Matt Soto on Atomic Spin

Consultants: Here’s How You Optimize for Client Value

I've had a lot of discussions recently, making sure that we, as software consultants, use our time to optimize for client value.

Project & Team Management

Don’t Be a Hero: Harness the Power of Teamwork Instead

I've noticed a particular organizational pattern that really bothers me because of how pervasive and dysfunctional it is: Hero Syndrome.

Growing as Makers

Saying “No” is a Powerful Tool

Whether you're at a consultancy or a product company, from development to management, you have a hidden superpower: saying no.

Development Practices

Stop Using Floating-Point Numbers to Store Money

Processors are optimized to work with floating-point numbers, so they are typically supported. But, they come with a limitation: precision.

Development Practices

To Squash or Not to Squash: The Merge Debate

You're finally ready to merge that pull request into your develop branch. Do you do a standard merge commit? Or do you squash merge?

Development Practices

Stop Using dotenv for Your Node Property Management

Here's why you should stop using dotenv for node property management and start using dotenv-defaults instead.

Growing as Makers

What Does Being a Good Leader Mean? Making Life Easier for Your Team

In the end, if you ensured that the problem was addressed, you were a good leader, no matter how you did it.

Developer Tools

Diving Deeper into PlantUML: Customization Options

Go deeper and customize PlantUML options. A whole host of customization options can tailor your diagram to your specific use case.

Growing as Makers

Making Mistakes Made Me the Developer I Am Today

We talk a lot about the costs of making mistakes, but something nobody seems to talk about is the cost of avoiding mistakes.

Development

Developers: Be Careful How You Use Metrics

We often apply metrics to job performance. When it comes to software development, however, this is surprisingly complicated.

Personal Optimization

Emphasize Your Soft Skills and Ace Your Next Job Interview

It's worth spending some time thinking about what you really want to showcase in a job interview and what a company might be looking for.

Business Practices

The Way Software Firms Conduct Technical Interviews is Broken

The current way we do technical interviews doesn't find the best candidates. Interviewing can never be 100% like a real job, but what if we could get close?

Matt Soto

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