Thoughts

Is AI ushring us to an era of “hyper-personalised media”? A time when each person can request the exact type of article, video, story, etc. that they like?

Technological revolutions and the predictions they attracted: the ones that failed, the ones that held, the ones nobody saw coming, and what all of it implies for AI. Underneath them all, a pattern: what a technology makes abundant makes something else scarce. Looking at history is often the best way to predict the future.

Say you’re supporting and providing for someone with reduced mobility1. If you want them to maintain their sense of independence, thn focus on your response times. Make it a priority to respond to their request for help immediately (or as fast as you can). When they have autonomy, people experience a short time from thought to action. This is crucial to give them the sense of independence: thought ➔ action ...

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.

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.

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”.

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? ...

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. For example: ...

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.

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? What if I told you that nothing has advantages or disadvantages, only characteristics? ...

The goal is to apply “inbox zero” concepts to Slack and mitigate the pressures to “respond immediately”. The realisation is that sections can become a pseudo-inbox of channels that need reading (as opposed to considering messages the unit to manipulate).

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.

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.

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

Pequenas histórias de 6 palavras são inspiradas num famoso desafio colocado ao escritor Hernest Hemingway. ...

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”. 😱

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

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

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

Análise do impacto do incêndio no Andanças, seguradoras envolvidas e nacionalidade das matrículas.