Alex Garrison

🚀 Alright, buckle up, because .NET 10 just dropped some serious performance magic and, wow, it’s honestly pretty wild if you’re into this stuff. First off, the JIT (that just-in-time thing that makes your code actually run) has gotten a glow-up. We’re talking legit support for AVX10.2 instructions—yeah, that’s nerdy, but it basically means it chews through data way faster. Toss in struct stack allocations and slicker method inlining, and you’re looking at a runtime that’s moving like it’s had three espressos. And get this: memory management is actually smarter now. Fewer heap allocations, so your apps aren’t tripping over themselves or gobbling RAM like a starved Pac-Man. That means less crashing, better stability, and your code doesn’t feel like it’s dragging a boulder uphill. So, if you’re building stuff that actually has to scale and not just survive on your laptop—.NET 10 is kind of a game-changer. Faster apps, happier users. 👏 #runtime #optimization #softwaredevelopment #dotnet10 #notyouraverageupdate #yassineennajem

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Want to hire engineers who stick? Drop the unicorn hunt. Focus on real skills, not fantasy lists. The hiring landscape for embedded systems engineers is brutal. You’re tasked with finding talent that blends hardware savvy with software wizardry, thrives under real-time constraints, and can write code that squeezes into the tightest of spaces. It’s a niche, high-stakes game. But here’s the kicker: your biggest obstacle might not be the talent pool. It’s your own HR team. We’ve all seen those job descriptions that read like a wish list for a mythical creature: - "10+ years of C++ on bare-metal systems" - "Expertise in AI/ML AND RTOS AND FPGA" - "Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering REQUIRED" Sound familiar? These fantasy lists aren’t just unhelpful-they’re actively harmful. Here’s what happens when HR gets it wrong: ❌ You end up with a candidate pool of zero. ❌ The hiring process drags on for months. ❌ Your team suffers from missed deadlines and mounting pressure. Let’s be clear: the best embedded engineers aren’t defined by a laundry list of buzzwords. They’re problem-solvers. They’re adaptable. They know how to navigate the quirks and chaos of real-world systems. What we really need is a shift in mindset: → Stop focusing on years of experience; focus on hands-on impact. → Prioritize core competencies over exhaustive checklists. → Collaborate with HR to align on realistic, role-critical needs. The next time you’re handed a unicorn job description, push back. Use data to show what’s realistic. Reframe the role around what actually matters. Educate HR on why embedded is different. It’s not about creating friction-it’s about building a process that works. Pushing back isn’t just about making your life easier. It’s about securing the talent that will stick, perform, and drive your team forward. Want to build a high-performing team without the hiring headaches? Let’s talk. #EmbeddedSystems #EngineeringRecruitment #HiringDoneRight #RunTimeRecruitment

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I don't write dedicated "unit" tests for every public method or every function. Some might interpret that as not needing high test coverage. Just to be clear, my test coverage is usually 100% or as near as dammit. There's no code that isn't tested.

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I guess I’m not in touch with the current generation of developers, but when I see someone post skill issue in a response to someone’s post it seems like a dismissive and useless comment. My guess is that anyone who says skill issue has never worked with the person they are posting the comment about. Everyone in this industry believe it or not is growing their skills which means that skill issue is a reductive and a meaningless point. No one has reached the precipice of knowledge in tech and never will, so get over yourself and join everyone who is learning everyday and getting better at the craft of building software to solve human problems.

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The best developers I’ve ever worked with frequently said: “I don’t know, but I’ll find out.” They didn’t bluff. They didn’t hide behind jargon. They didn't bs. They were honest. They were curious. They focused on solving the problem They were not focussed on protecting their ego. Your job isn’t to know everything, it's to create business value and you can't do that by bluffing your way through everything. Saying “I don’t know” doesn’t make you look weak. I actually respect it. Pretending you do? That’s what does damage. There isn't much worse in an interview when someone is trying to make up the answer instead of saying: 'I don't know, but if in the job i guarantee id work it out by...'

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You don’t need a title to mentor someone. You don’t need 10+ years of experience. - If you’re a mid-level dev who’s survived your first production incident - If you’ve refactored something that was painful the first time - If you’ve learned to ask better questions in PRs You’ve got something valuable to share. Odds are that if you're reading this, you DO have something valuable to share. Mentorship isn’t about having all the answers. It's about sharing your experience and offering guidance. Sometimes the best mentors are only a few "steps ahead". And that’s enough. That’s how the next generation levels up. Who has been a helpful mentor to YOU? ---- 📨 Sign up for my email newsletter! 🗣️ Share with your network!

