211
212
Documentation – Your Secret Weapon
When you work on a software project, someone will eventually ask a variation of this dreaded question - "Do you know where I can find documentation for this feature?" or "Do you know why we implemented pattern x over pattern y?" or my personal favourite "What the heck does this piece of code even do?".
213
Data Science Interview Study Guide
We help you acquire the perfect domain for your site. Affordable payment options. Quick and responsive customer support available.
214
‘Product engineers’ vs ‘Software engineers’ in startups
You should be multi-faceted, never work purely to your technical abilities, think about how you can make your entire company better
215
Eric's Guide to Hiring Software Developers
First of a two-part series on the best strategies for hiring humans in the 21st century. Fueled by both personal experience and the experience of countless mentors (and recruiters), this gigantic post is bursting at the seams with knowledge. Though specifically written by a CTO-type, the strategies are useful for…
216
Should Failing Phish Tests Be a Fireable Offense?
Would your average Internet user be any more vigilant against phishing scams if he or she faced the real possibility of losing their job after falling for one too many of these emails? Recently, I met someone at a conference who said his employer had in fact terminated employees for such repeated infractions. As this…
217
218
The Startup Empathy Dilemma: As power and impact grow, empathy diminishes
I remember the early days at my startup almost a decade ago. It was just me and my co-founder and we were enjoying our journey of building a small product and making a few people’s lives a bit better. The empathy we had for our early customers, for each other and for the first people […]
219
220
Technical Debt Is Like Tetris
You can’t win. You can only control how quickly you lose.
221
Where do individual contributors go once they peak?
On why senior individual-contributor designers shouldn't have to move into management to grow—and how the industry can build a real IC leadership track.
222
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…
223
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…
224
An Apple Developer for 10 Years
This is a personal website, at the outskirts of the web, away from social media and publishing platforms.
225
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…
226
Fuck Your 90 Day Exercise Window (2016)
Written pieces, talks, and other bits by Zach Holman.
227
A Distributed Meeting Primer
As a leader who primarily values team health, I place great value on the weekly 1:1 because it’s where I assess health. It’s my highest bandwidth meeting, and h
228
229
230
Applied Machine Learning Is a Meritocracy
When making a start in a new field it is common to feel overwhelmed. You may lack confidence or feel as though you are not good enough or that you are lacking some prerequisite. You will explore these issues in this post and learn that such feelings can lead to actions that can consume a […]
231
Dark Matter Developers: The Unseen 99% (2012)
In astronomy and cosmology, dark matter is a currently-undetermined type of ...
232
How do you delegate to a group of people?
Strategic technology leader
233
234
235
How Slack Harms Projects
Presently, real-time communication tools such as Slack are very popular in business environments. However, use of these tools creates a culture that harms projects. It negatively impacts planning a...
236
237
The challenges of teaching software engineering
I've just finished teaching a four-day course introducing software engineering for the first time. My plan is to refine the course (I'm teaching it again in October), and it will eventually become the basis for doctoral training programmes in research software engineering at Oxford, and part of a taught Masters. My…
238
239
I don't want to be a full-fullstack developer
In the current year web developers are regarded as Jacks of all trades, they gotta do everything from manual testing to frontend ninjutsu, but is it worth it?
240