After 18 months, I finally took the hint that my walking partner has moved on (I’m not bitter) and replaced him. With somebody reliable, who will walk with me whenever I want and enjoy it too. A visit from my Dad, who looks down on almost everything I enjoy doing except walking, seemed like a […]
There are, famously, no silver bullets in software engineering. Computer programming is hard and although some people are really brilliant at it, there are also a lot of people out there making their career in this field who are not. This is one reason why a lot of software sucks. Another reason is the inescapable […]
This is a post about multiple wordles and the point at which they hit diminishing returnles. If you don’t know what Wordle is, this post is not for you and also, how is life back in 2019? Just so you know things are about to be terrible, maybe forever. Ever since we all collectively lost […]
Something which has become something of an established practice across the tech industry is the “cultural fit” interview. Typically the last stage of a recruitment process, in this interview the candidate meets some people from the business (either their own team or people they will need to collaborate closely with), who will ask them a […]
I first got interested in training as a discipline and unusual ways of getting people to engage with potentially difficult material as a student volunteer with Nightline. Training sessions there were over two intense weekends, and by design we broke up sessions on bereavement, abuse and other heavy topics with stupid games which were less […]
I couldn’t find the answer online so I measured it myself. I’m not a food blogger so I’m allowed to provide the information without a rambling story about my childhood. Imperial sizes are in brackets – I’m aware a lot of people still measure cakes in inches. 114g boxes of Cadbury Fingers contain 22 fingers […]
Well, it’s been a while. In the 19 months since I last did a stretch of my off-again, still off-again project to walk the entire Thames Path national trail, Robin moved to Cumbria which made it much harder to arrange walking days than when he used to live in my spare room. On the other […]
My biggest flaw is how much I hate interviewers who ask the question “what is your biggest flaw?”. It makes for some really awkward interviews. Not really. But ever since I was first asked it in a training interview during industrial placement prep at Gregynog during my degree, this question has always put me on […]
I’ve met a few developers over my career (citation needed). People are infinitely varied and all that jazz, but I feel able to say with some confidence that most of the really, really good programmers I’ve known divide into two categories. The first kind, who I’m going to call “Malcolms” after someone who scared the […]
I admit upfront that I’ve not always been left-aligned on issues of gender identity. In the dim and distant past of my student days, I had friends who attended BiCon every year and I used to make fun of them when they came back with their namebadges covered in stickers to allow them to fully […]