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Why some engineers get trusted with high-impact work It’s fun and rewarding to work on critical tasks. But there’s only so much important work to go...
2 months ago
49
2 months ago
It’s fun and rewarding to work on critical tasks. But there’s only so much important work to go around. Worse still, the chances to work on…
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Mistakes engineers make in large established codebases Working in large established codebases is one of the hardest things to learn as a software engineer....
a month ago
44
a month ago
Working in large established codebases is one of the hardest things to learn as a software engineer. You can’t practice it beforehand (no…
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How I got promoted to staff engineer twice At the beginning of 2021, Zendesk promoted me to staff software engineer. At the end of 2021 I...
a month ago
35
a month ago
At the beginning of 2021, Zendesk promoted me to staff software engineer. At the end of 2021 I switched jobs from Zendesk to GitHub. In…
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What can strong engineers do that weak engineers can't? Right now people are blowing up on Twitter about whether the USA needs to import top talent from...
a month ago
33
a month ago
Right now people are blowing up on Twitter about whether the USA needs to import top talent from other countries, and if that means that…
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Thinking clearly about software You can go a long way as a software engineer without ever managing to think clearly. The feedback...
a month ago
32
a month ago
You can go a long way as a software engineer without ever managing to think clearly. The feedback loop of writing and running code is so…
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Ratchet effects determine engineer reputation at large companies How do engineers become higher-status or lower-status at large tech companies? In other words, what...
a month ago
31
a month ago
How do engineers become higher-status or lower-status at large tech companies? In other words, what determines who gets promoted and who…
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Is it cynical to do what your manager wants? When I suggest doing what your management chain wants, people call me cynical. Is it cynical to...
a month ago
31
a month ago
When I suggest doing what your management chain wants, people call me cynical. Is it cynical to deliberately work on things your company…
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Giving pushback to leadership Saying no to leadership is sometimes necessary when you’re at the helm of a project. Whether they’re...
a month ago
28
a month ago
Saying no to leadership is sometimes necessary when you’re at the helm of a project. Whether they’re proposing a timeline that can’t be…
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What makes strong engineers strong? As I’ve written about before, what defines a strong engineer is the ability to do tasks that weaker...
a month ago
28
a month ago
As I’ve written about before, what defines a strong engineer is the ability to do tasks that weaker engineers can’t, even with near…
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Crushing JIRA tickets is a party trick, not a path to impact Don’t be a JIRA ticket zombie! I think a common experience among ambitious juniors - certainly I did...
a month ago
27
a month ago
Don’t be a JIRA ticket zombie! I think a common experience among ambitious juniors - certainly I did this once - is to get frustrated at the…
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Protecting your time from predators in large tech companies If you’re a competent software engineer at a large tech company, your time is in very high demand....
a month ago
26
a month ago
If you’re a competent software engineer at a large tech company, your time is in very high demand. Lots of people will want you to do things…
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Writing a tech blog people want to read My blog has gotten a lot of traffic in the last few months. Here’s what I think I’ve been doing...
a month ago
25
a month ago
My blog has gotten a lot of traffic in the last few months. Here’s what I think I’ve been doing that’s working, and a few things that have…
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How I ship projects at big tech companies I have shipped a lot of different projects over the last ~10 years in tech. I often get tapped to...
3 months ago
25
3 months ago
I have shipped a lot of different projects over the last ~10 years in tech. I often get tapped to lead new ones when it’s important to get…
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Grifters, believers, grinders, and coasters Why do engineers get mad at each other so often? I think a lot of programmer arguments bottom out...
2 months ago
24
2 months ago
Why do engineers get mad at each other so often? I think a lot of programmer arguments bottom out in a cultural clash between different…
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Why are big tech companies so slow? Big tech companies spend a lot of time and money building things that a single, motivated engineer...
4 weeks ago
22
4 weeks ago
Big tech companies spend a lot of time and money building things that a single, motivated engineer could build in a weekend. This fact…
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I don't know how to build software and you don't either Are microservices better than monoliths? Should teams set their own technical direction, or is it...
