Susanna Codes

“And Soon I’ll Know, How Far I’ll Go.” I once read in a French zen book that if you can’t sleep at night you should listen to the night. Maybe she has something to tell you. This is definitely my latest ever blog post but I just want to say that tomorrow I can start again or today rather. The new rules are And I have outlined them a thousand times but here they are again I am finishing on time - ideally at 5:30. Today someone made me finish at 5:30 and it was one of the nicest kindest things anyone has done for me. I need to take my evenings off to work sustainably  I am starting on time too. I really need to start at 9 am every day  I am doing a mini standup ideally before or worst case on time. I am gonna post on my little slack workflow that I have integrated into my team channel. And I am gonna try screaming into AI too or making an infographic. To set my intentions really clear. So starting on time and setting clear intentions Problem solving Forcing myself to define the ...

A Prescription for Software Engineering This post is more personal than anything I’ve ever written before and I don’t know why I’m writing it. Once upon a time…  Once upon a time I got made an offer for my first ever software engineering role. It was March 2023. I was about to start. I went to the big shopping centre in London to meet someone - Westfields Stratford. I was tired. After the meeting I felt a seizure coming on. I don’t know why - funny story - but I ended up near the computers in a hardware shop. I have a few seconds to pick my spot and I must’ve thought it was safe and out of the main halls. I obviously don’t remember much. But I remember the ambulance crew. Later in the ambulance we were talking. They wrote me an advice slip. I told them I was about to become a software engineer. I was so happy. I asked them to write on my advice slip “become a software engineer and balance will be restored in the universe.”  Imagine my surprise when I left the ambulance a few m...

My Middle Name Is Unstoppable My name is Susanna. And sometimes I get things wrong. Sometimes I don’t get the right end of a situation and the I end up acting on it and then regretting - regretting it so much - regretting it so, so, so much. Sometimes I make mistakes. Like when I don’t realise for 9 months that a lack of a clear start to my day is holding me back. I am kicking myself. Oh god I am kicking myself so so much. But then I take action.  I build a workflow on the teams channel where I can post my standup updates and anyone else can join me if they want. I decide on the time I want to start at. In an ideal world I would have a mini standup with myself at 8.45 and start working at 9. I know what I want. How do I implement it? I have to go to bed earlier. I have to have fewer side quests. I have to dance more - dancing keeps me sane and it makes me a nicer kinder person. I have become softer recently. Could it be the dance. I have to see if screaming my notes into AI for the...

Overcoming Neurodivergent Blockers, Part 2: What if AI could do a standup? HEAR. ME. OUT. I have identified that speaking things out loud really helps me to process things. Whenever I come off a call with my boss I usually scream into Chat GPT voice mode with my next steps from him. And get Chat GPT to transcribe them. But here’s the thing: I usually never need to read the list back. Just the fact of saying things out loud helps me to process them. So if you read my last post you’ll know about the lack of structure in my day. I really need a clear starting time. But I really need to process my work from yesterday as well. I have thought about ideas such as privately stored infographics (could make a template???), vague LinkedIn posts. This morning I have thought of posting on the teams channel - could ask the team if I could do an async update - what if we had a daily workflow that said “optional: post stand up update here?”. I am going to ask my team. But here’s my other idea. What if...

Overcoming Neurodivergent Blockers, Part 1: How to cope without a daily standup This is a question that I am asking myself: how can I be more productive even without a daily standup? In my last two jobs standups were king. Agile was king. Structure was king. Neither of my last two employers exist anymore and maybe that says something But I need to go: as a neurodivergent person how do I cope without my daily standup and get working for the day. This is what a standup does for me: Provides routine Provides structure But more importantly; Gets me to start at a fixed time!!!! Gets me to reflect on my previous day and to focus on my tasks for the next day Wakes me up Gets me in the mood for working Because the hardest part for me is getting started with anything. Once I am started I can go for hours and hours and hours. So: Could I have a fixed time that I come in for every day? 8:30? 9? And to make sure I have eaten before then etc. Could I have a pre-work ritual? Writing something out? M...

Set Yourself On Fire, Part III I was 28 when I discovered a passion. I went into an office on a weekend and wrote a first line of code. My whole world imploded and the whole universe conspired to tell me that I was meant to be a software engineer - people just showed up everywhere and all the time to tell me that I was meant to do it. I was not prepared for the insanity that ensued. Getting hired really fast. Getting laid off. Getting hired again. Bridging the skills gap. Oh my God. Nothing has ever prepared me for this. Nothing has ever prepared me for what I have been through in the last couple of years. The intensity of this job has been just madness. But I love it. And here it is, that's what I'm here. I'm here to code. I am here for when I remove the parameters from a function that are not necessary. I am here for the way it feels when it clicks and when it all adds up. I am here for the way it feels when someone asks me if I enjoy my job and I don't even know how ...