In 12 months, @aarondfrancis changed his life by bypassing fear and embracing risk. Now, he’s working his dream job @tuple. Get his full story on The ReadME Project:
A client once responded to one of my questions by saying, "Oh Greg, I am too busy living to think about life!” His off-the-cuff comment named a trap al ...
Hi, it’s Takuya. Last week I had my birthday and turned 41 (November 19th). When I was younger, I could never really picture what life in my 40s would look like. It’s this vague age where you don’t have a clear image of how you’re supposed to live, right? Even if I try to look back at my dad at this age, he was always at work during the day, so he’s not much of a reference. I make a living as an indie developer, and thanks to what I built up through my 20s and 30s, I can live the way I do...
Recently, people have been asking me why I’m pausing Boo to work on a programming language. I think it would actually be cool to write down how I feel.
A new anonymous essay published every day in December in the countdown to Christmas.
Today I am turning 40 years old. Which, while not exactly great, is better than the alternative, so kudos to me for still being alive! 🎉 I am a pretty lucky person. I was born in one of the best, richest countries of the world. I feel safe, I have a good job, I am pretty healthy and I have a lovely family. But, for the past couple of months leading up to this milestone, I have spent a lot of time reflecting on life and failing to fall asleep due to the existential dread of having already used up half...
Interruptions, recovery time, and task size: three numbers that determine if you'll get real work done. Interactive visualizations show the math behind bad days.
I've always thrived on high workload, making things happen fast, multiple projects I believe in. That's when I'm at my best. But there's a pattern: the calmer work is, the calmer I am at home. The more stressed work is, the more irritable I am at home. It's a seesaw. My family is always on the losing end. I have endless professional bandwidth for revenue-generating problems and zero emotional bandwidth for the people I love. Apparently it's called "high sensation seeking" - linked to dopamine. Work under pressure gives me a hit. Playing blocks with my toddler doesn't. I need...
In the last two years, code review has gotten much more important. Code is now easy to generate using LLMs, but it’s still just as hard to review. Many software…
Better tools help, but they're not why your best developers stay or leave. Here's what actually moves the needle on productivity and satisfaction.
From tinkerers to metric seekers: How the shift in developer culture is impacting innovation and creativity.
By Linus Torvalds (creator of Linux)
I have the good fortune to have a job right now, but many of my friends are out of work. Most have been searching for a while. Some are encountering a problem that has my full sympathy, something I’ve experienced myself at various times. I’m not sure I can solve it, but maybe I can help put words to what some are going through.
Make your time count.
I once had a job interview for a backend position. Their stack was Node.js, MySQL, nothing exotic. The interviewer asked: "If you have an array containing a million entries, how would you sort the dat
CalmCode - coaching voor IT'ers | Vind rust in je werk | Coaching voor rust, ontspanning en stressreductie in IT
Fanaka is a handbook for African success in the international software industry
Why we might need something like tenure for many more people, to cultivate more thinkers in a doer's world
11 months in The Side Hustle From Hell
The Startup CTO's Handbook, a book covering leadership, management and technical topics for leaders of software engineering teams - ZachGoldberg/Startup-CTO-Handbook
Find and apply to the 1144+ latest remote software engineering positions. Updated hourly.
February 3, 2025
What if the key to shipping more is actually doing less?
Amazing as it may seem after all these years, there are still junior developers in the world. A few weeks ago at work we had a talk where senior developers (including me) were invited to spend around five minutes each talking about our personal software development philosophies....
It’s been over a year since one of the most significant turning points in my life, and it’s time to reflect on that.
Tech companies care about projects, not tickets
Keep your meetings smooth and your priorities on track!
In this Company of One summary, we'll explain why growth isn't always good, and how to enjoy the benefits of a large organization without the burdens of one.
Hi peeps. Living in Germany, have a masters in chemical engineering. After working a few years in my own field, got bored and switched sectors. Then realized I really enjoy learning, getting good at a new position, and then get bored. Was young back then so I kept switching jobs, fields, industries. Have also been working as a freelancer on the side for 15+ years. Worked as a consultant, engineer, coding/language teacher (foreign languages and coding), social worker, marketing/sales agent, product/project/community manager, educator, workshop facilitator, devops technician, etc. This all used to be ok as I always somehow found a...
