Blog of Rob Galanakis (@robgalanakis)

Archive for August, 2014

Hire talented people and get out of their way?

Whenever I need inspiration for a blog post, I check my LinkedIn feed. I am bound to find a stupid inspirational quote. Today’s is: In most cases being a good boss means hiring talented people and then getting out of their way. This advice (hire smart, don’t micromanage) is...

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GeoCities and the Qt Designer

In a review of my book, Practical Maya Programming with Python, reviewer W Boudville suggests my advice of avoiding the Qt Designer is backwards-looking and obsolete, such as writing assembler instead of C for better performance, or using a text file to design a circuit instead of a WYSIWYG...

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The low status of software engineers

A couple weeks ago I read an article by Michael Church titled “How the Other Half Works: an Adventure in the Low Status of Software Engineers“. It is the story of Bill, who had two very different experiences interviewing for two different positions at two different companies: one as...

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A short letter to a unit testing newcomer

One of my friends asked how to get started with unit testing and Test Driven Development and figured I could write a short post. I also mention TDD a few times in my book so I think it could use some more attention. I got started with unit testing...

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A manager’s primary job is to build trust

While interviewing for my new position at Cozy, I was repeatedly asked what the job of an Engineering Manager is.* By the end of the day, I had decided (for myself, anyway) that the most important job of an Engineering Manager** is building trust. Senior engineers must trust you....

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“Do you expect too much from people?”

Last year, a coworker asked me if perhaps I expect too much from other people. I thought about it a moment and said: No. I do not accept the argument that I’m somehow inherently superior to most others. In fact it is because I know I am not superior that...

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You must manage what you can’t measure

We all know the quote: You can’t manage what you can’t measure. The quote is often incorrectly attributed to W. Edwards Deming. Thank goodness, because that sentiment is absolutely ridiculous, and Deming is one of my heroes. In fact, a more accurate Deming quote is: The most important figures...

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Portland, here we come!

Tomorrow, my family leaves on a four day trip to begin a new life in Portland, OR, as the Engineering Manager at real-estate startup www.cozy.co. I am incredibly excited to join the company for all sorts of reasons (the role, product, team, founders, location, pretty much everything). It’ll also...

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Code separators and headers are more than a matter of style

IDontCareIfYouPreferPascalCase, ifCamelCaseIsForYou, or_if_you_prefer_lowercase_underscores. They all have their merits. However, there is one element of many style guides that I have come to vehemently disagree with: function/class headers* and separators. I bring it up because I’ve encountered them in pretty much every codebase I’ve worked with, but never found it...

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