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Software Sweatshop – Inside Billionaire Joe Liemandt's Empire
The story of buying a software company out of bankruptcy and our plan to grow it.
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“That Won't Work”
Imagine the scene: Several people are discussing a problem that needs an urgent solution. Everyone is deep in thought, and one person proposes a solution. “We could…” and everyone listens intently. As soon as the person is done talking, or perhaps even before, somebody speaks up. “That won’t work!” he says. The…
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Unpacking Interview Questions
A series sharing some of the questions I use when I interview for technical roles. I’ll unpack the question, when to ask it, and how to evaluate answers.
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Routing the Technical Interview
The interviewer couldn’t help but notice her name, Nephele . It sounds Greek. But he didn’t ask, not wanting to get off on the wrong foot with the promising candidate. He made a mental note to look up the name afterwards.
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Things to do before and after you write code
The most effective engineers I’ve worked with were effective not just because of how they wrote code, but because of things they did when they were not writing code. Here’s my (growing)…
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Best Practices – Why I Hate Them
I hate the expression “best practice”, it’s so, so often used by someone to justify the application of cargo cult without actually understanding why.
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A writing tip I learned at Oxford
No, this is not an essay about commas
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Two stories about tacit knowledge
To build a nuke or (can) not build a nuke
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How much can a Clojure developer do alone?
A response to a developer weighing Clojure's benefits, explaining the REPL workflow through human-computer interaction and reflecting on individual productivity.
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Things I was asked to do while job hunting
The hiring process could stand some improvements.
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Who's at the Helm?
Or, how to deploy 25+ CVEs to prod in one command!
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Compensation as a Reflection of Values
Compensation: the word alone is enough to trigger a fight-or-flight reaction in many. But we in technology have the good fortune of being in a well-compensated domain, so why does this issue induce such anxiety when our basic needs are clearly covered? If it needs to be said, it’s because compensation isn’t merely…
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From zero to hero: contributing to open source (2017)
Do you ever get the feeling that you are always a consumer and never a contributor to a library? Would you like to get more involved in open source projects and don’t know how? This is the&nb…
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Beyond coupling and cohesion: strategies for un-fucking yourself
This post belongs in the ‘highly speculative’ category. It contains ideas that I’ve yet to flesh out and properly pin down. Reader beware!
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On Hubris and Humility
Last week I gave a talk at the Open Source Firmware Conference about some of the work I’m doing at Oxide Computer, entitled On Hubris and Humility. There is a video of the talk if you’d like to watch it in video form. It came out pretty alright!
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Step Away from Stack Overflow
Notes that I mostly write for myself, but you can read if you want.
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Strong software tips from 2000 that are 100% valid today
Have you ever heard of SEMA? It’s a fairly esoteric system for measuring how good a software team is. No, wait! Don’t follow that link! It will take you about six years just to understa…
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Staying on the path to high performing teams (2018)
A friend is six months into supporting a sixty person engineering group. Perhaps unsurprisingly, most of their teams believe they have urgent hiring needs. It’s a great question, and captures a deeply challenging aspect of leading an organization: keeping the path after you’ve established a strategy and while it’s…
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The Ambiguity of Real Work
All ambiguity is resolved by actions of practitioners at the sharp end of the system.Dr. Richard I. Cook, How Complex Systems Fail There’s a wonderful book by the late urban planning professo…
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The Daily Standup Is a Waste of Time
Daily standups feel like a waste of time. I will teach you two new techniques the will make every minute count.
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Investing in Startups by Passing the Series 65
From studying for the exam to registering with the SEC — my foray into investing in startups and venture capital by passing the Series 65 and becoming a licensed investment adviser representative.
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Stop the “Hard Work” Obsession
One of the persistent myths in America is that success is primarily down to hard work. Yes, you cannot have success by lying on the Sofa…
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Progress Beats Perfect
This is a favorite saying of mine. I use it to motivate myself when I feel disheartened about how much I have to learn and improve. If I do ...
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Mocks Aren't Stubs (2007)
Explaining the difference between Mock Objects and Stubs (together with other forms of Test Double). Also the difference between classical and mockist styles of unit testing.