In Engineering, quarterly OKRs (Objectives & Key Results) can feel like a duplication of product planning. Basically, they say “Ship the Roadmap.” What new information are they comm…
Atte Juvonen
Vercel Security Checkpoint
There are so many buzzwords and best practices out there, but let's focus on something more fundamental. What matters is the amount of confusion developers feel when going through the code.
A field guide and why we need to rethink our expectations
I set out to find a simple definition that would help managers frame the fundamental things they expect from software engineers.
Does it HAVE to be Daily?
I was recently asked to help resolve an escalation at work. It had already bounced around between a few people, and was very muddied with conflicting reports not to mention frustration that the issue existed in the first place. Apparently I am insane, because I like situations like this.
Dear new developer, When I was starting out, I thought that software development was all about code. After all, that was the main thing I was working on. Well, maybe not the main thing, as I needed…
This is a blanket question. I am working with a team of junior engineers, 1-3 yrs in experience. We have been assigned a project that is to be delivered in phases till end of Q1, 2025. Main things that I want to know about are:
Go to SaaS r/SaaS ...
Please complete the security check to access NetworkSolutions.com
UPDATE: I’ve added a short section on the topic of sponsorship. I think that there’s a lot of institutional knowledge in our field, especially
Using personality clues strategically to stress test potential hires
Advice from the author of Childhood Unplugged
Cutting out the news has been one of the best lifestyle decisions I've made in recent years, second only to cutting out social media (though the two are not mutually exclusive). Reducing my intake of what is essentially junk information has significantly reduced anxiety and worry in my day to day life, and has freed up more of my time to pursue other interests and deeper reading. I'm able to concentrate better because there are less disruptions. My view is that "the news" primarily exists to keep consumers entertained rather than keeping citizens informed, very rarely presenting us with useful...
Related . The consist of four software delivery measurements. When code is committed to a source control repository (e.g., Git) When that code is de...
Discover the differences between Kanban and Scrum—features, workflows, and benefits—to determine which Agile framework fits your development team’s project management style.
Controlling a complex system is rarely as effective as allowing it to self-organize: markets work better than planning committees; diverse ecosystems are more robust than monocultures. What would it mean to apply this idea to education?
Explore how investing in a better developer experience frees developers to do what matters most: building great software.
Study in rats shows that a key brain signal linked to memory formation deteriorates after broken sleep. Study in rats shows that a key brain signal linked to memory formation deteriorates after broken sleep.
23 August 2010 - San Francisco
Writing at the end of the world, from Hveragerði, Iceland
Are we done with championing "authenticity", then?
Can you discuss the data privacy? What happens to my resume if I upload it to you? Are you retaining it? Are you keeping my email and sending me marketing stuff etc etc etc?
Over the long term, the future is decided by optimists
Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I'd Known Earlier [Kelly, Kevin] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I'd Known Earlier
Recently I read Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Harari. The basic thesis of the book is that humans require ‘collective fictions’ so that we can collaborate in larger numbers than the 150 or so our brains are big enough to cope with by default. Collective fictions are things that don’t describe solid objects in the real world we can see and touch. Things like religions, nationalism, liberal democracy, or Popperian falsifiability in science. Things that don’t exist, but when we act like they do, we easily forget that they don’t.
Nothing gets done at the end of the day 🤯 Don't worry, we got you covered!
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When interviewing, particularly for technical positions, many people over value their technical preparation, and don't consider the importance of personality and leadership preparation.
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Don’t exercise to be thin. Exercise to be strong. The best place for ideas is alone and on the move. Start or end every day with writing about your life. Take what’s in your head and type it out, even if you don’t feel like you are thinking anything of note. There’s always something buried underneath the to do list in your head, something you didn’t realise you felt, that when written down, will make everything clearer.
