Articles on Career
Buy-In Before Implementation
May 21, 2026 · 3 min read
Shifting the discussion left causes outside contributions to have a higher acceptance rate.
Confidence is a Requirement
May 5, 2026 · 3 min read
You should not ship changes that you aren't confident in. Full stop.
The Rings of Legacy Code
Nov 28, 2025 · 2 min read
It's easy to see the growth of a tree in hindsight by cutting it down and measuring its rings. Software at your company has growth rings, too.
Be an Engineer Who Invites Collaboration
Nov 23, 2025 · 7 min read
I don't care if you're a 10x engineer, I care if we can build great things together.
One, Few, or Many: A Guide to Rapid Impact Assessment
Nov 22, 2025 · 3 min read
Stakeholders love this one simple trick.
Discussion Guide: The Pragmatic Programmer, 20th Anniversary Edition
Mar 26, 2025 · 7 min read
A guide with discussion prompts for David Thomas and Andrew Hunt's The Pragmatic Programmer, 20th Anniversary Edition.
Amortize Your Learning by Writing How-To Guides
Mar 4, 2024 · 6 min read
The time required to learn something new can be large, but you can make that cost worth it by teaching it to others.
Discussion Guide: The Staff Engineer's Path
Nov 7, 2023 · 7 min read
A guide with discussion prompts for Tanya Reilly's The Staff Engineer's Path.
Discussion Guide: The Unicorn Project
Nov 6, 2023 · 8 min read
A guide with discussion prompts for Gene Kim's The Unicorn Project.
Avoiding Blanket Statements
May 6, 2022 · 6 min read
One part of emotional intelligence is understanding how our words impact others.
Retrospective Techniques
Feb 4, 2022 · 7 min read
Retrospectives need to be productive and engaging or participants will quickly tune them out. Here are some techniques to hold more interesting retros.
Code Review Comment Prefixes
Nov 6, 2020 · 4 min read
Regardless of what style of code reviews you use, code reviews in general are an important tool to share expertise and improve quality, but sometimes the intention of comments can be lost.