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Taking a Break: Managing Vacation Anxiety in the Tech World
Working in technology, and particularly in development, makes disconnecting one of the hardest things to achieve. Sometimes I think that a problem-solving brain is like a huge boulder rolling down a hill. At first, it requires a lot of effort to overcome the slope and reach the top, but once there, a final small push…
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“No, you can’t” – An answer to avoid
As developers, the ability to confidently say “no” is essential. We must be assertive in declining unreasonable requests or unrealistic deadlines, lest we create expectations we cannot meet. While the fear of negative judgment, being perceived as lazy or incompetent, or being overly eager to please can hinder our ability to say no, developing this…
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Death by Comfort: Stuck in routine as a developer.
A couple of days ago, I listened to an interview with Paul Taylor, the author of “Death by Comfort.” The subject, and the title, struck me as interesting: how humans have evolved to react to adversity and how a life of ease prevents us from reaping those benefits. I brought home that idea, and throughout…
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The helpless helper
From time to time, we all find ourselves with a small, essential, but unexciting piece of code in our hands. It’s necessary for our program to run, yet, for some reason, it feels like it doesn’t quite fit. Call it what you will: helper, utility, library, common, or something else, they all share a common…
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Doc and Code is King
Even the simplest, cheapest home appliance comes with a more or less detailed user manual. Most of us decide to throw it away and trust in the good design of the device for discoverability, allowing us to learn how to use it. But right after design, good documentation sets the difference between a piece of…
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Sprinters don’t win marathons
Software development is like a long-distance run. Most of the time, you need to maintain a steady pace—a velocity that enables you to consistently deliver features, maintain your code, and improve your skills predictably and profitably. This rhythm should allow you to adapt to exceptional changes. Occasionally, you’ll need to sprint to meet deadlines or…
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Computer, kill Flanders
There’s a lot of buzz around artificial intelligence. Some people are concerned about losing their jobs to artificial intelligence, some other people are excited about all the attention they get when they talk about how we all will lose our jobs to artificial intelligence. But most people don’t get artificial intelligence, and will dump it…
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One screen to rule them all
As a late gen-x my wet dream has always been having a large dashboard full of controllers and screens, a wall of screens. With a thought deeply rooted in my brain: “if only I had one more screen”. I would be more productive, I would work faster, I would do more things at the same…