As I endeavor to re-establish writing here as a regular and consistent project, I’m reminding myself of two things that helped me in the past. First and foremost, it’s about the writing and the finished product over the page views and vanity metrics. No one’s biography or Wikipedia page says “and lo they were followed … Continue reading Here’s a thing, October 05, 2017
Category: Expanded ideas
The notes, October 04, 2017
I’m intrigued by folks having luck building virtualized development environments for localhost setups. It sounds like fun to work in this kind of workflow. I never want to do the legwork to make this work, though. I did the preliminaries for this last year and ended up turning back from it. I understand Docker and … Continue reading The notes, October 04, 2017
Afternoon notes, October 03, 2017
Someone will always have a slicker Git workflow than you. For example,Auto-squashing Git Commits for clever rebasing. The passage of time is weird, lately. Nonetheless, it’s surprising that the Dynamo white paper is ten years old. Ten years of NoSQL hype. Even from a naive yours truly. I’ve been using the fish shell for about … Continue reading Afternoon notes, October 03, 2017
Morning notes, October 03, 2017
I like Bluebottle's coffee subscription service a lot. The web app is well done and having coffee magically appear in my mailbox means I have far fewer "awww heck we're out of coffee until I go to a coffee shop" moments. However, I do occasionally mess up the timing, such as right now, and then … Continue reading Morning notes, October 03, 2017
When my brain storms
I do my best thinking: In the shower. I love to take long showers, and I love my tankless water heater. While talking. Something about my brain is wired directly to my mouth. When I'm not thinking. See also, the value of letting your mind idle, wander, or just walking away from a tricky problem. … Continue reading When my brain storms
Personal city guides
I’ve seen lots of sites about how to use software. The Setup and The Sweet Setup are my favorites. You can find lots of sites about how to use ideas like Inbox Zero or Crossfit. People love this stuff. What I don’t see a lot of is how to use a city, as a visitor … Continue reading Personal city guides
Sometimes it’s okay to interrupt a programmer
I try really hard to avoid interrupting people. Golden rule: if I don’t want interruptions I shouldn’t impose them on other, right? Not entirely so. Having teammates around, and interrupting them, has saved my butt. I’ve avoided tons of unnecessary work and solving the wrong problems, and that’s just the last week! Communicating with others … Continue reading Sometimes it’s okay to interrupt a programmer
Just tackle the problem
There’s a moment when a programming problem engulfs me. Perhaps it’s exciting and intriguing, maybe it’s weird and infuriating, maybe it’s close to a deadline and stressing me out. Whichever it is, I’m not so great at managing that intensity. I can’t handle adult responsibilities. Any external demands on my time are met with impatience. … Continue reading Just tackle the problem
Protect the beginner’s mind
Someone joins your team. They have a beginner's mind about your project and culture. Take a person with beginner's mind, tell them about how things have always been, how they got that way, and insist we just try to keep that status quo? That's a shame. When you harness a beginner's mind, you have a … Continue reading Protect the beginner’s mind
Contrast NYC and SF
Dallas and Austin are the cities I've spent my life in. I've spent maybe three weeks of my life, total, in San Francisco and New York City. They're similar in that SF and NYC are both a Whole Other Thing in comparison to my Texan expectations. Indeed, they're global cities operating at an entirely different … Continue reading Contrast NYC and SF
