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Showing posts from June, 2024

Quoting Nikhil Suresh on AI

Warning: strong language ahead.

Is Embedded Systems development ripe for a jump in productivity? 30' with Nerves Project

In a chat on the refactoring community somebody mentioned Nerves Project as an alternative to the reigning programming language (C) in embedded systems. I was at the airport with 30' to kill and decided to check it out and see how I could go in just half an hour. Turns out I managed to fully compile the hello_nerves project and stopped short of flashing the image to a rpi3 which I did not have with me. I find this pretty impressive, considering it's a fully-fleshed Linux-based system for half hour of work on a flaky internet connection.

Quoting luminousmen: Senior Engineer Fatigue

An article I related to a lot on seniority and what it brings to the table (even though the term fatigue gives it too much of a negative connotation IMHO): Senior Fatigue is characterized not by a decline in productivity but by a deliberate deceleration. The vibrant energy of younger engineers, bursting with rapid pull requests and overflowing with design documents, starts to give way to a more measured pace. At this stage, seniors might send fewer pull requests or be quieter in meetings, but this isn't an indicator of lost productivity. Quite the opposite — seniors are often finding more efficient, impactful ways to contribute, leveraging their vast experience. The seasoned engineer learns that sometimes the best code is the code you never wrote. They become adept at delegating tasks, capitalizing on the strengths of their colleagues, and asking the dreaded question, "But why?" — a question that often leads to the heart of what needs to be solved, avoiding unnecessary w

Readwise and Reader

I've been a Readwise user for 4 years now and I can say without a doubt that it has been the best investment I have made towards increasing the retention of what I read. I lost count of the times that the Daily Review brought up the exact highlight I needed in that moment, making me more effective and more content. Their Reader is equally good and I have moved over all my feeds from Feedly as soon as it was usable. The Chrome extension lets you save pages for reading later, highlight content, etc. It's just an indispensable tool. I'm just a satisfied, paying user and Readwise did not sponsor this content.