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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. 6,087 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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Social engineering dos and don'ts
Another day, another success at sneaking into a building and pretending to be staff. I do so love drinking other people’s expensive office coffee. No fruit bowls though. Close, but no banana. It got me thinking, again, about what makes for good social engineering (SE), and what advice would I give my younger self…
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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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Rethinking Levels, Promotions and Salaries
Daily recently restructured our levels, promotions and salaries in somewhat unusual ways, and we want to share what we’re doing. We’re still early enough in our growth that we can’t compete with companies like Google and Netflix on salary alone. But we can be thoughtful in how
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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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Kindness, tech staffing and resource allocation
People in tech are increasingly concerned about their jobs. This sentiment shift is somewhat new. We’ve experienced a decade or so of talking about skills shortages, arguably kicked off by Marc Andreesen’s publication of Software is Eating the World in 2011. Tech salaries spiked accordingly. Keynotes kept talking…
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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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Minimum pay at Basecamp is now $70k
We pay at the top 10% of San Francisco market rates for salary + bonus (but not stock options) at Basecamp. Those rates apply to everyone here, regardless of the role or where they actually live. W…
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Why Crunch Mode Doesn't Work
The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) is the world’s largest nonprofit membership organization serving all individuals who create games. We advance the careers and enhance the lives of game developers by connecting members with their peers, promoting professional development, and advocating for the…
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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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Why We Choose Profit
We’re outspoken about running a profitable company in an industry that so often eschews profits for potential. So why? People ask us why all the time. Why choose profit? So I thought I’d detail som…
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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.