Tech Flow Ep.1 - Antanas

Antanas, what makes you happy at work?

The main thing that makes me happy is when I solve a problem. The more complex this problem is, the better :) I enjoy obsessing over some unsolved issue in code or project and then I can spend a ridiculous amount of time thinking about different approaches to how to deal with it.

Ok, select what annoys you the most as a developer and tell me why?

1. A Manager that has no clue about Tech;
2. When someone wants to refactor your code;
3. When they (friends/relatives) say that "you are a developer, my internet is broken, fix it for me".

1st option is fine, the more important thing is to have mutual trust and split responsibilities, and in that case it could be a great balance, because then people can complement each other.

2nd option is fine too, because it is a good opportunity to learn from mistakes so you can avoid making same mistake in the future.

3rd one is annoying, because then you have to spend some time explaining why it's not your job to do what you are asked to do :) Ignorance is hardest thing to deal with, especially when that person is not willing to listen.

What mindset-related things are important for a developer to have in order to have successful career?

There are many different ways to build a great career for a developer... In my opinion, there are three traits of a developer which are very important to have:

• Problem solver mentality: focus more on the problem at hand, what needs to be solved instead of on solutions which might seem fancy or exciting. First, you need to be able to diagnose the problem accurately, then the solution will be quite easy to come up with.?
• Sense of ownership or initiative: if you are doing something, you should do it well (not the same as overengineering), and sometimes even if nobody is asking for something, you can show initiative to improve something. Eventually, it will be recognized by colleagues and upper management, and you will gain more trust to take on some responsibilities in future projects.
• When looking for a job, focus more on what kind of challenges that new job will provide for you, what you will learn from it, and salary should be a secondary focus. This way you will be able to work on really exciting projects, which will accelerate your development skills and expertise.

Sustainability in IT. Is it a myth or something achievable?

Ooooof, that’s a tough question. It heavily depends on the project specifics. Some projects serve Proof-of-Concept or MVP purposes, and there is no need for longevity. Having said that, I think yes, it’s possible if needed, but it requires a lot of discipline and caution.?

I think a good parallel would be a kitchen in some restaurant: kitchen must be clean and ready to take orders. Same with clean dishes. When a customer comes in and makes an order, there is no time to clean the previous customer’s dishes or pans in the kitchen. If you consistently have issues in the kitchen or with clean dishes, then you will lose customers and your business will go bust.

The same approach could be applied with a project: you implement some things, make a mess, but then clean it up to be ready for the next “let’s make some mess” stage.?

What steps should be ensured by the team to achieve long-living and sustainable project?

Assuming that the team has decided that the project became a long-term project, then it’s important to change mindset and priorities.?

Code refactoring must become a regular thing in the development process. Prioritizing what to refactor is an interesting topic, but there are already many different tools that analyze code or code change history to indicate which sections of a project are changed most frequently (or most complex so it requires some simplification), so those places could be reviewed and refactored first, so it will have the biggest impact on productivity.

Another important thing in this area is to try to not make shortcuts regarding overall architecture or big-picture design. When the foundations of your project are shaky, then there is not much benefit to doing good coding, it will have a lot of issues anyway. Decouple applications/services as well as possible, and then you can make some shortcuts inside of individual components which is less risky and easier to fix later. Architecture mistakes are extremely expensive to fix afterward.

And lastly, I would like to add that the IT industry is constantly dealing with uncertainty: it’s not clear what product will look like after a year or two, so try not to over-engineer upfront - very likely your predictions will be incorrect, and it will take more effort to undo your engineering to meet new requirements. So try to implement everything as simply as possible, and make some adjustments in code architecture only when you gather more information on how the application should work based on reality, not future predictions. So it should become a constant process - review which parts of the project require some improvement, improve, implement new functionality, review again, and so on.

What do you think regarding Longevity of PHP as a language? Do you think it will stay relevant or golang will take over?

PHP has been making huge progress since the 7.0 version, and I am very happy with the 8.0 and 8.1 versions, what they bring, so I believe that PHP still has a bright future for more complex projects to develop. I don't see golang as a competitor to PHP, because both languages are targeted to slightly different use cases, and both of them could be used together.

It's always nice to work alongside A players that would empower and inspire people around them. What is an A player to you?

A player for me is a team player first. It should be willing to help other team members, share knowledge, and challenge them. A tight-knit team is like a SWAT team - they know each other's moves, what is the plan, what is next, who is responsible for what. That is for me an ideal team to work in.

In my point of view, A-player should possess the following attributes:

• Transparent - bravely discusses the problems - both technical and people-related,
• Proactive - offering solutions to problems,
• Team player - offering a helping hand to the team/colleagues while leaving ones ego at home,
• Not necessarily Mr. know it all, ready to deep-dive and learn if required,
• Chooses THE RIGHT solution instead of self-entertaining by working on some hyped solution that does not resolve the issue.

It seems that all of the projects nowadays are "on fire". How do you relax after work?

Given my obsessive personality, activities that force me to focus on that activity work best. Probably an ideal example would be paddle boarding: in order to stay on top of the board you need to focus on what you do, so then you don't think about anything else :) The same for me is with jogging and cycling. Usually, if I'm jogging, I'm doing it with my husky, it's fun!

So... BMW or Audi?

haha, BMW forever! but what regards exterior design newer Audis look amazing :O

If you could be a superhero, what would you be?

Deadpool! His sense of humor is perfect to me and his ability to regrow your limbs is a nice bonus :D