Posts

This post from @b0rk inspired me to document my favorite git aliases. They’re published at @nonrational/dotfiles. I’ve also included some cursory frequency analysis listing what commands and aliases I use most often. Alias Groups All my aliases live in .gitconfig. Those that require multi-line shell operations delegate to .githelpers. h/t to Gary Bernhardt’s dotfiles for establishing this excellent pattern back in 2015. Short Core Commands There are ~6 commands that I use dozens of times a day, and I’ve shortened them to 1-2 characters each. ...

I took Introduction to Artificial Intelligence with Dr. Sanjoy Baruah my senior year at UNC. It was my first exposure to functional programming, and I had a tough time with Lisp syntax. After attempting an all-nighter to make up for some significant procrastination, my professor unexpectedly canceled class; the expression of my relief took poetic form, with apologies to Edgar Allen Poe. Once wandered one named Alan, who ponder’d how he’d get a gallon Out of many a quaint and curious volumed water jugs. While he nodded, nearly napping, suddenly he’d find a mapping, He’d wake, fingers tapping, clapping for those caffeinated drugs. (defvar visitor... he fluttered, and drank caffeinated drugs. Common Lisp kept finding bugs. ...

Motivation I’ve started listening to Maintainable and one of the Robby’s standard questions is, “Are you on Team Refactor or Team Rewrite?” I’m on team refactor. The best way to achieve a rewrite is through incremental refactors. Background I joined MealPal in 2016 as the first engineer in NYC. The first version of the application — that helped prove product market fit and earned the company a Series A — was built on a PaaS called Parse. At the time, it was essentially a fully-hosted lambda-like API layer on MongoDB with a spreadsheet-like admin interface. Facebook acquired the company in 2013, and they announced the platform would shut down in January 2017. We had four months to migrate to something else. ...

Compiled languages are inherently safer than interpreted ones. The software is the thing that matters most. People managers get in the way, and they don’t need or want my help. The best outcome is if I can convince you I’m right. My devotion to a company will always be reciprocated. Good, expressive code doesn’t need comments. It’s good and right to appear and sound smart.