John Patrick Schooley

HOT JOB ALERT!!! Fully remote, Full Stack Staff Software Engineer Key parts of the job: ✔ Work from home ✔ Serve as the technical lead for a team of full-stack engineers ✔ Work closely with dedicated data engineers, designers, product teams, QA engineers and others, so that you can be a rockstar software engineer instead of a mediocre jack-of-all-trades ✔ Build cloud-native on AWS, GCP and Azure ✔ Containerize all the things with Kubernetes ✔ Use modern languages and frameworks like Typescript, Python, Rust, React, NestJS, TerraForm and other useful things that make Dev life so much easier ✔ Build powerful apps that make the world a better place and actually make you feel really good about the work you do ✔ Be supported by an awesome management team that knows first-hand the challenges you face because they've actually built stuff too ✔ Have opportunities travel, meet and work with your teammates in person, when there is an actual purpose and benefit to doing so Not part of the job at all: ✘ Come to the office to join zoom meetings because, uh...synergy ✘ Get committed to technically impossible projects with absurd timelines ✘ Be micromanaged to the point of paralysis ✘ Take over some legacy Java 6 project that only supports IE7 and uses a mixture of tabs and spaces ✘ Spend time in pointless meetings that could have been an email when you could have been building something awesome ✘ Be forced to justify your sprint velocity and burndown chart at the end of every sprint ✘ Be required to work through a simple 37-step process to install an npm package from an internal binary repo manager that is 9 versions out of date Sound like a dream job? Make your dreams reality!

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Here's why everyone in tech HATES Software QA and Testing: - Non-technical execs don't understand why QA/testing exists… isn't it engineering's job to write quality software? - Engineering leaders view QA/testing as a necessary evil, and test automation is slow, expensive, and boring - Developers get resentful when their code gets thrown back at them with 26 bugs they didn't consider (a.k.a "my baby is ugly" phenomenon)  - Sales doesn't realize QA/testing exists - Testers start to hate QA/testing when they're constantly underfunded and overworked Anyone I miss? p.s. ok ok, almost everyone, two notable exceptions: experienced/wise eng leaders, great/innate testers

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At any point of our careers as engineers we might stumble and feel like we've hit a wall. Every stage of our careers is different - in some periods we feel like we're learning a ton, but in later stages things seem to slow done. In one of my recent coaching calls, we discussed that this happens more often than not. It's a question of 'when', not 'if'. Eventually, in the coaching call, we arrived at a few ideas on how to get back in the learning rocketship: 1/ Engage in Solo Projects. Start a personal project where you are the primary or sole developer. This could be anything from a new app idea to a software tool that solves a problem you encounter frequently. 2/ Delve Into a New Domain. Choose a challenging and unfamiliar area of software development, such as game development or embedded systems, and immerse yourself in learning and creating projects within this domain. 3/ Contribute to Open Source Projects. Identify and contribute to open source projects that interest you. Start with small contributions, such as bug fixes or feature enhancements, and gradually take on more complex tasks. I've added some other ideas in the attached slides. Check them out! What else you got? #leadership #engineeringmanagement ---- ♻️ Repost this if you found it useful! ✍🏻 If you enjoyed this post, follow me for more insights on engineering leadership.

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Peer review template when writing to a female engineer, developer, or other technical professional: (NOTE: this is a parody/satire, please don't actually use it). Get better at <soft skill she is already great at>. Try <soft skill she's already mastered> Have you thought about learning <soft skill that she is significantly better at than most of her colleagues>. You should do <practice she does all the time and has been doing for years>. You could improve <soft skill you don't care if her male colleagues have>. Have you thought about learning <thing she spent a ton of time training in in the last two years>? You should develop a specialization <be sure to treat all front end specializations/skills as not really counting or not technical enough even if impressed when her male colleagues have them or just conveniently forget about any specializations she already has>. Here are some fun soft skills to choose from (make sure to pick the ones she's already very good at, aren't actually relevant to her career, or that are too vague to be useful): - Try not to get pulled into drama. - Be more "open minded." - Speak with more confidence. - Organize your thoughts better during impromptu discussions or extemporaneous speaking. - Write better emails. - Be more diplomatic when speaking. - Be more diplomatic when writing. - Be more assertive. - Be less assertive. - Be more supportive. - try not to be intimidating - speak with less jargon - speak with more technical terms. - Be more open to change. - Improve public speaking skills. - don't speak too much. - Be nicer. - Do more demos/presentations/trainings of others. - Watch your tone when disagreeing with others in comment or email threads. - Watch your tone (in all other cases). - Ask others how to improve. - Don't take things personally. - Regularly learn new things. - Keep up with new technology. - Develop contacts/relationships with other teams. And REMEMBER to tell her when she points out that you are advising her to do a thing she is already excellent at or already does: "We could all do better at these things." 😎

