A Letter to You, Dear Reader
Twenty years ago, I bought a domain name, technosutra.com. I didn't fully know what it would become, only that I wanted to create a place where the timeless could meet the technical. Back then, I hadn't read enough Plato or Confucius. I hadn't yet lived through the ups and downs of a career in software. I hadn't made enough mistakes.
Since then, I've walked that road: writing code, leading teams, scaling systems, cleaning up messes, mentoring others, and being mentored myself. Along the way, I filled notebooks, outlines, and documents with reflections. I even attempted two books: one about consulting, and one about managing the hidden costs of software maintenance. Despite pouring myself into them, they never quite came together.
The ideas were there. But they weren't yet organized into something that could speak clearly to others the way they spoke to me.
So I asked AI to help me, not to invent something new, but to look at what I had already written. To ask better questions. To notice the threads I couldn't quite see. To help me shape what I already believed into something useful, something cohesive. And what emerged is TECHNOSUTRA.
TECHNOSUTRA is a digital collection of wisdom, practical guidance, and moral reflection for modern software professionals. It's inspired by the timeless forms of philosophical discourse: letters, dialogues, and sayings. It aims to deliver advice with clarity, humility, and enduring relevance.
It's also meant to be a playful experience, serious in substance but approachable.
You'll find three main types of writing here:
- Letters, inspired by Seneca, written as personal meditations from an experienced mentor to someone earlier in their journey. These are first-person reflections on leadership, technical debt, scaling teams, failure, and more.
- Dialogues, inspired by Plato, where 2 to 3 characters explore an idea from different angles. These aren't lectures. They're conversations: messy, open-ended, and sometimes unresolved. While the form is drawn from Plato, the tone is inspired by Dale Carnegie, respectful, optimistic, and rooted in the belief that persuasion begins with empathy.
- Sayings, short and aphoristic, inspired by Confucius. These are the kinds of thoughts you carry in your pocket. Simple, but not shallow.
This site is for anyone in software who still believes that excellence is worth striving for. Maybe you're a junior developer hungry for mentorship, or a new manager figuring out how to lead without losing your soul. Maybe you're a burned-out mid-career engineer trying to remember why you loved this in the first place. Maybe you're a teacher, a coach, or even just someone curious from the outside.
Whoever you are, if you want to be not just a better coder, but a better human in tech, this site is for you.
What I've tried to offer is philosophy without abstraction, clarity without condescension, seriousness without self-importance. Something timeless, not trendy. Something human.
Thank you for reading.
Warmly,
- Darryl