Selected Musings

For all its warts, Java has served me well. And as Android’s native language, it’s been a true blessing in disguise. Who knew all those years of writing webapps would turn into such an awesome mobile opportunity? But I’ve never had strong feelings about Java itself. I

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

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

Unlike most articles that introduce you to a language, I’m going to avoid using too much programming lingo. Instead, I’ll try using plain English in the hopes that it’s more accessible to beginners. 🤗 Some notes about the code examples: * I am by no stretch an expert in

Stop me if you’ve heard these before when people get to talking about programming languages… “These features are copied this from .” “Nothing new here. has done this for years.” “This language has nothing on , but nobody realizes it.” “–superior language– does the same thing, but better.” I bring it

I know this feeling isn’t unique. In fact you might be feeling today how I did years ago — coming home from work tired, uninspired, unhappy, and even angry. It’s not a good look. But change is within your grasp. It won’t be easy, but you can be

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

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

According to Marissa Mayer, long hours and weekend work (in person) will lead to success Yesterday I read this article about Marissa Mayer. This quote infuriated me (emphasis mine): My husband [the venture capital investor Zachary Bogue] runs a co-working office in San Francisco…And if you go in on

I have a confession to make — I’m not a rock star programmer. Nor am I a hacker. I don’t know ninjutsu. Nobody has ever called me a wizard. Still, I take pride in the fact that I’m a good, solid programmer. One who works hard at his