Now

Last update: Nov 19, 2024

Here's what keeps me busy at the moment. What?

🎢 Riding the Roller Coaster

I’ve been too quiet lately. The second half of this year has been quite a ride.

In August I joined Gigs after quitting my job as a Principal Software Developer at Stack Overflow. Joining Gigs meant starting over as a Software Engineer in an unknown environment. I had to learn a new tech stack — mostly Ruby on Rails, which I managed to avoid until this point in my career, learn a lot about the messy world of telecommunications, get to know a lot of new people, and figure out how on earth this new place works at all. The good news is that the work is fun and the people are amazing. A few weeks after joining, we had one of our bi-annual company meet-ups and I got a chance to meet everyone face to face in beautiful Portugal.

Most of my direct team is located in Berlin which means I can meet people face to face by hopping on a train within about 5 hours door to door. When I tried to do so for the first time about 3 weeks after joining the company, I ended up wrecking my car in a gnarly accident when I tried to get to the next bigger train station (countryside living, yay). Luckily nobody got hurt in the accident but I’m not going to lie: The accident took a toll on me. Dealing with the logistics of a broken car, talking to insurance companies, and getting a new car is annoying. But thinking about what could’ve been had things just been a tiny bit different was harder to stomach. A few weeks after this I’m back on track and just happy that nobody got hurt and things are back to normal. And hey, I tried getting to Berlin again last week and this time I managed to arrive, fully relying on public transportation.

Another significant change happened a few weeks after I started my new job. When I left Stack Overflow and looked for something new, I was looking for both, Software Engineering and Engineering Management positions. I landed a job at Gigs and started as a Software Engineer. I was excited to dig into their code, work with languages and frameworks I hadn’t used before, think about the challenges, intricacies and potentials of a new architecture and get my hands dirty again.

I got my hands dirty.

For about 8 weeks.

Then this happened:

    <li>
      <Image src={gigsLogo} alt="Gigs" class="company-icon" />
      <div class="position">
        <span class="company"><a href="https://gigs.com">Gigs</a></span>
        <div class="details">
-         <span class="role">Software Engineer</span>
+         <span class="role">Engineering Manager</span>
          <span class="time">2024 &ndash; present</span>
        </div>
      </div>
    </li>

About two months into my tenure at my new workplace, an opportunity came up to step into an Engineering Management position. I took it. It’s fun, it’s exciting, and I get a chance to manage one of the best teams I’ve ever worked with, what’s not to love? I’d love to see the smug faces of my former peers at Stack Overflow who kept making jokes how I ended up avoiding having direct reports at Stack for as long as I did (hey folks 👋 hope you’re all doin’ well and kickin’ ass!).

So, yeah, that’s most of what kept me busy lately, lots of highs with a sprinkle of lows.

🎨 Side Projects

Not much going on in the side projects territory. I keep chipping away at Root Loops, and I still have a blast. Using SvelteKit is a delight, working on terminal color schemes tickles my own itch, and it seems like a bunch of people out there like it. Root Loops got featured in a few blog posts, newsletters and podcasts by now, which is always fund to see. And there are some legitimate feature requests coming in on GitHub. It feels really energizing to work on something for fun while having a good time and seeing that it resonates with a few weirdos out there.

Apart from Root Loops things are a little quiet because *gestures broadly* life just got in the way. It’s okay. I’ve got a fun backlog of ideas to tackle whenever things are going to be a little more quiet again.

📚 Reading

Here’s what I’ve been reading lately.

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

I literally just started this one two days ago. It came up in my recommendations quite a lot and I decided to pick it up. I read Blake Crouch’s “Recursion” a few years back and remembered it as a solid but not overly exciting book. Maybe it didn’t live up to the hype I perceived, seeing it recommended over and over again. I’m starting “Dark Matter” with more mellow expectations. If it’s an enjoyable read, I’ll take it. A solid story, believable characters, maybe a few twists, and I’m happy.

More info

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

If you’re looking for an unusual, a little dark, a little eccentric, action-packed modern fantasy story this might be for you. Coming from the first two “Dune” books I was looking for something that’s a little more digestible, a little lighter than Herbert’s lofty style, occasionally obnoxious characters, and bombastic world building. “The Library at Mount Char” is just that. It’s a good read. Not life-changing, not brilliant, but definitely enjoyable. Just the right read during a time that was very busy and chaotic for me.

More info

🎮 Video Games

I’m not playing much lately, but I found a few video games that have a really relaxing and captivating vibe that I dive into every now and then.

Octopath Traveler

A fantasy RPG in the style of 90s SNES-era role playing games (like the early Final Fantasy titles, Secret of Mana, Legend of Zelda, you name it). Octopath Traveler features this ridiculously well-made 2D-in-3D style that is way more than an homage to titles of the golden era of RPGs and yet manages to put a modern spin on it that works just so well. Besides the look and feel, I’m just enjoying so many aspects of this game, from the accessible game play to the turn-based combat to the storytelling. It’s fun. You should check it out.

Outer Wilds

This one’s special, I can tell. Outer Wilds is a game of space exploration. You’re a guy on a small planet, ready to explore a small system of planets and moons around you. You take your space ship, land on other planets, explore and uncover secrets and traces left by long-lost civilisations. I won’t spoiler anything here (I’m too early into the game to spoiler anything significant anyways) but I can tell that there’s a lot of mysterious stuff going on that keeps me going. You can play this game in turns that take about 20 minutes and go on explorations again and again, slowly uncovering more secrets held by the planets, caves, structures and constructs around you. I’m enjoying Outer Wilds a lot, but I can only get myself to play for one or two turns at a time before this constant sense of loneliness you experience on your space explorations starts to get to me. Hats off to the designers of such a special title.

🏋 Working Out

I ran a conditioning-focused program over summer (“Everyday Carry” by Brian Alsruhe) that had some strongman elements mixed into it. I had a blast, and it completely kicked my ass in the best way possible. After 9 weeks (halfway through) I decided to switch over to something more tried-and-trusted for me and now I’m back to a pretty regular powerlifting program, doing Squats, Bench Presses, Deadlifts, and Presses four times a week with the occasional conditioning session in between. The individual sessions of the “Everyday Carry” program took me a little too long to fit into my work day after starting a new job, so I decided to go back to something that’s a little more predictable for me. I’m looking to hit a 200kgs Deadlift as my next goal. Fingers crossed!