Wait until the water is boiling BEFORE putting the eggs in. If you put the eggs in first, when the water is cold, and then heat up and boil the water and eggs together, the shell will be a lot harder to separate from the egg. You want the water boilding hot BEFORE you add the eggs. Once the water starts boiling, use a metal spoon to lower each egg gently into the pot, so the egg doesn’t crack.

the president
is prompt engineer in chief
pulling the Overton window
this way or that
speech for effect
open source prompt injection
or is it free
programming
we the people

I am an LLM
Garbage in, garbage out
What news I consume
Fox or MSNBC or Al Jazeera
What books
The Bible
Or the writings of the Marquis De Sade
Or both
Everything I take in
Alters the weights in my brain
MAGA or the Radical Left
My Uber driver said this
My mom said that
I watched an Instagram Reel
A friend forwarded to me
I asked Claude a question
I read a Wikipedia entry
I saw an Amazon review: 4.5 stars
Maybe that’s true

Yes way

each way is another 2x

the ways multiply, so if you do all of them really well

that’s 2^9 = 512x

versus doing none of them at all = 1x

productivity = value creation, e.g. growth rate, mission progress, KPIs

Survivor bias

sounds ridiculous until you consider…

1% of companies make it to year 1

1% of THOSE make it to year 5

aka 1 in 10,000 make it to year 5

AI solves the first 80% of a lot of problems for almost free and then the last 20% takes 10x vs what it would have if you had hand coded the whole project. AI lovers and AI haters talk past each other, because the lovers either make more money by convincing people of AI’s awesomeness, or they are staying within the 80%, while the haters try using AI to solve a whole problem, see that it can’t, see that it makes the whole solution more expensive, and question AI lovers’ motives.

Bad leaders choose the wrong goal or fail to choose one at all. Their group ends up worse off. Divisive leaders optimize for a subgroup and the ‘in’ group is more happy, the ‘out’ group is less happy. They are playing a zero-sum game. Selfish leaders are an extreme of the divisive leader–the selfish leader IS the ‘in’ group.

Good leaders choose a goal where everyone wins, and they achieve it.

Finally got around to trying out NixOS. This is the way. :)

I’ve used Chef, Ansible, shell scripts, manually cowboy sysadmin knob twiddling, CloudFormation, Terraform and other means of wrangling the computers and software I manage and code > manual but NixOS takes it to the next level with a declarative > imperative approach to configuring a Linux box.

It’s not all roses. I’m going to have to invest real time before I’ll have wrapped my head around the Nix language…and without that I’m groping around in the dark at times. I’ve already bruised my head on Haskell, another functional language, so hopefully it’s not too bad. A lot has changed over the years and plenty of example configs and ideas and docs that were right before are outdated now, so…more groping.

Makes 2 servings.

• 100 grams Swiss cheese, shredded
• 100 grams Gruyere cheese, shredded
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 1 garlic clove, peeled
• 0.25 cup dry white wine
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp cherry brandy
• 0.25 tsp dry mustard
• tiny pinch of nutmeg
• 1 small, round loaf of sourdough bread

In a small bowl, coat the cheeses with cornstarch and set aside. Rub the inside of an induction compatible pot with the garlic, then discard (the garlic, not the pot :).

Makes 8 servings.

Pudding

• 0.66 cup golden raisins
• 5 teaspoons dark rum
• 0.75 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 0.13 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 14 ounces challah bread, cut into 0.75-inch cubes
• 9 large egg yolks
• 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 0.75 teaspoon salt
• 2.5 cups heavy cream
• 2.5 cups milk
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Combine raisins and rum in small bowl. Microwave until hot, about 20 seconds; set aside to cool, about 15 minutes.

Makes 16 servings.

Base

• 3 cups whole milk
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 6 large egg yolks
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 0.25 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 8 ounces (1 package) room temperature cream cheese, cut into 1-inch cubes

Combine cream and milk in double boiler. Heat, stirring occassionally, until mixture is steaming steadily, about 10 minutes, 175 F.

While cream mixture heats, in the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, add the egg yolks and sugar. Whisk on medium speed until the mixture thickens and becomes pale yellow, about 5 minutes.

Makes 4 servings.

Hash Browns

• 1 large russet potato
• avocado oil spray

Makes 8 servings.

• 3 ripe avocados
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 0.25 teaspoon salt

Add 1 avocado to a bowl and mash it with a fork. Add lime juice and salt to bowl and mix together. Chop remaining avocados into big chunks. Add them to the bowl and mix everything together. Serve.

Makes 2 servings.

Makes 8 servings.

Sauce

Makes 4 servings.

Makes 8 servings. Eat it on its own or over a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

• 4 cups fresh strawberries
• 4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 0.25 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Mix sugar, vinegar, and pepper in a large bowl. Wash strawberries, cut off stems, and slice into thick pieces. Toss strawberries with vinegar mixture. Serve.

Makes 6 servings.

Makes 8 servings.

• 1 spaghetti squash
• 1 large onion
• 0.25 cup butter
• 0.5 cup sour cream
• 2 cups grated Monterey Jack cheese
• paprika
• salt
• pepper

Cut squash lengthwise and remove seeds. Place cut side down in a pot with 2 inches of water. Cover and boil for 20 minutes. After cooked, remove squash from shell with fork and reserve spaghetti-like strands.

