The Enemy. Ego Is The Enemy And There's So Much of It in Tech.

You know that voice in your head? The one that wants everyone to know how clever you are? The one that flinches when someone half your age and a quarter of your experience points out something you missed?

That's ego. And it's a bit of a liability.

In tech, ego's everywhere. It's coded into job titles, wrapped into pull requests, and slathered all over LinkedIn profiles. Everyone wants to be the best, the smartest, the "10x engineer." But when ego runs the show, no one learns, no one grows, and the work suffers.

I've had to leave my ego at the door more times than I can count. I've worked with juniors who've outsmarted me. I've asked beginners questions I should probably know the answer to. And each time I've swallowed my pride and leaned in, I've learned more than I would've by pretending to have all the answers.

The worst part? Ego doesn't just mess with your team dynamics — it'll sabotage your personal goals too. Mine kept me from launching things I cared about. Why? Because I didn't want to look foolish. I didn't want to try something and fail. I was more afraid of people seeing me mess up than I was excited about building something meaningful.

That changed when I stopped caring about looking cool and started caring about making progress. I started shipping. I launched Minimal Mind. I started building Ensembl. I was finally moving — and I was happier for it.

But ego is sneaky. Now that I'm "doing the entrepreneur thing," it tries to sneak back in. It gets a little buzz every time someone asks, "How's the startup going?" And I have to check myself: this journey isn't about being seen as someone, it's about building something real.

The best part? People now ask me how to get started — what tech stack to use, how to host a site, how to get an idea off the ground. And I love that. But I remind myself: this isn't a moment to flex. This is a moment to pass the ladder down, the way others did for me.

So if you're in tech, or building anything at all: have some humility. Let people be smarter than you. Let yourself ask the dumb question. Let yourself try and fail and try again.

And most importantly: leave your ego at the door. It's not invited.