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I don’t want to grow my freelance design studio into an agency
I'm often asked if I plan to hire more people and grow my own design agency? I don't, and in this article I explain why.
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Mistakes to avoid to build a better 1-person business
Choosing the right markets and the pitfalls to avoid
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Want an unfair advantage in your tech career? Consume content for other roles
Learning about roles you work with can provide a meaningful competitive advantage in the modern tech world
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Organization probably doesn't want to improve things
Last week, I had a fascinating conversation with a reader around frustration and unhappiness at work. Much of it was totally obvious to both of us, but it occurred to me that this probably isn't to everyone, which is why almost all of my colleagues (in very cushy, non-stressful jobs) nonetheless need therapy. And if…
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Working quickly is more important than it seems (2015)
The obvious benefit to working quickly is that you'll finish more stuff per unit time. But there's more to it than that. If you work quickly, the cost of doing something new will seem lower in your mind. So you'll be inclined to do more.
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Journalists should be skeptical of all sources including scientists
A group of prominent scientists spread misinformation about COVID's origins. Mainstream journalists missed the story.
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I Am Leaving
A video from Webbed Briefs
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Proof you can do hard things
An Essential Piece to Your Life Resume
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Knightmare: A DevOps Cautionary Tale (2014)
In the first 45-minutes the market was open the faulty software deployment sent millions of child orders into the market resulting in 4 million transactions against 154 stocks for more than 397 mil…
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Amazon's Silent Sacking
Companies are fighting back for quiet quitting and it's having a big impact.
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Most of my skills are now worth nothing, but 10% are worth 1000x
...but the other 10% are worth 1000x
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Some mistakes I made as a new manager
the trough of zero dopamine • managing the wrong amount • procrastinating on hard questions • indefinitely deferring maintenance • angsting instead of asking
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One week of empathy training (2019)
I've spent a week cosplaying as a disabled user. And I hate it. A couple of months ago, I attended a private talk given by a disabled colleague of mine. "Everyone should believe disabled people's stories about accessibility problems," she said. "But, given that people don't, here's what I want you to do. Spend one…
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The product manager role is a mistake
The popular model Software product companies aren’t usually started by people with a strong background in building software products. Those who most likely end up founding businesses are good at getting funding, and at understanding their target industry. They’ve been in their industry for a long time, know their…
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How to boss without being bossy
Leaders command people. That’s kind of what a leader is: someone with the authority to direct the actions of others.
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We overestimate our short-term ability, but underestimate our long-term ability
My way of thinking about long-term habit building
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Things they didn’t teach you about software engineering
As a seasoned software engineer, I've discovered that there's so much more to the field than what's taught in school. From the importance of understanding business needs and the value of soft skills, to the necessity of continuous learning and the reality of dealing with legacy code, my journey has been filled with…
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Quitting the rat race
I'm leaving a comfortable job in a big city because there's more to life than whatever this is.
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The age of cargo cult Agile must end
Via LinkedIn, I learned about an article called “The age of Agile must end” by Michael Burnett, and I’ve since seen it pop up again in…
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Advice for new software devs who've read all those other advice essays
From a person who really shouldn't be giving others advice.
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Can't be fucked: Underrated cause of tech debt
Can’t Be Fucked Aussie slang for not wanting to, or not having the energy and motivation to do something. “Man, i really can’t be fucked changing the channel, let’s just watch Springer.” - Urban Dictionary
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"No, it's less effort than that"
Ever heard ‘No, it’s less effort than that!’? Learn why challenging Agile estimates can lead to bad planning and how to handle estimate pushback effectively.
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The Staff Engineer's Path – Book Review
The Staff Engineer’s Path: A Guide for Individual Contributors Navigating Growth and Change is written by Tanya Reilly and published on October 25, 2022, by O’Reilly Media. Favorite Quotes Early in your career, if you do a great job on something that turns out to be unnecessary, you’ve still done a great job. At the…
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Layoffs push down scores on Glassdoor – how companies respond
Several tech companies face a fresh problem after cutting jobs: their rating on Glassdoor nosedives. But there’s a way they manage to fix this. I show what companies are doing - and why.
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I gave commit rights to someone I didn't know (2016)
(Spoiler: trusting your contributors works) Some years ago, I polished up and released an abandoned project for storing financial data in Django. It let you declare “Money” fields on your models, dealing with proper storage and currencies for you. My use case for the library, django-money eventually faded, but it…
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Two years of teaching high school CS
(This post is also now also listed on the Pickcode Blog) Leaving Teaching I’m posting this on my last day teaching high school computer science. In the pas...