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Staff software engineer Ahmad joined me to share insights from designing complex systems at Shopify. We discussed distributed systems, managing technology landscapes, testing strategies, flexible architectures, leadership skills, understanding roles, and optimizing teams.

Key takeaways involve tackling uncertainty, tailoring methods to teams versus rigid recipes, testing guiding principles over metrics, solving business challenges, and incrementally converging on solutions via hypothesis testing.

Nader is a fascinating character, he's a software engineer, entrepreneur, and a creator currently building in what once was one of the most hyped segments of the tech industry. I wanted to chat with Nader to unpack his thoughts and ideas about Web 3.0, more specifically the blockchain, cryptocurrencies and social networking protocols.

Neurodiversity refers to the variance of neurological differences, behaviours and brain functions within the human population. The concept of neurodiversity has become controversial, with some individuals and groups advocating for acceptance and accommodations while others criticise it.

In my chat with Shea we debunked the stereotypes and explored the impact that autism has on his career as a software engineer and CTO at his startup Mentra.

I learned a lot from Shea as I’m sure you will too!

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This episode provides an in-depth look into the world of contracting and freelancing, and we share our background and experience in the field. Zac and I discuss why companies may be risk averse in hiring and how startups can compete for talent in a hot market. We also covers practical aspects of contracting such as how many years of experience are needed and how to generate leads, and tips for those who want to start freelancing. We also address important concerns for contractors such as how to navigate uncertain times and prepare for retirement.

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What's technical debt? What is considered technical debt? How is technical debt measured? Who owns technical debt? How to pay-off tech debt?

All these questions and more are discussed in this great conversation with Max Weinbrown, a principal software engineer at Procore Technologies. I really appreciate Max’s clarity and humility as I’m sure you will as well.

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How does software engineering in Europe or the USA defer from the work we do in the Middle East and North Africa region? What are some of the biggest challenges preventing the Middle East and North Africa from becoming technology hubs? What’s the caliber of the talent available in the region? Can it compete internationally?

I discussed these questions and more with Ahmad Alfy, CTO of Robusta Studio, who we all respect and love. I could spend hours chatting with Ahmad, and I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did producing it.

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In this episode we discuss the importance of the special projects team at GitHub. The purpose of this team, the collaboration between special projects and the rest of engineering, how GitHub builds and releases GitHub and we discuss Sunakshi’s experience as a software engineer in one of the most culturally unique working environments!

You don’t want to miss this episode, it’s full of awesome insights that I was anxiously waiting to share with you all.

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What is data engineering? What are data engineers responsible for? What tools do data engineers use? What are the skills necessary to become a data engineer?  In this episode we discuss data engineering at length. 

I think we did a good job at covering everything you might want to know about the job. Ayman Farhat is a senior data engineer at Google, he’s been very generous with his time and provided us with lengthy and detailed explanations that I’m sure we’ll all learn from!

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Why is engineering in big tech considered a reference? How are teams structured? How is software architecture done? What tools do you use? How do you handle incident response?

These and so many more questions were answered by Georges El Khoury, a veteran software engineer with more than 15 years of experience working at Microsoft, Uber and Airbnb.

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What is software architecture? How do software architects work? How do they fit in the engineering organisation? So many more brilliant questions answered by Mohamed ElSherif, currently a senior software architect at Apple with a long tenure in big tech.  

Mohamed is also a veteran content creator who publishes to Youtube:  

https://www.youtube.com/c/MohamedElsherif 

You can also find him on: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohammedhossam/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bashmohandes
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bashmohandesx

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Have you ever felt like a fraud, even when you've succeeded? That's the Imposter syndrome. It happens to highly accomplished people who worry that they're just lucky and that other people will discover the truth about them.   

In today's live stream, I'm going to talk about how I manage these feelings and getting crippled by them.

Is it better to be a generalist (full stack) software engineer or a specialist? Which option serves your career better? Do specialists get paid more? What is vendor lock?   

In this episode we discuss what it means to be a generalist or a specialist and which path to choose depending on your ambitions and career objectives.

We all hate how broken tech interviews are, and yet, we're all forced to go through them. In this live stream I'll be discussing what you need to do to prepare for a tech interview (anywhere, big tech companies included) and "more importantly" how to prepare to interview someone else!

