About author
My name is Yuri Tkachenko.
Being 20+ years (not old, just started early) in the web development industry: mostly frontend and team-leading, I made many mistakes and gained significant expertise.
I've been working with large companies, and small startups learned from good and bad people, theirs wise and stupid decisions. It gave me the superpower to smell bullshit the second before it appears, so I have a chance to cut it early.
I live and work in Kyiv, Ukraine. As a natural-born Ukrainian, I feel insecure bragging about my skills or myself. However, it became exhausting to talk again and again on the same topics with people around me, so I decided: what the fuck, I don't want to repeat myself. So I started making notes about what is crucial for me, then, after a blink of an eye, that 14 years old 'I think I want to be a journalist' me, after 30+ years, writes long reads.
I believe the internet can handle this urge and dear readers enjoy it.
About this blog
This is a very much opinionated and practical blog about managing and leading engineering teams. It has this funny name not only because I sold my soul to the Apple products but also because I hate dogmas (this is the reason there is no comments section). You might have a strong disagreement with what is written here. However, keep in mind that as much as I question everything, I do it for my work as well. Two years from now, my blogs would have been different, and it is expected that there will be updates and follow-ups in a few years.
Even though I am skeptical of the written articles on those topics because they have an 'absolute truth' narrative, well... this is not a problem for today's me.
I am focusing on many aspects of managing and leading (not much difference) engineering teams, but avoiding leadership subject: is stinks corporate. How to build a team, do routines, be predictable, and don't fuck your estimates too much. How to react to a frequently changing environment (you know when someone from top management decides to shake things up a little). How to help individuals and the team to improve and learn, review salary and seniority, deal with people leaving a company or, well, it happens, how and when to 'say goodbye'.
I promise to be honest and straight, and if you can't bear with it, please ignore the article. If you can't ignore it, you can find me on social, and I will try to do my best to hear you out.
Important disclaimer: opinions in this blog are mine and only mine, don't associate it with companies I had luck working with or partnering. I am pretty sure no one in the world shares my statements completely.