Recent content on Andrew W. Lee
In middle school, I got stuck on algebra. Specifically, expressions like (x + y) 2 . I was wrong, but at the time, I naively thought it became x 2 + y 2 . To solve this, we were taught FOIL, an algorithm, for expanding (x + y) 2 . It was simple enough. But I was never convinced that the exponent didn’t distribute to both terms, like multiplication does. I just could not understand why it didn’t…
Software and services I pay for 1password (~$3/mo) iCloud 200GB ($3/mo) Mozilla VPN ($5/mo) Youtube Premium ($14/mo) Hulu (ad free version) ($18/mo) Jetbrains/Rubymine ($59/yr) Software Design: Tidy First? substack ($70/yr) Pragmatic Engineer substack ($150/yr) Leetcode ($159/yr) The state of computer software is totally different from when I grew up in the 90s/early 2000s. I still have some…
This is a continuation from my last post, learning Japanese . The first post covered the first half of my trip to Japan and a lot has happened since then. Differences in class The pace and intensity of the lessons ramped up, which was a pleasant change. It was challenging but reasonable. Outside of class, I spent an additional few hours reviewing vocabulary and doing homework, and felt that I was…
I made the decision to move to Japan to learn Japanese. I set out to study for 4 months at a Japanese language school back in November, and so far it has been a transformative experience. I am halfway through my program and reflecting on my experience so far. This is my 3rd time in Japan. I first visited in 2019 for two weeks, then again in October 2022 for two months, and now in November 2023 for…
I am primarily a Ruby programmer, but over the years, I have dabbled in frontend work. Mostly due to work and a little by choice. Learning frontend had made me like I was Sisyphus, forever pushing up the stone up the hill, or in this case, forever learning different libraries and constantly changing paradigms. The churn in the meta 1 and the quirks of Javascript all made it feel like it was…
Annotate , also known as annotate_models, is a widely used gem that improves the Rails developer experience by automatically adding related database schema annotations to model files, as well as annotating routes in the route file. I forked it and created a new gem, AnnotateRb . If you have seen this before in a model, then you have seen the gem in action. Database schema comments in a Rails model…
I wrote this back in March 2020 but didn’t get approval to publish it. Since then the described product has been shutdown. Note that details about the product offering have changed throughout the years. The title is a play on “If you build it, they will come” which at the time was/is a mantra in the Silicon Valley startup world. In July 2019, my team had spent late nights in the office working…
Earlier this month, I left Modern Treasury . I’m really grateful for the opportunity to work there and to experience remote work (more on this coming soon). Working in payments / fintech in the United States was a huge learning experience for me as I got exposure to a lot of the challenges in the space. Needless to say, the team is doing really hard and valuable work. For folks that are hearing…
At UCLA, I had the opportunity to take Psych 189, a seminar class, with Professor Stan Schein. During one class, he had shared how to get into graduate school and in doing so talked about “What is Science?” I’ve tidied up my notes and am sharing them here. As I’ve progressed throughout my career in software engineering, there are times I think about going back to Academia. It was a good exercise…
Part of my adulting series where I share stories and things I learned while becoming an adult. tl;dr If you were covered under insurance and find yourself without it, learn about Qualifying Life Events. If I knew this then I would have saved a $1,000. A few years ago, I had just finished frying a piece of steak. I seasoned it with McCormick Montreal seasoning and got a nice sear on it. After, I…
Kent has a framework for approaching software development. He calls it RRF, which stands for 1) make it run, 2) make it right, and then 3) make it fast. Kelly Sutton, another engineer at Gusto, does an excellent job fleshing out RRF in his post on dramatically reducing build times for CI (although he calls it WRF). “Make it work” means shipping something that doesn’t break. The code might be ugly…
I’m calling this period in time, “The Awesome Winter.” I was inspired by Phil Jackson (in The Last Dance), giving each NBA season a theme. So the theme of this period is The Awesome Winter. Awesome: extremely impressive or daunting; inspiring great admiration, apprehension, or fear. (Oxford Languages) Winter: as Jim Rohn puts it, “Winter will always come; not only in the…
Monday (8/10) marked the end of my two weeks of time off. I was initially going to take the week of my birthday but ended up pushing it back further and taking an extra week off. It worked out great. The last time I took an extended amount of time away from work (extended meaning > 1 week) was back in September / October 2019, before COVID. With everything that has happened since then, it felt…
I stumbled across this sometime in late 2013. At the time, I didn’t know much about mental health, but I always felt that there was something off within me when it came to productivity and procrastination. Hearing about Greg’s journey and his experiences resonated with me, and it made an impact on my life. Just give a watch, and if it doesn’t resonate with you, perhaps it will…
I’m always surprised when I catch myself sidetracked on my phone. I pick up my phone intending to authenticate myself for 2FA in mind. Then just moments later, I’m checking my Fantasy Basketball team or responding to text messages. I’m sure there’s a psychology phenomenon named after this. Maybe this behavior is just strongly conditioned like Pavlov’s metronome. Now there’s nothing wrong with…
“Something I want to try is to move somewhere to be alone and to work on things. All I would need is my laptop.” My friend Sasa told me he was thinking about moving somewhere, to be alone and to work on personal projects. That all he needed was his laptop and the internet. This way he would be free from distractions and be able to fully focus on projects.
I haven’t given any talks yet . My goal is to speak at a conference by July 2020.
A collection of things that have impacted my life along with the reason(s) why. Greg Bauges: Developers and Depression
A trap that I’ve fallen into is thinking I can earn when I spend, and to some extent that’s true. When I spend money using a rewards credit card such as the Chase Sapphire Reserve, I get rewarded with points. It’s classical conditioning in its purest sense. These points can be redeemed for travel and cash back. But am I actually earning when I spend? The answer? It depends. I am earning when I use…
In July, I accepted my second full-time job. Looking back, my first and second job hunt was quite different. I wrote this is to provide alternative viewpoints on what to look for when applying to companies and deciding between offers, especially for those starting in their careers — Outline Factors I used to apply and decide between offers Other factors to consider Less obvious factors to consider…
Note: Many people reading this won’t know what a pledge master is. It varies for each organization. In my experience, it is not at all what you would imagine from the movies like 22 Jump Street, with prospects being hazed and being forced to consume excess amounts of alcohol to join an organization. A better mental picture would be a camp counselor at summer camp, engaging in leading and…
My name is Andrew, but I also go by Drew for short. I’m currently living in the San Francisco Bay Area and working at FireHydrant . I’ve recently came back from a work sabbatical in Japan, where I attended a Japanese language school for 4 months. If you would like to get in touch, I prefer email as a method of communication. Here are some things I’ve written over the years.