Stefano Chiodino

The boring prose bit Journaling has been a useful tool for personal reflection. One thing that I really like is that it’s private, which means that I can be open and honest. I don’t need to worry to be judged or hurt people’s feeling. It’s just like thinking, but with rubber-ducking included. It’s interesting to go back and read old entries, and I find it it’s easier to focus on my thoughts. ...

The idea of pirate treasure derives from a single incident involving William Kidd in 1699. Kidd was about to be arrested, but before confronting the authorities he buried his treasure on Gardiners Island. He first asked permission to John Gardiner, the island’s owner, who later handed over the treasure to the authorities. This is the whole history of pirate treasure. It inspired Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, which almost single handedly created the modern image of pirates. ...

Do you want to add geotagging (latitude and longitude coordinates) to your photos? This is particularly useful if you use DSLR or mirrorless cameras that often lack this feature. All you need for this is to have location history enabled in google maps. This process will add a location to a photo based on where your phone reported you where when the photo was taken. Go to your timeline. and download each day you want to use using the cog at the bottom right ...

Ask for more money Have you received a new job offer? Ask for more money. Have you received a pay raise? Ask for more money. If you cringe at the idea of asking for more money, you likely really need to ask for more money. Every year you have (hopefully) improved. You are wiser, learned some tech for a whole year, learned the processes, met the people, and therefore are worth more. So ask to be remunerated accordingly. Every time you receive a pay rise, google for the current inflation and discount that percentage from it. Lead the conversation this way during the meeting. ...

Here are some non obvious thoughts about reviewing code. … it depends This has little to do with code reviews, yet it’s some of the best advice you’ll ever find around: it depends. Don’t take this article, or any other articles out there, for gospel. When you are looking for a review Do your homework Do not submit code for reviewing before you reviewed it yourself. It’s annoying. It shouldn’t be the reviewer’s job to tell you to remove print statements, write tests, etc. ...

I have found out that recruiters have hunted me down using the email address I have inadvertently used to commit in Github. Unfortunately it’s not straightforward to replace this, but here is what I’ve done: From an empty folder clone all your public repos using github API. Replace YOUR-GITHUB-USERNAME. for SSH_URL in $(curl -s https://api.github.com/users/YOUR-GITHUB-USERNAME/repos | grep ssh_url | cut -d'"' -f 4) do git clone $SSH_URL done This is a good time to BACKUP THIS ENTIRE FOLDER. ...

One day Chris, head of devops, gave me a tour of our setup. He proudly pointed out to me how they prefer to write arguments using the long version, like --allow instead of -a. This is to make it easier to understand the system, and thus maintaining it. It made so much sense: decrease the cognitive load, increase productivity. Then I started working for the NHS, the biggest employer in the UK, and 5th in the world, just after McDonald’s. Seems like in such a big company nobody has time to spell things out, and after more than a year I’m still struggling to catch up on some acronyms. I often come across acronyms that I never bothered or dared to ask about, and despite having developed a sense for that they represent, I still don’t know what they stand for. ...

It’s important to smile when talking on the phone, it sounds different. Mirror is the technique of repeating the last three words, or the last critical one. It makes the other party feel in tune with yourself and push them to continue talking. Pause 4 seconds, especially after a mirror, to let it sink in and force a reaction. This may lead to the other party disclose more information. Labelling is the technique of describing how the other party feels. It helps clarify the matters, adds a chance for a pause, and shows that we are listening. ...

Clarity above all. Don’t waste the reader’s time. “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter” - Blaise Pascal. The look makes a difference. Make your text easier on the eyes. Use bullet points, white space, shorter sentences, margins, boldface, etc . Be smart: don’t try to sound smart. Avoid jargon. Be the authority: don’t use “I’m thinking”, “in my opinion”, etc. Scaffold well to write well. Structure you text in 3 phases: say what you want to say, say it, repeat it. One idea per paragraph Every paragraph should start with a strong sentence on the paragraph’s topic. Start with your purpose, not the motivation or justification for it. The text may become too mechanical after revising. Keep your “voice” in your document by reading it out loud. If you find duplicate sentences, cut out the negative sounding ones first. Grammar matters. Grammar - I vs me: use I if it’s a subject Attribute modifiers like adjectives need to one of the nouns. Make them adjacent. pronouns are words that take the place of nouns, like I, he, them. They refer to the closest antecedent noun. Think of the writing from your reader perspective Cut adjectives and adverbs; qualifiers and amplifiers; “in fact”, “possibly”, “generally”, etc Cut out generalities like “everyone knows”, they often include the words: all everybody, everywhere, etc. You may need to rewrite sentences to make them more specific if they include words like: some, somebody, etc. use an active voice: “Bob did X”, not “X was done by Bob”. Passive voice is longer, less clear, and less emphatic. But it’s acceptable in scientific papers because it sounds more impartial. Limit verbs “to be” and “to have”. Including forms is, am, are, were, was, will be, have, has, had, have been and more. Ref: Business Writing course on Coursera ...

Most of the sun’s energy is in the green wavelength, however that’s exactly what the plants bounce back, as chlorophyll of type a and b absorbs light in the red and blue spectrum. It was thought that collecting too much of the available wavelength could harm the plant (think of how hot black surfaces can become). However it has recently been discovered that plants are trying to optimise for a steady flux of energy, because flickers in the energy collected can cause energy failures or tissue damage. ...