Following up from the previous article – here’s what I’ve done recently. I wanted to enhance my Golang skills, so I picked a few projects that would push me in multiple directions: I took KD-tree assignment from Stanford (http://web.stanford.edu/class/cs106l/handouts/assignment-3-kdtree.pdf) and translated the C++ code base into Golang. I also completed Lab 1 of MIT’s Distributed Systems class […]
Every bug drains one day
Bug pops up. A critical one. How often does this happen to you? I have to stop whatever I’m doing because a customer can’t use the product. I read the bug description on Redmine and think of reasons why the code broke. I eventually reproduce the error and I ask around which developer can fix […]
The enhancer
If you’ve played bards from role playing games, they often have party buffs. The bard has weak combat skills and offensive magic capabilities. You don’t use the musical adventurer to one-shot a wight from existence with a burst of sunlight. Instead, you use bards to augment your team. If your team has 8 units, a […]
When do you automate?
If only I could figure out how to replicate every business task in software, I would have a company capable of running itself. I’ll be on an island in the Caribbean with money automagically flowing in to my bank account. Living the dream. Ok. Let’s return to reality. I don’t have everything automated. When I […]
Start with two and a half percent time to stay technical
“But I don’t want to give up coding!” I feel like staying technical is the equivalent of an existential crisis for engineering managers. I went through that. You don’t have to write code for the rest of your career, if that’s what you wish. For some engineering managers, this is a primary reason they took […]
Boxed in
I interviewed a senior engineer with over 25 years of experience. At the time he had been writing software longer than I’ve been alive. He brought a hard copy of my Linkedin profile and began asking questions about my background. He asked me why I picked engineering, why I choose this startup, and what I […]