Dan Kim

📍 Chicagoland https://dankim.com/

Your struggles can inspire others

Think back to the the last time you struggled mightily with a programming problem. Did you share it with the world? If you didn’t, that’s totally OK — most of us don’t! Why would we? Nobody enjoys admitting defeat, much less wanting to make a big deal out

Kotlin — It’s the little things

Kotlin has a bunch of amazing features, and certain ones tend to grab the headlines — things like extension functions, higher order functions, and null safety among them. And rightfully so — those are all incredibly powerful, fundamental features of the language upon which everything else builds on. And while I love

Kotlin makes me a happier, better programmer

What’s Kotlin’s best feature? Creating programmer happiness. There’s been a lot of action around Kotlin lately. So one question you’ll often hear is “What’s your favorite Kotlin feature?” And while there are many wonderful things about the language, for me it isn’t about any

Can’t crack that programming problem? Go to sleep or take a walk

Think back to the last time you had that really tough programming problem you couldn’t crack. If you’re like me, you may have spent a few hours trying to brute force a solution. Then, in despair and frustration, eventually you gave up for the night. And then the

Get to the point

It’s the single best way to improve your day-to-day writing. If you want to consistently improve your everyday writing, there’s one really straightforward thing you can do… Get to the point. When you get to the point quickly, your writing becomes instantly clearer. Clarity makes your writing easier

A few tips to avoid the never ending comment thread

Asynchronous communications are a wonderful thing for productivity. But they do have a dark side: the all-too-common, never ending comment thread. Emails and message boards are where they’re commonly seen. It usually goes something like this: Dan: “I think we should try this.” <5 seconds later)> Julie:

Don’t overlook the quiet voices and contributions

A few years ago I worked at a mega corporation. I had just finished up a brutal week of all-day meetings with 20 people. My boss and I sat down to catch up. Eventually, she warned: “Dan, you need to speak up more. You need to participate and contribute during

A shining example of how to teach

I was recently fumbling my way through a programming problem. I couldn’t figure out the root issue, so I cobbled together a shaky solution and posted my ¯_(ツ)_/¯. Then Sam Stephenson stepped in to help. I admire and respect Sam a lot — he’s patient, thoughtful, and wicked smart.

Your ideas are important — share them with the community

Sharing your ideas helps you and others get better. Here’s how to get started. At least once a week I say to myself, “That’s interesting. I should write something about it.” And then I don’t. A bunch of excuses fly into my head. “Lots of people have

It’s OK to be pragmatic

Being pragmatic is ingrained in me. I’m at my best being practical and boring. Here’s the problem — experience has taught me that you’ll never do your best work through sheer pragmatism alone. While I’m good at weighing options and making decisions, I’m not that visionary