My journey
A Saturday afternoon in the 80s. The Christmas tree was coming down, headed out to the street, and small-me fell apart over it — two hours of crying for a dead tree I wanted to save. I still think about it, and about what we trade away to stop caring.
A customer reported a bug. I opened a pull request to fix it. That last sentence is the part I love about my Support Engineer role at Workbrew. The chance to treat support requests as opportunities to eliminate future ones, and travel from inbox to deploy in a single afternoon.
Many years after university, I flew to Athens to interview for a BCS membership. When I mentioned Michael Dertouzos's What Will Be as a favorite book, both professors laughed uncontrollably. They never told me why. Twenty-eight years later, nearly everything Dertouzos predicted came true.
Reflecting on my early programming career, detailing the inherent challenges of unpaid overtime and implicit pressure to meet tight deadlines. Recounting a pivotal moment that changed my work ethic, leading me to enforce strict hours despite the demands. Ultimately, the experience shaped my resilience and perspective on professional boundaries.
Coding felt like playing a song. The notes came out of your fingers. Now someone walks up mid-song and says, "Stop playing it yourself, or you'll fall behind." The maker, the artist... hands off the fretboard. Something is lost when you stop touching the strings. But the instrument has changed, not disappeared.
Support teams often default to vague responses when customers report issues, prioritizing corporate image over transparency. Embracing "radical transparency" enhances customer relationships by sharing honest details about problems and limitations. This approach fosters trust, reduces repeated inquiries, and encourages collaborative solutions, ultimately benefiting both customers and the company.
The author reflects on the negative impacts of multitasking, especially exacerbated by faster AI tools that encourage juggling multiple tasks. After shifting to a "one thing at a time" approach, they experienced improved calmness and control, highlighting the importance of focusing on individual tasks for better mental well-being, regardless of productivity metrics.
Management is a two-way street, involving proactive engagement from both managers and individual contributors (ICs). ICs should prepare for 1:1s, provide context about their work, align on priorities, and communicate problems early. This collaboration leads to better relationships, faster growth, and increased satisfaction for both parties.
My company, Amignosis, website is a simple Phoenix LiveView web app. It was on Phoenix 1.7.21 and Elixir 1.18, and I wanted to upgrade it to Phoenix 1.8.3 and Elixir 1.19. So, I decided to try Tidewave with Claude Code, to do it for me. Here s a video showing the process, but read ahead if [ ]
It was spring break, 1988. I turned on my Amiga 500, the pigeons cooed outside, and summer filled the air. Across the street, my friend had an Atari and a magazine full of BASIC listings. We typed code all afternoon. Nothing has changed, but everything has changed. I’m loading memories.