I used to speak regularly at many of the Chicago-area coding bootcamps and one of...
The term “API” gets thrown around a lot these days, but what does it mean?...
Early in my career as an engineering manager, I wrote a long list of my...
A few weeks ago post, I wrote about the case for simple business models in...
I have been a guest lecturer, instructor, and mock interviewer at half a dozen Chicago...
You’ve probably noticed the rise coding bootcamps over the past few years. If you come...
As a long-time PHP developer, Laravel is one of the most exciting additions to the...
We made some considerable improvements to the tech stack at The Graide Network during my...
I’m currently writing a series of articles about test frameworks, and it got me thinking...
When I took my first real management role as Packback’s Head of Engineering back in...
I’ve been thinking a lot about writing lately. I recently left a career as a...
When I graduated from college, my dream was to lead a team at a startup....
I’ve worked with a lot of software engineers and met hundreds while speaking at conferences...
I like writing. I lived with a bunch of English majors in college, so we...
I was reading another engineer’s story this week about his 65-day job hunt. I’ve avoided...
In 2017, I started speaking at technology conferences. I’ve always enjoyed public speaking, and it’s...
I have not been writing as much this year as I did in 2017, but...
I caused a bit of a stir this week because I called out a conference...
In 2017, I started applying to speak at a number of tech and developer conferences...
Software engineering management is an evolving field with a growing body of knowledge, and thousands...
When I first graduated from college and went looking for a job with a startup...
An “Application Programming Interface” or API describes the way that two computer programs talk to...
My Macbook Pro is a couple years old now and I’ve been thinking about switching...
I’ve started using Airtable for almost everything that I used to pack into spreadsheets. The...
I read a post online recently about how some software engineer was asked to complete...
Web applications are getting more and more popular, but in 2018, what’s the best way...
For over a year now I’ve been applying for (and speaking) at tech conferences. Midway...
Cloud based web hosting has enabled small startups to build and scale software applications that...
Creating custom software should be the last resort for early stage startups. Writing good software...
Note: When I first wrote this in early 2018, I had not heard of the...
This year, I decided to make speaking at a conference one of my goals (and...
I was recently asked by a new web developer what resources I would recommend for...
Last month I finished my first book - a step-by-step guide for PHP developers who...
As part of my 2017 writing goal, I decided to spend this month writing a...
At The Graide Network, we needed to automate a bunch of reminder emails and text...
Since I wrote this in September, 2015, continuous integration has become pretty much the standard...
Since publishing this post in August, 2015 I’ve become somewhat fanatical about getting my company’s...
I first published this post in May 2015, but Clean Code is timeless. If you’re...
When I first published this in April, 2015, we were trying to obsessively estimate our...
Two years ago I read Peopleware for the first time and wrote this blog post....
When I wrote this in September, 2014 I was managing an offshore dev team for...
With everyone talking about automation and the widespread job loss that it may lead to,...
I first started using a system for keeping in touch with important people in my...
Back in 2013 I needed a list of all the colleges in the US. The...
Since writing this post in 2012, the case for responsive (and now progressive) websites has...
I wrote this post back in September of 2012. I had just started my first...
Back in July, 2012 when I wrote this article, I was barely a PHP novice...
Writing has been one of my favorite hobbies since high school, but I used to...
Open source software is becoming the norm, and not just for small companies, indie developers and...
I’m working my way through a long backlog of episodes of Software Engineering Radio right...
PHP7 has been out for a few months now; the performance benefits have been demonstrated,...
Now that Midwest PHP 2016 is over and I’m back on my cozy couch here in...
I cut my teeth writing websites in Wordpress, but I’ve fallen out of love with...
Wordpress has a bad reputation on the web for being bulky and slow, but that...
Niche job boards have made a surprising comeback in the past few years. Despite the...
Like a lot of startups, we rely heavily on open source software at Packback, and while...
Note: Since writing this, I’ve stopped using Slack for most things. Here’s why. Slack is...
A few months ago I was looking into an easy way to set up recurring...
As I enter my second full year of working with Packback, I can say that...