March 21, 2022
A behavioral design think tank, we apply decision science, digital innovation & lean methodologies to pressing problems in policy, business & social justice
After 25 years of my career I came to understand that one particular type of programmers is the source of many problems in our industry. Here is the story of a project that was nearly destroyed by two such programmers. One of them was leading frontend development, the other – backend. While the rest of the team was slacking off because business requirements were in the works, these two chaps were working hard.
A study of Google's code review tooling, AI-powered improvements, and recent statistics. Critique, "Modern Code Review at Google," and various Google software engineering papers.
Imagine you’ve been tasked to implement a sizeable new feature for the product you’re working on. That’s the opportunity you’ve been waiting for - everybody will see what a 10x developer you are! You open a list of the coolest new libraries and design patterns you’ve wanted to try out and get right into it, full “basement” mode. One week later, you victoriously emerge and present your perfect pull request!
One of the fundamental challenges in software engineering is managing and minimizing complexity. This challenge is not just a theoretical concern; it has real and tangible impacts on the pace of development.
If courses teach you’ll be building more greenfield projects than not, I’d be hesitant to consider it a well-rounded education in software development.
New managers often want to get everything right from the get-go. But, ironically, that would be their first mistake. Why? Because that's the total opposite of authenticity.
Good enough code is a nice middle ground between implementing a feature fast and maintaining the code quality.
Why aren't developers write tests? Because they are bad for them
The Startup CTO's Handbook, a book covering leadership, management and technical topics for leaders of software engineering teams - ZachGoldberg/Startup-CTO-Handbook
In the emerging age of AI generated code, is leetcode really the best way to evaluate technical candidates (was it ever)?
Aka, how do I know if a product leader knows what they're doing? There are thousands of articles, courses, and guides on how to build a roadmap for product managers. Even with all these resources, roadmaps often become a point of contention between product managers and their stakeholders. There are very few guides for engineers, designers, or executives on how they should evaluate or engage with a product manager's roadmap. This post comes from a presentation I put together to answer a simple b
A lot of information can be found online about suggested best practices for pull requests (PRs) and code reviews, particularly regarding the ideal size, scope, and description of PRs, as well as the desired response time and comment style for code review comments.
Yesterday we had a super fun meetup here at Intercom in Dublin. We split up into small discussion groups and talked about things related to managing teams and being a senior individual contributor…
How to be effective in the theatre of work
News is bad for you. It leads to fear and aggression. It hinders your creativity and makes you sick. We should stop consuming it, says Rolf Dobelli, who's abstained for years
"...the mere consciousness of an engagement will sometimes worry a whole day."� Charles Dickens
If you collected lists of techniques for doing great work in a lot of different fields, what would the intersection look like? I decided to find out by making it.
When I’m being first-order productive, I’m programming: creating and interacting with a system. This first-order productivity is great, but it isn’t discoverable for others: there’s generally a high bar to entry for comprehending another person’s work when it’s expressed solely as a structured program. Second-order productivity is when I’m writing about programming, or about systems. This kind of productivity is generally more accessible and distributable, and forms most of the content of this blog!
How small tech companies are using remote work to compete with the big guys.
In a world where technology is trying to make things increasingly easier, make things a little harder on yourself. You’ll get better results.
A guide to scaling product & engineering teams from $0 to past $100M ARR.
PRESS RELEASES
Too many applicants are screened out because they don’t fit a particular pattern.
Hot takes and cold truths on software, startups, and the lies we tell ourselves.
Or: why I don't like greenfield projects
The cleverness that proliferates in public life today is a nuisance.
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 younger versions, I f...
A practical guide to self-confidence, personal growth, teamwork, learning, communication, and delivering results—the soft skills that every programmer needs to thrive in their job and be ready for a senior role.
Reverse Pull-Requests How We Used GitHub PRs In A Trunk-Based, Continuous Deployment Development Team by Lukasz Gryzbon & Antony Marcano In a fast-paced world, more teams have microservices …
The step-by-step guide to building a Second Brain. Based on 10+ years of research & experiments with organizing our digital lives & improving our productivity.