A robust data platform isn’t typically the top priority for a scrappy startup. And for good reason! Folks are focused on making sure the product works, and duct taping features onto it to please early customers. As long as the team has whatever data they need, who cares how it got into the system. Inevitably, if the company is successful, the weight of messy data gets unbearable. Endless support and operational tickets start pouring in causing burnout and eating everyone’s time....
The story of my year
The story of my year CW: mental illness, psychosis, depression There are a lot of technical-ish topics I’ve been meaning to write about. For example, I’ve been thinking recently about scaling engineering teams and why it often goes poorly. Or, I want to write about an excellent book on relational database performance that I picked up. But it’s December 31; it’s the last day of this horrible, no good, very rotten year....
Thoughts on "Operations" by Andrew Bosworth
Andrew Bosworth recently wrote an interesting article about structure and process, and how those are important to high functioning organizations. It really resonates with me, I’ve seen first hand a lot of the repercussions of not taking process seriously enough, albeit on a much smaller level than he has. Anyway, I had a few questions, and a few additions, so I thought I’d throw it out into the void. There is a pernicious belief in our society that having a good idea is the hardest part of meaningful innovation....
New beginnings
After almost 5 years at Tendril / Uplight, I’ve finally moved on and just started a new job at Tackle as a Senior Software Engineer on a team working on data ingest. It’s a super exciting time to be joining Tackle, as they just secured Series C funding. I didn’t leave Uplight on the best of terms, which is potentially a story for another time. Suffice to say, everyone there was beyond helpful and supportive, and I feel terrible about the way I left things....
2021: The year that was inexplicably worse than the last
2020 was awful in a loud, bombastic way that (almost) everyone could agree on. There was a certain comfort in the idea that as terrible as it was, we were all in it together. 2021 has been awful in a much more insidious, isolated way, where everyone seems to feel like they’re suffering alone. I’ve had a shit year. Like a really, truly, awful year. The isolation of last year set the stage for all sorts of warning signs of mental illness going unnoticed....