"Leadership is not about being in charge. It is about taking care of those in your charge." Simon Sinek As a software engineer working in distributed teams for the past five years, I’ve seen how my manager’s actions (or inactions) affect my motivation. In my opinion, I succeeded in my role despite some of these … Continue reading Simple actions for remote managers to keep motivation high
Determining project urgency
Or how I learned to avoid unnecessary overwork I've recently almost given myself burnout by working at an unsustainable pace on a project where I assumed high urgency and impact. In the end, it turned out that it wasn't seen as urgent by the stakeholders. I'd like to share some insights that help with aligning … Continue reading Determining project urgency
Book summary: SQL Antipatterns
I was recently going through my notes of SQL Antipatterns and was shocked to realize how actual this book still is. I'm going to share my summary of the book. I guarantee you'll recognize at least some antipatterns in your current database design. Logical Database Design Antipatterns Jaywalking Antipattern: Storing a delimiter-separated value string in … Continue reading Book summary: SQL Antipatterns
Book summaries: Extreme ownership & The dichotomy of leadership
On any team, in any organization, all responsibility for success and failure rests with the leader. The leader must own everything in his or her world. There is no one else to blame. The leader must acknowledge mistakes and admit failures, take ownership of them, and develop a plan to win.Extreme ownership In this post, … Continue reading Book summaries: Extreme ownership & The dichotomy of leadership
Migrating to privacy-centric apps is simpler than you think
I don't have anything to hide, but I don't have anything to show you either.unknown In my free time, I like to keep an eye on the world of online privacy. The social dilemma describes my reasoning quite well. I've been migrating towards privacy-centric apps, and I'm happy with what I've found. I'm sharing the … Continue reading Migrating to privacy-centric apps is simpler than you think
Looking back at three months of job searching
Whatever you call it: retrospective, post-mortem, post-partum, post-project review. Your work can be better by stopping at regular intervals and asking. "What well that we don't want to forget" What should be done differently?"Linda Rising, foreword to "Agile Retrospectives" by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen When I started looking for a job, I didn't realize … Continue reading Looking back at three months of job searching
Interview refresher for software engineering
Are you looking for a new job? And do you think that your day-to-day "in the trenches" experience as a software engineer will be enough to get you through the interview process? I thought so too, but I was proven wrong. In my interviewing experience, technical interviews are more about algorithms and data structures than … Continue reading Interview refresher for software engineering
TLDR – The DevOps Conference 2021
Last week I attended The DevOps conference 2021. I took away a couple of resources that everyone can use, and I wanted to share them with you hoping that they might contribute to your DevOps inspiration. AWS recently released an alternative to the Netflix simian army: https://aws.amazon.com/fis/Cheryl Hung, one of the leaders of the Cloud … Continue reading TLDR – The DevOps Conference 2021
CITCON 2020, a virtual unconference
https://twitter.com/adinnaplus/status/1266772475003768838 Have you heard about open-spaces before? Have you ever been to an unconference? If yes, find something else to read. Otherwise, keep on reading. I'm going to describe how I experienced a virtual unconference I recently attended. By the end, you will have some good reasons to join one. What is an unconference? I've … Continue reading CITCON 2020, a virtual unconference
A framework for handling difficult conversations
Communication is one of the few skills for which the return of investment is immediate, applies to all areas of life and compounds over time.personal insight For a couple of months, difficult conversations have been a topic of great interest to me. The way I used to handle them is to go into conflict avoidance … Continue reading A framework for handling difficult conversations