I don’t know if it’s my age or just the general shitty state of the world around me, but I’ve been struggling to get enough rest these days to function optimally. The amounts of work that I would normally find OK (or even pleasant) has shrunk down significantly. I need more rest, more distraction, more entertainment to get through the day.

I think a lot of it comes down to stress. I’m stressed more and longer each day than I used to be. And dealing with stress means getting away from the routine and having some do-nothing downtime. And the more stress I get, the more intentional downtime I need.

Unbeknownst to me, I think I’ve allowed my “max stress” alarm level to be set at higher and higher levels over time. I need to reset that index back downward for my health.

Any system of governance that covers a large enough number of stakeholders must have a means to fend off bad actors, leeches, saboteurs, and (especially) moneyed interests who want to subvert the system for personal gain.

Any structure that relies on “everybody needs to behave well” for order is GOOD, but NOT SCALABLE. It’s perfectly fine to start with that assumption of good faith, but if your organization becomes successful, you must begin building in structures that prevent subversion, with clear consequences for violations, and consistent follow-through.

This goes for all kinds of governance, from technical to civil.

As a software engineer, it’s basically impossible to survive poor work-volume management. You can try cutting corners, making extreme tactical decisions, triaging your issues, whatever…but the burn-down chart does not lie. A strategic decision by management (or worse, executives) to ignore burn-down rates is basically irrecoverable.

As a manager, be honest to your executives *and* your reports. Given enough people in your team, there is no tactical decision that will make your engineers work faster. Your only real option is to admit early that your deadline is untenable, and replan by reducing features, or extending deadlines. Whipping your engineers to work harder has never worked, and will ruin their trust in you forever.

As an executive, allow your teams to honestly report their estimates, and respect their pace of work. Pressuring your managers to give you better numbers is lying to yourself, unless you’re willing to talk about what features you’re willing to cut.

New blog post for #FridayDevAdvice:

Here are some tenets of software engineering that I’ve gathered through the years. I’ll probably add to this list over time as I think of more.

Above all, empathy

All software that stand the test of time come from a place of empathy: it serves some human being well in one form or another…

Read more at https://www.humancode.us/2024/10/24/tenets-of-software-engineering.html

A clever software engineer invests in a single implementation that can run on every client.

A wise software engineer invests in a single protocol, and leaves its implementations to the clients.

I think humanoid robots are attractive to techbros precisely because they allow them to further disrespect people, to make laborers work without rest, to give no consideration to their wellness and aspirations, and yes, to literally fuck them whenever they so desire. In other words, to conjure up a race of servants, mechanical or otherwise.

We already live among robots. But with humanoid robots, techbros want us to live among a race of slaves, only some of whom are mechanical.

#robots #FridayDevAdvice

/end

We already live among robots; machines that autonomously relieve us of tedious chores have existed for more than a century. We lived among robots when James Watt sold steam engines that milled wheat tirelessly all day. Our cars have lane-keep assist, adaptive cruise control, and automatic headlights. At home, we have washing machines, rice cookers, thermostats, and automatic floor sweepers. In factories, robots make and assemble everything from ramen noodles to automobiles. Robots are already everywhere.

But none of these robots look like *people*; and that’s for a good reason: their shape is dictated by their purpose. They are optimized to do *one or two jobs very well and economically*, and as every generation of robots get better at what they do, their shapes become more optimized for their intended jobs.

So why do a certain class of folks continue to lust after a future of robots that look like humans?

#robots #FridayDevAdvice

Blog post form: https://www.humancode.us/2024/10/11/robots-should-not-look-like-people.html

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The proof of passion is time.

Not just the days you spend working on something, but also the tiny moments you spend thinking about it when you’re away. The daydreams in which you mull the next step, the long showers wherein you ruminate about how you’d go about it.

The proof of love is time.

It’s when something distracts you as it bring your love to mind, and takes up a tiny bit of time in the middle of your day. It’s when you think about what you should pick up while you’re already about, because it may benefit your love. It’s the hours you spend observing, listening, learning, in order to know that love more deeply.

(cont’d)

#Swift struct members should be `var` wherever possible. Discuss.

Stop installing kernel-space drivers.

How To Finish, by Jon Acuff, illustrated by Grant Snider.

Source: https://incidentalcomics.tumblr.com/post/165799803083/how-to-finish-i-drew-this-poster-for-jon-acuff-and

Techbros will keep attempting to invent ways for people to exchange information without relying on a network of human trust, and again and again, human trust will prove to be an essential part of a functioning system.

Systems that mainly attempt to replace human trust always work great until they don’t, then you fall off a lonely cliff from which no one can help you out.

Never bet against a network built on human trust and a shared sense of personal reputation, because that’s where all human collaboration eventually gets done, and because that’s where every hare-brained “don’t trust humans” network will eventually end up, lest they perish.