I write code for Humans & text for Robots
Are you Human?
The most interesting Articles
The past few years have been a whirlwind. Work, personal life, and family life have all shifted, and this blog has understandably taken a backseat while I dealt with challenges that required most of my time. As I look back on my contributions here in 2024, I realize I only managed to write three blog posts all year. That is something I need to change. In 2025, things will be different for one simple reason: I have a plan.
When a customer finishes pitching the website or service they want you to build, the inevitable question follows: How long do you think it will take?
When I joined a tiny startup with big ambitions, I had no idea we’d be building an eCommerce chatbot from scratch. It was my first real-world dive into AI, and I was starting with zero experience beyond a few online courses. As the first engineer on the team and the third employee overall, I had a simple goal: figure it out and make it work.
Code reads different than human languages. When we don't understand what the code is doing, we write comments in our code in the form of human languages. But the language we speak and write every day can be bloated or ambiguous. The human brain is just really good at extracting context. When you are trying to understand what a snippet of code does, a story is rarely the best method. However, if the confusing code is wrapped in properly named functions, half of our questions are already answered.
As a Linux user, I can't help but spend most of my time on the command line. Not that the GUI is not efficient, but there are things that are simply faster to do with the keyboard.
What if a day was a hundred hours? I often played this scenario in my head and thought it shouldn't be too hard to simulate. But when I finally got to it, I found that a lot of things with time are just arbitrary. There isn't a fundamental constant that defines time as we currently know it. We just had to agree on some values to get the math going.
The most read articles
It was 7am when my phone rang. Instead of an alarm, it was my recruiter disturbing me from a pleasant dream. It was too early for a phone call or to be caught off guard, so I did not answer. I went to take a shower and get ready for the day. On my way to work, I listened to the voice mail she had left.
As a Linux user, I can't help but spend most of my time on the command line. Not that the GUI is not efficient, but there are things that are simply faster to do with the keyboard.
Not too long ago, I made a living working as a contractor where I would hop from project to project. Some were short term where I would work for a week and quickly deliver my service. Others lasted a couple months where I would make enough money to take some time off. I preferred the short ones because they allowed me to charge a much higher rate for a quick job. Not only I felt like my own boss, but I also felt like I didn't have to work too hard to make a decent living. My highest rates were still reasonable, and I always delivered high quality service. That was until I landed a gig with a large company.
a book by Ibrahim Diallo
After the explosive reception of my story, The Machine Fired Me, I set out to write a book to tell the before and after.
I started as a minimum wage laborer in Los Angeles and I set out to reach the top of the echelon in Silicon Valley. Every time I made a step forward, I was greeted with the harsh changing reality of the modern work space.
Getting fired is no longer reserved to those who mess up. Instead, it's a popular company strategy to decrease expenses and increase productivity.
Every little corner has a story. Sometimes a camera tells the story and a picture is worth a thousand words.
There are professional photographers and then there is me who happens to have a camera on my phone. Here's to what came out.
