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The 80/24 Rule
Write small blocks of code. How small? Here's how small.
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Personal Kanban 101
Despite our best intentions, life has a way of becoming complicated. People, tasks, responsibilities, deadlines, and even recreation all compete for our attention. The human brain however, simply does not respond well to the stress of juggling multiple priorities. That’s where Personal Kanban can help.
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Some things that might help you make better software (2016)
Assuming you're in the unusual position of actually having budget for quality, here's what to spend it on.
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A Forty Year Career
The Silicon Valley narrative centers on entrepreneurial protagonists who are poised one predestined step away from changing the world. A decade ago they were heroes, and more recently they’ve become villains, but either way they are absolutely the protagonists. Working within the industry, I’ve worked with quite a few…
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Deadlines and sprints are bad for you
The development team’s capabilities for battling deadlines are fairly restricted, yet they end up committing to them in day-to-day life…
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How Automattic develops software for over 75M websites
Leif Singer, an engineer at Automattic, tells us about interviewing for a remote job at Automattic.
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I forgot how to manage a server
Something embarrassing happened to me the other day. I was playing around with a new server on Digital Ocean and it occurred to me: I had no idea how to manage …
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Programmer as wizard, programmer as engineer (2018)
Context matters. Sometimes we need to get things done, sometimes we need to build things to last.
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Normalization of Deviance
If I was setting up curriculum at a university I’d make an entire semester-long class on The Challenger disaster, and make it required for any remotely STEM-oriented major. Because I think it…
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The Myth of Commoditized Excellence
Contents A New Idea Desire to Share Affirming Response The Naming The Movement Pressure for Simplification Fear of Stagnation Commoditizing the Excellence Crescendo of Disillusionment Conclusion A
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Writing a Technical Book for Manning
If you've ever thought of publishing a tech book then read up on my experiences writing HTTP/2 in Action for Manning.
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Yes, Estimate Software Projects
I hear more voices saying [https://hackernoon.com/the-myth-of-software-time-estimations-576a7466d91a] there is little point in doing time-based estimations on how long building software will take, and thus we should just stop doing it. "Let's just use story points and estimate complexity, but not
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The longer it has taken, the longer it will take (2015)
With fat tail, I.e. power law, project times, late projects are likely to be even later,
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A CS degree is better than teaching yourself how to code?
Should I teach myself to code or get a college CS degree? This is a question that many face. Software development is a field that is heavily reliant on skills. So surely teaching yourself to code should be enough right? Wrong.
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Zen and the Art of Software Maintenance
In one part of the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which is neither about Zen nor motorcycle maintenance, there are two motorcycles and two riders. John Sutherland is a romanticist who appreciates the external qualities of his motorcycle: its aesthetics, and its use as a vehicle. The narrator is a…
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The Over-Engaged Knowledge Worker
I recently listened to a discussion of knowledge work in the browser. Along the way people imagined idealized workflows and the tools that could enable them. This result felt familiar from concept videos since forever (such as this old Mozilla concept video ):
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Technical Recruiting Needs to Focus on Selling the Position
Developer and writer.
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A Pragmatic Approach to Thorny People Problems
Moderating is about dealing with people problems and some people problems are extremely difficult to deal with. The internet is probably th...
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What I've learned sending proposals to conferences
This year I sent out quite a few proposals to the majority of mobile conferences in Europe. Some ignored me, the others replied with automated rejections. However, some accepted and it was fun. Here is what I've learned on the way.
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I stopped using Intercom
This post has been on the back of my head for a couple of years now. I think we actually switched-off Intercom in 2016 or so… But the reasons should still stand now, or might even be stronger. Of course, things might have shifted, so please forgive me if some features are totally different by…
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What we get wrong about meetings, and how to make them worth attending
I rely on Google Calendar to tell me where I am supposed to be, when and with whom. When the service collapsed for an afternoon last month, it felt like a teachable moment. For a few seconds, I pan…
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Pmarca Guide to Personal Productivity (2007)
An archive of the best articles from Marc Andreessen’s now defunct blog
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It's Not Sabotage, They're Drowning
As you gain visibility into system problems, you’ll often experience push back like this: I refactored the code from untested and untestable, to testable with 40% test coverage. The senior ar…
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