A New Era: PM -> SWE

tl;dr: As of last week, I am now a Software Engineer at Microsoft. My path to becoming a Program Manager at Microsoft was both unforeseen (by me) and entirely conventional. Until my early teens, my plan was to be this guy: I went to Space Camp and Space Academy, and spent years devouring endless booksContinue reading “A New Era: PM -> SWE”

Cruising Alaska (Alaskan Brews Cruise)

I lived in the Seattle area for nearly 12 years, and one of my regrets is that I never took advantage of any of the Alaskan cruises that conveniently leave from Pier 91 a few miles out of downtown. Getting to Alaska from Austin is more of a hassle, but I figured I’d pair itContinue reading “Cruising Alaska (Alaskan Brews Cruise)”

Best Practice: Post-Mortems

I’ve written a bit about working at Google in the past. Google does a lot of things right, and other companies would benefit by following their example. At Google, one of the technical practices that I thought was both essential and very well done was the “post-mortem”– whenever they hit a significant problem, after puttingContinue reading “Best Practice: Post-Mortems”

“Batteries-Included” vs “Bloated”

Fundamentals are invisible. Features are controversial. One of the few common complaints against Microsoft Edge is that “It’s bloated– there’s too much stuff in it!” A big philosophical question for designers of popular software concerns whether the product should include features that might not be useful for everyone or even a majority of users. ThereContinue reading ““Batteries-Included” vs “Bloated””

Thoughts on Impact

In this post, I talk a lot about Microsoft, but it’s not only applicable to Microsoft. It’s once again “Connect Season” at Microsoft, a biannual-ish period when Microsoft employees are tasked with filling out a document about their core priorities, key deliverables, and accomplishments over the past year, concluding with a look ahead to theirContinue reading “Thoughts on Impact”