Engineering Leaders -> Stop Failing

(Continued from: "Your Technical Interviews Suck!" ) I get together with a group of engineering leaders regularly, and this topic continues to come up and we roll our eyes and laugh. 𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐊 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 🎤 Since 1996, I’ve never found myself in a situation where I’m working, then suddenly brought before…

I Don't Fear Death.

I get emotional, knowing that the blankets of memories I’m making with my family will one day come to an end.  I recognize all they will have are these blankets, and I hope they snuggle with them, reflecting on what we created together. These memories are all I am…

Nobody Cares That You Use AI

Claiming your company uses or features AI is 𝐧𝐨𝐭 a. selling. point. or. a. bonus. Thank goodness when we bought our cars, the salesman told us that they use robots in the factory! When I pick a restaurant, I make sure they are bragging that their kitchen has ovens. Our banks…

My Kids Think I'm Boring Because I Don't Understand 6-7

When I was their age, I was a legend in the 80s and 90s...... lets take a step back for a moment. I Dug Tunnels. My baseball cards were organized in their boxes, carefully collected through incredible trading skills, and treated like gold. I'd trade for my favorite…

I Raised $12M To Disrupt Your Mouth!!

The Future of Oral Care Is Agentic! Story time!! Lets go back to my California roots. The California Gold Rush, retold to be historically accurate today. Nobody found gold. A guy wrote "GOLD" on a rock and got funded. A man who had never touched dirt gave a…

Your PRs get more scrutiny than your $200k hires.

I meet regularly with engineering leaders. Startups to Series C. 25-30+ years in the game. WE'RE OLD, OK? GET OFF MY LAWN! Anyway, the same topic always comes up: hiring. Engineering leaders!!!!! Your PRs get more scrutiny than your candidate. You seem to spend 3 weeks debating a…

I Sold My Company in 2017. It just showed up at my dinner table.

My son is an AEMT at a local fire department, and I just learned, that they use software I built in 2012!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) Circa 2011, I had an idea and pitched it to everyone who would listen, securing a $1M investment. I wasn't trying to conquer the world nor…

Stop Playing Telephone With Production.

We put a rover on Mars. I bet your services still need a hardcoded IP to say "hello world". Somewhere right now, a senior engineer is grepping through YAML files to find out why Service A can't talk to Service B. The answer is in an…

API Gateways are the best

I Love a Simple API Gateway Service Are they necessary? No. Are they simple to set up? Yes. Will I defend this hill? Only because I already built a small fortress on it and I'm not hauling those sandbags back down. I don't always use them.…