My Approach to Building Large Technical Projects

Sprint to Demos

My goal with the early sub-projects isn't to build a finished sub-component , it is to build a good enough sub-component so I can move on to the next thing on the path to a demo . ✨

This tradeoff isn't just manifested in functionality. It may be manifested in algorithmic or design considerations. For example, you may know that in the... See more

Early work tends to not be very visible and that makes seeing tangible results seem difficult. For example, if I chose to work on VT parsing for my terminal, I can't see it work without also hooking up a UI of some sort. Or for some other project if I chose to work on a database schema and minimal API, I similarly can't see that work without writin... See more

I don't try to enumerate all the big sub-projects at this stage. I just kind of get an idea of the rough shape the project will take and find one that I can build in isolation and also physically see some sort of real results

I've not found an engineer who doesn't get excited by a good demo. And the goal is to always give yourself a good demo.

it can be difficult to stay motivated and complete large technical projects. A method that works really well for me is to continuously see real results and to order my work based on that.