I've been at my current company for just over 9 years. It seems a long time to be in a single place, but when I think about it, it hasn't really been the same job. And I think that's why I've managed to stay there for so long.

I started as an iOS Developer, then I was dabbling in some SpringBoot services, and also a bit of Terraform. That was about 2 to 3 years. Then the company was acquired, so we had a year of picking up a new bespoke tech stack, middleware, and ways of working. It started off with some back office functions as a way to understand the new system, then I moved to third-party integrations, and now for the past 3 years or so I've been focusing on card issuance, card processing, and the 3DS process. I think to an extent, when you change the domain you work in, it can feel like a new job. It helps to stop the job feeling boring.

Then there's the progress side of it. While I started as an "iOS Developer", it was my first professional role, so I was practically a junior. So I had the normal progression of moving up to becoming a senior engineer, and then in the past 2 years I've had the opportunity to become a team lead. That started as just taking more of a role in the architectural design process, helping with planning projects, and also being more of a lead in the team.

I'm now at a point where I manage 2 junior engineers, and one senior engineer, with another junior on the way. It's definitely going to force me to learn new skills, probably more coaching and delegation, but I expect it will be interesting.

All this isn't to say, "wow look at me, my career is so interesting", more of a reminder to myself and maybe others, that staying a long time in the same company doesn't always mean doing the same thing, and if you are finding your role boring, there are more options than just leaving and finding a new company.

For example I had someone that joined just after me, and for the first few years they had a similar progression, from mobile to backend, then moving to a new domain. But they were a Senior engineer from the beginning, and had no interest in learning new domains, or progressing in their role, either to become a team lead, or just progress as an individual contributor. After a while they sort of regressed into a mid-level engineer. Job satisfaction wasn't great in their latter years.

Before they eventually left, they were questioning me about how I've managed to stay for so long. In a way you could think that odd, seeing as we were there practically the same amount of time. But the question was more about how I've managed to stay for so long and managed to both stay interested in the job, and cope with the stress of keeping up with high demands of delivering projects regularly, supporting existing projects, and having the time to also learn. My answer was along the lines of "well I haven't exactly been doing the same thing for 9 years." Which is the truth, but not the whole truth. I could tell that they felt as if we were having totally different experiences.

The truth is that I haven't been doing the same thing for 9 years. As I described at the start, I never went longer than 18 months or so without a change to my role, my level, the domain I worked in, or generally the type of work I was doing day-to-day. But it's not something that magically happened to me and not to them, and it wasn't about skills or simply who was better.

It's comparable to the phrase "make your own luck", which is essentially taking actions to increase your chances of success, with a key behaviour being open to new opportunities. When I was presented with the chance of moving to a new domain, learning a new language for a short project, or a new skill that had to be learned and shared with the team, I was always curious enough to put myself forward. That was replicated across the team, in both similar and different scenarios. Whereas the person I'm talking about never tried anything new, was never interested in any progression, never wanted to put any time into learning. A near zero level of curiosity. Which, to be honest, I felt was odd for a software engineer. Isn't that why we tinker with computers?

I enjoy building with AI, whether it's at my day job or with personal projects. Because it scratches the itch of the builder in me that I don't always get when I'm writing every line of code.

It means that I can step back, and think more about the problem I'm solving, the system design, and of course building faster than I would if I did it all by hand. That's definitely been something I've enjoyed at my day job, as delivering code is not a bottleneck^[1]. Now more emphasis is on your system design. Does it follow the existing standards and patterns? Can it be expanded later if the scope increases? It also gives you more time to think through edge-cases. Can the design handle them better, or can you build in the controls that ensure proper monitoring? Etc.

To some extent, it makes everyone an architect. And I think if you're abstracted away one level, where you are thinking more about how it behaves as part of a wider codebase and domain, you're less likely to make quick tradeoffs simply to deliver faster.

But there is one itch it doesn't scratch. At least not for me, and not yet.

It's the one where it's late at night, it's just you, you've got music playing on your headphones, and you're just programming. It's not always about building some big project, or working towards an idea that AI can help orchestrate and speed up.

Sure, it helps the builder that wants to build and ship products. But at least for me, writing prompts and coordinating agents isn't the same as actually getting into the code, and feeling like you're doing something.

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1. Well, actually: "Delivering code was never the bottleneck" - Go away. ↩︎

I'm in bed, I have the windows wide open, and the fan on full blast, and I'm actually starting to feel cold. I'm very glad we're finally reaching the end of this heatwave.

So I guess that's what losing the Champions League feels like then.

At least we're still Premier League Champions.

