How I Killed Bad Meetings
David / 6 July 2020
10 tips for making meetings better I realized we had a major problem. A colleague, distraught, pulled me aside. She’d had a bad meeting — one of the ones where your soul ebbs away while the clock laughs at you. I’d heard it all before, that day, from four other people. The worst... [read more]
PSA: Stop Using Keybase Right Now
David / 10 June 2020
Why the service for "keeping everyone's chats and files safe" can no longer be trusted Morally, I can't publish the article I'd written. [read more]
Data-driven Terraform: Terraform in Anger Part 2
David / 28 May 2020
Here, in part 2, our goal is maintainability. We'll take a data-driven approach. Adding new users will be mere data entry. Along the way, we'll split our project into multiple files, logically. That'll make it easier to add more functionality in part 3 and beyond. In part 1, we... [read more]
Data Engineering: What is it?
David / 13 May 2020
Data Engineering is on a meteoric rise. As a proportion of jobs advertised, data engineering has more than doubled over that past two years. But what is it? [read more]
Fixed Price Contracts: Better for Everyone?
David / 6 May 2020
I've been a contracting for over a decade, and before that I worked for a consultancy. Daily rates are the norm in the UK, but three years ago, I started something new, fixed price contracts. My motivation at the time was mostly curiosity. Perhaps I just wanted something... [read more]
Terraform in Anger Part 1: AWS S3 Access
David / 5 May 2020
Terraform allows you to set up infrastructure across a wide variety of vendors and platforms. I love it because it's declarative---meaning you just say what it is your want and Terraform figures out how to get there. There are many good introductions to Terraform out there, but... [read more]
Data Science: Cloud-based Tools for Effective Remote Collaboration
David / 14 April 2020
If you think your data scientists and engineers can get by on just email and phone calls, you are in for a rude awakening. While IT has their hands full with broader company needs, let’s see look at some data science tools for working effectively as a team. As a Data Engineering... [read more]
Listen Like You’re Not a Serial Killer
David / 16 March 2020
Active Listening is the most important leadership skill, and sometimes the best example to learn from is a bad one. So here, I present to you, my favourite example of a poor listener, the prison interview of serial killer, Paul Bernardo. Although best known for committing a... [read more]
Agile is More Than Just a Software Thing
David / 10 February 2020
According to Forbes, Agile has been eating the world for some time now. Moreover, what many New York best sellers on progressive leadership pushes has its origins in Agile. Sometimes it's disguised as “startup culture” or just making the work fun or meaningful. But when done in... [read more]
Establishing Psychological Safety: There is No Fear in this Dojo
David / 27 January 2020
Psychological safety is one of the key factors that separates a truly cohesive team from just a group of people on a project, but just how does one achieve it? As leader of a team, either formally or circumstantially, you need to establish at least some base-level of trust along... [read more]