Justin Deal

The CAP theorem for engineering teams

The CAP theorem informs how we build distributed systems by describing the trade-offs we must make when splitting a system into multiple distributed parts. The same holds true when splitting an engineering organization into multiple teams.

There's no such thing as perfection—only tradeoffs

Why do we do all of the things we do? Because someone (hopefully us!) thinks each of those things is objectively good. And if each thing is good, then collectively, they are all…perfect? Unfortunately, the math doesn't work out that way.

What rocket engineering can teach us about software engineering—and work in general

Our first Zapier company retreat of 2020 was in Orlando, which meant I got to spend my free day at the Kennedy Space Center.