GitLab Data Loss: A Discussion

 Posted on Feb 2, 2017  |  759 words

In case you missed the big news in the industry this week, a GitLab employee accidentally deleted a ton of production data and took their platform down for hours. It was only when everything was on fire and they were in deep trouble that they turned to their backup systems… only to find that none of them actually worked. Backup Prod Data Regularly Not exactly a groundbreaking statement, right? Everybody knows this. [Read More]
attitude  methodology  mistakes  process 

Diversity Is Really Freaking Hard

 Posted on Sep 24, 2015  |  2182 words

Background I’m going to discuss an important topic that affects everybody in tech: diversity. No, this won’t be some preachy post about how diversity is great and how you should be a better human being. Rather, I’m going to tell you about the things I’ve experienced working on diversity – particularly the interesting events of the last few days that happened internally at Stack Overflow. It’s no secret that the tech industry is not that diverse. [Read More]
conflict  culture  diversity  mistakes  workplace 

Developer Turned Manager

 Posted on Aug 3, 2015  |  1768 words

In February of 2015, I was promoted to Engineering Manager at Stack Overflow. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move. There are tons of things I’ve learned so far, some of which I’ve learned the hard way. There’s also a world of difference between managing code, and managing people who code. Your day to day work routine changes completely. You define success differently. [Read More]
career  lessons  management  mistakes  promotion 

Developers Shouldn't Measure Twice, Cut Once

 Posted on Apr 15, 2015  |  795 words

I was working on my fireplace this past weekend. Specifically I had just finished ripping down the old surface to the red brick, and then preparing the brick surface with a layer of thinset for tiling. I spent all of Saturday cutting tiles and then placing them on the fireplace surround and hearth. Even with help it took 11 hours to do, and about 8 hours of it was measuring and cutting tiles. [Read More]
culture  iteration  methodology  mistakes  process 

How I Got A Job At Stack Exchange

 Posted on Jun 20, 2014  |  2003 words

Intro Almost exactly 1 month ago today I found myself on a video call with Joel Spolsky. It feels insane to write that, even now, as it was a banner moment in my career. For me it was the equivalent of meeting a movie star who I had idolized since I was old enough to know what movies were. There had always been this Joel Spolsky guy throughout my career that I regularly read about and whose opinions on software development agreed with mine, and suddenly I was talking with him face to face. [Read More]
career  ego  interviews  mistakes  stack overflow  transparency  workplace 

How To Guarantee Dev Team Failure

 Posted on May 7, 2014  |  2551 words

The Problem I think that most devs would agree when I state that the definition of success in the corporate world of development places less emphasis on “good” code and more emphasis on “working” code. Working code is code that can be released to production on or before the deadline, regardless of performance or even bugs in most cases. As a developer, you ultimately feel as if you’ve failed when you toil for nights on end to meet steep deadlines and churn out crappy code. [Read More]
conflict  culture  ego  mistakes  process 

The Joel Test Really is Meaningful

 Posted on Oct 14, 2012  |  717 words

Well, it’s been nearly 2 months since my last post… I’m learning that if you want a blog to be successful, you have to carve time out of your busy life and make it happen. So, with renewed focus, I re-enter the fray. The Joel Test is a curious and honest thing. It has been around since the year 2000 and was invented by a guy named Joel Spolsky, as the name might imply. [Read More]
analysis  career  culture  interviews  mistakes  workplace