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New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 467 posts.
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Giving a shit as a service
A mental model for service businesses.
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Talking about layoffs
We don’t really talk about layoffs. When you hear someone say they got laid off, it’s likely the next thing you hear from them is about the new job they’re starting. But we don’t talk about what it’s like in between those two events - which means we’re not acknowledging how traumatic it is to be laid off.
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Yes, I have opinions on your open source contributions
Recently [the Python Package Index](https://pypi.org/) announced that they will be implementing new account-security policies, and hoo boy are some people …
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Working in the software industry, circa 1989
Gather round while I tell a tale of old.
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Watching an acquirer ruin your company
What happens on the other side of the acquisition doesn't get much startup press
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The trimodal nature of software salaries in the Netherlands and Europe (2021)
This article is part of a 3-part series on trimodal compensation: * Part 1: The trimodal nature of software engineering salaries in the Netherlands and Europe (2021, this article) * Part 2: The trimodal nature of tech compensation revisited (2024, this article) * Part 3: The trimodal nature of tech compensation in
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It is your responsibility to follow up (2019)
Also see: cold emails (with examples) Here’s how Travis Kalanick’s inbox looked like back in 2013: Source (perma) If you wanted to reach Travis — and keep in mind that at some point during the last six years he probably hit #inbox1m — would you just send him one email and hope that it wins the lottery when he randomly…
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Job interview questions engineers should ask, but don't
Since we started PostHog, our team has interviewed 725 people. What's one thing I've taken from this? It's normal for candidates not to ask harder…
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Leetcode Considered Harmful
Using an industry wide perspective I will show you the unseen downsides of using leetcode for interviewing software engineers
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Wasting time in tech interviews
TL;DR This is me ranting about crappy tech interview experiences
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How to set junior employees up for success in remote
It just gets a bad rap. Here's how to set junior employees up for success in remote.
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DevOps is a failure
It’s probably difficult for most people to recall the first time they heard a word, but I remember hearing the word “DevOps” for the first time. I was having a
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How to avoid being a secretary for engineers (2018)
If we just see our task as documenting solutions that engineers have solved, it removes the creativity and critical thinking dimension from tech comm. The creative dimension in tech comm comes into play as we identify and solve tech comm challenges, such as devising ways to simplify complexity or otherwise improve the…
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Advice for academic refugees
Recently I met a new coworker, a now-former professor who left academia.
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Mental Model: Difficult Problems vs. Hard Work
How to model work that interacts with ambiguity
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Get Paid to Contribute to Urllib3
Announcing urllib3's bounty program The urllib3 team is excited to announce the start of our bounty program! We’ve recognized that one of the biggest challenges to shipping v2.0 is not having e...
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Apple's feedback mechanism is broken
Apple's feedback system is fundamentally broken, and they don't seem to care.
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On leaving Mapbox after 12 years
It’s been about nine months since I left Mapbox and the circumstances of my exit didn’t offer much opportunity for closure. I feel a combination of gratitude and resentment that I’m still sorting out. Last week was the one year anniversary of the Mapbox Worker’s Union going public, the event that lead to my departure…
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Action Plan for a New CTO
This post previously appeared in Fast Company. How does a newly hired Chief Technology Officer (CTO) find and grow the islands of innovation inside a large company? How not to waste your first six …
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No-one knows what they are doing
When I was a child I assumed that all the adults running the world knew what they were doing. Now that I am an adult, I am under no such illusions. Just look at the current British government. They…
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“Google” programmers. How one idiot hired a couple more idiots
A long time ago, I performed technical interviews on a regular basis — I was recruiting candidates for the position of a programmer in a company. I had a simple, clear, and smart recruitment plan (I...
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Don't be that open-source user, don't be me
Before I was a maintainer of open source software I was a user of open source software, and I sometimes behaved badly.
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You and Your Research (1986)
Little has been written on managing your own research (and very little on avoiding other people managing your research); however, your research is much more under your control than you may realize.
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Software Engineering: The Soft Parts
Today I will share some of the software engineering soft skills I have learned from my first 10 years on Google Chrome, where I am a Senior Staff Engineering...
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The silent majority of experts (2012)
It's not about technology for its own sake. It's about being able to implement your ideas.
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A practical guide to incident management
This guide respresents our years of collective knowledge and experience, distilled into practical advice that can be adopted across your whole organization.