Intro / About These Essays
I've been a software engineer in Silicon Valley for nearly 20 years, and I've had the privilege of mentoring, both formally and informally, several folks in various stages of their careers. I've found that, in these various 1:1 conversations, the same themes come up over and over again. As some examples:
- Breaking down a problem
- Thinking about the next level in one's career
- Learning new things
- Happiness vs. Satisfaction
- Writing good PR or commit description, and why
- The purpose of code reviews
- Tech debt vs. Road maps
- etc
As an opinionated experienced engineer, I obviously have thoughts about these topics, and others. I hope to write a collection of essays on these topics. Most have surely been covered elsewhere, but if people are still asking the questions, perhaps there's room for a new presentation or a new lens. And maybe, if we're very lucky, I'll occasionally produce an idea that's actually novel.
Writing things down helps me solidify and refine my thoughts, and gets them out of my head rather than having them swirl around forever. And a published essay gives me something I can link to someone new asks an old question.
I expect I'll also write a few musings on other topics. Personal values; software engineering principles; software projects I'd love to have time to build; government and politics. Topics that I ponder repeatedly. Perhaps some reader will find them thought-provoking. Perhaps I'll find my perspectives change over time.
Welcome! Let me know if you find something useful here. :-)
-M. Treaster