EM Operating System: Your Brain Is a Terrible Database

Monday, 8:47 a.m. Seven Slack DMs you haven't opened. Three 1:1s stacked before lunch. A half-written planning doc from Friday. A decision from last quarter you need to remember, buried in a thread you can no longer search. A promotion packet open in three browser tabs. Two incident follow-ups you said you'd reply to "first thing Monday." It's 8:47 a.m. You have not had coffee. This is the job. The job isn't writing code. It isn't even running standups. The engineering manager's actual job is ca