Practical Technology

Some off-the-cuff thoughts after attending a platform webinar yesterday. I've not heard a clear presentation on 'the platform engineering kool-aid' yet, so it was interesting to hear that yes, we continue to look for silver bullets.  However, there were some insights to be taken from it. Platform engineering has some concepts/principles that are useful to understand: Platform requires a certain level of organizational maturity ( you are already doing pipelines and IaC ) Both organizational and engineering vision-clarity ( our value prop is stable, our market share is growing, we understand our JTBD better than ever ) You need scale - while paradigms can be applied from day1, the dividends of platform are most obvious with, let's say, 50 engineers and up. API access to our 'platform' enables automation - i.e. design for programmatic access However, DevOps was presented as 'baby's first platform' - you do pipelines, great - now grow up and do platform ...

Intro - the builder's contribution As a follow-up to ‘ building a better lego brick ’ ( January 2021, huh… ), the last few years have offered me some noodling time on the problem of individuals swimming in the maelstrom of sociotechnical systemic forces. What can one do in the face of such systemic momentum? If everything is ultimately made up of unassailable systemic forces, what is an individual worker - the builder - to do? What’s my job, my contribution, my responsibility? Is there anything to aim for beyond the job description? When there are chronic problems that aren’t just going to go away, do we collapse in a heap and take up goat farming? While animal husbandry seems like an idyllic pursuit, most city by-laws prohibit such activities ( goats are fiends, anyways ). So if you are languishing in the doldrums of a day job, rather let’s talk about what you can do… and that is… contribute! No matter the state of the system we work in, it’s a foundational principle that ...

Let's start with a question: How do you model learning that is accompanied by 'perceived failure'? As a parent, I'm constantly trying to ingrain my kids with a love of learning. In learning, we can show thankfulness for what we have, and it's a way we can grow in perseverance and patience. Knowing that children innately copy their parents in many things, including mannerisms, how are they copying my response to failure? Do they ever see me fail? Well, internet: here, see me fail... ( if the keyboard stuff bores you, the conclusion is right at the bottom ) This learning experience has been generously sponsored by... ...my thanks and gratitude! Sponsorship details This came into being when PCBWay offered to sponsor an entire PCB + PCBA order in exchange for me writing up a review of my experience on my blog. After all was said and done, they paid for $140USD of product/shipping, I paid $45CAD import duties. While I've usually gone to JLCPCB, when someone offers yo...

In the fall of 2022 my boss asked me to take on the lead/eng manager role for the platform/infrastructure team I was a part of.  I'd just joined as an engineer, but - why not?  After all, I have been studying management concepts and theory for some time now as my job-hobby, surely I was ready to practice what the theory said would work! Well, it has been a rewarding year, but a hard year. Rewarding, because my time in the role confirmed what I had strongly suspected - the socio is in fact more important to spend time on than the technical, that management is indeed all about redesigning systems.  The year was hard, because - by all accounts - I experienced many of the difficult and uncomfortable parts of management in a very short period of time. It's difficult to share the experiences while keeping a certain level of discretion, so bullet points will have to suffice. Persevering in storytelling/making information visible does indeed yield results. Applying Cynefin, I bel...

The journey continues ( see previous post for more info... )...  This post is really just for a few folks who had asked for updates. I have learned a few more lessons: Expect it to take 3-4 months ( 100-200 hours ) per full board build - a long feedback loop is just the nature of the game, especially with my availability Expect to get some crucial feature wrong - design for design failure Expect to break parts or have bad solder joints - design for repair Expect to be tempted to rush things If you want to follow along or look for more detail or laughs or horror, I keep a build log in a google doc here:  It's super long, but often updated daily What follows is a brief summary of the keyboard development work between July 2022 and April 2023.  I'll leave out the business analogies ( continuous improvement aside ).  For the curious, the 'mk13' ( mark = old British engineering thing, I think? ) indicates the thirteenth time I started from scratch - and the maths-inclined...