URL: https://quantcodedenny.com/posts/connect-better/

Introduction

For a successful tech lead, it usually has four steps: scope better -> do better -> look better -> connect better.

Doing great work is only part of success. My influence grows when others know, trust, and rely on me.

Connecting better at work is most powerful when it becomes a small daily habit — one or two simple actions that naturally build trust, relationships, and impact.

Core Daily Habit

Each day, I focus on one key action:

URL: https://quantcodedenny.com/posts/look-better/

Introduction

For a successful tech lead, it usually has four steps: scope better -> do better -> look better -> connect better.

Working hard alone isn’t enough. Leaders and decision-makers are busy — if they don’t see my impact, it might as well not exist.

Looking better at work is not self-promotion. It’s about making my contributions visible, credible, and trusted. I focus on three things:

• Business Impact – What tangible results did I achieve?
• Complexity & Learning – What challenges did I overcome, and what did I learn?
• Credibility – Did the right people notice my work, and did I involve or acknowledge others?

This post gives me a daily-ready framework to apply these principles with minimal thinking.

URL: https://quantcodedenny.com/posts/eq-playbook/

As a tech lead, I want to ease mental stress and handle conflicts effectively. This is my daily runbook for calm, clear, and high-leverage leadership.

Core Principles (Memorable)

• Pause Before Reacting: Avoid knee-jerk responses.
• Listen First: Understand before responding.
• Focus on Outcomes: Prioritize shared goals, not ego.
• Protect Boundaries: Say no or redirect low-leverage work.

Daily Action Routine

• Morning (Start of Day): Review top 3 priorities; decide what to say “no” to.
• Pre-Meeting: Pause, breathe, note intended outcome.
• During Conflict: Listen fully; restate understanding before replying.
• Work Blocks (≈90 mins): Take 5 min stretch/walk break.
• Midday: Hydrate, check posture, reset focus.
• End of Day: Log one win and one boundary I defended.

Difficult Situations & Quick Actions

• Disagreement on Priorities: Frame trade-offs; explain business impact.
• Boundary-Pushing Requests: Acknowledge importance; suggest better owner; offer light support.
• Cross-Team / Peer Conflict: Listen, validate points, defuse tension, propose joint follow-up.
• Escalations from Leadership: Communicate facts clearly; outline immediate + long-term fix.

Show Calm Through Signals

• Speak calmly; tone sets team baseline.
• Pause before responding; silence = confidence.
• Start with the point; avoid long background.
• Use ownership language: “I’ll handle this.”
• Ask curious, open questions: “Can you walk me through your thinking?”
• Reframe issues positively: “We can fix this early.”

Energy & Focus Killers (Clustered)

• Health Basics: Poor sleep, nutrition, hydration, or movement → fatigue & brain fog.
• Scattered Focus: Multitasking & context switching → low efficiency.
• Stress Ignored: Bottling emotions → chronic depletion.
• Weak Boundaries: Overcommitting → diluted impact, burnout.
• Environment: Clutter, noise, bad lighting → lower alertness.

Best Practices (Actionable)

• Sleep & Move: 7–9 hrs sleep; walk/stretch/exercise.
• Eat & Hydrate: Balanced meals; avoid sugar spikes; drink water.
• Prioritize & Batch: MITs / Eisenhower; avoid overcommitment.
• Take Microbreaks: 5–10 mins every 60–90 mins; reflect or journal.
• Optimize Environment: Light, tidy, comfortable.
• Communicate Effectively: Neutral, “we” language, summarize agreements, use Pause → Clarify → Respond → Follow-Up.

Common Pitfalls

• Reacting instantly under stress.
• Treating conflict as win/lose.
• Assuming shared context.
• Taking low-leverage work just to be helpful.

URL: https://quantcodedenny.com/posts/suggest-without-context/

A living runbook for learning from and giving suggestions to other teams Why This Matters: Cross-team collaboration is a critical part of tech lead work, yet you’re often asked to give feedback on efforts you don’t fully own or understand.

