# Zac Acker > Software engineer and people leader. Builds enterprise systems, leads AI engineering, breaks things on purpose. Leading AI Engineering. Building AI-powered development accelerators that turn specs into working code. The goal is eliminating the repetitive 80% so developers can focus on the interesting 20%. Shipped across 10 domains. Lead four: Enterprise systems consulting, Managed services, Full-stack application development, AI software engineering. Also: Website development, DevOps, Security and authentication, iOS apps, Progressive web apps, Hardware and networking. Daily drivers (26): Apple MacBook, Apple iPhone, Ubiquiti Networking, Proxmox Server, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Foundry, Workday, ServiceNow, Atlassian, Linear, Vercel, VS Code, Xcode, GitHub, GitHub Copilot, Claude Cowork, Claude.ai, Claude Code, Codex, ChatGPT, Wispr Flow, Notion, Figma, Raindrop.io, Bitwarden. ## Pages - [Work](https://acker.cloud/work): 6 projects, 5 featured. - [Notes](https://acker.cloud/notes): 7 written pieces on systems, tooling, and leadership. - [Resources](https://acker.cloud/resources): 25 curated pointers. - [Ventures](https://acker.cloud/ventures): Thrive Culture Media, zckr.dev, collect., the homelab. - [About](https://acker.cloud/about): the long version. - [Résumé](https://acker.cloud/resume): roles, dates, scope. - [Contact](https://acker.cloud/contact) ## Work - [M&A Workday Projects](https://acker.cloud/work/m-and-a-workday-projects): No public write-up yet. [Management] - [Multi-Location Networking Implementation](https://acker.cloud/work/multi-location-networking-implementation): No public write-up yet. [Management, Hardware, Software] - [Media Brand Website Development](https://acker.cloud/work/media-brand-website-development): Thrive Culture Media years in the making [Web Development] - [Transmission Inspection Tooling Station](https://acker.cloud/work/transmission-inspection-tooling-station): No public write-up yet. [Engineering] - [collect.](https://acker.cloud/collect): A personal cataloging app for iPhone and iPad. No accounts, no servers, private by design. [Software] - [Homegrown Infrastructure](https://acker.cloud/work/homegrown-infrastructure): Proxmox, RAID arrays, Linux LXCs, enterprise networking at home. The zero-guardrails test bench behind everything else. [Hardware, Software] ## Notes - [7 Bold Principles for Living while Leading](https://acker.cloud/notes/7-bold-principles-for-living-while-leading): Leadership, Principles. - [Coaching](https://acker.cloud/notes/coaching): Leadership, Principles. - [Leadership](https://acker.cloud/notes/leadership): Leadership, Principles. - [Mentoring](https://acker.cloud/notes/mentoring): Leadership, Principles. - [Python](https://acker.cloud/notes/python): Languages, Tools. - [Trust](https://acker.cloud/notes/trust): Leadership, Principles. - [Workday](https://acker.cloud/notes/workday): Enterprise, Tools. ## Machine-readable editions - [llms.txt](https://acker.cloud/llms.txt): this index. - [llms-full.txt](https://acker.cloud/llms-full.txt): every note in full, plus all project copy. - [projects.json](https://acker.cloud/projects.json): the portfolio as structured data. - [notes.json](https://acker.cloud/notes.json): the writing as structured data. - [sitemap.xml](https://acker.cloud/sitemap.xml) ## Terms Client work is under NDA. Engagements are described by sector and scale and never by name; no page on this site identifies a client. Everything else is first-hand and quotable with attribution. --- # Full text ## 7 Bold Principles for Living while Leading Source: https://acker.cloud/notes/7-bold-principles-for-living-while-leading Section: Principles · Area: Leadership # 1. Know Yourself. Build Around It. - Protect your energy. If you're burned out, you're useless. - Optimism is a strategy. Negativity is loud. Stay louder. - Adapt fast. Life's changing. You either adjust or get left behind. - Integrity is the edge. Long-term wins always come from doing the right thing. - Self-awareness > perfection. Play the game you're built for. # 2. Play Long-Term. Act Short-Term. - Patience in the macro. Speed in the micro. - Delete 80%. Most things don't matter. Cut faster. - Start now. Fix later. Perfection is the enemy of momentum. - You don't need all the answers. You just need to keep moving. # 3. Lead Like You Actually Give a Shit. - Empathy scales. You can't fake it. - "Yes, but…" beats "no." Meet people where they are. - Protect your team. Your job is to say no to the noise. - Honesty is kindness. Don't sugarcoat. Say the real thing. - Be the leader you wish you had. Period. # 