3 months ago
22
3 months ago
Are microservices better than monoliths? Should teams set their own technical direction, or is it better to have that dictated by some…
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What did DeepSeek figure out about reasoning with DeepSeek-R1? The Chinese AI lab DeepSeek recently released their new reasoning model R1, which is supposedly (a)...
3 weeks ago
21
3 weeks ago
The Chinese AI lab DeepSeek recently released their new reasoning model R1, which is supposedly (a) better than the current best reasoning…
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What it's like working for American companies as an Australian For the last ten years I’ve worked for American tech companies as an Australian based in Australia....
a month ago
20
a month ago
For the last ten years I’ve worked for American tech companies as an Australian based in Australia. First I worked in a satellite office for…
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Working fast and slow Some engineers work very consistently, putting in the same hours every day and getting out the same...
4 weeks ago
19
4 weeks ago
Some engineers work very consistently, putting in the same hours every day and getting out the same amount of work. I don’t. Some days I…
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Why AI labs offer so many different models Major AI labs these days (i.e. early 2025) offer a wide variety of models. Some are faster and...
3 weeks ago
19
3 weeks ago
Major AI labs these days (i.e. early 2025) offer a wide variety of models. Some are faster and cheaper, some are smarter, and now some are…
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Glue work considered harmful “Glue work” is an concept Tanya Reilly came up with in 2019. The idea is that there’s a large amount...
2 months ago
17
2 months ago
“Glue work” is an concept Tanya Reilly came up with in 2019. The idea is that there’s a large amount of unglamorous work that every team…
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Are DeepSeek's new models really that fast and cheap? Everyone’s saying that DeepSeek’s latest models represent a significant improvement over the work...
3 weeks ago
15
3 weeks ago
Everyone’s saying that DeepSeek’s latest models represent a significant improvement over the work from American AI labs. If they’re not…
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Talking to ChatGPT costs 5ml of water, not 500ml There’s a common claim on the internet that ChatGPT consumes half a litre of water for every 5-50...
3 months ago
15
3 months ago
There’s a common claim on the internet that ChatGPT consumes half a litre of water for every 5-50 responses. Here are some randomly-chosen…
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How I use LLMs as a staff engineer Software engineers are deeply split on the subject of large language models. Many believe they’re...
2 weeks ago
14
2 weeks ago
Software engineers are deeply split on the subject of large language models. Many believe they’re the most transformative technology to ever…
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Blockchain explained simply A blockchain is a distributed database. Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin are all different databases....
over a year ago
14
over a year ago
A blockchain is a distributed database. Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin are all different databases. A blockchain node is a computer with an…
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Playing politics is how senior engineers protect their team When I write about doing politically valuable work in big tech companies, I often get comments...
3 weeks ago
13
3 weeks ago
When I write about doing politically valuable work in big tech companies, I often get comments accusing me of trying to get ahead at the…
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MCTS and LLMs: what's the big deal? Everyone on the internet is recently very excited about large language models and Monte Carlo tree...
8 months ago
12
8 months ago
Everyone on the internet is recently very excited about large language models and Monte Carlo tree search. Going back months, the “Q*” leak…
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Avoiding worry driven development Sofware dysfunction is more often motivated by anxiety, fear, worry and embarassment than it is by a...
over a year ago
12
over a year ago
Sofware dysfunction is more often motivated by anxiety, fear, worry and embarassment than it is by a lack of technical skill. Engineers…
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Good engineers are right, a lot Amazon infamously has a leadership principle where they say “good leaders are right, a lot”. It’s...
2 weeks ago
12
2 weeks ago
Amazon infamously has a leadership principle where they say “good leaders are right, a lot”. It’s unclear to me how useful it is about…
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Engineers who won’t commit force bad decisions Some engineers think it’s a virtue to remain non-committal in technical discussions. Should our team...
a week ago
12
a week ago
Some engineers think it’s a virtue to remain non-committal in technical discussions. Should our team build a new feature in an event-driven…
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Why does AI slop feel so bad to read? I don’t like reading obviously AI-generated content on Twitter. There’s a derogatory term for it: AI...
