Friday, September 9, 2022
I cannot express enough how much I disliked working in open offices for most of my career. For an introvert like myself, it's absolutely draining to feel like you need to be "on" for the time you're sitting at your desk. At one company I worked for this pain was compounded by a rule forbidding eating lunch (a time of day you might expect fewer people surrounding your desk) outside of the cafeteria, so I would resort to eating in my car; even in the depths of a Vermont winter!
Putting aside my own introversion, the other part of the open office that always struck me as inexplicable was how companies would place those in roles that required absolute focus -- like mine, as a software engineer -- in a room where others often needed to speak to one another. How can anyone be expected to do their best work like this? We all intuitively understand this is a terrible idea. This is why students take exams in silence and librarians are said to "shush". This is why if I was stuck on a problem I would simply try to leave a little earlier than 5pm so I could continue to work on it at home.
Why is this the dominant form of office space organization then? I think David Brooks rattles off a solid list of possible reasons at the end of his most recent column. And I expect more than one of them at a time tends to play a part.
In any event, I long ago vowed to never subject myself to the open office again and have happily been working full time remote for about two and a half years. I'd rather switch careers at this point than ever work in an open office again. For those who can't make the switch to remote work for one reason or another but despair of working in an open office, keep fighting the good fight!
Friday, August 26, 2022
Deno just announced what amounts to a massive upgrade:
We've been working on some updates that will allow Deno to easily import npm packages and make the vast majority of npm packages work in Deno within the next three months.
Our goal is to make Deno the fastest JavaScript runtime. For starters, the next release of Deno will include a new HTTP server. It is the fastest JavaScript web server ever built.
My Usage
It's been a bit since I've had the chance to leverage Deno. Last time I used it professionally was for a validation script. The script confirmed I'd successfuly combined a MySQL and a PostgreSQL database together without data loss. At the time (a year and a half back) I'd really liked using Deno, but I knew I couldn't bring it into a production codebase.
Is Deno Ready to Replace Node in '22?
Almost? I think it hinges on how well Ryan and the team behind Deno executes on the announcments made this month. If "80-90% of npm packages work in Deno within the next three months" and Deno really does, in practice, have the HTTP Server performance mentioned here, then I think we're going to see a huge wave of adoption.
Honestly, I'm excited enough about this that I'm considering rewriting my brand new static-blog generator in Deno. 🦕
Wednesday, August 3, 2022
I've recently rediscovered a "focus hack" I used to use before my days as a software developer. It's a simple little thing, and it's far from original. Tons of people do this. I simply went years without doing it and have only just gotten back into the habit.
So what is it?
You keep a pen and paper on your desk. When you feel your mind wandering, or you start to feel somewhat overwhelmed with all you need to do, you write down the next thing that needs to be taken care of. You don't make a list of all you need to do. You don't make a sub-list of items you need to do to accomplish the next thing. You simply write a quick statement of what you'll be doing next.
There's some power in simply commiting it to paper. I don't necessarily even glance at what I've written afterwards -- it's more the act of writing it. It centers my mind on the task at hand.
What has me doing this again?
After paternity leave I came back to a development team right in the middle of a big project. I was there at the start. However, I've found being part of the initial work scaffolding the project, then disappearing and finally reappearing after so much time has left me feeling emotionally and intellectually distant from the work. This might sound a bit the way people describe "burnout", but while the symptoms may be similar the cause is almost the opposite.
In any event, using this focus hack has proven helpful. It's another way of putting one foot in front of the other.
Friday, July 22, 2022
I woke up to an interesting feature in The New York Times this morning. The Opinion section led with a series of editorials from Times columnists in which the columnists ruminated on a policy position or political stance they'd gotten wrong. I was absolutely delighted by it. Afterall, it's cliché to say we learn best from our mistakes for the simple reason that it's true.
In their writing I could really see some of these columnists wrestling with their past beliefs in ways I too found enlightening. Brooks, Krugman and Stephens, in particular, really seemed to take the exercise seriously. (Gail Collins, on the other hand, seems to have found it an oppurtunity for a throwaway piece with a humurous tone...)
It would be great to see this become a recurring feature. Say, on a perhaps, annual or bi-annual basis.
A final note: the animated opening of the digital edition, with typos as metaphor, was a clever touch. 👍👍
Saturday, July 16, 2022
Since 2007 CNBC has been ranking all 50 states in the US by how good they are to do business in. As you can imagine, the Northeast doesn't always rank that highly. We have high taxes, lots of regulations, the region has a shrinking workforce, the high cost of living means needing to pay larger salaries, etc. However, as part of compiling this list CNBC checks a bunch of different attributes and in some of those the Northeast really does shine. Things like educated workforce, access to capital, tech innovation and so on.
One of those criteria where the Northeast also does great is apparently quality of life. With the data they've compiled CNBC puts together a side list covering their 10 Best States to Live In 2022 and no shock to me, Vermont (my home) and Maine (my second favorite state) are right in the #1 and #2 spots! Low crime, protections for all people, access to voting rights, great healthcare and childcare, an unspoiled envrironment, all come together put us at the top.
So glad to call Vermont, and New England more generally, home. 🏡
