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Mourning loss as a remote team
This is a hard one to write about. Last year our team lost Pete, a long time engineer. Pete took his own life. He had battled mental health issues for some time.
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Hard truths I learned when I got laid off from my SWE job
I got laid off from a software engineering job in April of 2020.
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When hiring developers, have the candidate read existing code
When hiring developers, there are many things we are looking for, but over the years I have found that raw coding ability is easily the most important quality to look for. I can quickly…
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How I make a living working on SerenityOS
This post describes in detail how I support myself while working on the SerenityOS project.
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Two weeks of dealing with Google as a developer
2 weeks of dealing with Google as a developer
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The best engineering interview question I've ever gotten
It’s been a while since I was on the receiving end of a software engineering interview. But I still remember my favorite interview question. It was at MemSQL circa 2013. (They haven’t even kept their name, so I assume they’re not still relying on this specific interview question. I don’t feel bad for revealing it…
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Goodbye, data science
This is more of a personal post than something intended to be profound. If you are looking for a point, you will not find one here. Frankly I am not even sure who the target audience is for this (p…
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Teaching is a slow process of becoming everything you hate
Here are some things that I hated as a student. At the time, I thought my teachers didn’t understand or care how terrible they were.
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What “work” looks like
Collaboration is amazing! There’s absolutely no trade-offs, right? The mantra of sharing your work and involving everyone in decisions naturally leads to…
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I think I know why you can't hire engineers right now
and i think you do too - but i'll tell you anyway
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A career ending mistake
As software engineers, we're constantly making detailed, elaborate plans for computers to execute. Isn't it weird that we rarely give a moment's thought to the program for our own careers?
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I took a job at Amazon, only to leave after 10 months
Reflections on working at Amazon, the interview process, the organizational structure, and why it was not an ideal fit for me (but might be for you).
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Maybe you should do less 'work'
Working in tech, I've observed developers who work as hard as possible when they don't need to. I’m here today to tell you that it's a bad idea and you shouldn't do it.
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Giving a shit as a service
A mental model for service businesses.
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On Leaving Facebook
After 8.5 years at Facebook I joined a small startup called Replit. Leaving wasn't easy, and during the process I've talked to half a dozen friends who were ...
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Aging programmer
Back in college, they told me that I would start my career writing code, but eventually, I would move to a position where I would ask others to code my designs. To celebrate that this turned out to be completely false, here are some assorted reflections as a 40-year-old programmer that looks back: • Compared to my…
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Doing too much work on one's own before looping in others
Throughout my career, the biggest mistake I see engineers make is doing too much work on their own before looping in others.
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Unlearning perfectionism
A way out from the perfectionism trap
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The saddest “just ship it” story (2020)
This is a story of how it took me way too long to ship a product, and I ended up paying for a competitor product instead.
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On my resignation as regulator of the Dutch intelligence and security services
I’ve seen some mediocre automated translations of my Dutch language resignation statement go round. To prevent any confusion, please find the story here in English: Until today I was one of the three members of the board that checks warrants for the Dutch intelligence and security services. This board is called…
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App Store doesn't accept “too simple” apps
I've had my fair share of App Store rejections in the past: - ⌘ rcmd was rejected for usage of private APIs - GammaDimmer was rejected for having a link to 🌕 Lunar (my app for controlling monitors that would never get accepted on the App Store) ...
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Stop Interviewing with Leet Code
During interviews, technical skills in the industry are still largely vetted through LeetCode-style questions. These are small algorithmic riddles in the for...
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How to communicate effectively as a developer
Some tactical and strategic tips for writing effectively as a software developer.
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On Being Indispensable
It took far too long for it to click in my brain that I was stuck. There was no career path. Sure my title changed, pay went up, but my day-to-day never changed. I was so busy collaborating with dozens of people across all departments, that it felt like I was growing. I wasn’t.
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My guiding principles after 20 years of programming (2020)
I’ve been programming since 1999. This year I’ve officially coded for 20+ years. I’ve started with Basic but soon jumped into Pascal and C…
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