Software Engineering

Have you ever joined a new team with a new tech stack, with a new process, and a production issue already waiting for you? Here is how I ramp up fast: I zoom out before I zoom in. The Problem: Everyone Hunts Where They’re Comfortable During my consultant gigs, I am constantly dropped into an unfamiliar environment. New teams, new architecture, new tech stack, new development process, new deployment process, it’s always new. The question is always the same: how do you stay on top of it? ...

“So, what kind of engineer are you?” “I’m a Python engineer.” Every time I hear this, I cringe a little. Not because Python isn’t amazing—it absolutely is. But because somewhere along the way, we’ve started defining ourselves by our tools instead of our craft. I’m sure you’ve heard it too: “I am an AWS engineer,” “I am a React developer,” as if the tool has become their entire professional identity. ...

There’s a really weird communication pattern that I keep seeing all the time in big companies and small companies. Picture this: You’re hiring an employee, consultant, contractor, whatever you want to call them. You think this person has good experience and you’re paying them hundreds of thousands of dollars. Once you hire them, you tell them, “Hey, I want you to do this.” This is super weird. You’re not explaining the problem. You’re just trying to use this person as a human tool. ...

I want to argue that you should build your product on microservices; not because of technical reasons, but because you should see it as a team management strategy. The Double-Edged Sword of Microservices Let’s zoom out and first remember what a microservice is. A microservice is basically a small, deployable piece of service that, when meshed together with others, forms a larger application. If you’re already working with microservices or even if you haven’t built any so far, you’ve probably heard about it. ...