The Maverick Debugger

(Est. Reading Time: 12 min) Look around. How many tech devices do you see? If you are nerdy like me, it might be a slightly higher than average number of devices. Smart TVs, the phone or pc you are reading this on, smart assistant speakers, gaming consoles, all of those are obvious ones. What about your car? Your lightbulbs? Oven? Smoke detectors? Check and check. Tech is everywhere, and more and more things are getting "smartified" each year. Who builds all that? Hardware people, software people, and a whole slew of supporting cast members. So tell me, when more and more of these tech things are going up, and more and more apps are getting created, and all these billion dollar investment deals keep happening to build the next breakout startup around AI, who is going to do all this? Well, if you said AI and a bunch of "vibe coding" non-developer types, you are very wrong. Those people smell success, but can't see the future problems. They don't understand t...

(Est. Reading Time: 5 min)   ( Don't have time to read? Listen to the Podcast version ) The higher the level of the role, the more that technical interviews start to become insulting. And now I cannot wait to read all of the comments explaining how wrong I am. I have over 9 years of Python programming experience, almost 10. Asking me to do a "coding challenge" is an insult to my experience and skill level. But I have to put up with it, because that is the unfortunate norm in Software Engineering today. To dig into this deeper, though, we need to talk about Software Engineers. An engineer is a problem-solver who applies scientific and mathematical principles to design, build, and optimize systems, machines, and processes that improve daily life. Whether inventing new technologies, refining existing ones, or ensuring safety and efficiency, engineers combine creativity, technical expertise, and strategic thinking to turn ideas into reality. What separates engineering discipl...

(Est. Reading Time: 3 min)      Have you ever done a test, like the kind of test that could change your life, and you don't get the results back for several days? Job hunting is like that, repeated weekly. You spend all week doing applications, interviews, studying, practicing, putting on the best performances while stressed out of your mind, and then pause on the weekend. And when you need a job, badly, and you don't want to stop working toward getting one, you've got to remember it's not a solo exercise. Not all silence is bad though. Glass half full, think of silence as not receiving a rejection email. It's still possible. They could still be moving forward with your candidacy. They might be still thinking about you, trying to get the stars aligned for you and the process they have for you. None of that is bad. That kind of "good" silence is still bad, though. Oh, the contradiction of it all! We know the obvious reasons why silence is bad: ghosted, they...

(Est. Reading Time: 2 min)      So, here I am, tinkering with ChatGPT and other LLMs for over a year now, learning to leverage it for success for software engineering. It needs to be called out. LLMs suck at code. If a chat gets too long, they start to introduce artifacts and oddities into the code. For example, multiple unconditional return statements in a single function, adding a new one every time it "helps". It does have its good moments, though, as it helps discover bugs, sometimes. Ask it how to do something you've never done, and it will give you a basic understanding to work on. But it does not have the same logical mentality to actively participate in writing code. It gets worse. OpenAi researchers found that, beyond face value simple code, LLMs (even the unreleased frontier models) suck at code. Once the code starts to grow beyond a few classes, or a little complexity between different functions, it cannot hold the context in a way to provide meaningful output...

(Est. Reading Time: 3 min)      DEI is not what you get charged with when you get pulled over after a long night at the bar. That's DUI. No, DEI is Diversity, equity, and inclusion. It's a good thing, I promise. You might be hearing all the buzz about DEI policies being rescinded, and bad press around it. It's being vilified. But let's think about that. People are speaking against diversity , against equity , and against inclusion , by using the term "DEI" like it is a bad thing. There are people who don't want to be considered "equal" to people of color, people of different nationalities, different genders, "old" people, disabled people, or veterans. Somehow, these people believe they deserve to be paid more, or are more worthy of their promotions. They believe hiring based on "merit" and not DEI. But that is exactly what DEI policies are supposed to help with. DEI is a framework designed to systemically reduce or eliminate d...

(Est. Reading Time: 3 min)      I've been working remotely since COVID. That was 5 years ago. Most of us/I have been vaccinated for 4 years. Why haven't I returned to the office? As a Software Engineer, working remotely is extremely more productive for ME. I'm not going to get into the semantics of it, we all have heard the reasons both sides align to, but everyone has a preference, and that is just fine. But it's not even about being more productive, or having more time for a work-life balance. Being a Software Engineer today means being in a "blue collar desk job" type career that is loaded with far more risk and constant highly unpredictable situations. If I had relocated to the cities of any of my previous employers that I was remote for, and they didn't work out like they did, that would have been so much more financial and emotional stress for not just me, but my whole family. Even my last major employer would have had me in California, coming from T...