Don't Feed the Thought Leaders
In this article, the author shares their experience as an engineering manager and the challenges they faced when trying to reach alignment and prev...
Every blog post that took off on Hacker News, ranked by the votes of its best submission. 640 posts.
In this article, the author shares their experience as an engineering manager and the challenges they faced when trying to reach alignment and prev...
Meta-Note: I’m sorry it’s been so long between articles; for better or worse writing here is something that I do for fun, and sometimes work and family get in the way.
One of the most common mistakes I see people make when looking at data is incorrectly using an overly simplified model. A specific variant of this that has derailed the majority of work roadmaps I've looked at is treating people as interchangeable, as if it doesn't matter who is doing what, as if individuals don't…
Live chat is for things that can get lost.
Nearly ten years ago I graduated with a degree in Mathematics & Computing, with a keen interest in pursuing a career involving maths and programming, but with little idea how. First and foremost I had decided to stay in Manchester after uni, rather than risk getting stuck at my parents' if I moved...
Phone addiction is a huge problem, here is what the research and statistics say. Follow these tips to overcome phone addiction.
It may not be possible for us to ever reach empirical definitions of "good code" or "clean code", which means that any one person's opinions about another person's opinions about "clean code" are necessarily highly subjective. I cannot review Robert C. Martin's 2008 book Clean Co...
I’ve been part of the internet startup scene for a while. There are so many different camps: the bootstrappers, the VC-backed tech-bros, the crypto “investor...
I quite like to break things. While I’m not a QA or security professional, I have developed a knack for doing “stupid” things with software which causes it to malfunction. Some developer friends of mine have lamented that they didn’t show me software before they released it. Because I sometimes find annoying bugs…
I have edited and expanded this in a newer post, you should read that instead: School is Not Enough
Why the air you breathe matters, and what to do about it.
What do I actually do with my time? How productive am I? I logged everything I did in 2020 and got some pretty cool data out of this.
After using Macs for fifteen years, I switched to Linux as my main operating system and I’m enjoying it. Here’s an introduction to Linux that may help you too.
10 Google search operators every developer should know: exact-match quotes, OR, minus, wildcards, site:, filetype:, number ranges, before: and after:.
Many people are tying a “Granny Knot”, which sits crooked and comes loose. Learn the “one simple trick” for keeping your shoes neatly and securely tied.
Have you ever accidentally caused harm to yourself or others from your code? I have.
On the 19th of August 2019, I bought a house with a small garden. The house is what in English apparently is called an allotment. Basically, a small slot meant for vegetable gardening which sometimes has a house or shed. Not really meant for living in. But after nearly a year of work, I moved into mine. It’s legal as…
I'd like to present five books that have changed my mind about software development showing me lots of concepts, techniques and tips. Let's see them and why I they were so valuable to me
10 Papers Every Developer Should Read - (At Least Twice)
A note from the author You can now buy this story as part of my collection, Valuable Humans in Transit and Other Stories. This collection also includes a sequel story, titled "Driver". This article is about the standard test brain image. For the original human, see Mi...
I love spreadsheets. Spreadsheet programs like Microsoft’s Excel, Apple’s Numbers and Google Sheets are the secret heroes of our civilization.
Texts on this and that.