Simpler Machines

Simpler Machines

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Latest — Sep 9, 2023

Mere Being 005 - September - Aiat!

We've been playing a lot of Destiny 2 in the Simpler Machines household. Now you might reasonably ask, Nat, does that mean that I am going to have to know anything about Destiny in order to understand this story? And I assure you, it does not.

More issues

Should you use Concourse?

Hey there! This is Nat Bennett, from Simpler Machines. We're not going back to regular publishing yet but I wrote this up and figured, might as well send it to ya'll. Occasionally people will come into the Concourse Discord asking "is this project still active?" Usually because they're evaluating whether

Mere Being 004 - August

Hey there! I'm Nat Bennett, and you're reading this because you signed up to get monthly (ish) updates from me about what I'm working on and thinking about. Well, usually monthly. I honestly thought I had sent out a July update already. I guess that tells you what kind of

A brief hiatus

Putting this newsletter on "pause" for at least a few weeks while I ramp up on a new job -- plus, the problem with Github, and why the best engineers I've worked with were the impatient ones

Why Elixir?

Some reasons I'm enjoying using Elixir, and why I think it's especially good for prototyping

What I would copy from the Pivotal interview process

What was important about that process and what I think most companies could profitably borrow from it.

Notes on the Pivotal Interview Process

The Pivotal interview process was often a reason that people joined Pivotal. It was an unusually structured process and was unusually enjoyable as a candidate, at least for candidates who were good fits for Pivotal.

"Do what works" was the hard part

I think what was weird about Pivotal was how the environment fused "do what works" with "be kind."

Mere Being 003 - June 2023

Writing about Pivotal, writing for subscribers, Magic LTR, writing-writing-writing

What was special about Pivotal?

Was it pairing? TDD? Retros? Or was it that we could write code in peace, without being bitten by possums?