October 30, 2023

Product Hack: Asking 'What's the Why?'

One of my favorite product hacks is asking: “What’s the why?”

September 13, 2023

Write Boring Code

Write a little bit of code, and you may come to an unsettling realization: there are multiple ways to do almost any programming task. How do we choose between several that work? I manage this uncertainty with a guideline: writing boring code. In this post, I’ll try to explain what boring means to me.

September 6, 2023

Take the Big Project

Something I’ve learned as an engineer: when presented with the option of working on a big project, or doing anything else, take the big project.

September 3, 2023

Thinking of Bugs in Classes

We spent the time writing tests, and yet, a bug survived. Should we just stop writing tests? No, but we should maybe write better tests, and think about them differently.

August 14, 2023

Why Great PRs Are Great: Pull Requests Templates

Have you ever seen a pull request that seems to completely explain itself? It’s a real artifact. I don’t know the project, yet I understand it. How can we get results like this on every pull request, from every developer on the team, every time?

August 9, 2023

Don't Ask for Advice; Ask for a Code Review

Here’s some advice about programming I’ve found useful: “Don’t ask for advice; ask for a code review.” In this post, I’d like to explore what I think this adage means.

August 4, 2023

From Booleans to Strings in Frontend State

When it comes to controlling frontend presentation, developers often rely on booleans. However, this approach can be limiting. In this post, I’ll explore the drawbacks of using booleans and introduce a more versatile alternative: plain old strings with type safety.

June 26, 2023

The Case Against "Try This" Debugging

In many group debugging sessions I’ve joined, a major technique being deployed is something I call “Try This” debugging. In this post, I’d like to talk about this anti-pattern, and consider a better way.

May 2, 2023

The Joy of JavaScript Absolute Imports

Absolute imports are an essential developer experience feature for me in any JavaScript application. In this post, I’ll explain what they are and why they matter.

April 10, 2023

My Daily Programming Routine

After a decade of programming full-time, I’ve developed a daily work routine that I’d like to share. I hope to revisit it and share it with people who are starting out in the industry or are curious about a programmer’s workday.