Here are some of the things I've learned so far
Tech Democratization For decades, “democratizing technology” has been a slogan you could slap on a slide deck and call it a strategy. AI is turning it into something measurable. That’s what I keep thinking about when I look at this certificate. Not because it’s remarkable that I completed the course. It isn’t.The interesting part is Continue reading "Tech Democratization"
Assumptions My doctor says, “You have to choose — phone or computer? Which do you want to see?” I get asked this every year. My near vision and far vision prescriptions started diverging a decade ago, and the solution has been a combination of contact lenses for far vision with glasses on top for near Continue reading "Assumptions"
Users are Builders? Hot take: Open source’s wins and its burnout cycles have been driven by one hidden assumption: “Users are builders.” In a project’s infancy, it’s true. Early adopters are engineers. They can debug, patch, and carry the maintenance load alongside the core team. But when a project matures, the user base changes. Now Continue reading "Users are Builders?"
Engineering Economics I got a recruiter email this week that made me smile, not because it was “great,” but because it felt like a signal flare from reality: Job Title: Rust DeveloperClient: MicrosoftRole Type: 6 month contractLocation: RemoteRate: $34/hr on W2Interview: 2 video rounds Let’s translate that rate. $34/hr on W2 is roughly $70K/year if Continue reading "Engineering Economics"
More often than not, technology manufacturers are releasing new products with security that is “no worse than before,” but the shortcomings of our past cannot be the goal for our future.
After losing the 2008 election for South Carolina’s second congressional district by just 26,000 votes with a largely self-funded campaign and a staff of mostly family and friends, Rob and I decided to invest in a professional second run in the 2010 cycle. We carefully selected a top tier campaign manager, and she spent months Continue reading "Campaigns"
Project management (PM) is tragically misunderstood, and the growing size and complexity of our software development projects demands mastery of this artform. Effective management of modern projects requires throwing out the old PM guidebooks in favor of an extreme approach that can make tenured leaders uneasy. When I was hired as a Technical Program Manager Continue reading "Project Management"
I’ve had a pretty unconventional career path. I started by dropping out of high school at sixteen to focus on my college courses. After I finished my masters in math, I took a role building common fintech software components. Years later, when I was promoted to principal engineer (PE), the idea of extending the software Continue reading "Team Building"
I love opportunities that stretch my skills, teach me things, and surprise me. I always pick roles where I would be happy even if I fail. That’s how I’ve managed to be so many things, like engineer, political consultant, university instructor, business owner, and engineering manager. This decision criteria is also how, in the past Continue reading "Decision Making"
In November of 2019, the USS Abraham Lincoln’s routine six month deployment to the Mediterranean Sea was extended indefinitely. The 5,000 sailors and Marines aboard were unexpectedly facing the holidays confined to ship, far from family. Just days before Thanksgiving, overwhelmed with reports from the crew and their families of Amazon order attempts failing, the Continue reading "Mechanisms"