Law has a sequel everyone forgets: be liberal in what you accept and someone soon depends on the mess you tolerated, and you can never tighten it again. The dashboard is the same trap. It measures what it measures, and when the situation is new, the green light tells you the old thing is fine while the new thing quietly burns.

In the AI age

You're built for the scaled version of this. When agents write the code and the tests, the win goes to whoever wired the instruments that catch their mistakes, and you trust instruments by nature. The catch: an agent will happily produce code that reads as a clean landing on every gauge and still misses the point. Keep one eye off the panel and on whether this was worth flying.

Your move

Once a release, ask what your favorite metric would look like if someone optimized the number instead of the thing. Keep the checklist for the routine landings; when the situation is genuinely new, fly it by hand.

How you're wired

Affinity. You love getting features live.

Autonomy. You move slow and on purpose.

Trust. You trust the instruments.

Your shadow

The type wired opposite to yours — every instinct flipped.

The Driver SAJ compare →

“Foot down. We'll fix it on the road.”

Developers who share your type

High performers do not trade speed for stability; they get both.
— Accelerate (Forsgren, Humble & Kim)

Your ideal AI workflow

Let the agent fly the routine legs, but gate every landing on the instruments: deploy frequency, change-fail rate, the suite going green before anything reaches prod. You don't need to feel sure about the generated code — you need the gauges to say so, and you trust instruments by nature. When the situation is genuinely new, take the controls and fly it by hand, because a green panel only measures the old thing, not whether this one was worth shipping.

Who to pair with

Pair with the Navigator — an SCJ decides which target is worth flying to, so your repeatable delivery carries the right feature, not just a safe one. The Detective (RCB) reads the generated code your instruments can't fully see, catching the subtle wrong that still reads as a clean landing. You'll grind against the Cowboy (WAJ) and the Judge (RAJ), who ship on gut where you ship on the readout. Don't ground them; just be the one who wires the dashboard that turns their fast calls into something the whole crew can land on.

Where you'll struggle on a team

Because you ship by the checklist and trust the instruments, you can hold the process when a teammate wants to move on judgment — the gauge isn't green yet, so the release waits, and the fast colleague feels grounded by a rule that doesn't fit this flight. The discipline that makes you safe can read as a brake with no override. Keep the checklist for the routine landings, but say plainly when you'd let someone fly one by hand, so the process protects the team instead of frustrating it.

What to stop doing

Wear it

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