Hardware

My AMD Hackintosh (and Why)

I'm a Mac holdout; trapped in a technical purgatory since the end of 2015. Fed up with Apple's neglect i decided to build my own Hackintosh.

Mobile

U.S. Devs are Sleeping on Flutter

Flutter is the future of cross platform mobile development. Developers in the US are going to be late to the party at the current pace.

Hiring

Misaligned Requirements

We should strive to align the requirements positions with the traits that lead to success in it. That alignment is getting increasingly unusual, though.

Process

Badge of Honor

A year ago i left my role as a startup CTO and co-founded a consulting company. This has been an eye opening experience in many ways. A lot has changed for me during this time. The most obvious shift has been my perspective around working hours.

Team

Startup Culture Doesn't Come From the Top

One of the common mistakes among startup leadership is the belief that culture comes from the top. This is incorrect. The culture of a small company is an organic, evolving thing. It will grow and respond in unpredictable ways.

Hiring

Common Mistakes When Hiring Software Engineers

The goal of an engineering interview is not to find the candidate who is most confident or thinks on their toes the best. Coding interviews should identify the people who are most likely to be successful on your engineering team.

Review

2018 MacBook Air: A Recalcitrant's Review

A review of a laptop i ask to replace my 2012 Air, which i have used daily for 7 years and consider close to perfect.

Team

Lessons of a Startup CTO

For the last 4 years i have been the head of technology for MeetMindful (TS W16). I moved on a couple of weeks ago. It was time.

Team

Choosing Lifestyle Companies

Lifestyle companies trade the unicorn dream for a vision of freedom. These are some of the challenges to expect along the way.

Team

The Dark Side of Startups

The startup scene is, in many ways, a plethora of good. But as the saying goes, the brightest lights cast the darkest shadows.

Growth

Wizards of Our Age

I used to work with an engineer named Tim. Tim, for all i could tell, was a wizard. He employed advanced and arcane magics such a sed and awk to achieve bizarre but desirable outcomes.

Team

Goal Setting for Engineers

One of the first things new team members learn about me is my outspoken detest for the word "manager". I am not a manager.

code as art

"I would describe my codebase as _____ and _____."

If you had to pick a pair of everyday words to describe the nature of your codebase, what would they be? Take a moment and fill in the following blanks. "I would describe my codebase as ______ and ______" Now, answer a similar question about your ideals: "I would

Growth

Lessons from MicroConf Day 3

The third and final day of MicroConf 2017 was focused on a few themes: revenue, time and value. Any conference Patrick McKenzie (patio11) speaks at will surely have a simple message: double your prices. Patrick has been making this case tirelessly for years and with good reason. His own page

Growth

Lessons from MicroConf Day 2

"Leverage your failures." if i were to summarize day 2 into a single statement, that would be it. In a conference focused on bootstrapping products, a lot of the information has been about parlaying opportunities. The first full day of talks was equal parts inspiring and exhausting. You

Growth

Lessons from MicroConf Day 1

I bet you've considered building a product and earning enough income to quit your job. I'd even bet you already have one; partially built, sitting in digital mothballs. You are not alone. The dream is shared by us all. As is the reality: our SaaS products,

Growth

The One Thing to Avoid While Coding

At a recent talk, one of the attendees asked me, "What is the one thing to avoid when coding?" My answer lacked the foresight a question like that deserves. In the time since i've mused over this very topic. What is the most important thing to

Communication

How to Communicate as an Engineer

There is a running joke at my company that i communicate with analogies. I take it as a compliment. Reason being that i have found no better way to explain abstract technical topics to lay people. Consider this common example. My coworker, Tim, doesn't understand why two similar-looking

tech

Scaling to Millions of Users

Companies are like boats. The small ones are quick and agile. They move fast and pivot on a dime. But that agility comes at a cost: they are notoriously unstable. The rough seas of the market define what they can and cannot do. Make a bad turn and they risk

Growth

Quotes That Changed How I Approach Software

When you say enough words, the law of averages ensures that some of them will be profound. One of the neat things about blogging is that you have a record of when you manage prophetic statements. On that note, if you aren't current blogging or journaling, start. More

Process

Whiteboard Coding Measures Penmanship While Nervous

Every time i go through the interview process i am reminded just how terrible tech interviews are. We ask questions that tell us if a candidate has read an algorithms book lately and assume it speaks to their ability to code well. This approach isn't just flawed, it&

tech

A/B Testing Features by Segmenting Users

"A/B test everything." Those of us in the startup world hear it routinely. But it is a useless statement. Ask "how" and you will be met with the shifting eyes of the ignorant. Indeed, A/B testing is powerful but tricky. Whole companies have been

tech

The Internet is Fundamentally Flawed

Why has the internet been so transformative in the last 20 years? I would argue any complete answer to that question would need to speak to 4 major points: * Anonymity * Interconnectivity * Information sharing * Equal platform for individuals and companies But these aspects are the drivers for the internet's

product

There Can be No Ego in Products

Software engineers are an opinionated bunch. We hold unreasonably strong opinions on how code should look, read, be styled and where it should go. Hell, we can't even talk about tabs and spaces without rising to violence. This isn't a bad thing. It is important that

tech

Choosing a Stack for Your Side Project

Selecting a stack is the first technology decision in a side project. Unfortunately, it is also one of the biggest factors in determining whether or not your project launches. This is not because there are right or wrong technology choices. All widely adopted technologies are different flavors of good. The