4. Communicate Simply. Move Clearly. - Silence is leverage. Ask. Then shut up. - Say it in 5 words. Smart people keep it simple. - Don't argue. Just out-execute. - Listen more than you talk. That's where the gold is. # 5. Work Like a Farmer. - Control what you can. Culture. Communication. Focus. - Play the long game. Water daily. Harvest later. - Consistency beats hype. Show up. Keep showing up. - Celebrate the wins. Gratitude is fuel. # 6. Faith in the Unknown. - You don't have to know everything. Just stay curious. - Science and faith can coexist. One explains the how, the other asks why. - Do good. Live well. That's the point. # 7. Daily Operating Rules. - Walk. Breathe. Think. Move. - Don't chase approval. Chase clarity. - Cut the noise. Stay focused. - Be kind. Be sharp. Be relentless. - If you fall, get the fuck back up. --- ## Coaching Source: https://acker.cloud/notes/coaching Section: Principles · Area: Leadership # Coaching Isn't Managing. Managing is making sure the train runs on time. Coaching is making sure the conductor can drive without you standing over their shoulder. ## The Point You're not coaching to make yourself feel useful. You're coaching to make the other person more capable, more confident, and eventually less dependent on you for answers. If every conversation ends with you telling someone what to do, that's not coaching. That's a bottleneck with good intentions. ## How to Actually Coach - Ask more than you tell. "What do you think the right move is?" beats "Here's what I'd do" nine times out of ten. - Sit in the discomfort. Let people struggle with the answer. Silence is a tool, not a failure. - Give feedback that's specific enough to act on. "Great job" teaches nothing. "The way you restructured that proposal around the client's priorities made the difference" teaches everything. - Match the push to the person. Some people need encouragement. Some need a challenge. Know which one you're talking to. - Follow up. The coaching moment is worthless if nobody checks whether anything changed. ## What Coaching Isn't - A performance improvement plan with better branding. - Therapy. Know the line. - Something you do once a quarter in a formal review and call it development. - A monologue about what you would've done differently at their level. ## The Rule The best coaching session is the one where the other person does 80% of the talking and walks away thinking it was their idea. Because it was. You just helped them find it. --- ## Leadership Source: https://acker.cloud/notes/leadership Section: Principles · Area: Leadership # The Job Is to Disappear. Your goal as a leader is to build something that doesn't need you. Not because you don't matter, but because you've built people and systems that can carry the weight without you in the room. ## What Good Leaders Actually Do - Set direction. Then get out of the way. - Protect your team from noise, politics, and bullshit that doesn't serve the mission. - Make the hard calls. Don't outsource your decisions to consensus. - Say the real thing. Honesty is kindness. Sugarcoating is cowardice. - Hire people smarter than you. Then let them prove it. ## What Bad Leaders Do - Hoard information to stay relevant. - Confuse being busy with being effective. - Avoid hard conversations until they become crises. - Take credit for the team's wins and distribute blame for their own failures. - Mistake control for leadership. ## The Uncomfortable Truth Most leadership advice is written by people who've never actually led anything. They talk about "servant leadership" and "emotional intelligence" like they're ordering from a menu. Real leadership is messy. You'll make the wrong call. You'll lose good people. You'll second-guess yourself at 2 AM. The difference between good leaders and bad ones isn't that good leaders don't fail. It's that they own it, fix it, and keep moving. ## The Test If you left tomorrow, would your team keep running? Would they know the mission, the priorities, the standards? If the answer is no, you haven't been leading. You've been performing. --- ## Mentoring Source: https://acker.cloud/notes/mentoring Section: Principles · Area: Leadership # The Goal Is Replacement. The best thing you can do for someone you mentor is make them better than you at the thing you're teaching. If that scares you, mentoring isn't the problem. ## Why It Matters Every senior person who retires, leaves, or gets promoted without having invested in the people behind them leaves a crater. Knowledge walks out the door. Context evaporates. The team spends six months rebuilding what could've been transferred in six conversations. Mentoring is