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Bored People Quit
Much has been written about employee motivation and retention. It's written by folks who actively use words like motivation and retention and generally don't ha
Michael Lopp
Stories about the humans who build software
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Visit randsinrepose.com → RSS feedOn Hacker News Oct 2008 – Aug 2026
Career & Management 28Life, Learning & Writing 17Tech Industry & Business 6Tools & Productivity 5Design & UX 2Society, Policy & Culture 1
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Please learn to write
There's been lots of buzz on the topic of whether or not you should learn to code. As an engineer, I don't have unbiased thoughts on the matter. I tweeted Jeff
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Happy people don’t leave jobs they love
Resignations happen in a moment, and it’s not when you declare, “I’m resigning.” The moment happened a long time ago when you received a random email from a goo
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The Builder's High
When I am in a foul mood, I have a surefire way to improve my outlook – I build something. A foul mood is a stubborn beast and it does not give ground easily. I
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Ok, so you can’t decide
Even if you've checked your work, asked for all the help, and are moving gingerly, there will be decisions where you can't decide. You've considered and reconsi
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Hacking is Important
Back in the early 90s, Borland International was the place to be an engineer. Coming off the purchase of Ashton-Tate, Borland was the third largest software com
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The Wolf
You’ve heard of the 10x engineer, but I am here to tell you about the Wolf. They are an engineer, and they consistently exhibit the following characteristics:
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What we lost
Who is this? Princess Leia, right? End of Rogue One. Wrong, this is not Princess Leia. This is. A photograph of Carrie Fisher in her role of Princ
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The USB Situation
I write this from the latest MacBook Pro. I've been running this as my primary machine for almost a month. When I'm not grinding out the latest soon-to-be-relea
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Bored people quit (2011)
Much has been written about employee motivation and retention. It's written by folks who actively use words like motivation and retention and generally don't ha
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Rands in Repose: The Noise
It started that morning when you actually had time to go to your favorite coffee shop on that Wednesday morning. You, like many of us, had a bunch of time off f
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The Ask
Coffee in hand, I sit down in the Cave. Any Tuesday during the work week, a sip, and I parse the calendar. 1:1 — he's fine. Status meeting — listen. Staff me
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The Pond
"Can I work remote?" I cringe. It's Ian and Ian is a senior engineer. He's a rock. He gets it done. I never have to ask him twice and, after six years, Ian has
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Horrible
I can turn a phrase. High school journalism is where I discovered this. Mrs. Wickett kept bringing stories to me in my junior year "Needs a clever headline." I
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Rands: Hurry
Most interesting ideas come to me between 8am and 10am. This is sacred time. The day is young, I am rested, and the coffee is fresh. I spend most of this time i
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Rands: A Disclosure
My management career began with a misunderstanding. "Rands, you're doing a great job on tools development and I'd really like you to Lead the effort." It soun
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Rands In Repose: The Makers of Things
In the late 1800s, the Brooklyn Bridge was built with no power tools, no heavy machinery, and only a basic, evolving understanding of how to make steel. It's no