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I’m a Bad Developer, That’s the Only Reasonable Explanation
I remember the first time I started to feel insecure as a web developer or even generally as a professional in any field. I was asked to…
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The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 6,087 posts.
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Why I close pull requests
I maintain many open source projects on GitHub and elsewhere (over 160 as of this writing). I have merged and/or closed thousands of Pull Requests (PRs) and patches in the past few years, and would like to summarize here many of the reasons I don't merge many PRs. A few of my projects have co-maintainers, but most are…
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Lessons from 3,000 technical interviews
See what we learned running technical interviewing for over 3,000 software engineers.
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Bionic Office
Well. That took rather longer than expected. We have, finally, moved, into the new Fog Creek office at 535 8th Avenue, officially ten months after I started pounding the pavement looking for a repl…
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Rogue One – An Engineering Ethics Story
Written by Zachary G. Pirtle. Originally published anonymously. Reflects my views alone. This post went viral when published in 2016, with comments by Cory Doctorow on Boing Boing , Marginal Revolution, and others. I’ve published other research on science fiction and policy that I discuss on my a
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Taking a month off from OSS volunteering
On October 1, 2016, I stopped volunteering for open source projects -- including Python -- for a month. While I still did open source work for Python as part of my job, I spent absolutely zero time helping any project outside of work (so no evenings, no weekends). This was the first
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Careers in security, ethical hacking and advice on where to get started
Many people will disagree with this post, not so much because it's flat out wrong but because there are so many different approaches one can take. It's a very subjective realm but I'm going to put forward some suggestions, make some considered arguments and leave it at
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Beware of Developers Who Do Negative Work
Not all developers make positive contributions. Some create more work for others than they do themselves.
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Ten Years at Google
Today marks my ten year anniversary as a Googler. I arrived with very little; just a suitcase, a backpack, and my pet mouse . Google took care of everything, from finding an apartment, to providing free food, Internet, and transportation. Google is more than an employer, it is a home. Filled with geeks, and makers…
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Tech worker resistance is crucial to preventing human rights abuses in the U.S
Hi, I am Valerie Aurora, systems archictecture consultant, writer, and cat appreciator. At Bow Shock Systems , I solve difficult systems problems in networking, file systems, and operating systems. In 2023 I moved permanently to Amsterdam after 20 years in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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What Makes a Senior Software Developer?
The notion of a "senior" developer is extremely subjective. How can we define it better?
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Developers’ side projects
If you’re a developer working for software company, does that company own what you do in your spare time?
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On Getting Older in Tech
After years of scoffing at talk of prejudice in the information technology field -- as a white male with good hair --, I'm starting to call prejudice against my being old(er). It’s true: age discrimination is a real thing.
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It Takes 6 Days to Change 1 Line of Code (2015)
(A true story.) Philip (President): Our factory is underutilized by 10%. Either we start building more of our backlog or we lay people off. I'd rather keep everyone busy, build inventory, and get...
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Anil Dash Is the New CEO of Fog Creek Software
For the first time since Fog Creek Software was founded more than sixteen years ago, we have a new CEO, Anil Dash.
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Architecture astronauts take over
It was seven years ago today when everybody was getting excited about Microsoft’s bombastic announcement of Hailstorm, promising that “Hailstorm makes the technology in your life work t…
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Camels and Rubber Duckies
You’ve just released your latest photo-organizing software. Through some mechanism which will be left as an exercise to the reader, you’ve managed to actually let people know about it. …
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Don’t prematurely obsess on a single “big problem” or “big theory”
Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon. (Susan Ertz, “Anger in the Sky”) There is a particularly dangerous occupational haz…