Allen Boone

I've been hearing a lot about "the end of the Jr Developer" lately and how no one should take software engineering anymore. Sure, the market is a bit of a mess right now with lots of layoffs and a bias toward hiring senior developers but what happens in 10 years when those senior devs are retiring or moving into managerial roles? It's the same with anything, if you aren't training the next generation of developers you are heading for a crisis sooner rather than later. We are trading short term gains for long term pain. AI might be steering use towards another dotcom or crypto style bubble but software development isn't going anywhere and ChatGPT isn't going to take any of our jobs. #softwaredevelopment #ai #softwareengineer

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Before I get too much side-eye or glares for suggesting that technical leadership doesn’t happen from the top down, let me be clear: Yep, there are always the big-picture folks, and that includes making the new tiger team, x-factor squad, one-with-the-force co-op, etc., to build the next-gen new hotness, crypto-AI-magic thing. That stuff is important. No one wants to get caught with their pants down while the rest of the market’s off chasing the new takes-half-the-time-for-twice-the-value framework of definitely-not-hyped tech (it's always hyped, but the hype isn’t always wrong). I don’t want to devalue that stuff—it’s just not what I’m here to talk about, at the moment. I want to talk about the importance of engineering software that never stops evolving. The software that changes under your fingertips, the kind that needs upgrades, maintenance, and a whole lot of patience to deal with a constant onslaught of new features that may or may not play nice with everything else. Building software isn’t like airplane maintenance, though we sometimes treat it that way—like you can just bolt on a new engine or install a bigger cargo door, and everything will keep running smooth. It’s not that simple. It's not that simple for planes either. It’s more like a garden. It needs continuous care and attention. You’ve got to notice when a new fruit vine starts choking the azaleas, or when that little oak sapling suddenly shoots up and blocks the sunlight from the flowers below. The point is that reliable, steady software—the kind people rely on every day—has to change over time, but it can’t be allowed to decay. If you let things slide, it turns into a tangled mess of bugs and instability that can’t take a new feature without everything else breaking down. We can’t let it become insecure or unusable. The trick is helping it evolve carefully and thoughtfully—supporting the new, upgrading the old, and making sure everything still plays well together. Doing that well requires folks in the weeds—people who care about testing, security, accessibility, and the side effects that ripple through the whole system. It’s not a game of follow-the-leader. It’s about fostering a culture of care and respect, where everyone understands that the small stuff matters and no one’s role is too small to make a difference. It’s more like resource management in a cockpit. We’re all responsible for making sure that the evolution happens with care and expertise, and that we each know that we have a role to play—and that those roles, too, will evolve. Hey you in the weeds—you’ve gotta care about that invasive bush creeping across the garden bed. If you don’t, those carefully spaced tulip bulbs you planted are toast. And you over there, keeping track of which libraries and dependencies are on life support—your voice matters. Your teammate's voice matters. Pay attention and don't forget about what's going on in the garden while everyone is excited about the new hotness.

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Dear recruiters, I'm genuinely curious about your logic and would love for someone to explain this to me! 1. I put up multiple posts saying I am HIRING Senior and Lead engineers. 2. Recruiter likes my post and messages me privately 3. Said recruiter asks if I would be interested in APPLYING to a junior engineering role. If I'm hiring for leads, and my title it engineering manager, what suggests I would apply to a junior role? Maybe I've set something up wrong in LinkedIn but I am really bored of my inbox being filled by utterly irrelevant messages! Especially when there are so many talented junior engineers not getting the same messages :( #recruiters #jobhunting #hiring #confused

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Everyone's talking about how you should code recently. I call it, The Ship It and Seer vs. The Finesser. I've built 10s of projects solo. I've collaborated on 10s of projects, too. TLDR: Neither style is good or bad. You might lean one way or another. But you need to consider your circumstances. For example. I refactored a frankencomponent this week. I would have left it if I were the only developer on the project. Why? Because I have the context that the code doesn't convey. Other people wouldn't have that. So you simplify. On either side, it boils down to the same (most important) thing: Velocity. Optimising for speed when you're working alone is shipping as fast you, personally, possibly can. Optimising for speed when you're working together is shipping code that lets the whole team move fast.

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