12 Apr 2025 #coding
“Do anything to wake up the experts.”
That was a phrase we repeated at a past job. We were building a gateway-like software to connect small companies to the Government’s tax office.
It took us a couple of years to build a minimum viable product. We were behind the Government’s changing requirements and our own clients’ expectations.
We were late almost all the time. Often we knew we needed to finish something, but we weren’t sure what or how. Apart from emails or conversations with clients, we didn’t have clear requirements or specs.
In those moments, we woke up the experts.
To show some progress, we built on a quick prototype or a half-baked idea. Then, after looking at that half-baked idea, a stakeholder, project manager, or product owner, would speak up, saying that what we had wasn’t what was needed. Then, we started to work on a real solution.
When looking at a bad answer or a half-baked idea, it turned out everyone was an expert.
The fastest way to get a good answer is by giving a bad answer, by waking up the experts.
For more workplace lessons, check the leadersship lessons I learned from this project and the lesson from the most expensive hambugers I’ve tried
11 Apr 2025 #career
If you’re looking to start your coding career, start by understanding each company type has its own vibe.
These days, stability and job security are hard to find. Recession, high interest rates, layoffs, AI, you name it.
In over 10 years, I’ve worked in non-tech corporate companies, tech companies, and software agencies. This is what I’ve found.
Non-tech corporate companies
I started at a “boring” job.
I was at the IT department of a large company in my city. That was my first contact with office politics and the corporate world. Spoiler alert: I was fired.
This type of company in one word? Slow.
If you land a job here, expect more office politics and bureaucracy. The larger the company, the more you’ll find. They tend to offer more benefits and might feel stable.
But don’t expect to work on the shiniest and brightest tech stack or tools. Be ready to work on a legacy codebase with outdated or little documentation, fixing bugs and hacking to add new features without breaking anything.
Tech companies
Tech companies tend to move faster than corporate jobs.
In a tech company, you’re helping the company make money. You aren’t an expense anymore. That often means higher salaries.
This is the place where you’d find TDD, DDD, any other DD methodology, code reviews, Kubernetes, the Cloud, and the shiniest and brightest.
But, they also come with higher risk of burning out.
Software agencies
Here, you are an employee assigned to a client company or project.
There’s good money with agencies if you live in a place with low cost of living and earn your salary in stronger currencies. Money will pass from the agency to your bank, while they take a good chunk of it. That’s the business.
Also, understand that companies prefer agencies as a risk-free alternative to hiring. When they don’t need more hands on a project, they’re just an email away from letting people go. Again, that’s the business.
Expect client rotation and possibly months without pay while the agency finds you another client.
With agencies, there are fewer chances of growth since you’re sold as a pair of hands.
Of course, YMMV.
Rather than choosing a company for its benefits, start experimenting with your career, then make a 5-year career plan (or intention), and pick the jobs and places that take you closer to that plan. That’s a lesson I wish I had known 10 years ago.
Starting out or already on the coding journey? Join my free 7-day email course to refactor your software engineering career now–I distill 10+ years of career lessons into 7 short emails.
10 Apr 2025 #writing
If you want to start a coding blog, don’t start with a deep dive of the Linux Kernel or other cryptic topics, unless you’re an expert on them.
Instead write short “Today I Learned” (TIL) posts.
TIL posts are shorter posts where you share something you’ve found or figured out.
When writing TIL posts, you don’t have to worry about long introductions or conclusions. Just write a good headline, a code block, a quick explanation, and your sources. And write using your own words, like in a conversation with a coworker. Here are my TIL posts as example.
That’s enough to make a post worth reading.
TIL posts invite people into your learning journey.
Don’t try to lecture the coding world about what they should do. Start documenting your learning instead.
Instead of writing “5 VS Code extensions every coder should install,” try “TIL: 5 VS Code extensions I couldn’t avoid installing.”
Or instead of “5 Git commands every coder should know,” covering the same basic Git commands, write “TIL: 5 Git basic commands to use everyday” or “TIL: How Git Status works.”
Did you spend 20 minutes or more figuring out something? write a TIL post. That’s the easiest way to start a coding blog. And don’t think of writing your own blogging engine.
09 Apr 2025 #misc
As full-time employees, we only stick to “our part.”
If we’re coders, we only care about coding. If we’re designers, we only care about Photoshop. Somebody else handles finding clients, marketing, sales, and follow-ups. If we, as full-time employees, care about what’s not “our part,” we stand out.
But with a side gig, a SaaS product, a novel, or a hobby to monetize, we have to also do everything else that isn’t “our part.”
When we do “our part,” the job isn’t done. We have to wear all those hats. We have to be our own marketing, sales, and customer satisfaction departments. We can’t expect others to do that for us.
Doing great work alone isn’t enough. People won’t just come. Do great work, then make sure the world knows about it.
08 Apr 2025 #misc
“And so…what happened?” she said.
I was with a friend at a supermarket while the cashier passed the products along the band through the machine. There was a copy of “Psychology of Money” on the counter. And I was telling my friend my favorite story from the book.
“There was a guy in a town. He was the school janitor. You might think janitors don’t make a lot of money.” I said while the cashier was listening. “But after he died, they found out he was a millionaire who donated part of his fortune to the local library.”
“So…what happened? He worked for nothing?” the cashier asked me.
“Well, maybe that was his success. Cleaning rooms for kids to study. That was what he enjoyed,” I told her.
“Nah, nah, nah,” she said while she leaned back, stretching her arms behind her head, “I want to be doing nothing.”
# # #
I’ve changed my mind about success lots of times.
For a while, I thought success meant climbing the corporate ladder to the title of VP in a tech startup Silicon Valley. Then, it was mastering coding, chasing the “expert” label. Then, it was sitting on a beach holding a piña colada while trading and enjoying financial freedom. Then, it was something else.
But those weren’t my own success metrics.
They were success metrics I had absorbed without question. From YouTube, from my peers, from the rich. It took me a burnout season to realize I had been trying to make this corporate dream work for over 10 years. Better late than never.
For the janitor, maybe it was a boring job. For the cashier, doing nothing. But my success metrics these days? Working on things I love and following my passions without worrying about money.
Your success metrics don’t have to be like mine or like anyone else’s. And that’s fine. But whatever they are, make sure they’re truly yours.