About this episode

Casey Handmer discusses the complexities of management and leadership in high-stakes environments.

Managing people is still the hardest problem in business. We’ve built rockets, nuclear reactors, and AI systems… but getting humans to coordinate? Still unsolved. In this episode, Casey Handmer talks about what leadership actually looks like when real stakes are involved when families depend on payroll, when bad decisions compound, and when “being liked” can quietly kill performance. He shares what he’s learned building Terraform Industries, why most management books aren’t that useful, and why firsthand accounts from people like General Groves hit differently. This conversation gets into hard feedback, demanding standards, and first principles thinking and why leaders need the social permission to push people without becoming jerks. If you care about building things that actually work, this one’s for you. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the show and share it with one person who’s building something hard. That’s how this grows. Terraform Industries is hiring across multiple technical roles. If you want to work on synthetic fuels, energy, and real world hardware problems, check out their website for open positions. Episode Highlights 00:00 Why management is still…

People in this episode

Host: Matt Gjertsen

Guest: Casey Handmer

Topics covered

• management
• leadership
• performance
• feedback
• team dynamics

Keywords

• management
• leadership
• performance
• feedback
• first principles
• team dynamics
• high performers

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Terraform Industries

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• The Data Problem No One Solved with Austin Spiegel · April 7, 2026 · 36 min
• Why Constraints Make Teams Better with Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen · March 31, 2026 · 36 min
• How the Best Teams Drive Innovation with Matt Gjertsen · March 24, 2026 · 18 min

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