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Meet Ethan: a newborn with a future already brightened by his parents' proactive financial planning. In this latest entry of our series, Jamie and Alex leverage their financial wisdom to start Ethan on a path of financial security from day one. They opt for a whole life insurance policy with a savings component that not only protects Ethan but also grows with him. From covering college expenses to enhancing his early career stages and ensuring a comfortable retirement, discover how this strategy harnesses the power of compound interest to turn regular savings into substantial life milestones. Dive into the full story to see the transformative impact of early financial planning and how it prepares Ethan for a promising future. https://lnkd.in/g-5ayans #FinancialPlanning #EarlyStart #LifelongSecurity #FamilyFinance

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What would happen if you were selfish this weekend? Let me tell you a story Meet John He’s an Engineering Manager He’s leading three product teams He chose to learn about negotiation this weekend → Instead of getting  more “work” done → Instead of meeting with his family → Instead of having a day off It's pretty selfish of him He could spend time being selfless Yet he chose to spend time on himself Over the weekend John gained a new skill. He started using it straight on The new skill allowed John to deliver projects quicker He improved his relationship with stakeholders The team shared the success with him What happens next? ✅ John gets a pay rise ✅ John gets recognised ✅ The Team gets recognition ✅ The Team gets less stressed ✅ John has more time for his family ✅ A higher salary improves John’s family life ✅ Team members have more time for their families ✅ Team members learn from John and follow in growth ✅ Team members are happy and decline headhunters John has been selfish Who benefited? → John → His team → His family → Team’s families → The company he works for And it’s just one selfish weekend Put your oxygen mask on first. before assisting others The world needs more selfish people Will you be selfish this weekend? -- If you are a busy Engineering Leader join my newsletter (link in my profile)

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Folks leave company due to homophobic, misogynistic, and transphobic state policies because they are looking for greener pastures in a friendlier state. Folks leave company because even though they were invaluable as an engineer or in some other position they moved into a management position and suddenly there are too many managers. Mysteriously "company" seems to have completely forgotten all the value the person previously had now that they are in a 'non-talent' role. Or maybe they think moving to management dissolves away talent... 😅 (::redacted-funny-commentary:: 😝). Folks leave company due to lots of silent layoffs. Folks leave company when products are sold off to other companies and some of its team with it. Folks leave company because outsourcing has made it very hard to move internally and they can no longer advance or find a more challenging role. And now company tells employees that they should make more "connections and relationships with other teams." Oh, you think? Really? Huh. Where did my strong internal network go...

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Conjecture: Given developers of sufficient seasoning, #refactoring “when it feels good” is effectively equivalent to refactoring “to invest company money wisely”. (Developers at every level can be thinking about how well the two are correlated. A good way to acquire seasoning.)

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💡 Automated testing isn’t always valuable. The most valuable automated test I write is to ensure a bug found in functional testing isn’t reintroduced. It also nearly guarantees it passes QA on the to PROD because I could fail it before I changed the code. Next to that, automated testing is best suited for those conditions that can be tested via a theory. An example would be an extension method that took in a string, manipulated it, and kicked back out a known string. I can test every scenario I can think of with a theory and be very confident it’ll work. Ironically, if a case fails in production, I can add to the theory, fail it, fix it, and know I didn’t also introduce collateral damage. Some things just have to be functionally tested. That’s the reality.

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I've been working with automated review/analysis for more than two decades - created multiple automated code review systems for different artifact types - Java, YAML, workflows. About half a year ago I started working on a generic model-driven framework for management and enforcement of rules/standards/principles - Nasdanika Rules. Recently I've managed to free up some time to document it and write this story - https://lnkd.in/edxpkfB4. If you operate in an environment with many rules/principles/standard which are not automatically enforceable and maybe not even clearly defined, Nasdanika Rules may help you to increase the level of rigor and structure!

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As an IT veteran of 20+ years, I wish I knew earlier how important #networking, continuing education & pursuing side projects are. They open so many doors! Here are some tips https://bit.ly/3xdZqsf #learnsoftskills #careeradvice #neverstoplearning #communication #wisdom 💡

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Will residential mortgage rates be higher or lower in the next 1-2 years? Like stocks, attempting to predict future mortgage rates is a fool's errand. Yet, it pays to know the components that make up the mortgage rates and how they compare with stable 10-year treasury yields. This article by Wendy Edelberg of The Brookings Institution is a good one that explains the composition of mortgage rates that is easy to understand.

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I'd be really interested in a follow-up study on this to see if there are any common "implementation details" of the agile process that these failed projects had. I think they're on to something with: `However, while the Agile Manifesto might have its problems, those stem more from its implementation rather than the principles themselves. "We don't need a test team because we're Agile" is a cost-saving abdication of responsibility.` If your organization has that attitude, I'm guessing it'll put you at high risk for having some failed projects that push these numbers so high. https://lnkd.in/gnCBmfr8

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Scrum is a pile of poop. You don't need sprints. You don't need planning sessions. You don't need ticket refinement. You don't need 3 amigos. You don't need burn downs. You don't need a scrum master. You don't need retrospective meetings. You don't need story points. I sure am glad I don't do scrum anymore. Leaving it behind was like a heavy weight lifted off your shoulders.

