Intrinsic motivation is always better than extrinsic motivation. But not as good as it is when one is motivated both intrinsically and extrinsically.

In networking, adding too much buffering to intermediate network devices introduce unnecessary delays. The trade-off is that bursty traffic will have the appearance of getting through faster. But in reality, the speed of the network is still the same. Data just takes longer to get through.

More reflections from foureteen years at Google.

At long last, this blog "outgrew"^[1] Hugo and I had to go looking for a new static site generator.

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1. Of course, by outgrew I mean I got bored and wanted to play with a new static site generator. ↩︎

Working with a poorly thought-out, or overengineered technology stack, or an overly bureaucratic organization is also a form of proof-of-work.

If you don't know what a refridgerator is nor what an elephant is you are likely to think that opening the door, putting the elephant in, and closing the door is a viable strategy for putting an elephant in the refridgerator.

Asking if someone is "Asian" in a question of ethnicity or demographics or pretty much any context is bad. There is no reasonable conclusion you can arrive at about a person based on the fact that they are "Asian".

Have-loops are positive feedback loops which cause unsustainable concentration of limited resources. Once you learn to recognize them, you will see them everywhere.

If Google Photos incorrectly tags a photo, what's the worst that could happen?

Lifecycles of software systems that solve real world problems can be broken down into distinct phases based on where it is with respect to the problem and the eventual solution.

This article presents a taxonomy of these phases that should help you understand how each part of the lifecycle fits together.