When I initially proposed my monetizing failure challenge, I first sat down and tried to figure out how bad it could get (worst case, I figured I’d be on the hook for $1400). I then had to convince my wife that I wasn’t being an idiot (no easy task, given the historical record). I had no idea […]
Author Archives: Dan
Meter maids Being able to find a parking space Investment bankers The mutual funds in my 401K being well-managed “Bad” hackers attacking organizations I like “Good” hackers attacking organizations I hate (also, the rule of law) Dieting and exercise The feeling of being in shape Taxes Services Materialism Consumer electronics Being interrupted Getting answers immediately Writing Writing […]
Every company optimizes for something. Sometimes this is an external measure – price, quality, security, customer service, etc. Sometimes it’s internal – hiring, project/risk/change management, and so on. Of course every company wants to do everything perfectly, but when you look at how they make decisions, there’s usually a central organizing theory. At TripAdvisor, the […]
I spent a couple of hours on Sunday putting together some IKEA furniture – a table, some chairs, a couple of cabinets with toy bins. My five year old son unexpectedly took an interest, my wife and two year old got in on the action, and a tedious process turned into a full family adventure. […]
Once again, it’s time for my monthly descent into TMI land, to discuss progress in my ongoing quest to get back into shape. It’s been a bit of a mixed bag this month – a couple of colds, Thanksgiving, and moving into our new (and hopefully last!) house have wreaked havoc on my workout schedule. […]
When I started hiring, I used to look for the 10x programmers, the rockstars, the embarrassingly named “ninjas” (I blame you for starting the trend, Srinija). I quickly learned that these were impossible to hire – they looked exactly like every other “good” programmer, until one day you realized that they’d significantly improved performance by rearranging […]
“Two nations; between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other’s habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets; who are formed by a different breeding, are fed by a different food, are ordered by different manners, and are […]
Regular readers of the blog will know that I’ve been trying a variety of experiments over the past year in order to lose weight. Things were going slowly until suddenly, in late July, I started working out 5-6 times a week. This wasn’t by design – without really thinking about it too much, I just started […]
I recently wrote a post about negative feedback, and how useful it was to learn ways in which you could improve. By itself, of course, constant negative feedback would be incredibly depressing. We also need to know when we’re doing well. This sounds trite, and yet it’s the rare manager who consistently gives positive feedback. I remember […]
In a strong engineering organization, there are typically two main technical leadership tracks. Different companies have different names for them, and their responsibilities can sometimes overlap, but for the sake of this discussion let’s call them “leads” and “managers.” The lead is the alpha nerd – this is the engineer who guides the team technically, […]
Dan Dreams of Coding 