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Following the below post, I was asked, quite fairly: What development process does my team use? It doesn't have a name. It doesn't have a certification. It isn't very marketable. I didn't create it. Anyone in the team can suggest changes to it at any time. It probably feels very familiar. No one but our team dictates how we work or tracks our work. It almost certainly won't work in every company or any types of development work. But bits of it may work in other settings. There's a lot to cover so I'll do a mini series. Each one will contrast a point made in the original post. 1 of 8 - Not sprinting We iterate but we don't have a fixed schedule for iterations. Work is just ongoing. As the team work on items, I'll have a sense for how long I expect each should take. Usually I'm roughly right but often enough something takes more or less time to finish. The iterations are the work items. We get the thing done, get feedback on it then do some more. Perhaps we'll do something we "planned" or perhaps we'll do something with the feedback we've got. My aim for the on going work load is that it's sustainable for the long term. That means my engineers should be able to work at this pace indefinitely. Sure, there are times when we rush but it's not an extended period. There are times when things are slower also. We don't commit to doing some work in a fixed period like a Sprint (although sometimes we have deadlines). But we commit to each work item we pick up, that we will do the best for the business and for the code base. We are responsible. We are professionals. If we've said it will be done in a few days we will work towards that an let you know if it's going to be delayed. If we break something *we* stop and fix it immediately and *I* will apologise if it's inconvenienced someone. More to come on planning, tracking progress and tickets! I'll also share some more details about the product, the organisation, the business and the kind of work we do. All of these factors help shape how we work.

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Continuing the series comparing my team's approach vs scrum... 2 of 8 - JIT Planning We don't get together regularly and talk about tickets. Usually a plan is only needed ahead of larger changes. As the team lead, I'll do this as part of breaking the work up into small chunks (tickets). If there are dependencies on other teams or visa versa, I'll sort that out at this point. Once we have tickets it just flows into the team's usual work as normal. No need to all get together and waste an hour every sprint. What about knowledge sharing? We pair/mob or do so at code review time. If theres a larger project we might do a kick off session to give everyone the wider context. What about test plans? We have no QA roles on the team, engineers will test and plan tests if needed when they work on the ticket. --- It's worth mentioning the kind of work we do. We work at T Rowe Price on their internal Portfolio Management tool: Lens. We build out the features ourselves or work with other internal tech teams. This is in contrast to working with 3rd party companies which requires a different way of working. Interestingly for the first couple of years of Lens' life it was built to replace other tools. Fixed scope. Replacing like-for-like. Small room for innovation. Today it's mostly solving other business problems. Improving workflow for our users. We haven't always worked the way we do today because the nature of the work hasn't always been the same.

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As someone who has been working as a Professional Software Engineer in various roles for almost 4 decades, I no longer raise an eyebrow when somebody claims that some hot new technology + methodology is going to fundamentally shift the risks vs. rewards of designing, building, and deploying software services. But I have to say that the shameless hype-fest from OpenAI these last few months has been unrelenting, and now I'm seeing posts from otherwise reasonable-seeming folks about "PhD level" intelligence from GPT-5, like this one on June 20th: https://lnkd.in/eGkJDPGx And I'm tired of explaining why LLMs (although very useful for certain applications) aren't actually intelligent at all, because I'm never going to be able to spend as many hours breaking down the flood of blatantly self-serving + misleading statements being generated by LLM-based service vendors as they will be able to spend generating them. I should also add that LLMs are themselves the perfect tool for generating hype about LLMs, which I don't doubt is inflating the volume of nonsense to which we are all being subjected! So I propose the following "Questions for a Superintelligent Mind" as a way to cut through the GPT-5 hyperbole; IMO any entity which can actually give _correct + testable_ answers to (any of) these in a form that is comprehensible to humans deserves to be described as having both "PhD level intelligence" _and_ "superintelligence", since to date no PhDs have been able to answer (any of) them: 1. What are whales talking about? AFAIK there are plenty of recordings of whale song that can be correlated with information about the age, position, and health of the individuals who made the recorded vocalizations. But if you (superintelligent being, you) need more data, then design the experiments required to get it, write a proposal to the NSF to fund the field work, review applications from candidates to do it, analyze the results, and repeat as needed (you know, _do_ the science). 2. What is junk DNA for? Only 2% of the human genome corresponds to genes which are expressed via known transcription (e.g. to make proteins) and we have no idea what the other 98% does, except that mutations in certain parts of the "unknown" portion are associated with inflammation disorders (like IBD), and certain cancers. Again, there's lots of data available, so please explain if + how gene expression is "regulated" by the genome, and what role "junk" DNA plays in this (or any other) biochemical function. 3. Is the Collatz conjecture true? https://lnkd.in/evuUceUE The answer to this question (and any math question posed to a superintelligence) should include a human-readable proof. 4. How does sonoluminescence work? https://lnkd.in/eDFRRv2v The answer should explain the mechanism which actually produces the photons. And if more data is required in order to figure this out, then go get it (as in 1 above).

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