Every software engineer should know more topics than just programming. Writing code, for me, is a never ending stream of wonder, fun, frustration, challenge and pure joy (in a random order). However, writing code as a hobby is one thing, making a career as a software engineer is another.

In this live stream, I will share with you what I consider to be fundamental topics that every software engineer must know. You will agree with some of my thoughts, and most definitely disagree with others, so let's discuss!

Working as a software engineer varies greatly if you're working in a startup, a scale-up or an enterprise! In this live I'll be discussing the differences of working in these environments, which places are more suitable for the different stages of your career, how to survive and thrive in each environment, and many other details!

Let's discuss toxic engineering cultures! Crazy deadlines, unpaid overtime, working on weekends, constant top down pressure, lack of clarity on a career path, no appreciation of good work, no transparency, etc. 😩  

The list goes on! We’ve all been there and many of us are (sadly) still working in toxic environments.  

In this live stream I want to talk to you about what it is like working in a healthy engineering culture, how to identify a toxic work environment, how to survive it and what to look for on your next career move.

How far can you go as a self-taught software developer? I never graduated from University, in fact, I've never attended or been part of a graduation ceremony ever in my life. Yet here I am, working as a Senior Solution Architect at GitHub.

Let's talk about higher education in tech.

Increasing the performance of your engineering teams while making sure you maintain a healthy and safe work environment is not easy! In this episode, I discuss with Lauren Peate, Founder and CEO of multitudes the key indicators of a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace and the impact of DE&I on engineering and product outcomes.

DevOps explained in a simple manner by Communities of Practice area Director at GitHub Jared Murrell. I've worked alongside Jared on numerous projects and it was a blast every time! This fireside chat is an attempt at demystifying DevOps / DevSecOps and separating the buzz and hype from the fundamentals. 

I hope you enjoy this episode just as much as I did making it!

Alaa El Hariri is a Software Engineer at DataCamp where she develops features that allow Data Science enthusiasts and professionals build up and improve their data literacy. 

She believes software development is an art form that anyone can learn, no matter their background, where they're from or who they identify as.  

Alaa, has worked in several domains within software development, from healthcare to finance to education. She has volunteered with GDG Coast Lebanon and WTM Lebanon to provide workshops to over a100 participants across the Middle East. Alaa graduated with a Bachelor's degree from the American University of Beirut and is currently pursuing her Master's degree at KU Leuven.

All opinions shared by Alaa in this episode are her own and do not represent DataCamp, her employer.

Farbod Saraf is the product lead at Miro, an online collaborative whiteboard platform that has recently experienced a hyper growth from 3 million to 20 million users in only 15 months! He has a background in engineering and software development before making the switch to product management.

I really like this fireside chat because it covers many super interesting aspects of product management within an organisation as well as the dynamics of product management and engineering!

In the fireside chat, I explore with Joe his perspective on engineering management and the qualities of a great manager. We also discuss how you could make the transition from engineering to management and what to expect.

Joe has entered the tech world as a bit of a late bloomer. He was 20 years old when he took his first programming course in college and it peaked his interest. And it was 6 months later, when he installed his first Linux distro (Ubuntu Gusty Gibbons) on his laptop, he knew he was gonna spend all his career playing with computers. In 2019, he transitioned to a management position, working on OpenStack at Red Hat.

My guest today is Johannes Nicolai a principal solutions engineer at GitHub and an awesome colleague of mine. In this episode we chat about how the future of software engineering will look like. How we will be writing code in a decade from now and what will this domain look like in 30 years from today. We also chat about the meaning of innovation, and why we haven't seen a major paradigm shift in our industry for decades.  

Johannes Nicolai is a long-time open source enthusiast and contributor. His latest work is the curation of self-hosted runner solutions for GitHub Actions. In his position as Principal Solutions Engineer at GitHub, he supports companies like BMW, Bosch, Continental, Daimler, Deutsche Börse and SAP in technical and cultural challenges around software development and open/internal source. Prior to GitHub, Johannes was responsible for the  development of Subversion, SourceForge, TeamForge and Gerrit as European Head of R&D at CollabNet.