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benjaminmikiten

27 karma · joined April 17, 2015

[ my public key: https://keybase.io/benjaminmikiten; my proof: https://keybase.io/benjaminmikiten/sigs/6fz12iD0GIyYDd66q_z8bi50Sm3DaDqLofPlJHG0MZM ]
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benjaminmikiten··on Ask HN: How to manage autistic developer?
You can set reasonable boundaries w/r/t when and how you communicate with them. Without knowing details about specifically what you're dealing with:

- Team members who need to communicate too frequently can have dedicated time scheduled for them when it's convenient for you.

- You're allowed to tell them that you're busy, or to not respond to them until it's convenient.

- With folks who have trouble making themselves understood, I like socratic method type questions to get them to answer their own questions, or to get on the same page.

As a manager, you can be helping them to set goals, and listen to what they think they say they need to meet them. You can work with HR on any additional assistance they need.

While folks with autism spectrum disorders sometimes need additional support, your role as their manager doesn't need to change dramatically to address that specifically. You will also encounter people who either don't have a diagnosis, or you won't know have a diagnosis, and you will need to address their needs whether or not you know about it.

benjaminmikiten··on The Stupid Programmer Manifesto
For someone who's "too stupid" to understand these techs, they certainly can explain them and their drawbacks and alternatives well.

This reminds me of a bit of advice from Austin Kleon that I've used frequently -- "Make bad art, too"[^1]:

> “Good” can be a stifling word, a word that makes you hesitate and stare at a blank page and second-guess yourself and throw stuff in the trash. What’s important is to get your hands moving and let the images come. Whether it’s good or bad is beside the point. Just make something.

This is a perspective I have to come back to, as an engineer building enterprise-scale things, when I'm working on small-scale projects. I don't need to use the same tools I use at work, I can pick "bad"[^2] architecture, I just need to build _something_.

[^1] https://austinkleon.com/2020/04/15/make-bad-art-too/ [^2] "Bad" in that I know precisely how and when and what would bite me in the ass when I try to scale it.

benjaminmikiten··on Remove “This incident will be reported.” from user warnings
Per the commit message:

> Whether or not sudo sends email is now configurable, so the warning may not be accurate. It is also confusing to the user since they will not know who the incident is being reported to.

benjaminmikiten··on Ask HN: Keyboard and Mouse for daily use?
HHKB2 with a CRT LaserTRAC trackball.

Got another Ergodox after hankering to try it again after selling my first after a couple months, waiting until I have a little less work to transition over to it as my WPM drops to about 10 while I'm learning.

benjaminmikiten··on Ask HN: What are some good podcasts?
Can't say enough good things about My Brother My Brother and Me. Three super clever dudes who just riff on advice questions and posts from Yahoo Answers.

http://www.maximumfun.org/shows/my-brother-my-brother-and-me

They also do a D&D game with their dad that they call The Adventure Zone which is some of the best entertainment I've found this year.

http://www.maximumfun.org/shows/adventure-zone

benjaminmikiten··on New MacBook Pro Is Not a Laptop for Developers Anymore
Agreed! The old laptop had a bad placement for ESC anyway — major stretch!

I suspect that any devs picky enough about their typing that this would prevent them from buying this laptop are using alternate keyboards anyhow.

benjaminmikiten··on Spacemacs 0.105.0 released
Let's take a page from 30 Rock's "Dr. Spaceman" and pronounce it "spah-chem-aks"

But really, I thought it was just "space-macs"

benjaminmikiten··on Ask HN: What are you reading?
Sprinting through Cibola Burn http://www.amazon.com/Cibola-Burn-Expanse-James-Corey/dp/031... before Nemesis Games gets here http://www.amazon.com/Nemesis-Games-Expanse-James-Corey/dp/0...

Also working my way through SICP to see if it makes be a better front end dev. Results pending.

benjaminmikiten··on My Top 100 Programming, Computer and Science Books: Part Three
Very much looking forward to the rest of this list. Obviously there are tons of lists on the topic, but his list has been slightly different so far, and his personal takes have been nice.

Here are the other two posts in the series:

http://www.catonmat.net/blog/top-100-books-part-one/

http://www.catonmat.net/blog/top-100-books-part-two/

And here are a few more links on this general topic in case anyone's not seen them before:

http://cspray.github.io/my.so-archive/100-most-influential-p...

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1711/what-is-the-single-m...

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/38210/what-non-programmin...

http://blog.codinghorror.com/recommended-reading-for-develop...