David ex Machina

Having worked in the tech industry for the last 10 years, I have performed a variety of roles including: Software Engineer, Product Manager , and Engineering Manager . I often get asked by colleagues and friends to describe the differences between the roles. Many often wonder whether they should switch roles, and how I decided to switch roles throughout my career. Given the frequency, I decided to write down my take, so others may benefit and use it to better guide their own careers. Below is my primer on the role of an Engineering Manager in a software company. The primer is organized from high-level responsibilities (the what) down to the low-level tasks (the how) required for competency. It is not an exhaustive list, but should set reasonable expectations. Top Responsibilities Team Plan An EM is directly responsible for the long-term health and sustainability of the organization they manage; in terms of both people and product. This requires managing the day-to-day work and p...

Having worked in the tech industry for the last 10 years, I have performed a variety of roles including: Software Engineer, Product Manager , and Engineering Manager. I often get asked by colleagues and friends to describe the differences between the roles. Many often wonder whether they should switch roles, and how I decided to switch roles throughout my career. Given the frequency, I decided to write down my take, so others may benefit and use it to better guide their own careers.  Below is my primer on the role of a Product Manager in a software company. The primer is organized from high-level responsibilities (the what) down to the low-level tasks (the how) required for competency. It is not an exhaustive list, but should set reasonable expectations. Top Responsibilities Product Vision At the highest level, a PM’s main responsibility is creating a vision for a product and setting the direction for the team. The scale of the problem should scale with the PM...

Photo Credit: Jurii Cryonics is a paradox to me. On its face, it is deep optimism for science and the progress of humanity. But it is surrounded by myths and an icky feeling of selfishness. Tim Urban’s comprehensive post goes deep on the subject, describing the current state of cryonics, how it works, the philosophy behind the movement, and dispelling common myths. I encourage you to read it before going further. He ends up defining cryonics as follows: "Cryonics is the process of pausing people in critical condition who can’t accept the concept of death, in the hopes that people from the future will be able to save them." Who wouldn’t want the option to live longer, be cured of disease, and keep enjoying life? Why not throw your hat in the ring and take the gamble to see if humans can conquer death? But thinking more on it, an irony emerged, the same scientific reasoning to make this possible also has reasons to not even bother. What if human fallacy is believing in ...

Credit: Pictofigo I’ve written about the significance and value of time in a previous post , so this post aims to be more pragmatic, and will explore a decision making framework for time vs. money tradeoffs. Do you pay $20 to skip a 20 minute line at the airport? Many people would do the following math, take their hourly wage and compare it to the cost of the offer, and if their hourly income is greater than the cost, then it is a good deal. In this example, if you make over $60 per hour you would take the deal. Buying Time Formula v1.0 An offer is a good deal if, However, it is slightly more nuanced than that. Let’s start with the basics. The total number of hours in a year is equal to 365d * 24h = 8760 hrs/yr. But not all of those hours can be used because humans physically need sleep. Therefore, assuming an average of 8hrs of sleep a night, the average person has 5840 available hrs/yr. Some of those hours are for work in which you earn a wage, economists use the term “l...