Simple, Beautiful Software Development

May 2026

The value of a software engineer

A quick note about keeping us accountable to users.

May 12 • Andrew howden

1

December 2025

October 2025

February 2025

January 2025

On communicating through writing

In February 2024, I joined a new organization as a “principal engineer”.

Jan 6, 2025 • Andrew howden

1

November 2024

Anatomy of a “Good” commit message

Current thinking about what should be in a commit

Nov 1, 2024 • Andrew howden

October 2023

Should you go to SRECon?

A story about whether or not it is useful to go to conferences (spoiler: yes), why, how to maximize the value and how to overcome the invariable…

Oct 16, 2023 • Andrew howden

1

September 2023

Suddenly, you’re in charge. How do you create direction?

A story about how I've learned to use strategy as a common tool

Sep 4, 2023 • Andrew howden

24:48

Suddenly, you're in charge. Now what?

Some tools and techniques I've used in the past to create a common sense of direction and purpose.

Sep 1, 2023 • Andrew howden

1

August 2023

Reading Lists

Books, papers and assorted bits I've made it through and are useful.

Aug 28, 2023 • Andrew howden

My Radical Idea: How to be a Site Reliability Engineer

I want to pass on whatever I've learned about SRE. I need your help to make sure its useful

Aug 26, 2023 • Andrew howden

7:59