Phillip Pearson

Look mah, I'm still an engineer 🙃 Nice to get lost in a little cost saving exercise and problem solving from time to time. I've collected quite a few "solutions" to small and large engineering problems over the last 20+ years and will be planning to post a few of my thoughts over on dev.to as and when I get the chance as a way to give back. https://lnkd.in/eGa2cY2V #dev #software #development #coding

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If you haven't seen the new oxc-transformer release, you should check it out: https://lnkd.in/e_2KYHWq This morning I released a new version of hohoro (a minimal JS/TS build tool for libraries supporting incremental builds) with a new experimental export and binary that uses oxc under the hood! This means you no longer need to install or configure swc and also tsc for library builds! Check out hohoro here: https://hohoro.vercel.app/ and give it a try in your next project! The coolest part of this - is that all you need for: - Building your library (.ts/.tsx/.jsx/etc ➡️ ESNext JS) - Generating types (.d.ts files) - Incremental builds (only building changed files) Is to: - Install `[email protected]` - Add the script: "build": "hohoro-experimental" And that's it!

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Understanding Develocity Build Data with Honeycomb https://lnkd.in/gmGSrkVB

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Something I've been musing about recently (and semi work related): I think we're probably in the tail-end period of usability and value of the public internet. With the proliferation of content generated by LLM's which are trained on the internet data, but also trained to generate content which "sounds believable" our of the aggregate data (without any actual knowledge or ability to check validity), the reliability and usefulness of the public internet data will decline over time. As the bot-garbage propagates, it will likely overwhelm "real" information, even without people leveraging LLM's for disinformation (as is already happening, with successful effect, because people are relatively easy to influence). I wonder if, at some point, we will be telling stories to our grand children about the period of time when the information which was free on the internet was also reasonably good and reliable, and not a wasteland of bot-garbage and propaganda spewed into the world, to be consumed by perpetually ill-informed people, and/or those conditioned to be easily entertained by zero-value content (not unlike what most of cable television has become now).

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An open letter from Meta employees to Mark Zuckerberg and Meta's leadership. Very well articulated, I couldn't have done it myself better! I left Meta end of 2023 because of many things similar to what's mentioned in the letter, so I can definitely relate.

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Using HeyGen you can create very realistic avatar of yourself (or use their avatars) and provide scripts for the avatar to read. Additionally, you can choose other voices along with translations to other languages. In this particular use case, I used an OpenAI assistant with a vector store to create a script and then sent the script to HeyGen to animate an avatar of myself. https://lnkd.in/gRx3Dd9H

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Prometheus Interactive seems to be the kiss of death for good apps. I purchased DaTuner Pro a while ago, only to find that the new owners (Prometheus Interactive) have: * Ditched the Pro app (thus wasting my money), and * Introduced an insanely priced $22 / *week* subscription plan to eliminate ads, and * Added so many ads to the free version that it's essentially unusable. Just a heads-up to app developers who may be considering selling to Prometheus Interactive - they'll trash your app and alienate your userbase. If you care about any of that, find a better buyer.

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Ok, so the Rabbit R1 is a little device running an Android app. Which begs the question: Why not just ship it as an app for phones? From a marketing perspective, it's hard to imagine commensurate hype coming from an app alone. From a customer perspective, it's hard to imagine the experience offered by the dedicated device is worth the burden of lugging it around. At least the Humane pin is always out and not an extra thing to carry around. That being said, I love Teenage Engineering designs. Can I get some likes for a Teenage Engineering Phone?!?! https://lnkd.in/gvMqHj7N #rabbitr1 #teenageengineering #humane

