The engineering management memory crisis

An engineering manager with 8 years of experience shares how managing more direct reports and complex projects pushed his mental capacity to its limits. After initially resisting, he discovered the value of using an LLM-connected knowledge base (via a GitHub repo) as a 'project brain' during a greenfield project. The system automatically synced meeting transcripts, Slack conversations, and decisions, letting him query context without holding everything in his head. He draws an analogy: relying solely on memory is like running on RAM alone, note-taking is a slow HDD, and an LLM-backed knowledge base is an SSD with a smart file system. He now maintains similar systems for people management and personal notes, emphasizing that LLMs should handle storage and retrieval while humans retain decision-making.