David Nuon

From Notes to Knowledge Sharing: My Blogging Journey https://lnkd.in/gZFYxRWJ Almost 2.5 years ago, I wrote my first blog post on the internals of React. At the time, it wasn’t intended for an audience—I just wanted to document what I was learning, like keeping a personal note to refer back to. But something interesting happened. Writing about the intricate details of React pushed me to truly understand it. Putting thoughts into words clarified concepts I only partially grasped before. It helped me build a stronger mental model and made learning a more active, intentional process. As I shared those posts, I realized the added power of collaboration. Sharing knowledge not only solidifies your own understanding but also opens up conversations with others who have valuable perspectives to contribute. This journey has been a reminder of how impactful it can be to document and share what you're learning. If you’re diving deep into something, I’d highly recommend writing about it—not just for others, but for yourself. What’s your take on this? Have you found writing or sharing knowledge helpful in your learning process? Would love to hear your thoughts! #Learning #Blogging #ReactJS #KnowledgeSharing

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The open source team I'm a volunteer for at Couchers.org is looking for (volunteer) UI/UX Designers. Come join us, we're fun! Our Figma designs can't keep up with our engineers...halp? Maybe you're taking a sabbatical and want something on your resume for that time. Maybe you wanna see what it's like to work on a project that has nothing to do with stakeholders or investors, where we just do stuff our users want and we think is cool. Maybe you're passionate about traveling and old school couchsurfing vibes and wanna nerd out about it on a team with other travelers. Or maybe you just love designing stuff and are looking for some public portfolio pieces? Join our volunteer team! More info here: https://lnkd.in/g_PwevB9 On a side note, if you're a software engineer with some experience in Javascript or Python and looking for a fun project, we're always looking for more people too. (Please I need more people to review my PRs lol). #uxdesign #uxui #figma #design #opensource #volunteer

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So true learn ML today with this roadmap and solidify your understanding - https://lnkd.in/gMvaZ-uV

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SWE Industry: Never manipulate strings in Prod if it can be avoided, and if seen in a PR by a staff/principal engineer would immediately be rejected Job Market: Manipulate these strings in weird ways on this assessment so you can get this job... Wild, if you are interviewing software engineers, give them real world problems to solve, not some arbitrary random string manipulation that we would never do in production. You're likely missing out on a lot of talented people.

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The biggest names in tech are all over the xls which proves the US government is complicit in destroying the employment market for US workers. https://lnkd.in/erAdpXrE

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Recent events, such as the tragic murder of a CEO over unpaid dues for three months, highlight a critical gap in our system. This could have been prevented if proper labor courts were established to address the grievances of the salaried class in a timely manner. Unfortunately, we live in a banana republic where, when it comes to applying taxes, the salaried class is the very first target. However, when it comes to providing legal support, there is no proper public defender system in place. Either you hire a lawyer and endure the daunting choice of lengthy court battles taking years, spending more than the owed dues in lawyer's fees and other expenses, or you take the other extreme path and stab the CEO. There is nothing in between.

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Outcome Or Output, What matters the most?

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In my recent experience interviewing Software Engineer candidates in our country, I’ve observed a common area for growth: understanding the significance of software observability. Concepts like monitoring, alerting, Service Level Indicators (SLIs), and Service Level Objectives (SLOs) are increasingly crucial for engineering roles. Observability plays a vital role in ensuring application reliability and performance, particularly in production environments. It enables teams to monitor system health, detect potential issues, and comprehend user pain points effectively. This aspect becomes even more critical during updates or new feature releases, as monitoring their impact allows engineers to respond promptly, ensuring a seamless user experience. For individuals aiming to enhance their skills, delving into Application Performance Monitoring (APM) tools is a beneficial starting point. Prominent tools such as New Relic, Datadog, Dynatrace, AppDynamics, and Elastic APM offer valuable insights into application performance and infrastructure health. At my current workplace, we initially utilized New Relic for APM. However, over the past 5–6 years, we have transitioned to Datadog, which has proven highly effective in monitoring and observability across our systems. Investing time in mastering these tools and principles can significantly improve an engineer’s capacity to deliver top-notch, dependable software while proactively catering to user requirements.

