Posts by Allen Cheung
Herding Software Engineers
I'm officially giving engineering management a shot. Common cynicism would cite the Peter Principle as relevant when an engineer decides to shift their role into the less technical. And it's true: I code a lot less,…
The Hardest Problems
Recently my friend and colleague Jack Danger tweeted this question: We engineers say we want to work on "hard problems." Know what's the hardest problem, though? Building a product that's worth a damn. Jack…
Flowers for Algernon
I just finished reading Flowers for Algernon, a sci-fi novel written in the 60s about a mentally retarded man who undergoes a surgical procedure to become a genius. I never got the chance to read this book while I was…
Rediscovering the Joy of Reading
My love of reading comes in phases. Like most knowledge workers, a big chunk of it in the day comes in the form of email and wikis and tweets and looking for things online; at night, I get to go…
Front-End Engineering and the Application of Trivia
I've written plenty of front-end opinions and experiences on this blog over the years, around: * Defining them * Getting them * Growing them * Promoting them I've spent a good amount of time thinking about the role, the specialization…
Reflecting on the Absence of Privilege
I had written about privilege previously, but this article by Philip Guo on his experience in college really tells of how powerful silent privilege can be and how utterly unnoticeable and indeed unremarkable its recipients can feel. As someone who…
