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Why and how we retired Elm
Kevin Yank’s website
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How I stay motivated as a solo creator
Working solo has its difficulties. For one, my income is somewhat tied to my productivity, and my productivity highly correlates to my state of mind. This is...
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My manager spent $1M on a backup server that I never used
A classically trained sysadmin shouting into the void.
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Not a real engineer (2019)
A short, dark prose poem on being told you are not a real engineer, and the monstrous thing you become instead.
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Having friends in HR is fine, but HR is not your friend
After the wave of layoffs at Meta (previously known as Facebook) in November of 2022, I recall messages in the Facebook group for former employees discussing how to handle elements of the redundancy process, like if it was possible to max out retirement saving contributions, or spending gym benefits whilst
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Kernighan and Pike were right: Do one thing, and do it well
Extensible programs like Obsidian have achieved a Holy Grail of software architecture, after decades of failed attempts.
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I kind of killed Mercurial at Mozilla
Did you hear the news? Firefox development is moving from Mercurial to Git . While the decision is far from being mine, and I was barely involved in the small incremental changes that ultimately led to this decision, I feel I have to take at least some responsibility. And if you are one of those who would rather use…
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Deming Paradox: Operationally rigorous companies aren't nice places to work
Is it possible to be data driven and operationally rigorous and still be human centric at the same time? Deming — who came up with these data techniques — believe that it is possible. I'm not so sure.
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Sleeping through the technical interview (2022)
Xe Iaso's personal website.
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Subverting the software interview (2021)
Writing code for online games, particularly for mobile or web-based slot games like this one , involves a mix of advanced graphics rendering, real-time networking, security implementations, and intricate game logic. Developers need to balance between performance optimization, cross-platform compatibility, and the…
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Architecture diagrams enable better conversations
Earlier this year myself and a couple others at DrDoctor did some training in C4 Architecture modelling1. The trainer was really good and over a few sessions with him we got the hang of the method. We went onto use what we had learnt, meeting everything Thursday over the course of 3 months. We focused mainly on…
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Advice to Aimless, Excited Programmers (2010)
It's not about technology for its own sake. It's about being able to implement your ideas.
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Why is remote work seen as a gift?
It’s hardly insightful to suggest that the last few years have substantially changed the day to day experience of a knowledge worker. Nearly overnight even the most remote skeptical leadership teams were forced to embrace flexible work practices like working from home. But now, despite COVID-19 being a
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A student asked how I keep us innovative – I don't
Last week, I did a Q&A session for a friend's security class. One of the students asked a question that I loved. They asked something like, "As a principal engineer, how do you make sure your company stays at the forefront of innovation?"
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Lessons from a never-ending personal project
I learned things
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On Craft
My grandpa -- my Missouri grandpa, who played slide guitar to me when I got homesick on the rare occasions I stayed with them -- grew up on a farm without electricity. He went past eighth grade, which really mattered to him. He loved that I played harp, which he always called "elegant," in an extremely Missouri…
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I was laid off in retaliation for anti-discrimination whistleblowing
In order to protect women, gender nonconforming folks, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ+ community from suffering as my peers and I have, I feel ethically obligated to go public with my ex…
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Ability to see expertise is a milestone worth aiming for (2022)
Good news: we have a neat, universal milestone on the journey to mastery. What that looks like, and how to use it.
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Does your office have a library?
Let's get weird... here are some questions. These questions aren't special questions or specifically meant as only this set of questions... they are just questions that capture the spirit of 'pause and think on some stuff that you don't'. Fill in your own questions if you have better ones.
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A blog post is a long and complex search query to find people (2022)
When writing in public, there is a common idea that you should make it accessible. This is a left over from mass media.
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Getting to know the right people (2022)
This page has moved to https://drmaciver.com/notebook/2022/06/getting-to-know-the-right-people/ .
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Small Teams
Patrick Collison has a great list of people quickly accomplishing ambitious things. Inspired by that, I created a page of impressive things accomplished by small teams.
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On a great interview question
Between 2010 and 2019 I interviewed dozens of Software Engineer candidates at Google. Almost always I asked the same interview question…