And you are here why?

The key here is fat. Pork fat. Guanciale  fat, but in a pinch, bacon fat will work just as well. Ok, the second  key is preparation. Read the recipe, and get everything set up before  you get started. This is one of those recipes where, when all the pieces come together it's magic, but ... "when all the pieces come together" is carrying a lot  of water here 😔.  It's really like riding a bike, once you figure it out, it's obvious , but till then, oh so many falls... Anyhow, here we go - this recipe serves 2-4 people depending on how much you eat 😜 Get your pasta-water started. About half the amount of water that you'd normally use, along with a hefty dose of salt.  You're reducing the water, because you'll be using some of the - starchy starchy! - water later! Dice up 6 strips of bacon (or an equivalent amount of guanciale ), and place in a pan. Cook on medium till all the fat has rendered, and the bacon is crisp and brown. Do not eat the ...

You’ve hear it all the time. Stuff like “ Yeah, we process about 20 orders/day manually. If we ever got to a hundred a day, we’d be in trouble, but  it’d be a good problem to have! ” “ The system is setup for about 10,000 users. If our user-base went up to 50,000, it’ll buckle, but  it’ll be a good problem to have! ” As an off-the-cuff statement, I’ve got nothing against this. However, I frequently see this used as a Business Rule, used to justify a decision that falls into the “need to do something *now*” category. And, even then I’ve got nothin against it,  as long as time is factored into the decision . The thing is, most companies aren’t growing rapidly. Oh yeah,  some  are, but that is a very,  very  small percentage of the economy. Most companies, on the other hand, are growing (or shrinking. or flat) at a very,  very  small rate. And for  these  companies, the orders/day, or the user-base, will grow 5x in, oh, two...

Ever been a Systems Administrator? I have (first job I ever had!), and I have to tell ya, it’s a pretty thankless gig. I mean yes, there is the satisfaction of a job well done, the joy of knowing that everything is up and working to spec, etc., but, behind all of this, you are left with the knowledge that  Nobody Cares Till It Breaks  😔. Mind you, it’s not that they don’t care at all. It’s more like, from their perspective, “It’s Working” is normalcy, steady-state, the way things should be. You don’t get into a Toyota Camry, and say to yourself “ Hmm, I wonder whether the engine-block will fall out of the car on the way to work ”. Engine-blocks remaining in the car is the default state of existence, and if one  does  happen to fall out of the car, then hey, it’s definitely Bizarro-City! And that, my friends, is what SysAdmins — and software engineers in general — deal with all the time. As far as users are concerned, systems are Toyota Camrys, and are supposed...

"Seniority" is a pretty loaded term, which depends on the organization one is in, and what that organization wants to get out of it. After all, at Alice’s Software Factory there might be a bajillion gradations involving all possible combinations of [ junior, senior, systems, lead, principal, etc. ] and [ developer, engineer, analyst, architect, wizard, etc. ]. And additional combinations too —  senior principal systems analyst  wouldn’t be out of the question. If you ignore the labels, there is a much more basic question at hand here, and that involves the people attached to the titles. To wit,  what allows people to climb up these ranks?  Mind you, this is more abstract than just straight up software engineering — it’s about pretty much any field, and how you differentiate “seniority” in that field. Me, I tend to break this up at a very high level into a few basic categories, viz.  Junior ,  Mid-Level , and  Senior . The difference? I’m glad yo...

Something that every  #CowboyDeveloper  needs to internalize, but, by definition, none ever will…

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