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Dirk Bauer
Dirk Bauer

Every product is two: what creates value and what accumulated. Once you see it, you can't unsee it.

Sorting is a practice, not an audit

Nov 3, 2026

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6 min read

Sorting is a practice, not an audit

The audit works. It just does not keep working.

Dirk Bauer
Dirk Bauer
The Unwritten No-Go

Oct 27, 2026

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5 min read

The Unwritten No-Go

It was the right call. Nobody wrote it down.

Dirk Bauer
Dirk Bauer
Platform Mismatch

Oct 20, 2026

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5 min read

Platform Mismatch

Nothing broke. The ground moved.

Dirk Bauer
Dirk Bauer
Load-Bearing Fear

Oct 13, 2026

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4 min read

Load-Bearing Fear

Nobody defends it. Nobody removes it either.

Dirk Bauer
Dirk Bauer
The Tell

Oct 6, 2026

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3 min read

The Tell

The team could not agree, so we voted. The vote was the mistake.

Dirk Bauer
Dirk Bauer
Core Drift

Sep 29, 2026

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4 min read

Core Drift

How yesterday's must-have becomes today's overhead

Dirk Bauer
Dirk Bauer
Everything starts as Core. Everything can become Bloat.

Sep 22, 2026

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3 min read

Everything starts as Core. Everything can become Bloat.

Bloat is rarely made of bad decisions. It is made of good ones that outlived their reason.

Dirk Bauer
Dirk Bauer
Most projects fail from risks hiding in plain sight

Sep 15, 2026

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3 min read

Most projects fail from risks hiding in plain sight

Scope, agreement, and the work nobody is tracking. Three risks that are visible from week one and free to ask about.

Dirk Bauer
Dirk Bauer
Technical debt is a product decision wearing a technical costume

Sep 8, 2026

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3 min read

Technical debt is a product decision wearing a technical costume

Refactor. Maintenance. Legacy. Three technical words, three decisions nobody made.

Dirk Bauer
Dirk Bauer
The Missing Question

Sep 1, 2026

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4 min read

The Missing Question

Competent rooms, real data, and the one question that never gets raised.

Dirk Bauer
Dirk Bauer

Core and Bloat

Every product is two: what creates value and what accumulated. Once you see it, you can't unsee it.

© 2026 Core and Bloat.
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