Personal
Holiday (product) shipping
This was an interesting holiday season, work-wise, for three reasons. First: My work was closed down from Dec 20th to Jan 4th (except for Customer Support and whichever developer was on firefighting duty, though that is all remote). We shipped two large products on December 17th, which was a...
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Free Practical Maya Programming with Python eBooks
Merry Christmas and happy holidays everyone, Last week I asked my publisher if I could make the Practical Maya Programming with Python eBook totally free. I was told some good news and bad news. The bad news is, they won’t make it free. The good news is, my editor...
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Long live Slack, down with egotistical email
We use Slack for team communication at Cozy. I struggled with the transition. When I reflected on my struggles, it made me better understand what a destructive format email is for workplace communication.
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First, do no harm
From a wonderful post by Matt Williams about the type of business he is looking for: A Business Manifesto We are uncovering better ways of running a business and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value: – People and interactions over profits and prestige...
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If you hear “perception is reality” you’re probably being screwed
I was once told in a performance review that “perception is reality.” I was infuriated, and the words stuck in my mind as the most toxic thing a manager could say to an employee. I have avoided writing about it, but the “This American Life” episode about Carmen Segarra’s...
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Old towns, and legacy software
On our road trip from Austin to Portland, we stopped in a handful of towns that were booming in the late 19th century. In particular, Pendleton, Oregon made an impression. They were exhibiting serious effort and success revitalizing the town. Pendleton has a rich and interesting history, but has...
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Escaping the Windows prison
My friend Brad Clark over at Rigging Dojo is organizing a course on Maya’s C++ API (I am assuming it is Maya but could be another program). He had a question about student access to Visual Studio, to which I responded: @riggingdojo I cannot imagine doing a worse disservice...
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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....