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Neil on Software

The softer side of software development

Author: Neil

My Tech Stack

May 12, 2022May 12, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Fireside Stories #19: That time Andrew told me I had to cowboy up.

May 4, 2022May 4, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Tech Debt

May 4, 2022May 4, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Pay

April 19, 2022April 19, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Anxiety

April 13, 2022April 13, 2022 Neil1 Comment
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Fireside Stories #18: That time I “wasn’t a good fit for the development team.”

March 28, 2022March 28, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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MVC

March 28, 2022March 28, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Fireside Stories #17: That time I humbled an arrogant SVP.

March 11, 2022March 11, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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MVP

March 11, 2022March 11, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Fireside Stories #16: That time I fired a client.

March 3, 2022March 7, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Answering r/ExperiencedDevs Questions #2

March 3, 2022March 7, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Fireside Stories #15: That time I rage-quit a meeting discussing my proposal for saving a project.

February 10, 2022February 10, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Career EDC

February 10, 2022February 10, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Fireside Stories #14: That time I got in trouble for critiquing code I did not write.

February 3, 2022February 3, 2022 Neil1 Comment
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Unionization

February 3, 2022February 3, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Fireside Stories #13: That time I was presented UI requirements so bad I was speechless.

January 27, 2022February 10, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Opportunity

January 27, 2022February 10, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Fireside Stories #12: That time I witnessed a candidate get annihilated in an interview.

January 24, 2022February 10, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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C.O.D.E. Pledge

January 24, 2022January 28, 2022 Neil1 Comment
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Fireside Stories #11: That time I turned my antagonists against each other.

January 19, 2022February 10, 2022 Neil2 Comments
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Software’s Intrinsic Value

January 19, 2022February 10, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Fireside Stories #10: That time I lost my cool in the middle of a big meeting in front of the CTO.

January 14, 2022February 10, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Reputation

January 14, 2022February 10, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Fireside Stories #9: That time I was pretty sure I wrote software for the mob.

December 17, 2021February 10, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Attention

December 17, 2021January 28, 2022 Neil4 Comments
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Fireside Stories #8: That time I won over a hostile sales team.

December 6, 2021February 10, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Monoliths and Microservices

December 6, 2021February 10, 2022 Neil1 Comment
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Fireside Stories #7: That time I built a high-performing team and then management split us up.

December 2, 2021February 10, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Learning

December 2, 2021February 10, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Fireside Stories #6: That time I realized a rockstar hire didn’t know how write software

November 30, 2021February 10, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Managerial Styles

November 30, 2021January 28, 2022 Neil1 Comment
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Fireside Stories #5: That time I was made a team lead over my mentor

November 17, 2021February 10, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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The Great Resignation

November 17, 2021February 10, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Fireside Stories #4: That time I learned how to write high performance software

November 12, 2021February 10, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Answering r/ExperiencedDevs Questions #1 (Bongoscout’s Question)

November 12, 2021March 3, 2022 Neil1 Comment
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Fireside Stories #3: That time I argued the necessity of a MacBook Pro with a billionaire founder

November 8, 2021February 10, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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The Joy of Coding

November 8, 2021February 10, 2022 Neil1 Comment
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Fireside Stories #2: That time I was schooled on how to really find bugs

October 26, 2021February 10, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Cynicism

October 26, 2021February 10, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Fireside Stories #1: That time I was disrespected by a QA contractor who didn’t know that I ran the whole project

October 24, 2021February 10, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Hungarian Connection

October 24, 2021February 10, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Anyone Can Code

October 22, 2021February 10, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Social Media

October 15, 2021February 10, 2022 Neil1 Comment
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Accountability

September 30, 2021February 10, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Bravery

September 30, 2021February 10, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Mental Health Day

September 24, 2021February 10, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Critical Thinking

September 17, 2021 NeilLeave a comment

Procrastination

September 16, 2021September 16, 2021 Neil1 Comment

Erik’s First Day

September 14, 2021September 14, 2021 NeilLeave a comment

Hiring

September 9, 2021September 9, 2021 NeilLeave a comment

The Hustler Mindset

August 27, 2021August 27, 2021 NeilLeave a comment

How a Tech Lead Should Leave a Company

August 23, 2021January 28, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Churn

August 20, 2021August 20, 2021 NeilLeave a comment

How to Take Over a Failing Software Project

August 19, 2021August 19, 2021 NeilLeave a comment

Thoughts on “The Fatal Flaw of Free Market Capitalism”

August 17, 2021August 17, 2021 NeilLeave a comment

Should Software Developers Return to the Office?

August 7, 2021August 10, 2021 NeilLeave a comment

Should You Become a Manager?

