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Teaching Students How to Cheat During the Pandemic
Modification of Kobayahsi Maru for all-virtual classes
Top posts
Every blog post that took off on Hacker News, ranked by the votes of its best submission. 4,748 posts.
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Things I learned as an engineer that I wish I had known in grad school
…that I wish I had known when I started grad school
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Professional Programming: The First 10 Years
Last month, April 2022, marked the 10 year anniversary of my start as a professional programmer.
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To be productive, be prepared
Motivation by itself gives us the willingness to do something, but nothing more. Once we make a start, the game changes and it becomes about knowing how to make progress.
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How I've run major projects (2025)
focus • maintain a detailed plan for victory • run a fast OODA loop • overcommunicate • break off subprojects • have fun • bonus content: my project management starter kit
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Know Your Carrying Capacity
Mac's Tech Blog
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A long guide to giving a short academic talk (2022)
Giving a talk is a lot like selling a car. Take them for a test drive, don’t read them the owner’s manual.
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I’m Leaving IBM
Today is my last day at IBM. If you’ve been following along, IBM bought my startup Resilient Systems in Spring 2016. Since then, I have been with IBM, holding the nicely ambiguous title of “Special Advisor.” As of the end of the month, I will be back on my own. I will continue to write and speak, and do the occasional…
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James Mickens’ Tenure Announcement
BREAKING NEWS: I’ve received tenure at Harvard! I want to thank all of the enemies that I had to destroy to achieve this great honor. Roger Davis at Princeton’s department of nutrition—you questioned my research on the efficacy of an…
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Why do so few people major in computer science? (2017)
The number of people who majored in computer science in the US isn't much higher in 2015 than in 2005. Why do so few students major in computer science?
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I’ve made a conscious effort to stop apologizing for bugs in my code
Look out, honey, ’cause I’m using technologyAin’t got time to make no apologyThe Stooges, “Search and Destroy” For the last year or so, I’ve made a conscious eff…
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Why do interviewers ask linked list questions?
A couple years back I gave a talk on researching software history, using “linked list interview questions” as an example topic. Since referring people to a video is less accessible than just writing a blog post, I’ve reproduced the question here. So why do interviewers like to ask linked list questions? If you ask…
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There's No Such Thing as Software Productivity (2012)
Bill Caputo , through repeated conversations we've had, has convinced me of something very surprising. It was something that changed the way I think about the world, and how I do my job.
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Companies need junior devs
Junior engineers are foundational to whether a team can collaborate and innovate
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On Good Software Engineers
I set out to find a simple definition that would help managers frame the fundamental things they expect from software engineers.
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An Apple Developer for 10 Years
This is a personal website, at the outskirts of the web, away from social media and publishing platforms.
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Automating myself out of development
On how I progressively removed myself using Claude Code out of the development cycle - or did I?..
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Software Companies Tech Competency Matrix
In this post I will unfold my understanding of what makes a tech team competent in 4 levels with 6 main criteria and 25 sub criteria.
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After the first tech job
One must imagine Sisyphus practicing leetcode mediums...
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Working remotely with 150+ people
Work asynchronously, keep a single source of truth, avoid management overhead and communicate.
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How to write a cold email (2020)
Some tips on writing a cold email.
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"Can you solve this problem for me on the whiteboard?"
Jim is a great chef. He's too modest to say that about himself, but he's worked either as head chef or assistant head chef at a number of re...
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Haunted by my own projects
Sometimes the new and shiny thing is way more fun than the thing that I genuinely want to ship... later.
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Software Is Hard (2007)
"Software is hard," reads the quote from Donald Knuth that opens Scott Rosenberg's Dreaming in Code . The 400 pages that follow examine why: Why is software in a never-ending state of crisis? Why do most projects end up horribly over-budget or cancelled or both? Why can't we ship code without bugs? Why, everyone asks…
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How to write good prompts: using spaced repetition to create understanding
Using spaced repetition to create understanding