With less than a month left until this year’s re:Invent, I wanted to share what I’ve learned about getting ready and making the most of it. This will be my third AWS re:Invent, and the first time I’m speaking. This year’s re:Invent is bigger than ever, and it could already be an overwhelming experience. With a full five days of workshops, sessions, talks, and events to explore, it’s best to prepare ahead of time. These […]
I just upgraded from the Pixel 2 XL to the 3 XL last week, mainly for the improved camera. While the Pixel 2 had an incredible camera that seemed like it would be impossible to beat, I decided I needed to give the newer version a shot to give my photos even more of an improvement. While waiting for the new phone to arrive, and after selling the old one, I was left with nearly […]
For the last week, I’ve been using a Fire Phone exclusively because my normal phone – a pixel 2XL had to be sent in while I waited for my new Pixel 3. When it launched in 2014, it had a few innovative features, but never gained traction as it failed to compete with iOS and Android in app selection and struggled to find distribution channels. I’ve had mine since then, and while I never used […]
I recently read a blog post from, as is often the source of somewhat polarizing ideas in software engineering, and engineer on medium who argued that management was simply “human engineering”, after several years as both a software engineer and a manager, I can see some similarities, but certainly can’t agree. There’s so much more than just fine tuning processes and treating people and relationships than systems in management and I find this idea far […]
One of the reasons it took me so long to actually start this blog – besides having the time to actually write for it – was that setting up a web server and keeping it up and running seemed like such an ordeal. I remember setting up a tomcat server back in college with a static IP that was an absolute nightmare. Thankfully, I discovered Amazon Web Services and realized how easy it can be to run […]
This week I became officially certified as an AWS Solution Architect after passing the certification test. It certainly wasn’t easy, but now I get to hang out in the certification lounge at Amazon Web Services events like the NYC Summit and re:Invent. Ok sure, there’s also the prestige of demonstrating my knowledge of AWS and proving to myself that I have a good understanding of it, but it’s really all about getting that sweet badge […]
A little while ago, I began managing a new team with a bunch of new team members reporting in to me. In order to help get them to know me better and understand the way I work, I decided to write a manager README. Inspired by some great engineering leadership READMEs I found online, I noted down my own values, priorities, and way of doing things so that my new team could quickly get a […]
Chaos Engineering is taking over the world. Chaos Engineering provides a valuable framework and methodology to help teams better understand their complex systems and the behavior of them during real world events. It strives to help improve user experiences by validating assumptions about resiliency and detecting failures in systems before users experience these problems during a real issue. I love showing teams how to begin instituting Chaos Engineering in their organizations, but I tend to […]
In order to outpace competitors, technology companies need to move faster in delivering features of value to their customers. Those who hit the market first often emerge as winners due to networking and first mover effects. While some companies can beat others with similar features based on size along, notably Instagram and Facebook, most companies need to maximize delivery speed to win. Methodologies like Agile or Extreme Programming seek to reduce development cycles with the […]
As systems grow in size, they inherently grow in complexity. As complexity increases, systems eventually reach a point where no single individual can reasonably understand the entirety. At this point, when the interactions between components are unpredictable, the system becomes chaotic. This chaos can manifest in many ways including unintended retry storms, broken and degraded experiences for users, and often, cascading failures of an entire system. Rather than letting users discover this chaos, Chaos Engineering […]