Kyle Hebert

Hello and Welcome!

I'm Kyle Hebert, an engineering leader who spends a lot of time connecting dots. I work across multiple teams, focusing on technical health, system-level risk, and making sure product ambition lines up with what engineering can actually sustain. I’ve learned the hard way that authority isn’t the point—initiative is. I care about making good software, and even more about the people who make it.

In my spare time I dabble in a lot of hobbies like video and board games, reading (mostly fiction), and attending as many live music shows as I can sustain.

I live in Minneapolis, but I was born and raised in Louisiana. It's pronounced a-bear.

Here's what I wrote yesterday:

Weekly Retro #34

This week was packed—for my standards anyway.

On Wednesday I spent the day outdoors traipsing through a prairie collecting hyssop seeds. I was there with a group of volunteers from work, including a co-worker and friend of mine. It was a perfect early fall day, blue skies, sunny, and cool but not cold.

On Friday I had another work outing: I was given a ticket to a suite for the Minnesota Wild hockey game. I’m not the biggest hockey fan. I only said yes because I’m trying to say yes to more things. It was fun, even as a non-fan. Live sports are energizing.

These experiences come with their own challenge though: they fade quickly and start to seem scarce or finite. I begin to imagine they will be the last time I have an experience like that. It’s worse when I experience them with a person I care for or about. This was a big topic in therapy this week. It’s adjacent to me going into the future or predicting the ceiling on the types of experiences or friendships or even life I’ll be able to have.

It’s a lot to manage, and it’s mostly about staying in the present. Working with the information I have, not predicting. I am at least getting better at recognizing when I do it, and I can recognize that the predictions I’m making aren’t facts. That doesn’t mean they hurt any less, and I think that’s where the work is. Letting it hurt, but not as much.

This afternoon I have my first chorus rehearsal, and then afterwards we’re going to see “Waiting for Godot” at the Guthrie with a friend.

Things I enjoyed this week

Continue reading →