Hi, I'm Marcel

I’ve been writing code for over 20 years, across startups that moved fast and broke things, mid-sized companies trying to scale, and enterprise organizations where changing a button color required three committees.

Right now, I’m a Developer Experience Engineer. Before this, I spent over six years building and maintaining a large-scale platform. I’ve worked with enough legacy systems to know that “technical debt” is usually just code written by people who didn’t have time to do it right the first time.

Why Listen to Me?

I’ve been on both sides of the DX equation. I’ve built tools that developers loved and wrestled with platforms that made me want to quit programming entirely. That perspective, knowing what works and what’s just theater, is what I bring to this blog.

Most DX content focuses on tooling: better IDEs, faster CI/CD, shinier dashboards. That stuff matters, but it’s not why your best engineers leave. They leave because of the meetings that could’ve been emails, the interruptions that destroy flow state, and the organizational dysfunction that no amount of automation can fix.

What You’ll Find Here

Real problems, not platitudes. I write about the frustrations you’re dealing with right now, code review bottlenecks, onboarding that wastes months of productivity, and the “urgent” culture that makes deep work impossible.

Practical solutions, not theory. Every post is based on what I’ve actually done, not what sounds good in a conference talk. If I haven’t lived it, I don’t write about it.

The human side of development. Technical problems are usually symptoms of organizational or cultural dysfunction. I dig into the messy reality of how teams actually work (or don’t).

What Makes This Different

I’m not a consultant selling you expensive workshops or a vendor pushing tools. I’m a developer who’s spent two decades in the trenches, and I’m documenting what actually works versus what just makes for good LinkedIn posts.

Support This Work

This blog stays independent and ad-free. If you find the content valuable:

• Subscribe (it’s free, and you’ll get new posts in your inbox)

• Upgrade to paid (helps me dedicate more time to research and writing)

• Support via Ko-fi or Buy Me a Coffee

Honestly though? The best way to support this work is to share it with someone who needs to read it. Forward posts to your engineering manager, your PM, or that colleague who keeps getting interrupted during their focus time.

Publishing Schedule

New posts every Tuesday.

I take breaks during summer and the winter holidays (roughly late December through early January). If something comes up and I need to skip a week, I’ll let you know.

Let’s Connect

Want to suggest a topic for me to write about? Submit your idea here and I might tackle it in an upcoming post.

If you’ve got a DX disaster story or a solution that actually worked at your company, I want to hear about it.