The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source

Estimating systems with napkin math (Interview)


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We’re joined by Simon Eskildsen, Principal Engineer at Shopify, talking about how he uses a concept called napkin math where you use first-principle thinking to estimate systems without writing any code. By the end of the show we were estimating pretty much everything using napkin math.

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  • Featuring:

    • Simon Eskildsen – Website, GitHub, X
    • Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X
    • Jerod Santo – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

    Show Notes:

    • Napkin Math on GitHub (PRs welcome)
    • Napkin Math newsletter
    • zk - Zettelkasten on the command-line
    • How to Make Yourself Into a Learning Machine
    • Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

      ...more
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