Cloud Development Environments Tame Complexity By Reducing StateWhen I joined Gusto 3 and a half years ago I got to program production Ruby for the first time. I was excited to get started. Alex, a…Oct 31, 2022A response icon6Oct 31, 2022A response icon6
Tune Software Development for Rate of Change, not Rate of ProgressFolks seem to tune software development for a desired output rate. That’s a disaster. Here’s why, what to do instead, and (at the end) a…Jun 16, 2022A response icon3Jun 16, 2022A response icon3
Help Geeks Feel Safe In The World: My Personal MissionTwenty five years into my career and I finally figured out my mission. This was after patterns, after xUnit, after TDD, after Extreme…Jun 10, 2022A response icon2Jun 10, 2022A response icon2
Hit ’em High, Hit ’em Low:Regression Testing and the Saff SqueezeMar 28, 2022A response icon2Mar 28, 2022A response icon2
Dimensions of Power“Well I’m a senior engineer so we’ll do it my way.” I always hated conversations like that as a junior engineer but they seem to be a…Mar 23, 2022A response icon6Mar 23, 2022A response icon6
The First Thing a Technical Speaker NeedsLet go of trying to be seen as better than I see myselfMar 3, 2022A response icon2Mar 3, 2022A response icon2
How Will I Measure My Life?Originally published February 2018Feb 7, 2022A response icon3Feb 7, 2022A response icon3
Work/Life Balance Should Be Difficult“Why weren’t you more ambitious as an engineer?”Dec 14, 2021A response icon12Dec 14, 2021A response icon12
Background WorkA student had a code review where the reviewer said, “This variable needs to be explicitly initialized to nil.” The usual course for a…Dec 8, 2021A response icon12Dec 8, 2021A response icon12
Accountability in Software DevelopmentThe following is lightly edited from the June 2014 version.Dec 1, 2021A response icon3Dec 1, 2021A response icon3