Posts by Date

Below are my rants thoughtful posts about life as a software engineer, lessons learned, and little triumphs that I want to share with the internet. Enjoy! 😁

View by Tag

2022

Recreating my old game

4 minute read

I’ve written before about how making video games made me a better programmer, and I’d like to continue that work. I’ve also written about how I lost all the...

Six months at Google

5 minute read

Six months in, and I still can’t believe I work at Google. It’s been a lot to take in, and now that I’ve gotten used to it I want to share what it’s like wo...

Automated Testing

4 minute read

Some people love automated tests and won’t stop singing their praises. Other people hate automated tests and constantly point out what a waste of time they ...

Digital Gardening Follow-up

3 minute read

About 6 months ago I wrote a blog post about digital gardening. The basic idea was that I don’t need to architect every single aspect of this site. Instead...

Programming on a Chromebook

3 minute read

When I started at Google, they gave me my assigned laptop and I was shocked to find out it was, gasp, a Chromebook!? For a software engineer position? How ...

Web 3.0

5 minute read

I think there will be a cool use for all this new technology, but I don’t think we’ve found it yet.

Working Remotely

8 minute read

My early days of remote work were a struggle, but I learned some lessons that I’d like to share.

Things College Didn’t Teach You

8 minute read

A CS degree is a great foundation on which to build a career. The problem is that you can’t simulate the conditions of a work environment

The benefits of bad memory

7 minute read

I have spent my whole life figuring out ways to keep things straight in my head. Over time, I’ve developed habits that compensate for my forgetfulness.

Great Leaders are NOT Perfect

5 minute read

When somebody refuses to admit their mistakes, it erodes trust in that person… When a leader shifts blame to the people around them, it drives a wedge betwe...

Balance, and Not Having Any

3 minute read

It’s yet another USAF drill weekend, which always serves to highlight that I’ve got way too much going on right now.

Google, Here I Come!

3 minute read

It’s official: next month I’ll be a Google employee! 😲 The story of how it happened is a little strange, so I’d like to share.

Structure

2 minute read

You know that one interview question everybody hates? The one I you’ve probably read multiple articles about how to answer? That one that has you wondering...

Back to School!

1 minute read

I hate to admit it, but they were right. Every single one of them warned me and I poo-pooed away their concerns. “That won’t happen to me, I’ll be fine” I ...

The Benefits of Game Programming

3 minute read

My earliest interest in programming started because of video games. My family got our first gaming console when I was 3 or 4 years old, and I was immediatel...

Digital Gardening

2 minute read

You can’t build a garden. You have to plant the seeds and let it grow naturally. It is a slow, deliberate process that involves guiding that growth rather ...

Virtual Reality

2 minute read

I’ve been saying I want a VR headset for a while now, but they have always seemed out of reach. They all required a powerful gaming PC and were a ton of mon...

Back to top ↑

2021

People Skills

3 minute read

🎄Merry Christmas 🎄! Full disclosure: no, I’m not writing a blog post instead of spending Christmas with my family. My blog posts release on Saturday, but ...

Long Lost Code

1 minute read

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about a ridiculous little game I worked on. It sprouted from an idea I had in high school, formed into a real thing when I did a...

Imposter Syndrome

2 minute read

In a previous post I talked about starting the Google Foobar challenge. Great news: I finished all five levels, and there’s an email from a Google recruiter...

Creating Things From Scratch

4 minute read

Mechanics are able to look at a car’s engine, figure out what’s wrong, and fix it. They can tweak an existing engine to make it work better or prevent some ...

Working From Home… With Children

3 minute read

The kids have been home this week for Thanksgiving break, and the whole experience makes me wonder how we survived 2020.

Google Foobar

3 minute read

Earlier this month, I was teaching Python to the newbies at my Air Force Reserve squadron. I work in a cybersecurity squadron and am one of only a couple of ...

Bus Factor 🚍

1 minute read

Recently, my job lost an employee that was working on a project with me. The work was pretty well split up - I was able to work on my stuff without knowing...

My First Blog Post

less than 1 minute read

I’ve been listening to the Working Code podcast and really liked their suggestion to learn in public and use blogging as a way to remember things. So here ...

Back to top ↑