2021

This month I want to highlight an article, The Maxim For Every Successful Person; ‘Always Stay A Student’, by Ryan Holiday. The article discusses the importance of staying a learner, even as your mastery reaches new heights. The Mongols demonstrated constant learning in their quest for world domination, and the lessons they applied are just…

This month I want to highlight an article, Why The Status Quo Is So Hard To Change In Engineering Teams, by Antoine Boulanger. The article discusses learned helplessness, a behavior exhibited by people after enduring repeated aversive stimuli that they perceive is beyond their control. Learned helplessness is a common human behavior, affecting our professional…

This month I want to highlight an article, Warren Buffett’s Little Known ‘Noah Rule’ Is the Key to Surviving Adversity, by Scott Mautz. The Noah Rule states: “Predicting rain doesn’t count, building an ark does.” Much of our jobs involves predictive analysis, including designing products, architecting technical systems, and launching software. The Noah Rule reminds…

This month I want to highlight a blog, The Bumpy Road Code Smell: Measuring Code Complexity by its Shape and Distribution by Adam Tornhill. Adam first reviews cyclomatic complexity, a long-used measure of code complexity, and posits that cyclomatic complexity is ineffective because it does not account for human psychology. We can only store a…

This month I want to highlight a post, Why I left Google to join Grab by Steve Yegge (yes, that Steve Yegge). Steve starts the post by discussing why he is leaving Google, listing four main reasons which are, in Amazon cultural language, Day 2 behaviors: conservative decisions, politics, arrogance, and a loss of customer…

This month I want to highlight an article, Windows 11: TPMs and Digital Sovereignty by Can Bölük, Daax Rynd, and everdox. TPM (Trusted Platform Module) is an international standard for a secure cryptoprocessor, a dedicated microcontroller designed to secure hardware through integrated cryptographic keys. TPM allows your device to attest a known, trusted state, and…

This month I want to highlight a post, Bob Cassette Rewinder: Hacking Detergent DRM for 98% Cost Saving by dekuNukem. This author is curious about their countertop dishwasher with proprietary detergent cartridges, and provides a well written and detailed account of their journey to hack the cartridge DRM and save costs. The author reminds us…

This month I want to highlight an article, How Discord Stores Billions of Messages by Stanislav Vishnevskiy. This article ventures beyond the standard considerations in a tech scalability article by including explicit requirements around business needs and operational sustainability. This article reminds us that we are best served when our tech decisions account for broader…

This month I want to highlight an article, Creating a “path to yes” to spur innovation by Adam Bryant. Adam notes that a prominent natural human tendency is to avoid risk. This leads to behaviors where we reason why we can’t achieve a goal, instead of how we can. Adam notes that changing this mindset…

This month I want to highlight an article, Software estimation is your most costly activity. Why not reduce it? by Brian Kelly. Brian notes common pitfalls when we attempt to improve estimation precision, such as wasted time that does not generate value for customers, and offers tips on how to use estimations effectively. Even though…