I write an independent newsletter on technology - The Pragmatic Engineer. Independence goes beyond just not having an employer. This is what it means for me:
tl;dr: I don't take any form of payment to write about a company or product (on the newsletter, blog or social media), or have a guest on my podcast. I avoid conflicts of interest as best I can, and always disclose if I have one.
Things that I do not do:
- I do not accept payments in any form to write about a company or a product. I don't do sponsorships, advertisements, or hidden advertisements in my newsletter or blog. Please note that I also do not do product feedback on request – in general, I do not do product feedback at all.
- I do not use affiliate links in anything I recommend. Affiliate links are a way to get a "kickback" when someone buys products recommended. Note that I removed all former affiliate links on this blog and my YouTube channel. Read more about how much I made and why I removed affiliate links on the blog that made $15K/year and third-party ads.
- I pay for all my travel and expenses when attending company events.
- I do not hold individual stocks about any publicly traded tech company I write about or mention, or any of their publicly traded competitors. In fact, I do not hold stocks in any publicly traded company (except for investment company Berkshire Hathaway which I hold thanks to having historically outperformed the S&P 500). I avoid buying individual tech stocks to ensure I have no financial pull to have bias towards or against tech companies.
Potential conflicts of interests, and how I go about these:
- I am an advisor in two companies where I receive equity in return for advising and an investor in several others. My typical investments were in the $5,000-15,000 range. I disclose my affiliation, should I mention any of these companies in my writing, and aim to not bias in overly favoring these companies. Note that I have stopped investing in companies as of June 2022. I'm not sure if I'll make further investments, given investing also creates bias which I want to minimize.
- I accept sponsorships for The Pragmatic Engineer Podcast. I do not share episode contents (or agenda) with sponsors, nor do sponsors have a say in the content. See all current and past sponsors.
- Some companies might make group purchases of my newsletter or books. I don't keep tabs on such purchases or customers - most of these come as self-service.
- I have worked in the past at Uber, Microsoft, Skyscanner and JP Morgan: companies I sometimes mention in my writing. These experiences shaped my professional outlook but don't otherwise impact my opinions. I hold no stock in either of these companies.
My revenue sources:
- The majority of my revenue comes directly from newsletter subscribers. This aligns my interests with the interests of readers.
- I sell books, which is another large revenue source.
- I sell sponsorships for my podcast. I do not involve sponsors in episode creation. Sponsors typically book a date to run their spot on, and whatever episode gets recorded is what they are features in. Sponsors have no access to episodes before release, or influence on their content.
- My YouTube channel generates advertising revenue. I have no control or knowledge what ads are served for my videos.
- Outside the YouTube ads mentioned above, I no longer have any revenue sources from sponsorships, affiliates, or third-party ads.
My analysis and opinions will not always hold up. While I always aim to deliver analysis, details and opinions that correctly predict where the industry is headed. There have been times when I shared observations and trends half a year or months or weeks before publications like The New York Times, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, and other mainstream media sources reported on the same trends.
However, not all my forward-looking predictions or opinions will stand the test of time. When this happens, I acknowledge that I was wrong, like I did with Meta's history layoffs in November 2022.