a mural depicting people gathered in a dimly lit room, showcasing unity and diversity

Diversity and Inclusion: Reflections on Empathy, Hiring, and Transformation

Thoughts about 3 aspects of promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace: the need to understand each other, for companies to reveal themselves, and getting a seat at the table.

pop art painting of a crowded office party with many people

Navigating people: The antisocial guide to survive social gatherings

Guide to being invisible in a crowded party. The subtle art of staying present and mingling with people, at the same time absent without engaging, all without raising suspicion.

an eye, a hammer and question mark, side-by-side next to each other in graffiti style

Speaking or communicating? Easily recall how to give good feedback

There are many guidelines on how to structure feedback but human nature is quite common. A simple mnemonic will help your recall your favourite framework when it matters the most — talk about what you “observe”, its “impact” and then “ask”.

AI generated photo of several silhouette shadows behind a curtain

“The Business” considered harmful

Few corporate speak expressions annoy me in as much as these 2 words: 😬 “The business” This is a pet peeve of mine, for sure. But beyond that, it’s important we stop covering decision makers behind “The Business” curtain. There is no such entity called “The Business” in companies. “The Business” isn’t a job function or role or group of people. “The Business” is everyone in the company. So what is happening in reality, behind “The Business” curtain?...

on the left, red switch with a 1 on top, a 0 on the bottom, and turned to the 1 position + on the right a coaxial selector with the input on the bottom, an A and B position of top, and the central nob set to the A position

Mental model for Booleans vs Enumerates

In programming, Booleans and Enumerates are common data types to represent the concept of “choice”. When there are several things to choose from, the Enumerate is the only one to support it, so that’s clear. But what about when you have two things to choose from? There might be some confusion between both data types since either of them supports handling binary choices. The confusion arrises in particular when you want to add the choice of a new behaviour, on top of an existing one....

a pair of glasses sitting on a table facing two blurred screens filled with code

Pairing Reviews: Bridging the gap between pair programming and code reviews

Paring technical sessions for kick-offs and reviews can be a good alternative for programmers frustrated with async code reviews and unhappy with continuous pair programming.

ceiling of Borujerdis House in Kashan, Iran with a bright light centre and shaded triangles all around it

Context is everything, even when you don’t see it

We have all heard the common sense1 saying that “context is everything” at some point of our life. It’s a reminder to consider the circumstances before making judgments or decisions. Especially in consultancy, “context is everything” is a famous adage. What is true in one company, almost never applies directly to another. We always need to do major adjustments to the new context and the different realities. But what if I told you that we can take this idea even further?...

Slack Overload? Regain control with Inbox Zero principles

“Inbox zero” is a pivotal concept to deal with the constant influx of information we have nowadays. Merlin Mann coined it in 2006, during a series of posts on 43Folders. That “zero?” It’s not how many mes­sages are in your inbox–it’s how much of your own brain is in that inbox. Especially when you don’t want it to be. That’s it. — Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine (2011-07-12) It was not about “perfection” but rather a way for us to take back control of our time and avoid being reactive....

Hearing or listening? Unlock the value of receiving feedback

Most information on feedback focuses on how to give negative feedback. But what about receiving negative feedback? How better would it be if both ends shared the burden of having productive conversations? Let’s put our egos to the side and be emphatic with those who give us criticism, so the burden isn’t on the speaker alone.

a firefighter using a hose to extinguish a fire in training

From Chaos to Strategy: Embracing Firefighting at Work

We use the analogy of firefighting when people handle unexpected problems at work. Instead of reacting in a chaotic manner like civilians, adopt the strategic approach of trained firefighters. This involves having a plan, clarifying roles, training people and practicing together. Doing so, we can create a better culture of preparedness in our companies.

Thermal throttling: “Gone in a cloud of dust”

When no matter how much you treat some problems as a “software” issue, there’s no escaping the “hardware” truth.

August 12, 2022 2 min
watercolor painting of baby shoes

HistĂłrias curtas

Pequenas histĂłrias de 6 palavras sĂŁo inspiradas num famoso desafio colocado ao escritor Hernest Hemingway. ...

cubism painting about a person with red eyes, working with their laptop in hell, looking upset

Working from Home Hell

After 15 days of confinement due to COVID-19, with 2 adults working and 3 children attending school remotely, “WFH” is standing more closely to “Working from Hell” than “Working from Home”. đŸ˜±

PHP shenanigans

Pop quiz about PHP and something we’ve stumbled upon last week, while working on a client’s codebase. ...

father pointing to a slate board with a lock drawn in chalk and his 2 twin sons looking at it, in black and white crayons

Educating security

A real story of how following good security practices is both easier to do than ad-hoc methods, and it spreads quickly to others.

Scala Enumerations Summary

Comparison between different ways of doing enumerates, with scala.Enumeration, case object and Java’s Enum.

panorama dos 447 carros carbonizados no estacionamento de terra batida do Andanças

IncĂȘndio no Andanças: Os NĂșmeros das Seguradoras

AnĂĄlise do impacto do incĂȘndio no Andanças, seguradoras envolvidas e nacionalidade das matrĂ­culas.

examples of a sketch, wireframe and mockup, side by side

UI/UX design artefacts

Compare and contrast different design artefacts (sketch, wireframe, mockup, and prototype) in terms of their fidelity, speed, cost and use cases.

Vodafone “Update” app for iPhone

A while back, Widgetlabs (makers of Vodafone’s Update app for iPhone) was kind enough to ask about my complaints regarding the Vodafone Update app. Having setup version 2.0 of the app to connect to my Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, here’s a quick list of my main impressions, in no particular order: Problems Poor timeline management, with several issues: Entries getting frequently out of chronological order, with the most recent ones appended after 1 month old entries, for example....