August 7, 2021January 28, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Building a Software Development Career from a Third-World Country

August 5, 2021August 5, 2021 Neil1 Comment

Building Relationships

August 5, 2021 NeilLeave a comment

Remote Work’s Effect on American Innovation

July 29, 2021July 29, 2021 NeilLeave a comment

How to Architect a Software Application

July 26, 2021July 26, 2021 NeilLeave a comment

Why I think there is nothing wrong with the term ‘Soft Skills’

July 26, 2021January 19, 2022 NeilLeave a comment

Simon Sinek gave a passionate explanation as to why he hates the term ‘Soft Skills’; A majority of experts surveyed were against the term; Even the U.S. Army has a problem with referring to leadership and communication skills as ‘Soft’.

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Building and Leading a Technical Team

July 22, 2021 Neil1 Comment

Picking Technologies

July 14, 2021February 3, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Imposter Syndrome

June 26, 2021June 26, 2021 Neil1 Comment

F-35

May 27, 2021May 28, 2021 NeilLeave a comment

Correct by Configuration

May 25, 2021May 28, 2021 Neil2 Comments

Recession Proofing

May 24, 2021May 28, 2021 Neil3 Comments

Retaining Top Performers

May 24, 2021January 28, 2022 Neil1 Comment
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Social Anxiety

May 19, 2021 NeilLeave a comment

Flipping a House vs. Building a Home

May 5, 2021May 5, 2021 NeilLeave a comment

Professionalism

May 3, 2021November 8, 2021 NeilLeave a comment

Interviewing the Interviewer

April 23, 2021April 23, 2021 Neil2 Comments

Why Agile Is So Popular

April 23, 2021 Neil5 Comments

Frontend Developers

April 16, 2021 NeilLeave a comment

Mentors

April 12, 2021 Neil2 Comments

Musk

April 1, 2021April 1, 2021 NeilLeave a comment

Fear

March 31, 2021March 31, 2021 Neil1 Comment

Bugs

March 25, 2021 NeilLeave a comment

Security

March 18, 2021 NeilLeave a comment

Politics

March 5, 2021March 12, 2021 Neil1 Comment

Intuition and Ergonomics

March 5, 2021March 5, 2021 Neil1 Comment

Agile

February 9, 2021February 9, 2021 Neil6 Comments

Dealing with a Diva Developer

February 9, 2021January 28, 2022 Neil2 Comments
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Cyberpunk 2077

February 2, 2021February 2, 2021 Neil1 Comment

Dave Whipple’s Wisdom

January 26, 2021January 26, 2021 Neil2 Comments

Growth Mindsets

January 20, 2021 NeilLeave a comment

Volkswagen vs. Tesla

January 20, 2021January 20, 2021 NeilLeave a comment

Ethics

January 11, 2021January 13, 2021 NeilLeave a comment

The Architect’s Dilemma

January 4, 2021February 3, 2022 Neil2 Comments
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ScrumMaster.games

December 15, 2020December 15, 2020 Neil2 Comments

Laziness and Incompetence

December 14, 2020January 28, 2022 NeilLeave a comment
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Employee Happiness

December 11, 2020December 11, 2020 Neil1 Comment

Breaking Up Facebook

December 11, 2020December 11, 2020 NeilLeave a comment

Architecture’s Relationship to Business Outcomes

December 8, 2020December 8, 2020 Neil4 Comments

PSF: Previsualize, Sleep, Flow

November 30, 2020November 30, 2020 Neil2 Comments

Improving Scrum

November 12, 2020November 12, 2020 Neil2 Comments

Career Advice

October 27, 2020 NeilLeave a comment

Is It Worth Learning to Be a Software Developer in 2020?

October 21, 2020October 21, 2020 NeilLeave a comment

Haters

October 16, 2020October 16, 2020 NeilLeave a comment

Posts navigation

Older Posts

How to Deal with Difficult People on Software Projects

This guide is primarily meant for people in a managerial or leadership role, but it’s also a tool for self-identification, self-reflection, and self-improvement.

12 Types of Underappreciated Software Developer

You can browse the 12 developer profiles to see if you recognize yourself and your teammates, or take a quiz to figure out how closely you match each profile.

Level-Up Your Softer Skills

A practical guide to learning the most essential soft skills that everyone should have. Many of the topics listed are incredibly complex, but have been condensed into a relatively quick and easy to understand read.

Neil on Software

My unedited ramblings on random topics that I find fascinating about the software industry.

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My Tech Stack
byNeil
My Tech Stack
My Tech Stack
May 12, 2022
Neil
Fireside Stories #19: That time Andrew told me I had to cowboy up.
May 4, 2022
Neil
Tech Debt
May 4, 2022
Neil
Pay
April 19, 2022
Neil
Anxiety
April 13, 2022
Neil
Fireside Stories #18: That time I “wasn’t a good fit for the development team.”
March 28, 2022
Neil
MVC
March 28, 2022
Neil
Fireside Stories #17: That time I humbled an arrogant SVP.
March 11, 2022
Neil
MVP
March 11, 2022
Neil
Fireside Stories #16: That time I fired a client.
March 3, 2022
Neil
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