Defragmenter's Top 5 Posts of 2024
Hello! In this newsletter, my last of 2024, I'm sharing my top five posts from 2024. These writings got the most feedback across various platforms, and I'm proud to share them again here.
I have one more writing project planned this year: my annual year-in-review. Watch my blog close to the New Year as I reflect on the highs, the lows, and the NaN.
I'm spending the rest of 2024 in rest and reflection, and I hope you can do the same. Thank you to everyone who read, shared, and replied to Defragmenter in 2024. I appreciate you all!
Top Five Posts
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Decoupling Design From Engineering. I wrote about how to do visual design when you're an engineer– a person who is "bad at design" and knows too much about how it all works. This was my first personal post ever to make it to the front page of Hacker News!
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If It's Too Hard, You're Doing It Wrong. I summarize some of the best advice I learned early in my career: sometimes (not always!) something being unreasonably hard means that it's also a bad idea. Learn from my struggles.
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Pay for Good Tools. I argued for investing in yourself with great proprietary tools.
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Hard-won Software Development Habits. I summarized a handful of habits that have helped me become more effective as an engineer.
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Being the Third Engineer. I wrote about why I liked being the "third engineer" – the first outside hire, the one who sees things a little differently– at my startup.