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🌟 Attention Engineering Managers and Technical Leaders! 🌟 In just two weeks, on June 28th at 10 AM PDT, I’m excited to host an interactive roundtable on Feature Flags and Delivery in conjunction with ELC! 🚀 Why Attend? This is a collaborative discussion where your expertise and curiosity are key! Whether you're experienced or eager to learn, your contributions are invaluable. 🔍 Discussion Points: - Decoupling Processes - Boosting Team Efficiency - Optimizing Feature Delivery - Tracking Platform Usage Expect rich conversations on best practices, unique implementations, methodologies, and the latest tools enhancing feature flagging and delivery. Who Should Join? - Engineering Managers - Technical Leads - DevOps Engineers - Software Developers This roundtable is your chance to: - Share your experiences - Gain new insights - Network with peers - Discover practical recommendations RSVP Now and mark your calendars for June 28th at 10 AM PDT! Let’s collaborate and elevate our skills together! #EngineeringManagement #TechLeaders #FeatureFlags #DevOps #SoftwareDevelopment #TeamEfficiency #TechRoundtable

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It can't be a coincidence that my favorite band, LinkinPark, is celebrating their comeback in the same year I decided to step away from my current leadership role to become a software engineer again. Damn, it feels good hammering some lines of code on the keyboard while listening to LinkinPark again. 😅🤘🎵 Why did I change my role, you ask? The short answer: less talking, more doing. I’ve always loved leading creative teams and helping people shine. But leadership isn’t only about a title or a place on the organizational chart — it’s about setting an example and inspiring others. As a Principal Software Engineer at Shopware, I see my role as one where I can lead by example, pushing boundaries and driving innovation from the frontlines. It’s a hands-on approach, focused on building and making things happen. This is not a step back, but just another chapter in my career and not the last time I will try to be a good leader. "Heavy is the crown". https://lnkd.in/emHAJXkj

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A question to my friends, colleagues, and Linked-In associations that are full TDD developers. Folks who consider themselves proficient or have mastered TDD. 1. How long did it take you to to become very proficient (e.g. to start thinking fully test first)? 2. Did you have a mentor or some aid that helped you along the way? 3. What kept you going down the proficiency/mastery path? I'll start: 1. It took me about 3 years to make it a habit and for me to truly embrace TDD and find that it could replace "test after" development. 2. I did not have a mentor. I did not have YouTube or trainings. I had constraints about creating automated tests. I had teammates that were similarly inclined (constrained). 3. I immediately saw the value of automated tests. I struggled with test first getting in the way of me feeling productive (because I was not proficient and in the learning/gaining proficiency phase) with test first. I'd start every day test first and quickly transition to test after, because it was getting in the way of my "productivity and programming...damn it I just want to write the implementation!" At the end of the day I'd reflect and most days realize that writing tests after was so much slower. Slowly, my time spent test first increased. At some point I transitioned to pseudo coding my intended implementation (to satiate my need to "just write the damn code and not be bothered with tests"). More time passed and I realized that my pseudo code was an inaccurate crutch, I ditched that too and would start with a test. There was a period of time where I'd start with a test and get lost in implementing more than just making the test pass (cycles of sunk cost fallacy here, until I learned it's ok to delete and write it later - faster, better, stronger). There were periods of time where I'd forget to run the test first to see it red before making it green. Too many years messing around with mocking frameworks before learning better design. Struggles with testing internal implementation details instead of external behavior. A whole bunch of stuff I can't think of now and am probably blocking out. I stuck with it though and yikes, does it pay off. I can't imagine not doing TDD now. Coding w/o it is like running through a vat of molasses. So much time wasted in the debugger and writing things that my evil programmer monkey brain distracts me with that YAGNI. I'm writing and asking about this because last week I attended a conference where I talked with a fellow TDDer who'd heard me mention that it took me 3 years to become fully TDD proficient and he shared a similar story even though he was much younger than myself (I attribute my slow adoption due to lack of a mentor/coach and training aids like Pluralsite, YouTube, Jon Reid live coding sessions). I'm curious about others mileage on this. I'll add that I am currently 100% on board with TDD. I am also 100% always on the lookout for a new and better way to replace it. That's off topic though.

