Humans Of Reckoner Systems: Frenchie
Programming
How did y'all acquire to program?
I was lucky that our fifth marker (age 9-10) instructor knew how to exercise the computers inwards the school. I learned a piffling flake of BASIC on a Thomson MO-5. Then I had other hobbies until high school, at which indicate I joined a semi-formal programming course of written report hosted past times a math teacher. That's where I genuinely cutting my teeth alongside Pascal together with x86 assembly. Later I got a flat inwards software engineering.
Tell us well-nigh the most interesting/significant slice of code y'all wrote.
I would cite two.
One is a critical ingredient inwards a distributed system: several grand lines of code, highly concurrent, performance sensitive, high direct chances (data corruption), lots of tests, months to acquire it right, years of refinements (optimizations, novel exercise cases). Very valuable. It is far from perfect inwards several ways, but it worked really good inwards production for many years across many customers. An invisible exercise of a complex system.
The other is a brusk script (a dyad hundred lines), a mix of shell together with awk. It barely changed after i year, but users kept using it for over a decade. Fun to write, piece of cake to use, alongside human users.
The starting fourth dimension affair paid my salary several times over, it was deep, of import work. The 2nd was invisible to the concern side but really useful to operations, together with really fun to write together with to use, together with I got to assist users solve their problems alongside it. I wishing I could pass to a greater extent than (all?) of my fourth dimension writing such small, useful programs, together with non only large, complex systems.
Who did y'all acquire most from well-nigh figurer systems?
Most of what I learned, I learned reading materials written past times many on the internet. But I mean value I learned at lot of cardinal things, together with inwards to a greater extent than pleasant ways, from programmer friends inwards high schoolhouse together with college.
Who is the greatest programmer y'all met, together with what is impressive well-nigh them?
Probably this guy who could write high-performance HP48 assembly code for a stunning video game, at a fourth dimension when nosotros should both direct maintain been 110% busy alongside academic duty (and the guy got outstanding academic results).
What is the best code y'all direct maintain seen?
I'm non sure enough what I would telephone telephone best. But I was somewhat impressed past times CGEN, the organization inwards GNU binutils that, based on a CPU ISA specification written inwards Scheme, generates almost all of the C code for an assembler, a disassembler together with a simulator.
What exercise y'all believe are the most of import skills to endure successful inwards your field?
Some flat of optimism together with self-confidence, because y'all demand to pick upwardly novel tech skills equally fourth dimension goes by. Paired alongside curiosity, because (almost) nobody is going to enjoin y'all what to acquire next.
A goodness ascendancy of oral together with written communication, because y'all cannot travel lone all the time: at a minimum, y'all travel for someone, y'all must acquire from someone.
Personal management, similar fourth dimension management, thought management, complaint taking, drafting (to position ideas inwards writing, but non necessarily inwards code). Having a sense of what needs to endure done now, later, or never. Don't endure a mouse constantly running inwards a wheel, without a sense of direction.
Debugging, because really early on inwards our journey, together with thence fourth dimension together with again, nosotros compass the limits of our understanding, together with must remain on tiptop of the systems nosotros create together with manage.
Some total of work solving inwards general, roughly CS fundamentals (data structures, complexity, basics of OS, hardware together with language).
What character or mightiness exercise y'all value most inwards a figurer systems person?
The mightiness to empathise or blueprint complex systems, where components interact to solve the right problems without creating (too many) novel problems.
Personal
Which of your work/code/accomplishments are y'all most proud of?
I reinvented distributed tracing from starting fourth dimension principles (then read the relevant papers), promoted the idea, designed together with developed a working implementation. I was really proud that I came upwardly alongside the thought on my own.
What comes to y'all piece of cake that others honor hard? What are your superpowers?
I tend to topographic point a lot of concurrency bugs. It's rather depressing, because it reminds me that in that place are thence many wrong programs out there, crashing or corrupting the data!
What was a approving inwards disguise for you? What seemed similar a failure at the fourth dimension but led to something ameliorate subsequently for you?
My really starting fourth dimension projection was non the i I was hired for; turns out, I made most of my career from the expertise acquired then.
What exercise y'all experience most grateful for?
As a seasoned programmer, I in all likelihood never volition direct maintain a difficult fourth dimension finding a chore alongside a decent pay. Since I graduated, coin has never been an issue.
What does your perfect hateful solar daytime hold off like?
Hear well-nigh someone's itch, honor out I know how to solve it alongside a pocket-size slice of code, write it, give it to them, brand them happy!
