July 19, 2019 will be my last day at Google. I will have worked at Google for 6 years, 3 months, and 11 days (even longer since I was an intern). After a few weeks hiatus, I will be joining Clutter to work on their storage and logistics services.
Frequently when people discuss what is a “good” Go library, they usually use terms like “idiomatic” or “the Go way”. These terms are imprecise and make it difficult to discuss the merits of different API designs. I recently re-read Don Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things and realized that the same principles of design discussed in the book can be used to evaluate the design of APIs.
When I was mentoring a FIRST robotics team, the fundamental revelation I had was seeing how the robot the team built became a part of our identities. When we won a match, it was validation. When we lost a match, it was a reflection of our failures. Being a mentor gave me a level of detachment, but the students working on the robot did not have that luxury. For many, this was their outlet they took pride in. And losing gave that wretched inner voice (the voice of the bullying they had endured) hold to beat them down.
When I started working in the software industry, I soon came to realize that we are not that different (myself included). Even the terminology — team — evokes tribalism. Pitching a design to your team and having it fall flat feels much the same as losing. But often in industry, you don’t have the safety net of a mentor. You either have your previous experiences or you don’t. And there’s the pressure of financial stability. Fundamentally, this adds stress and hampers creativity. (Also open office plans, but I digress.) To me, that’s why I prioritize supporting my team above all else. The easy thing is to be critical of others; the right thing is to find how you can help them succeed. Creating something worthwhile usually requires vulnerability. Don’t exploit that: see it for the gift it is.
(Originally from a Twitter thread.)
As I’m shutting down my Tumblr, I took one last look through all my fandom blog posts. Not even my most wholesome fandom posts are safe from Tumblr’s new content policy. Good riddance.
This is my first post to this blog in a long time, and it is with a fully new engine! zombiezen.com is now entirely hosted by Firebase Hosting and generated by Hugo.
When I first joined Tumblr, it was a very different blogging service than what it has grown into. And especially now that I am working in open source and wanting to post more regularly about more in-depth technical content, I want to have a platform that I can post to and not worry about my content going away. As such, I’ve also copied my content on Medium into this blog.