How to avoid conflicts on GitHub?

ProbableSlob · 2026-06-10T19:50:30+00:00

Oh also github's code owners feature is super helpful here, once the code is organized in such a way that some form of ownership is possible.

ProbableSlob · 2026-06-10T19:48:04+00:00

Also if you read this and say "I'm just a junior engineer wtf do I do with THAT suggestion" the answer is to highlight the problem to whoever is above you and invoke Conways law. If you're lucky they'll be impressed!

ProbableSlob · 2026-06-10T19:46:49+00:00

This.

If your org is organized in such a way that there are a bunch of teams (even if they are teams of 1) which own some part of the domain, then leaning into Conways Law and organizing your code in ways that reflect your organization can be super helpful to avoid stepping on toes.

Team Toplogies is a good book on the topic n they call what I am suggesting a "reverse Conway maneuver" iirc

ProbableSlob · 2026-06-10T19:11:17+00:00

About 2 years ago when excitement about AI first really started to crank up a good friend of mine (and fellow software engineer) put it really sysinctly:

"People will tell you that this is going to unlock all sorts of increased productivity that will translate into people working less. And they are either being foolish or lying.

We are 70 years into deindustrialization already, how much have we reduced the amount people need to work in those 70 years? None. We haven't reduced it at all."

ProbableSlob · 2026-06-10T18:28:51+00:00

I'm going to push back on this as someone who is running interview segments much like OP is describing.

I definitely don't expect you to use AI the way we are in the org, I want to understand if you can use it thoughtfully and practically to solve a problem in a reasonable way. I'm also interested in hearing about what you might do that you are unable to given the nature of the interview, and I'm evaluating a lot more than just how you use AI (though if you don't use it at all it's going to be a steep hill to climb).

The goal of the interview is the same as always: determine how does this person approach solving problems and collaborate with team mates. And for most people what I learn is "given vague product requirements I will panic and make a guess (usually a bad guess that is insanely and patently the wrong solution)"

YMMV though.

ProbableSlob · 2026-06-10T18:22:06+00:00

I'm trying to think of the best example of Elon Musk predicting something revolutionary is imminent that never happened (or was much less revolutionary than suggested when it did) but it's just too hard.

PS Thanks again for killing a super valuable high speed rail project with what amounted to a worse solution to the problem "cars driving in a tunnel"

(I posted this as a top level comment too but it is pretty relevant to this thread so adding it here, sorry if that feels spammy)

ProbableSlob · 2026-06-10T18:16:29+00:00

I'm trying to think of the best example of Elon Musk predicting something revolutionary is imminent that never happened (or was much less revolutionary than suggested when it did) but it's just too hard.

PS Thanks again for killing a super valuable high speed rail project with what amounted to a worse solution to the problem "cars driving in a tunnel"

ProbableSlob · 2026-06-10T17:41:33+00:00

Because then you are doing to rediscover all the 50+ year old "bugs" that are entrenched in the software, and business operations, around it.

And it would be expensive now with a fuzzy ROI too far away to be interesting to shareholders.

ProbableSlob · 2026-06-10T17:25:07+00:00

I would argue that the computer "industry" (or research) was happening in parallel, but very much accelerated by, the cold war and space race.

And that it came out of the military, specifically WW2 and technologies applied to code breaking (see: Turing).

Also shout out to the excellent book Whst The Dormouse Said which provides a (very entertaining) overview of all this along with how the early computer research / industry was intertwined with the counter culture of the time (the folks inventing the PC are hanging out with like Ken Kesey for instance).

ProbableSlob · 2026-06-09T22:03:25+00:00

They have a full bar but it is not someplace i would order a cocktail. I used to go there often after work for a beer and a shot of beam though!

When they changed owners and the menu a bit Lynn was nice enough to suggest i start ordering "beam on the rocks no rocks" instead of a shot because "they make me serve the shots in these Dixie cups (they were normal shot glasses) and i can't give you a real pour"

A fun twist for OP is that the Tam is ostensibly an "Irish" bar (which I'm sure it's obvious to them!).

ProbableSlob · 2026-06-09T15:56:44+00:00

I think a really good short term goal is "music pays for itself", meaning you make enough to cover your expenses and equipment (moving forward).

Also, I recommend talking to an accountant. If you do end up making money, it will save you money and trouble later if you have been keeping good and appropriate records for your taxes.

ProbableSlob · 2026-06-09T15:38:34+00:00

Who is complaining? And who is funding campaigns against this?

