Writing my own performance review honestly, for once
Listing what I shipped is not the review. Listing what changed for other people is.
careers
7 posts
The meeting that should have been a pull request, and vice versa
Decisions need synchronous time; proposals need written artifacts.
The handover that actually worked, and the four I botched first
A handover is not a document dump. The test is whether the team ships without you in week one.
The rate conversation I kept getting wrong
Quoting a day rate invites a comparison to salary. Quoting against the outcome changes the question.
Scope creep is a contract problem, not a communication problem
Being clearer about the scope does not stop it changing. A written change process does.
The fixed-price project that cost me three weeks of unpaid work
Fixed price transfers all estimation risk to you. Price it or change the contract shape.
I wrote 400 lines to avoid learning one SQL feature
Window functions replaced a hand-rolled grouping pass. The cost of not learning was paid in code.