What Learning to Sail Taught Me About Building Software

This summer, a small crew from Atomic decided to try something a bit out of our comfort zone…sailing. It turned out to be a lot of work–and a lot of fun! While captaining a sailboat may seem disconnected from the software development work I do at Atomic, I’ve noticed a connection between the two that […]

The Making of Dead Again: A Ludum Dare 45 Retrospective

A small team of Atoms recently participated in the 45th iteration of the Ludum Dare game jam. Ludum Dare is a semiannual game development jam where participants have 72 hours to create a video game based on a theme. The theme for this jam was “Start with Nothing,” and the game that we made is called […]

Three Strategies for Working Solo as a Junior Developer

Recently, I was in a position where I was the only developer assigned to my project. Not for too long, as it turned out, but initially, I didn’t know how long I’d have to fly solo. As a more junior-level developer, the thought of working alone for an indeterminate amount of time was terrifying. However, […]

Jumping into an Established Codebase as a Junior Developer

Joining a project with an established codebase is tricky. There’s a significant amount of information to absorb, there may be new technologies to learn, and there’s usually a lot of code to read! These are five techniques I’ve used for finding sure footing in a codebase as a junior developer.

Lessons Learned from Atomic FC’s First Season

This summer, there was enough interest at Atomic for us to put together a soccer team to play in a local summer league. It was fun (we even had non-players turn up to support), helped bond us together as colleagues, and even provided some learning opportunities that could be used at work.

How to Build Confidence Through Consulting

Consulting can be a scary business. Folks bring unique, challenging problems and ask you to solve them within a tight timeline. If you’re a planner and you like knowing what the path to completion looks like, this can be stressful. Learning to work confidently in these spaces is one of the great gifts I’ve received […]

Managing Your Career in Tech – Part 2: Leverage OKRs for Personal Growth

Yesterday, I outlined some ways to take ownership of finding meaning at work. But taking ownership of your own career and aligning your personal sense of purpose with your purpose at work isn’t enough to find success. You also need to execute consistently in areas that make this alignment real. To do this, you need […]

Managing Your Career in Tech – Part 1: Make Work Matter

It’s an amazing time to work in technology. There is so much opportunity available to talented, driven people. Any of us can rise to the top of our chosen profession. But where we go and how far we rise is increasingly up to us. How will you manage your career in technology? This is a […]

Dungeon Master Skills You Can Bring to Work #6 – Teamwork

Prestidigitation is a low-level spell in Dungeons & Dragons that allows the caster to perform a subset of minor effects, such as lighting a single candle or cleaning a square foot of a piece of clothing. It’s a spell that most magic-casting classes can learn, but it has few benefits in battle. One of my […]

How Teaching Board Games Makes Me a Better Consultant

For the past two years, I’ve attended a little-known convention called Gen Con. Okay, depending on who you ask, it might not be that little-known. It draws over 60,000 unique attendees (over 200k visits throughout four days). Besides spending time enjoying everything at the convention—from visiting exhibitor booths to making purchases, trying out new games, […]

Atomic Spin

Atomic Object’s blog on everything we find fascinating.

Growing as Makers