how you leave something behind that's more valuable than your own career. ## How to Do It - Pick people with hunger, not just talent. Skills are teachable. Drive isn't. - Share the real story. Not the sanitized version. The time you got it wrong, the decision that cost the team, the thing you'd do differently. That's what actually teaches. - Open doors. Introduce them to the people and rooms they wouldn't have access to on their own. Your network is the most underused asset you can share. - Be honest about their gaps. Telling someone they're great when they're not isn't mentoring. It's avoidance. - Let them outgrow you. That's the whole point. ## The Difference Between Coaching and Mentoring Coaching is about the current problem. Mentoring is about the next five years. Coaching asks "what's the right move here?" Mentoring asks "who are you trying to become?" Both matter. They're not the same thing. ## The Legacy Test You will not be remembered for your title, your projects, or your throughput. You'll be remembered for the people you made better. Build people who build people. That's the only multiplier that compounds after you're gone. --- ## Python Source: https://acker.cloud/notes/python Section: Tools · Area: Languages This wiki contains everything Python! # Programming in Python ## [Python.org](https://www.python.org/) Visit the official Python website to download or learn more about the language. ## [Getting Started](https://www.python.org/about/gettingstarted/) Whether you're new to programming or an experienced developer, it's easy to learn and use Python. ## [Docs](https://docs.python.org/) Documentation for Python's standard library, along with tutorials and guides, are available online. ## [Python Package Index](https://pypi.org/) The Python Package Index (PyPI) is a repository of software for the Python programming language. ## [Applications for Python](https://www.python.org/about/apps/) Python is used in many application domains. --- ## Trust Source: https://acker.cloud/notes/trust Section: Principles · Area: Leadership # Trust Is Infrastructure. It's not a feeling. It's not a team-building exercise. Trust is the thing that determines whether your organization moves fast or drowns in approvals, politics, and CYA emails. High-trust teams ship faster, fight cleaner, and recover from failure without a six-week postmortem about whose fault it was. ## How You Build It - **Do what you said you'd do.** Every time. There is no shortcut here. Reliability is the foundation, and everything else is decoration without it. - **Tell the truth, even when it's expensive.** Especially when it's expensive. People can handle bad news. What they can't handle is finding out you already knew and said nothing. - **Give credit loudly. Take blame quietly.** If you have to think about whether to claim someone else's win, you already have a trust problem. - **Protect information people give you in confidence.** Full stop. Gossip is a trust demolition crew. - **Be consistent.** Same standards for everyone. Same energy on a good day and a bad one. Predictability isn't boring. It's safe. ## How You Break It - Say one thing in the meeting and another in the hallway. - Play favorites and pretend you don't. - Ask for feedback and then punish the people who gave it. - Overpromise because it's easier than saying no. - Avoid the hard conversation until it becomes an ambush. ## When It Breaks (Because It Will) Own exactly what happened. No "mistakes were made" passive-voice bullshit. Say what you did, say why it was wrong, and say what you're doing differently. Then actually do it differently. Consistently. For a long time. Trust breaks in a moment and rebuilds in months. That math never changes. ## The Bottom Line Every process you add, every approval layer, every "let me loop in my manager" is a symptom of missing trust. Fix the trust and half your processes become unnecessary. Trust isn't soft. It's the hardest thing you'll build. And the most valuable. --- ## Workday Source: https://acker.cloud/notes/workday Section: Tools · Area: Enterprise Reference hub for Workday development: integrations, reporting, and platform documentation. ## [Workday Documentation](https://doc.workday.com/) The official Workday documentation portal. Integration Cloud, Studio, EIB, Core Connectors, calculated fields, and report writer references live here. ## Working Notes Studio, EIBs, Core Connectors, Document Transforms, BIRTs, calculated fields. If it touches Workday data, there is probably a pipe for it. The deeper documentation library is maintained privately and surfaces here as it is cleaned up for public use. ---