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We got on the subject of #ThirdPartyServices, specifically the hidden traps you overlook when choosing to use them. My colleagues Nikita Ragulya and Alexander Ryazantsev already shared their experiences about the headaches these can cause in a project. Oh, I have something to add to this. Costs! Guess what, I even have an entire article about it! You can read the full thing if you want, but I’ll sum it up here in a few words. People think that the small fees for using #ThirdPartyServices are nothing compared to the cost of developing similar features in-house. That’s true. But over time, those small expenses add up, penny by penny, and you might be stunned by the total. In my article, I talk about a real-life case: a customer had been using #GoogleAds for years and decided to switch to their own code. Not to cut costs, but to provide a better interface for content managers. And they were stunned when the platform made over a million dollars in profit in the very first month with the internal ad placement. So, when you’re looking at the costs of custom development and #ThirdPartyServices, just remember - things aren’t that simple! But let me also say - Yes, it’s important to consider all this, but there’s no need to demonize. Often, #ThirdPartyServices are super convenient, affordable, practical, and great. #Cyfrania My article link: https://lnkd.in/e8KtiyFE

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I'm so proud of the work that went into the OpenVMM and OpenHCL. My team has focused on storage devices, and there is a ton of great code in this repo contributed by the engineers working on this (me: I'm a manager, so of sometimes dubious value :)). It's very exciting to see this code become open source! Not only is this a checkpoint in all the hard work that goes into writing a new VMM (and in my team's case: storage emulation code), it also marks a new way of working for some of us. While many engineers in Microsoft from different orgs have contributed already, we're going to keep developing this in the open. As the blog post below mentions, reach out on GitHub or Zulip. Or, you can contribute to the code itself (anyone else love debugging IDE emulators?). While we're already using this code in Azure (over 1.5 million VMs last month, according to the blog), there's still plenty of interesting and exciting stuff to go do.

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Some thoughts on being available "off hours": I've seen a few threads on LI/otherwise about being available for work during off hours, vs having work/life separation, and changing trends there (ie: younger people are less willing to let work intrude in their personal time). As someone who has been in both situations in his career, I have some thoughts. A company will always want employees to work 24/7 (at least exempt employees). They will applaud employees who "give extra", "do what's necessary", "are good team members", or whatever other euphemisms are deemed effective to encourage this. But, employees are also generally disposable to employers (especially larger companies). This is often a rude awakening for younger people, who have been conditioned with propaganda like "your work family", etc. Generally, you should work for compensation, not some sense of obligation to a company that would discard you without a second thought for a small bump to their bottom line. Ideally, those types of expectations should be up-front and by consensus with one's employer. Generally, circumstances permitting, I will check messages off-hours, and respond/work if there's a critical situation which needs my attention (and not otherwise). However, that's inherently dependent on the employer also; if the employer makes that "hard" (eg: restricting the ability to check messages to only corporate devices), then I interpret that as a signal that working off hours is not something they value (at least enough to make it "easy"), which is fine with me. In some ways, that's a better situation, if/when the employer is implicitly making it hard to work off-hours anyway, it easier to ignore any implied pressure to do so. Anyway, that's my take, fwiw.

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Finally put the pen to paper and wrote a blog post on monorepo tips and tricks: https://lnkd.in/eTasHvht Give this a read if you are considering a monorepo, or if you're looking for insight on how to manage a scaling monorepo!

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Humanity's approach in pushing forward developing AGI continues to sorta puzzle me. As I see it, there are a few possible outcomes (in the short and long terms), depending on how successful the technology and application are: - We create really sophisticated but ultimately equally unhelpful chat bots, which permeate society to the increased frustration of literally everyone - We automate away manual labor jobs, increasing corporate profits at the expense of the lower class, and shift even more tax burden onto the middle class to compensate - We get productivity multiplying AGI, which is accessible mainly to the wealthy, and magnifies the wealth disparities in society - We get full AGI, which quickly evolves to displace humanity as the dominant life form, in whatever form that takes Now, I get how the people with wealth can think there are some "good" outcomes there, but I kinda still fail to see if/how normal people think this might be "good" for society (if they do at all). Academic points of course (since we as a society can't really stop it), but interesting in a "course of history" sense.

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