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Voice Writer Update: Our latest feature now allows for grammar corrections while preserving formatting, including headers, lists, bold text, and more. Write with your voice and let the AI handle the details. Try voice writer here: https://lnkd.in/gz6riAdE

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I strongly disagree with this post. One of the many problems with continually building up technical debt is that the codebases become unmanageable to the point where technical debt is simply paid lip service - and duly ignored. The internet contains way too much garbage already so why add more? It is absolutely right to be concerned about it as a developer, and being so is called Software Engineering. Be the voice of integrity if you are faced with these issues, and maybe you might be the catalyst for change in your organisation.

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I think all the neat and practical applications of AI are being overshadowed by all the weird ones. I also think that local AI is the way forward for the majority of people. Here is my setup right now. I have Ollama installed as a server on my workstation, and it is the key to my workflow. I integrate it with VSCode using LLama coder and codellama model. I integrate it with firefox using PageAssist. You can use a sidebar and have it inspect whatever page you are using. More opportunities will reveal themselves as time goes on. Things I am excited about include bitnet models.

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Lately, I’ve received many requests for coffee chats about career advice. While I try to and love to help when I can, it’s becoming hard to keep up 😢 So here’s my general advice for early-career software engineers and students: First, pay attention. Every career, team, and industry is different. What are your goals? If you care about career growth, observe how promotions happen in your company and talk to your manager about your goals. Want to deepen your knowledge? Follow industry trends, podcasts, and articles. Looking to expand your network? Attend events and watch how others make connections. Unsure of your focus? Pay attention to what others prioritize and see what resonates with you. Some practical tips that worked for others 👇 To make a good impression: - Ask thoughtful questions and do your research before seeking help. When you need support, show what you’ve already tried and learned to demonstrate initiative. - Go above and beyond your tasks, whether by finishing work faster, adding extra tests, or exploring new ideas within the project. - Help your teammates by improving communication, bringing the right people into conversations, and organizing questions for mentors to minimize interruptions. To grow technically: - Seek constructive feedback, especially during code reviews, and apply it consistently to improve. - Set aside at least 10 minutes daily to dive deeper into the technologies you’re using. - Follow tech blogs, mailing lists, or podcasts that align with your interests, and use these to stay updated and inspired. - Share what you’ve learned, even if it feels small – your insights can be valuable to others, and no one starts as an expert. If you’re uncertain about your path: - This feeling is completely normal! Almost nobody has a clear direction early on. - Explore through job rotations, shadowing different teams, or trying out internships in varied roles.  - Talk to professionals across industries to get an accurate understanding of what their roles involve. For example, many students fear they’re not fit for software engineering because they don’t enjoy leetcode. But leetcode is not a perfect representation of what you’ll do daily in software engineering. What else would you add to this list? --------------------------------------------- I am a software engineer and mentor, dedicated to helping international students and early career professionals not only survive but thrive in tech. ☀️ You can book a call with me or join my mailing list through my profile.

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🎉 Big News! We've just launched the third book in our System Design Playbook series! I don't want to brag too much because, well, I'm just the guy who created this, but together with my tireless team (shoutout to Rohit Jain and Shubham Chandak!), we've worked hard to make system design concepts simple and digestible. Preparing for FAANG interviews, I remember the struggle of finding comprehensive resources—concepts were all over the place, and explanations often left more questions than answers. We aimed to fix that. Here’s what we packed into this book: 1. 𝗩𝗶𝘀𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝗶𝗱𝘀: Lots of diagrams because, truly, "𝘈 𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘴 𝘢 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴." 2. 𝗡𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: No buzzwords, no fluff. Just clean, straightforward explanations that make sense. It's tough to write simply, but that's where the real effort lies—𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘺, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 - 𝘈𝘭𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘵 𝘌𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘪𝘯. We've included a sample from our latest chapter on Designing YouTube to give you a taste of how we approach teaching complex topics in a way that sticks. Download Full eBook: 𝗪𝗲𝗯𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲: https://lnkd.in/dzUXgTwb 𝗞𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗹𝗲 𝗩𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻: https://lnkd.in/dXPvFzju Happy learning!

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I have a strong opinion about this. I have been a senior engineer for most of my career and am always looking for feedback to achieve a promotion to principal engineer. I agree that impact is more important than output, but it's hard without being a principal engineer. If you are not a principal engineer, you won't have access to meetings and knowledge to distinguish what is impactful and what is not. Until then, you need to have a mentor, a manager, or someone with a bigger picture who is able and willing to guide you in discerning what is impactful and what is not. If this doesn't happen, your only option is to increase your output, hoping that one of those things will have a considerable impact by chance.

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