What made y'all most happy inwards the terminal year?
We got vaccines for COVID.
Work
What was your biggest mess up? What was the aftermath?
A script I wrote had a põrnikas that corrupted data. The starting fourth dimension engineer who used it was careful inwards rolling it out, sensed a problem, mitigated the issue, notified me: I fixed the bug, tested better, helped the engineer restore the data, together with no information got lost inwards the end. But I felt quite bad for a few hours, together with lucky that I worked alongside a smart guy.
What was your most interesting/surprising or disappointing interaction at work?
Some people look agency smarter than they genuinely are: that guy could juggle alongside a lot of advanced concepts together with lingo, he could write a lot of code really quickly, but his systems were total of glaring holes. Any objection to his designs, he would counter alongside a proposal adding extra complexity that nobody genuinely understood. Eventually I learned to express joy at the absurdity of the situation, but it took me years.
What exercise y'all similar most well-nigh your job/profession?
The medium (code, data) is infinitely malleable.
The demand for decent programmers gives us a lot of bargaining power, thence nosotros tin bask goodness pay together with flexibility that most people tin alone dream of (which is unfair).
What exercise y'all dislike most well-nigh your job/profession?
The acre is thence novel that companies are young together with inefficient (and sometimes evidently dangerous), together with in that place is thence much demand together with coin that companies acquire away alongside it.
Some days I mean value that a moderate total of frugality would laid sure enough things straight. Then I remember: it also makes people cutting to a greater extent than corners.
What would endure the unmarried modify that would improve your travel environs most?
A salubrious management structure: people managers who genuinely know how to create out people, together with execs who empathise systems of people, together with know how to laid upwardly culture, incentives, together with feedback loops betwixt cooperating humans/teams.
Technical
What exercise y'all mean value are the hardest questions inwards your field?
What problems should nosotros solve.
What should nosotros build, what should acquire, what should nosotros discard.
What are y'all most disappointed well-nigh the state-of-the-art inwards your field?
Most figurer users direct maintain extraordinarily complex together with mature apps to assist them exercise their work.
Most programmers are stuck alongside ancient text editors, debug alongside impress statement, blueprint alongside MS Word, exam alongside a few unit of measurement tests, together with only endeavor to estimate what would endure valuable to users. Our entire toolbox feels lame, at to the lowest degree inwards most companies, compared to e.g. a CAD suite or video editing.
Why can't I brand goodness systems similar others brand goodness spreadsheets?
We should endure using more: simulation, model checking, profiling, information viz (for perf analysis, or debugging).
What are the topics that y'all wishing received to a greater extent than attention? What exercise y'all mean value is a promising hereafter management inwards your field?
Modeling inwards full general is great, model checking inwards item is a game changer.
What is your favorite figurer systems paper? Why?
The starting fourth dimension that comes to take away heed is the Google Dapper paper. It exposes a simple, non new, yet really useful idea, it has useful charts together with screenshots, it shows corking feedback from acre use. And when I read it, I felt a lot of validation for my ain findings.
What are the most interesting blogs/twitter accounts y'all follow?
- Adrian Colyer's The Morning Paper (no longer updated) https://blog.acolyer.org/
- Dan Luu http://danluu.com/
- Marc Brooker https://brooker.co.za/blog/
- Hillel Wayne https://www.hillelwayne.com/
- The Codeless Code (no longer updated) http://thecodelesscode.com/contents
- Seth Godin https://seths.blog/
- Nick Cave (singer-songwriter) https://www.theredhandfiles.com/
But I genuinely recommend reading books, because books tin direct maintain y'all thence much deeper. I liked those:
- How to solve it, past times G. Polya: work solving for math, applies to other domains
- The mythical man-month, past times F. Brooks: a (somewhat dated) thought of management issues at IBM inwards the 70s. Still roughly goodness parts, by together with large the questions it asks.
- High output management, past times A. Grove: a thought of management at Intel past times their star CEO. Biased towards large companies, withal roughly goodness practical advice for pocket-size entities.
- Thinking, fast together with slow, past times D. Kahnemann: how our brains play tricks us into thinking the wrong things (cognitive biases).
- Range, past times D. Epstein: how generalists shell experts inwards many ways (I am prone to glorifying expertise, together with institute this refreshing).
If y'all enjoy reading this series, consider taking 10 minutes together with submitting a response. All questions are optional. You tin skip most, together with enjoin a lot to a greater extent than on other questions y'all choose.
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