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Marc-Daniel Ortega

Marc-Daniel Ortega

Marc-Daniel Ortega is a seasoned engineering leader with a passion for transforming teams and platforms into thriving, collaborative ecosystems.
20
Nov
Clarity Is the First Platform

Clarity Is the First Platform

Every broken platform begins with a broken language. Semantic decay is the quietest organisational failure, and the most lethal. Systems drift, decisions degrade, and people hide behind vague words they never define. Then they blame engineering for the wreckage they created.
3 min read
19
Nov
Tech Through the Barbarian Lens

Tech Through the Barbarian Lens

Modern tech resembles an empire in decline. The barbarians are not outside the gates. They already run the place.
4 min read
18
Nov
The Modern Barabbas

The Modern Barabbas

The story of Pilate is remembered not because he chose evil, but because he chose nothing. He recognised the right path, understood the consequences, and stepped aside anyway. He performed neutrality while the worst forces advanced. This is the defining pattern of modern organisational decline.
4 min read
17
Nov
The Asimov Paradox: How Certainty Destroys Predictability

The Asimov Paradox: How Certainty Destroys Predictability

The Asimov Paradox describes a system in which Product and Engineering enter a self‑reinforcing loop of false certainty, eroded craft, and misaligned incentives. Each discipline believes it operates correctly. Each waits for the other. Neither generates information.
4 min read
14
Nov
Friday Fun: How to Blow Up a Scale-Up

Friday Fun: How to Blow Up a Scale-Up

Let us not pretend. Companies rarely collapse because of a single catastrophic decision. They collapse because of hundreds of small, confident, foolish choices compounding over time. If you ever wished to observe organisational self-destruction in its purest form, here is the fastest route.
2 min read
13
Nov
Truth Fatigue: When Smart People Stop Caring

Truth Fatigue: When Smart People Stop Caring

There comes a point where clarity ceases to feel like a strength and begins to feel like exhaustion. One no longer needs another meeting to confirm what is already known. One no longer seeks alignment, having witnessed how alignment decays into a theatre of puppets.
5 min read
12
Nov
Platform 3.0: Building Leverage Networks, Not Just Factories

Platform 3.0: Building Leverage Networks, Not Just Factories

Platform 3.0 does not replace Platform 2.0. It builds upon it. The machinery of predictability, the safety of programmable delivery systems, and the clarity of metrics such as PI, TQS, and IMS remain essential. What changes is the scale and interaction
3 min read
11
Nov
The Forgotten Art of Incremental Architecture or Why System Thinking Must Lead Before Code

The Forgotten Art of Incremental Architecture or Why System Thinking Must Lead Before Code

Speed without structure is the slowest form of waste.
5 min read
10
Nov
The Cost of Clarity

The Cost of Clarity

Clarity sounds virtuous. Every company claims to value it, every leader invokes it. Yet few survive its consequences. Because real clarity is not a tool. It is a weapon. And weapons always wound, especially those who wield them.
6 min read
07
Nov
Optionality and the Myth of Strategic Customers

Optionality and the Myth of Strategic Customers

Every scaleup eventually reaches the same crossroad: double down on a few massive accounts, or cultivate the quiet loyalty of many. The first path feels strategic. The second, humble. Yet history and statistics show that only the humble one endures.
5 min read