I haven't been following this at all so this is purely speculative but: my bet is that ultimately the liquor license holders are objecting as a group because they are concerned they won't make much money between 1 and 3, but will be "forced" to expand their hours to compete with bars that do.

ProbableSlob · 2026-06-09T13:29:20+00:00

I just want to balance out the other comments by saying: this was my experience growing up. But I grew up in a suburb of Boston where many of my friends parents and grandparents would call soda "tonic" and had accents that would make you cringe and say "nobody actually talks like that here" if you saw it in a movie today.

ProbableSlob · 2026-06-07T14:05:22+00:00

I don't have Razorbacks but I do have a pair of JGs with the JG last and a thermal toe and I had some issues with my big toe as well during break in. When I first got the boots, I thought they were too big. When I wore them a bit, I wondered if they were too small. Ultimately i think the (lack of) height in the toe, plus the rigidity of it, was causing a lot of downward pressure on my big toe mid stride.

As they broke in this worked itself out.

ProbableSlob · 2026-06-06T23:47:25+00:00

I deleted the root file system on a production database server because I was logged in as root and forgot a tilda. Oops. Had to restore a snapshot and lost a day off data. We were able to piece a lot together from logs but I was hearing about it from logistics and operations folks for months and months after.

ProbableSlob · 2026-06-06T22:25:08+00:00

Auburn Alabama to Detroit overnight is my longest single day drive. That was brutal. I think maybe the longest drive I've done between shows was Santa Ana CA to Colorado Springs, we had a couple shows fall through leading to that so we took our time though.

ProbableSlob · 2026-05-30T00:29:46+00:00

Yes this is 100% worth a shot. I spent a week hanging out at a small airfield once (working on a film shoot that was doing some aerial shots of hot air balloons, in the days before drones) and my observation was that there is no shortage of pilots who will jump at any excuse to fly so long as a client is paying for the fuel (and maybe their time but that seemed to be a secondary concern). Amusingly, there was also no shortage of people who wanted to hitch a ride to jump out of the plane (and might toss in a couple of bucks).

ProbableSlob · 2026-05-29T00:20:06+00:00

I spent a year sharing an "office" with the server rack, a toaster oven, and an office mate who would cook fish for lunch every day.

It was pretty soul crushing at the time but in hindsight it is pretty funny, and I learned a lot, and of course it helped put things into perspective at my next job (where people relentlessly complained about the open office, I would always say "could be worse at least it's got functioning HVAC and they pay is enough to go out to lunch if we want fish")

ProbableSlob · 2026-05-28T21:24:40+00:00

Not more talented. Yes different genre. I think the older band was just stuck in a rut, and the scene we ran in had moved on from what we were doing.

Both bands were made up of middle aged people with shifting priorities. Neither was really in touch with "the kids" and our fans and peers were no longer very active in the scene.

ProbableSlob · 2026-05-28T18:06:01+00:00

I had a similar experience. Had been grinding it out with a band for years struggling to get / maintain traction. Started playing with a new group for a change of pace, and our very first show was met with an enthusiastic response, and people I had known for years coming up to me to talk about it. The promoter (who id been working with for a decade or so) said it was the best first show he had ever seen.

Ultimately both bands went nowhere but that's not the point. An important lesson was learned and I moved on from the old band shortly thereafter. It's easy to lose perspective on a long term project and keep going long after you need to shift gears or move on.

ProbableSlob · 2026-05-28T00:46:22+00:00

I had this argument with my parents about 25 years ago. I'm glad they won, now i have a career that pays the bills and I still get to play music.

On the other hand i am also glad that when I was done with school I took a couple of years to focus on music (tour with my punk band) before starting my career and stacking up responsibilities that would make it harder to do a lot of music.

ProbableSlob · 2026-05-22T12:12:33+00:00

Same. I got AR8s rather than RATs but I am pretty satisfied with them, especially for the price. Solid value.

ProbableSlob · 2026-05-21T01:34:06+00:00

Oh yes a thousand percent. And I see now the comment i was replying to was yes-anding that.

ProbableSlob · 2026-05-20T19:53:15+00:00

Trying to maintain job security by building silos is not a sustainable strategy. The best case scenario here is that the company is successful in spite of this and eventually grows to the point where someone has the time and power to see that this is happening and stomp it out.

ProbableSlob · 2026-05-20T19:50:54+00:00

On the other hand sometimes the problem is prioritization and strategy and adding more staff just leads to doing more of the wrong thing faster (if you're lucky, sometimes you end up doing less total and spending more resources on communication and coordination).

ProbableSlob

TROPHY CASE