The Birth of Legacy Software – How Change Aversion Feeds On Itself

Here's a common pattern that I see play out very often in software teams: There is a need to change the existing system behavior to accomplish new functionality. The software engineer looking at the task realizes that the existing design isn't well suited to the change needed. They suggest design changes and refactoring, as part … Continue reading The Birth of Legacy Software – How Change Aversion Feeds On Itself →

Abstractions Are In The Eye Of The Beholder

One of the most common debates I see, is on the right level of abstraction to use when coding. The line between over-engineered and unnecessarily-verbose is a very fuzzy one, and is the source of never-ending debates. Unfortunately, this debate is unlikely to ever get resolved. For one simple reason. The correct answer is both … Continue reading Abstractions Are In The Eye Of The Beholder →

Nuances of Overloading and Overriding in Java

I've been programming in Java for over half a decade, and thought I knew how overloading and overriding worked. It was only once I started thinking of and writing up the following corner cases, that I realized I didn't know it nearly as well as I thought. In an effort to gamify these nuances, I've … Continue reading Nuances of Overloading and Overriding in Java →

Alert Fast

A dichotomy I often see in many different teams and projects, is the dilemma between “failing fast” and “failing gracefully.” Here’s a simplified example of what I see far too often, and gets to the core of the dilemma. public String generateGreeting() { try { return “Hello ” + getName(); } catch (Exception e) { … Continue reading Alert Fast →

Hiring is Broken And Yours Is Too

I can't keep track of the number of articles I've read about hiring in the past few years. Inevitably, they all follow the exact same format. First, they claim that hiring is broken. Next, they describe the hiring practices used by XYZ company. The present an extremely thorough analysis of every possible way in which … Continue reading Hiring is Broken And Yours Is Too →

SSH Considered Harmful – Why You Should Be Using Persistent Sessions

No, there hasn't been any new vulnerability found in SSH, nor am I denying the usefulness of SSH as a building block in the dev toolchain. This article is about why you shouldn't be (and how you can avoid) using raw SSH sessions for development work. Here’s a little story. I spent many years working … Continue reading SSH Considered Harmful – Why You Should Be Using Persistent Sessions →

Cracking the Senior Software Interview

The following is a post which I found on the Blind app. It covers all the preparation and experiences of someone who received multiple job offers from the best tech companies, including multiple offers in the range of $550,000/year. Because it can only be accessed via the app, I have copied it in its entirety … Continue reading Cracking the Senior Software Interview →

Rethinking Software Testing: Perspectives from the world of Hardware

The conventional view of Software Testing The hardware and software worlds may seem poles apart, and in many ways, they indeed are. But there’s a wealth of knowledge that each can learn from the other. Despite the seemingly massive differences in the final product, they share more in common than you might expect. Computer engineers … Continue reading Rethinking Software Testing: Perspectives from the world of Hardware →

An Alternative to Dependency Injection Frameworks

I have a confession to make. I hate Dependency Injection (DI) frameworks. My very first job as a Software Engineer involved working with a very complex system that powered a ~100 person hedge fund. We made extensive use of Dependency Injection… but only via Constructor or Setter Injection. We did not use any DI frameworks … Continue reading An Alternative to Dependency Injection Frameworks →

Myths Programmers Believe about CPU Caches

As a computer engineer who has spent half a decade working with caches at Intel and Sun, I’ve learnt a thing or two about cache-coherency. This was one of the hardest concepts to learn back in college - but once you've truly understood it, it gives you a great appreciation for system design principles. You … Continue reading Myths Programmers Believe about CPU Caches →