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All of the writing I did in a week as a software engineer
The other day, I was thinking about less-obvious skills that I find helpful for working as a software engineer. Some …
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Brute-forcing the NYT Digits game
You’re given a list of integers and a target number. You can add, subtract, multiply, or divide numbers, and you can use …
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The dog hair and the computer mouse
Because I spend my entire workday on the computer, my mouse is very important to me. With my basic optical mouse, I’m …
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Things that are hard to measure, things that are easy to measure
There are things that are hard to measure, and there are things that are easy to measure. I think about this duality a …
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In the desert, no service, and your partner's late to the rendezvous. What now?
Let’s say, purely hypothetically, that you’re in Joshua Tree National Park. Your partner dropped you off in the morning, …
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Practice being a beginner
I’m a big fan of trying new things. Part of the process that I’ve come to enjoy is facing and getting over my initial …
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Learning by working on problems just outside of your reach
There’s a common pattern I’ve seen when learning something new, where you can effectively move towards a larger goal by …
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iPhones and action discoverability, or "How the hell was I supposed to know that?"
Discoverability I spend a lot of my time thinking about UX and design, and I try to consciously think about it in the …
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The hobby buyer's fallacy: "I'd really pursue my hobby if I just bought X"
There’s a trap I used to fall into that has happened more times than I’d like to admit1. The typical scenario would be …
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Stubbornness and programming
Every now and then, there will be the type of problem to solve where I know it will require an extra cup of coffee, a …