3 weeks ago
11
3 weeks ago
I don’t like reading obviously AI-generated content on Twitter. There’s a derogatory term for it: AI “slop”, which means something like “AI…
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Writing good technical explanations Software engineering is mainly learning. There is a great demand for technical explanations, and...
over a year ago
11
over a year ago
Software engineering is mainly learning. There is a great demand for technical explanations, and many thousands of books, talks and blog…
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How LLMs work Over the last few weeks I’ve been playing around with the excellent llama2.c repository, which is...
a year ago
11
a year ago
Over the last few weeks I’ve been playing around with the excellent llama2.c repository, which is basically a simple one-file C…
seangoedecke.com RSS...
Acing the coding challenge How do you write a successful coding challenge? Unlike some nightmare whiteboard interview...
over a year ago
11
over a year ago
How do you write a successful coding challenge? Unlike some nightmare whiteboard interview scenarios, typically a coding challenge is not a…
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Keep incidents boring The internet is full of exciting incident war stories. Tough engineering problems, solved under...
over a year ago
11
over a year ago
The internet is full of exciting incident war stories. Tough engineering problems, solved under pressure by sleep-deprived developers. In an…
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Building multiplayer games with socket.io and HTML5 Canvas I’ve been building crappy hobby games on and off for my whole coding life. One of my very first apps...
over a year ago
11
over a year ago
I’ve been building crappy hobby games on and off for my whole coding life. One of my very first apps was a Visual Basic game - I was in…
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Acing the design interview If you haven’t designed an actual system before, design interviews can be tough. Knowing how to work...
over a year ago
10
over a year ago
If you haven’t designed an actual system before, design interviews can be tough. Knowing how to work with a particular web service or…
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From hours to seconds: AI tools to detect animal calls If you’re currently spending time listening to long audio recordings of birdcalls or animal noises,...
10 months ago
10
10 months ago
If you’re currently spending time listening to long audio recordings of birdcalls or animal noises, it’s likely that the last four years of…
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Porting and hacking Llama2.c for fun and profit Over the last few weeks I’ve been playing around with the excellent llama2.c repository, which is...
a year ago
10
a year ago
Over the last few weeks I’ve been playing around with the excellent llama2.c repository, which is basically a simple one-file C…
seangoedecke.com RSS...
Learning incident response with problem sets It’s hard to teach good incident response. A good understanding of how the system runs in production...
over a year ago
9
over a year ago
It’s hard to teach good incident response. A good understanding of how the system runs in production is essential, but how do you build that…
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To avoid being replaced by LLMs, do what they can't It’s a strange time to be a software engineer. Large language models are very good at writing code...
a week ago
9
a week ago
It’s a strange time to be a software engineer. Large language models are very good at writing code and rapidly getting better. Multiple…
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Blockchain for beginners Introduction This is a guide for developers who kinda sorta know what blockchains are for (making...
over a year ago
8
over a year ago
Introduction This is a guide for developers who kinda sorta know what blockchains are for (making distributed crypto-currencies like Bitcoin…
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Lessons on thinking from large language models Large language models have gotten much better at thinking in the past few years. Billions of dollars...
a week ago
8
a week ago
Large language models have gotten much better at thinking in the past few years. Billions of dollars have been spent to study how they think…
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What kind of work I want This article is to help recruiters, hiring managers and myself have a better idea of the kind of...
over a year ago
6
over a year ago
This article is to help recruiters, hiring managers and myself have a better idea of the kind of places I’d like to work. The short version…
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Building LLM-driven agents If you want a large language model like GPT-3 to perform a task for you, the simplest way is to just...
a year ago
6
a year ago
If you want a large language model like GPT-3 to perform a task for you, the simplest way is to just ask it. Writing out a single prompt…
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Using LLMs effectively isn't about prompting When people talk about using language models effectively they mainly talk about prompting: sharing...
yesterday
4
yesterday
When people talk about using language models effectively they mainly talk about prompting: sharing great prompts, or lists of tips for…