I’ve consciously taken a new approach to learning to do my job, and it’s by doing one simple thing very deliberately: to always teach what… — I’ve consciously taken a new approach to learning to do my job, and it’s by doing one simple thing very deliberately: to always teach what I learn. Suppose I’m an oldie (in terms of tenure) in a team of new joiners. It’s certain that everyone will want or need to…

I haven’t thought deeply about observability as a concept until recently. — I haven’t thought deeply about observability as a concept until recently. Before this, I had practiced making the systems I work on more observable by adding logging in application code and setting up some dashboards that monitor network traffic and memory usage. …

When I’m stuck, I like to fall back to old ways and just do things that I remember worked for me, even when the situation then and now are… — When I’m stuck, I like to fall back to old ways and just do things that I remember worked for me, even when the situation then and now are quite different. For example, I was trying to start an Android emulator for a React Native app on my MacBook and…

Everyone on your team works remotely. Someone just asked you a question in a Slack DM and you’re in the middle of something. What do you… — Everyone on your team works remotely. Someone just asked you a question in a Slack DM and you’re in the middle of something. What do you do? My answer: wait till I’m free to sit down and read the question carefully before writing a reply. Right? Isn’t that what you…

You can use rails console to gain full access to models and controllers and helpers provided by Rails in an interactive ruby (irb) session. — You can use rails console to gain full access to models and controllers and helpers provided by Rails in an interactive ruby (irb) session. This is fantastic as it provides us with the ability to quickly do some tests, like creating an instance of User and an instance of a…

There is no such thing as a self-taught or self-made programmer, because… — There is no such thing as a self-taught or self-made programmer, because… Someone learned before you and wrote the curriculum that you are basing your learning on. Before that, someone made the computer you’re learning to code on. Before that, someone mined the materials, which was processed by various someones…

I’ve experienced some internal tension (in my head) in my third and fourth week at my new job at Shopify. It’s the tension that arises from… — I’ve experienced some internal tension (in my head) in my third and fourth week at my new job at Shopify. It’s the tension that arises from wanting to be a valuable member of the team as soon as possible when I’m not yet ready to do anything that will move…

When in school we can write whatever we want and we will still be guaranteed and audience of at least one person, because our teachers are… — When in school we can write whatever we want and we will still be guaranteed and audience of at least one person, because our teachers are paid to read our writing. Once we graduate, that guarantee is gone forever. Even if you paid (like we do with ads) you are…

Idempotent is a word used to describe a system component that has the characteristic of “having the same outcome regardless of repeated… — Idempotent is a word used to describe a system component that has the characteristic of “having the same outcome regardless of repeated action.” That’s my definition anyway. Officially, from googling, it is: Idempotence is the property of certain operations in mathematics and computer science whereby they can be applied multiple…