There's just under 14 hours until the UEFA Champions League Final. Let's hope Arsenal can finally bring home the trophy. 🏆

Britain is typically a cold, wet, and gray place. But whenever the sun comes out, the country seems to come alive. The pub gardens are full, people are out having picnics, kids are out playing, and people generally are more upbeat.

But I have to say, the past week or so has killed me. I don't want to get into international comparisons, or try to claim how "intense" British heat is, but I've had to deal with ~30°c (>25°c indoors) heat for about a week, and with very inadequate fans as the only solution to combat our well insulated buildings.

I'm pretty sure I find it worse than most though, I wear t-shirt and shorts in 15°c. There's not much else I can do at 30°c.

I've been trying to organically spend less time on my iPhone. For a few weeks my average daily usage dropped from over 6 hours to around 4 hours a day, but it has been creeping up again.

However, I remembered the post by my friend, Elliot, who pointed out (among many great points), that a better metric to try and reduce was pickups. I can see that in the past few weeks my pickups have gone from around 80 a day to 120 a day, with the two most common apps used after pickup being X and Instagram.

While I don't plan on stopping using these apps completely, it does feel like they're my goto solutions for any moments of free time.

So the other day, after seeing constant ads on Instagram, I decided to try to use Blank Spaces. If you don't know what it is, it's essentially a set of widgets that you can turn your iPhone into a "dumbphone".

This now means on my Home Screen, I have seven apps I can launch from the Blank Spaces widget, and four from my Docks.

Widget:

• Calendar
• Photos
• Huckleberry (App for tracking baby sleep, nappy changes, etc.)
• Claude (Random questions that come to me)
• Spotify
• NetNewsWire (RSS reader)
• Micro.blog (In my mind, a slower and more human version of a social network)

Dock:

• WhatsApp
• Messages
• Safari
• Music (Purchased music, I'm slowly building my collection)

It's not as restricted as I've seen others, and I don't have any form of notes app. But that's because I want this to be realistic.

The only contender that I can think of as a future addition is Instagram. Admittedly, I can get lost in Explore and Reels, but it's also where most friends and family are.

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In case people are interested, the wallpaper is one I took myself while on a boat ride in Guilin, China. I beleive it was the Li River.

I came across a rather interesting idea (via Intial Charge):

I added a widget to every page here that lets anyone in the world immediately send me a notification. Type a message, hit send, and it’ll pop up on my phone, watch, and computer near instantly.

Is this a good idea? No. But it’s a funny idea, and that’s all that counts these days. Scroll to the bottom of this page if you want to give it a try.

I liked the idea so much, I decided to implement it here on this blog! So at the bottom of a post (while I still think it's a good idea), you'll be able to send a message directly to my phone.

For those interested, it uses ntfy.sh to send the messages.

Fountain pens aren't new to me. I used them in school when learning how to write, and then I later used them to write multiple page essays. But for whatever reason^[1], when I left school, I didn't use one again. Until very recently, when I purchased a Lamy Safari Fountain Pen ^[2].

I chose this pen because I wanted a reasonably priced fountain pen, that I could use in my daily life at work and at home. Whether it was taking notes during a meeting, sketching out a few writing ideas, or simply to remember things.

What I thought would be a simple upgrade from a typical ballpoint pen, turned out to be a little nudge toward being more intentional. Not just with what I write, but how.

When I use a ballpoint pen, it feels like I should write a quick scrappy note, something that shouldn't live for very long. When I type on a computer or a phone, it feels fast, efficient, but it can be so efficient, that there's no thought behind any of the words.

But pair a nice pen with a little notebook^[3], and it simply feels nice to write. In addition, my natural writing speed means there are little pauses built in, which means I tend to think more as I write.

The permanence of words on paper also has an effect. Not in an extreme perfectionist way. But that if I am spending the time to write something down, I want it to have some thought behind it, honesty, and if possible I want it to be good.

At the same time, it's also a fun experience trying to write neatly again. There's a sense of writing becoming a little "craft" in itself, rather than a means to an end.

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1. I want to place a general blame on society, but who knows. ↩︎

2. Sunset Pink, Medium 0.6mm nib. ↩︎

3. Such as a little Field Notes notebook. ↩ ↩︎

I'm not someone that is good with picking favourites. But around two years ago I realised that Paramore are my favourite band of all time^[1]. And I think All We Know Is Falling is in good contention to be my favourite album.

I can listen to any song by itself, and also the full album from start to finish. And it definitely comes with enough nostalgia to make it even better.

On that note, I need to make sure I go to see Paramore when they next perform in Europe. I saw them live for the first time in the O2 Arena in 2023, and it was by far the best gig I've ever been to in my life. I don't know why I waited so long.

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1. I have to also mention Linkin Park and Oasis. ↩︎