Disclaimer: All opinions are my own Software engineering would be really fun if it weren’t for all the bugs you wind up having to fix! There isn’t much more frustrating than finding a bug that’s hard to explain, and it usually leads to this sequence “Why is this broken? …

The following describes 4/5 of my average mornings. The names haven’t been changed because it’s about me. I make my morning coffee, grab breakfast, and say goodbye to my family before heading to my basement office (I work from home). I crack my knuckles, feeling the caffeine invigorating me, and…

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own I think it’s a common misconception that one of the marks of being a senior engineer is working on more projects simultaneously. In my second job out of college, I worked with a senior engineer whose standup update took 12 minutes of the 60-minute…

If all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. Attributed to Bernard Baruch is one of my favorite quotes. And it couldn’t be more true in software engineering. If all you have is Java, everything starts to look like it could be solved by a…

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own Understanding your own code is hard enough, understanding someone else’s code is even harder. Obligatory XKCD. Fixing Problems xkcd.com is best viewed with Netscape Navigator 4.0 or below on a Pentium 3±1 emulated in Javascript on an Apple IIGS…xkcd.com If understanding code is hard, talking about code is even more difficult. It can be easy to fall into the trap of communicating with too much confidence when…

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own Having large amounts of work in progress is bad for software teams. I imagine this is true for plenty of disciplines, but it’s uniquely bad for software teams. Changes pile up Most meaningful features require several code changes and working through those changes, iterations of feedback from…

It matters what you can explain — Disclaimer: All opinions are my own I’ve worked with at least one “Wizard in the Corner” at every job I’ve had. You know who I’m talking about — the most senior, smartest, most experienced person on the team. They can answer every question, they can solve every problem, and they’re…

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own If you’ve worked in software for any amount of time you’ve heard the phrase, “We’ll have to rewrite it.” Or perhaps, “This is going to be a major rewrite.” Or, “I think we should rewrite this from the ground up.” …

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own I’ve seen this quite a bit lately in Kotlin code: And a year into writing Kotlin consistently, this looks like absolute black magic to me. The first time I saw this in a code review I criticized it was told it was idiomatic.