When Software Engineers live in a Spy Thriller.Tech isn’t always about debugging code from a cozy office. Sometimes, it feels more like a spy movie. My time as a software engineer for…Mar 203Mar 203
Alexa is Claude, all the code I wrote is dead.In 2016, I was lucky enough to work on a project that felt like the future: Alexa, Amazon’s voice assistant. For months, I wrote code that…Feb 122Feb 122
Why Your File Microservice is a Mistake (and What to Do Instead)Building scalable, maintainable systems is hard. But sometimes, in our quest for elegance, we make decisions that create more problems than…Jan 1522Jan 1522
Zen of Python: Why “Explicit is Better Than Implicit”For my last post of 2024, I wanted to celebrate the 20 years of the Zen of Python. Published in August 2004 and available as an Easter egg…Dec 30, 20241Dec 30, 20241
From Pets to Cattle: How Our Relationship with Servers Has EvolvedA simple metaphor to change the way you think about Infrastructure.Dec 11, 2024Dec 11, 2024
Do job titles matter in tech?During the hiring process, a candidate didn’t negotiate his salary but asked for a higher title. (Staff engineer instead of Senior). I was…Nov 20, 20243Nov 20, 20243
Lessons learned from Hackathons. Expect the unexpected.My first hackathon was Photo Hack Day 2012 in Berlin. The concept was a big trend in Silicon Valley but was still rare in Europe. The rules…Oct 29, 2024Oct 29, 2024
A different perspective on Amazon’s new RTO policyOn September 16, 2024, Andy Jassy, the CEO of Amazon, announced the end of remote work and the mandatory return to the office five days a…Oct 8, 20242Oct 8, 20242
Error handling, past and futureFrom try/catch to outcome pattern, how the philosophy around errors and exceptions is changing.Sep 8, 20241Sep 8, 20241
Stop Wasting Time on Early OptimizationTrap software engineers often fall into is to optimize code for problems they don’t have. Let’s take a look at this case study.Aug 2, 2024Aug 2, 2024
