Writing
As a dedicated reader, I have read many books, forget most of them, retain a few opinions, and come up with a few of my own. I write partly because of career pressure, partly because I believe some of what I know may be beneficial for others, and mostly because I can't help doing it. A decade of idea consumption and analysis simply yield too much I have to to put them somewhere.
I will try to update weekly, but my busyness is bound to ebb and flow. You can push me by sending a message via Substack, LinkedIn or email.
Trying swyx’s Learning in Public
Shawn “swyx” Wang's The Coding Career Handbook is a treasure chest, because it contains more than one treasures based on a core belief I have come to appreciate “Coding is the easiest part of the job”. The problem is never how or how fast to write code, the problem is always what to write code for. And finding out the answer involves people skills such as communication and collaboration, the neglected part of a software engineering education. swyx may or may not help you pick these skills up faster, but he at least saves you the trouble of finding out too late.
The best idea of swyx IMO is Learn in Public and its variance Pick Up What They Put Down. Simply, it is open-source applied to knowledge, oriented towards action instead of consumption.
Theory transfers to practice, which is this site. See “About” or probe around for relevant sections to you.
Growing as a data engineer
I am transitioning from chemical engineering to data engineering. Two setbacks hit me in the face:
Lack of credential (it's still important since I don't have other signal of strength. I am fixing that. See the above point of learning in public).
Lack of CS fundamental knowledge. Include how exactly the tools i.e., computers and more, of the trade work and how to solve problem from a CS perspective.
Point 1 is easy. Point 2 is the hard one, like mastering any field is. A good curriculum I found was https://teachyourselfcs.com/. I intend to study it, after finish my current course of Data Engineering Zoomcamp. The notes for all of these courses will be published under “Study Notes”.