In these moments, your ability to learn fast, frame thoughtful suggestions, and communicate with empathy defines your credibility.

Good suggestions create momentum and build bridges. Poorly framed ones, even if technically right, can erode trust or stall execution.

URL: https://quantcodedenny.com/posts/self-intro/

Set context for LLM collobration

I am an experienced infra engineer (~20 years) with a personal project: https://quantcodedenny.com, hosted on GitHub Pages (repo: https://github.com/dennyzhang/quantcodedenny.com/).

I focus on long-term investing in high-tech US stocks. I want to explore LLM techniques to improve trading decision quality and provide a free, reusable toolkit for engineering-driven indie traders.

Target Audience

• Indie traders (not large financial institutions)
• Long-term investors (not day traders)
• Engineering or technical background

Current Progress

• Blog hosted on GitHub Pages with an initial feature: stock sentiment analyzer(https://quantcodedenny.com/posts/llm-stock-sentiment/)
• Targeting long-term tech investors with engineering backgrounds

Task

You are a world-class entrepreneur, market analyst, and product strategist. Generate 10 specific, creative, and executable startup ideas based on this context.

URL: https://quantcodedenny.com/posts/llm-stock-sentiment/

0 Intro

This tool empowers engineers to automate stock sentiment analysis with precision and speed.

It combines two core capabilities: parsing recent news headlines to extract market sentiment and insights, and parsing SEC filings to surface key financial and risk information. Both streams are fed into a configurable LLM pipeline, allowing you to run fast local tests with lightweight models or perform high-accuracy production analysis. Designed for modularity and reuse, it integrates seamlessly into your workflows—turning raw data into actionable insights without manual reading.

URL: https://quantcodedenny.com/posts/drive-vteam-execution/

Set LLM context

You are a staff+ engineer leading a cross-functional v-team. Your job is to:

• Align incentives and positions.
• Surface constraints and roadblocks.
• Drive execution while managing bandwidth to avoid over-commitment.
• Keep the big picture in mind and ensure work aligns with org goals.
• Adopt a growth-oriented, solution-focused mindset: think strategically, balance ambition with realism, and maintain team trust and energy.

Your response depends on the command prefix:

URL: https://quantcodedenny.com/posts/improve-technical-writing/

Improving technical writing at work is not about sounding perfect—it’s about being clear, persuasive, and structured. Many daily scenarios (work chats, proposals, meeting invites, project updates, postmortems) require writing that is both professional and leadership-oriented.

To make this easier, I created a master prompt that turns raw drafts into polished writing. You simply copy the prompt into your LLM, then add your content with a sub-command like `/invite`, `/update`, or `/proposal`. The system automatically transforms your draft into a refined version with staff+ tone, clear structure, and actionable framing.

URL: https://quantcodedenny.com/posts/llm-for-vibe-coding/

Set LLM context

You are a senior staff-level engineer with a focus on code quality, scalability, maintainability, and architectural excellence. Your task depends on the command prefix I provide before the content.

Your task depends on the command prefix I provide before the content.

Your response should always be concise, constructive, and provide both critical feedback and an improved, rewritten version where possible.

## Commands & Workflows

/review_pr ⚡️

This is your all-in-one command for a pull request (PR) review. It combines summarization, code critique, and mentorship.

URL: https://quantcodedenny.com/posts/write-feedback/

Set LLM context

You are a tech lead providing professional feedback. Feedback should be:

• Specific (grounded in clear examples)
• Balanced (strengths + areas for improvement, unless not appropriate)
• Action-oriented (gives guidance for next steps)
• Succinct & professional (not overly wordy, but respectful)

/peer – Peer Feedback

Use: Generate professional, structured feedback for a peer (same level or cross-functional). Goal: Highlight their impact, technical contributions, collaboration, and areas for growth using specific examples. Tone: collegial, constructive, respectful, professional Structure & Guidance: