Essay

I have been busy hacking since I got back from my long holidays. I didn’t miss computers while travelling around the world. Not for a second. When you hike up a volcano and engorge yourself in the beautiful views only this planet can reward you with it’s hard to think of computers let alone hacking. But now that I’m back and re-engaged my hacking mode I’ve gained a whole new appreciation for what the act of building software gives me. [Read More]

Throughout my career, I’ve learnt, usually the hard way, the importance of getting the foundations of whatever I was working on right. Or at least as right as possible. I learnt how fundamental it is for setting your project — and by proxy, your team — up for success. I’d argue it’s one of the most important things you should pay attention to. Getting the basics right is notoriously hard due to the inevitability of changing requirements, external factors, etc. [Read More]

This blog post is a collection of advice or rules I’ve learnt to live by as a software engineer. It’s an accumulation of experiences I’ve gained through working for software organizations of various sizes. Most of the advice in this post is aimed at software engineers, but some may be applicable to other roles and industries. Understand the problems you are solving This isn’t a revolutionary idea. But the very sad reality of life is that it still hasn’t been internalised by so many engineers and organisations that it’s worth reiterating. [Read More]

UPDATE: 4th January, The way out of burnout The beginning of 2021 marked the point when some of us were bracing with hope for the year that lied ahead. The year that we hoped to be “better” than the one that we were leaving behind. Little did we know we should have braced for impact instead. For me personally, if 2020 was bad enough then 2021 wiped the last shreds of whatever mental resilience or energy I had left in me. [Read More]