Thoughtful writing for developers
A minimalistic blog platform featuring articles on programming, technology, productivity, and career growth for modern developers.
I Tracked Every Coding Session for 3 Months to Settle the Cursor vs Copilot Debate
After 3 months of tracking every session, one tool hit 80% accuracy while the other stalled at 65%. The winner surprised me for frontend work.
I Spent 6 Months Migrating Our Team from Jira to Linear. Here's What Actually Happened.
After 6 months of migration pain, our team's Jira tax dropped from 4% of engineering time to nearly zero. But we lost some features we didn't expect to miss.
I Convinced My Team to Switch to Linear. 6 Months Later, I Convinced Them to Switch Back.
We ditched Jira for Linear's slick UI and speed. Six months later, reporting gaps and integration holes sent us crawling back. Here's what we learned.
I Asked Teams Why They Abandoned Their Code Review Tool. The Answer Was Always the Same.
After talking to dozens of teams who ditched their code review tools, I found one question that predicts success better than any feature comparison.
The Day I Realized Being 'Reliable' Was Killing My Career
I went from "reliable" mid-level to staff engineer in 3 years. The 5 moves that actually mattered—and the 3 things I wasted time on.
My First Dev Job Paid $65K. 4 Years Later I Figured Out Why That Was Actually Fine.
Junior devs can earn anywhere from $55K to $115K with the same experience. Here's what actually explains that $60K gap—and how to land on the right side of it.
I Opened VS Code Twice in One Day. That's When I Knew Meetings Had to Go.
20+ hours of meetings a week, two VS Code opens in one day. I pitched a 90-day no-meetings experiment. Here's what actually happened to my output.
We Had a 47,000-Line Class Called TransactionManager. It Did Everything, Including Printer Config.
A 47,000-line class that handled payments AND printer config. 7 real code patterns I've seen nearly sink companies—and how to spot them before they detonate.
I Finally Got the Staff Promotion After 5 Years. It Had Nothing to Do with Better Code.
After 5 years stuck at senior, I realized the gap to staff had nothing to do with code quality. It's about which problems you choose to solve.
I Sat in 47 Promotion Calibrations. 'Just Do Good Work' Is Terrible Advice.
After 47 promotion calibrations, I can tell you why great engineers get passed over. It's not your code quality. It's the visibility game no one teaches you.