Posts

Permanently forking a library is something I’ve observed on several teams. But, there are tradeoffs that aren’t always obvious. ...

Years ago I watched a video where guitar teacher Justin Sandercoe explained a way to get better at guitar. It has changed my playing, and it might change yours, too. ...

A missing README is rarely just missing documentation. It usually signals other things, too. ...

A developer experience practice I’ve recently picked up is routine Friday reboots of my workstation. I think this can make your workflow (and even perhaps your life as an engineer?) a little better. ...

I’ve been participating in fully-remote software standups every day for over a decade, and over the past two years, leading them, too. Here’s how I run the best standup meetings that I can. ...

Do you want to read more? Over a decade, I’ve been on a journey from casual to power-reader. In this post, I’d like to share the ideas and techniques that have helped me read more. ...

I recently re-read It Doesn’t Have to be Crazy at Work by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier of Basecamp. Here are some of my favorite ideas. ...

One of my favorite problem-solving questions is: “What’s wrong with this idea?” It drives the conversation away from why the idea might work, and toward why it might fail. That perspective is invaluable when building. ...

What is a programmer but a series of PRs (pull requests)? I optimize PRs to introduce the best code I can, be easy to review, and document my work so I can make sense of it in the future. Here are some things I always check before opening a PR. ...

You might have heard that using blocking, waiting code, e.g., sleep in many languages, is discouraged. Why? ...