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Junior devs focus on their own tickets. Mid-level devs start thinking about the team. They make sure their code doesn’t break other features. They check if their solution is already covered in another service. They ask about impact, not just implementation. If you’re starting to zoom out - you’re leveling up. Keep leaning into that discomfort. It means you're ready for more.

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It is legitimately hard to support Google Play right now. Why? The review times are out of hand and continue to get worse. It makes Android Apps and Android itself insecure and vulnerable because Developers cannot fix things in a reasonable amount of time to get to customers, with many devs reporting well over the "7 Days" of review times. The worst part? It genuinely prevents Android from moving at Market Speed and gives iOS a real edge in the market. A week can be the difference between capitalizing on a trend or not. You cannot expect companies to support Native apps when they can't ship fixes or features to customers in a reasonable time frame or even consistent review windows. I really don't think someone at Google Play is doing the full math here on what the impact to total revenue is beyond the short-term gains in reduced staffing. When consumers have a choice and Android is perceived as consistently buggy and delayed compared to iOS, I cannot blame people for switching.

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Experienced developers: Stop saying you're "just a developer." You're not. You're a problem solver who happens to use code. I see 10+ year veterans underselling themselves every day: "I'm not ready to lead a team" "I'm never gonna be better than the 10x developers" "I'm not senior enough for that role" Meanwhile, you've: - Created products that made your boss rich - Prevented system outages that would cost millions - Built features used by thousands of users daily - Mentored junior developers who are now thriving But you focus on what you DON'T know instead of what you DO. Here's the truth: Imposter syndrome isn't about lacking skills. It's about lacking perspective. You compare your behind-the-scenes to everyone else's highlight reel. Stop it. Your experience IS valuable. Your solutions ARE needed. You DO belong in those senior roles. The companies that don't see your worth aren't worthy of your talent. Find the ones that are. ♻️ Repost if you needed to hear this today. What's one thing you accomplished this year that you're proud of? Share it below 👇

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Hot take. 🚨🚨🚨Jevon's paradox does not apply to software developers.🚨🚨🚨 The idea (which you probably already know): - If a commodity (e.g. coal, developers) can be utilized much more efficiently (e.g. by a steam engine, by vibe coding), then _you'd think_ that the demand for that item would decrease. - However, according to Jevon, the opposite sometimes happens: Since you can do so much more work with the same amount of the commodity, then it becomes more valuable and the demand can actually go up! BUT, where Jevon's paradox holds for coal, I'm not yet sure it will hold for developers. Why? Because in Jevon's original example the steam engine still ran on coal - not some other cheaper fuel source. In the case of developers, vibe coding is making software development accessibly to non-developers. Have you noticed – Tech savvy product managers are nailing it these days! Heck, my 7yo son has generated tons of hair-brained games and entertained himself endlessly for the past 3 months. Today, Jevon's paradox still holds. You probably _do_ need to have a technical background to build a real product and not just a toy. However, the models are getting better and the vibe coding strategies are improving. Soon a new type of specialist will arise – dedicated vibe coders. And they might not have started as engineers.

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You don't need to hire a software farm for anything anymore. You need one developer who sits next to you for 6 weeks and learns how your business runs. Not how it looks in a deck. How it actually runs. The messy inbox system. The Notion doc nobody follows. The 4-step process your EA does manually every morning. A good AI developer, someone who works in n8n, Claude, and modern automation tools, turns that into systems that run without you. We placed one with a 12-person e-commerce brand. In 8 weeks he'd automated their order exception workflow, their influencer outreach follow-up, and their weekly reporting. The admin team is being trained in AI. Those that don’t adopt are gone. 3 tasks. Each one was eating 6-8 hours a week from someone on the team. That’s money in your pocket. 416h per year. That’s almost a full quarter's worth of work. A dev shop's savings don't matter if they can't ship. Ours do. I wrote more on this on more detail in the blog linked below: https://lnkd.in/gVpWJGZw DM me if you have been seeing AI happening in front of you and want to know how you can avoid missing out.

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PSA: An LLM is not a software developer, it’s a tool. When it doesn’t build your entire app based on the paragraph of text you gave it, you might as well complain that you set a board on your table saw and didn’t get a cabinet.

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