Jul 24Member-onlyStop Using “Real Time” WrongIt has nothing to do with latency and it’s making your systems more complicated. I’m fighting this ongoing war with the phrase “real time” at work. I want to eliminate it from our vocabulary — to the point where I periodically fantasize about standing up a Slack bot that auto…Software Development4 min read
Published in Software Safety·Jul 8Member-onlyWhy Self Driving Cars Are Not SafeAs long as humans can blame the machine, they will use autonomous features incorrectly. The other day I watched the New York Times new documentary on Tesla’s safety record and Elon Musk’s role in exacerbating it. I knew about Autopilot and have ridden in a Tesla with Autopilot engaged (but…Artificial Intelligence9 min read
May 19Member-onlyComputer Science is a Liberal Arts DegreeThinking about programming as just math and engineering robs programmers of critical skills they need to build effective technology For the last three years the emphasis in my career has been safety. I was first exposed to the community of safety researchers and practitioners at Strange Loop in 2017 and…Computer Science3 min read
May 14Member-onlyCan You Use Formal Verification on a Table Top Game? (Solutions)Practicing breaking down and generalizing problems into formal logic… for fun. Last month I talked about using formal verification in game design and the challenge of trying to define a problem so that it can be verified. …Programming8 min read
Apr 15Member-onlyFive Koans of Software ArchitectureRandom advice I find myself repeating a lot… “Those who should decide on the architecture are those that will be on call for it” Software architecture is fun. So much so that there’s never any shortage of smart people eager to jump in with their opinions. In my various engineering leadership roles throughout my career so far I have received many unsolicited architecture diagrams from ambitious…Software Development6 min read
Apr 10Member-onlyCan You Use Formal Verification on a TableTop Game? (The Challenge)The amazing things you learn by applying a tool to inappropriate challenges. I am designing a tabletop game. The idea came to me while cleaning out a box full of old conference swag I have collected from years of tech conferences. At one of the last four Shmoocons — or…Programming7 min read
Apr 1Member-onlyYes, You Can Charge MoreArtists, hustlers, consultants … low earners think about merit, top earners think about networks. About a month ago my good friend Hillel challenged a bunch of us to use April Fools as an opportunity to publish something we were interested in but wouldn’t normally write about because it didn’t fit…Freelancing11 min read
Published in The Technical Archaeologist·Mar 9Member-onlyThe Deification of Alan TuringHow an obscure British mathematician became a tool for establishing computer science as a legitimate discipline.Computer Science7 min read
Feb 19Member-onlyThe Death of ProcessTo write great policies, arm those in the future who will kill your darlings Writing policy and process guidelines is hard. You work for weeks collecting everyone’s feedback, tweaking the wording to avoid all kinds of anti-patterns, and then still you have to watch people use it as a blunt…Policy5 min read
Feb 12Member-onlyThe Unreasonableness of Math is Context IndependenceMathematics has produced some of the most beautiful and elegant abstractions in human history, what can system thinkers learn from their accuracy? There’s a concept known as the “unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics.” Coined by physicist Eugene Wigner, it refers to the idea that math is unreasonably good at expressing the…Axioms9 min read
