How I Beat The Noncompete

In the summer of 2012, I joined Systems In Motion, an Ann Arbor-based contracting company which had a couple of hundred of software engineers on staff who worked on projects for SIM clients. In 2013, Kaybus, an early-stage startup based in Mountain View, contacted SIM looking for engineers who were either experienced in Ruby on Rails or in the javascript framework called Ember. Since I checked both those boxes I was assigned to the Kaybus account.…

Semi-retirement

In January, 2021 I “semi-retired”; that is, I began working three days per week instead of full-time. And I love it. My stress level is way down. Part of that is due to the fact that I no longer have a management position - I am strictly an engineer now. But most of it is due to not having to cram all the household chores and non-work activities into evenings and weekends.…

The Manhattan

The Manhattan is a classic cocktail dating back to the latter half of the 19th century. It has a few different origin stories, but most agree that it originated in Manhattan, and that it contained some combination of whiskey, vermouth, and bitters. Most craft cocktail bars today make it with 2 parts bourbon or rye whiskey, 1 part sweet vermouth, a dash of Angostura bitters, garnished with a Maraschino cherry, although there are endless variations on these basic ingredients.…

Working Remotely

I have been working remotely since 2012, and will never go back to an office. There are a number of reasons: offices are interruption factories I don’t have a soul-crushing commute I can work wherever I want I can set up my work environment however I wish I have a much more flexible schedule Remote work is becoming increasingly common. In the US, 85% of companies are either fully remote, have a mix of on-site and remote employees, or allow remote work at least sometimes for their on-site employees (source).…