Chop onion and sauté in butter until transparent. To the reserved squash add onion, sour cream, salt, pepper and 1 cup of cheese. Place in buttered casserole and sprinkle with remaining cheese and paprika. Bake at 325 F for 30 minutes. Serve.

Makes 1 serving.

• 2 shots Grand Marnier
• 1 shot lemon juice
• 1 ice cube
• sugar

Sugared Glass

Rub lemon along rim of cocktail glass. Dip rim of cocktail glass in plate of sugar.

Drink

Add ice cube to Yeti Rambler. Squeeze a lemon and pour through strainer into a shot glass to measure. Add lemon juice to rambler. Add Grand Marnier to rambler. Close lid. Shake for 30 seconds. Pour into sugared glass. Serve.

Makes 8 servings.

• 16 ounces (1 can) Rosarita Traditional refried beans
• 0.5 cup Knudsen sour cream (full fat)
• 1 cup Tillamook medium cheddar cheese
• 0.5 cup Pace Picante (original, mild) salsa
• 14 ounces (1 bag) Casa Sanchez tortilla chips (thick & crispy)

Spread beans across the bottom of a 9" pie plate. Layer sour cream on top, then layer on salsa, then cheese. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to eat. Serve with tortilla chips.

Makes 8 servings.

• 1 ham hock
• 16 ounces (1 package) black eye peas
• 4 cups white rice

Defart the Beans

Before cooking the beans, soak overnight in water. Throw out water. Repeat.

Make the Stew

Add ham hock to a large pot. Add black eye peas. Fill pot with water until ham hock is covered. Simmer for 4 hours. Make rice. Serve stew over rice.

Makes 6 servings.

• 6 eggs
• 4 tablespoons Best Foods mayonnaise
• 2 teaspoons Grey Poupon mustard
• 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika

Heat on high heat until water is boiling. Carefully place eggs into the boiling water. Putting the eggs after the water the water is boiling, rather than before, is the key to making them easy to peel. Boil for 13 minutes. Drain water. Cover eggs in cold water. Wait 10 minutes for eggs to cool down. Peel eggs. Cut eggs in half lengthwise. Extract egg yolks and put them in a bowl. Mash egg yolks with a fork. Add mayonnaise, mustard, and vinegar to egg yolks. Mix together thouroughly. Scoop batter into eggs. Sprinkle parika over the eggs. Serve.

Makes 8 servings.

• 100 grams starter
• 375 grams water
• 500 grams bread flour
• 10 grams salt

Add starter to a large bowl. Add 350 grams water. Mix starter and water together using a spatula. Add flour. Mix using hands. Scrape hands clean. Wait 30 minutes. Add 25 grams water and 10 grams salt. Mix using hands.

Wait 30 minutes. Rinse hands in water to get them wet. Fold dough 3 times. Repeat for 6 hours, or until dough feels fluffy.

Makes about 15 cookies.

• 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1.5 cups bread flour
• 5 tablespoons brewers yeast
• 3 tablespoons ground flaxseed
• 0.5 teaspoon baking powder
• 0.5 teaspoon baking soda
• 0.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 0.25 teaspoon salt
• 12 tablespoons organic unsalted butter
• 4 tablespoons unrefined organic virgin coconut oil
• 1.5 cups organic brown sugar
• 1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1.5 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

In a large bowl, whisk together the oats, flour, yeast, flaxseed, baking powder, soda, cinnamon and salt.

Makes 2 servings.

• 1 cup (5 ounces) all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 0.5 teaspoon baking powder
• 0.25 teaspoon baking soda
• 0.25 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 3 tablespoons sour cream
• 1 large egg
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• avocado oil spray

Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in medium bowl. In second medium bowl, whisk together buttermilk, sour cream, eggs, and melted butter. Make well in center of dry ingredients and pour in wet ingredients; gently stir until just combined (batter should remain lumpy, with few streaks of flour). Do not overmix. Let batter sit for 10 minutes.

Makes 8 servings.

Pastry Boats

• 0.66 cup water
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 0.5 teaspoon salt
• 0.66 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 eggs

In a 2-quart pan, combine the water, butter, and salt. Quickly bring to a boil, stirring to melt butter. Add flour all at once, remove pan from heat, and beat ingredients with a wire whip until smooth. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until mixture is smooth and glossy.

Makes 12 servings.

Makes 12 servings.

Filling

• 0.5 pound shrimp
• 1 teaspoon dry sherry
• 0.5 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken thighs
• 4 tablespoons avocado oil
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 pound (mung) bean sprouts
• 2 cups celery
• 5 stalks green onion

Mix shrimp with sherry, cornstarch and 0.5 teaspoon salt. Stir fry for 1 minute then set aside.

If chicken is used, stir fry in 1 tablespoon oil, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, and 1 teaspoon sugar.

Makes 12 servings.

• 12 ounces (1 package) fresh cranberries
• 1 orange
• 1 apple
• 1 cup sugar

Add all ingredients to blender. Blend until smooth. Pour into a bowl and refrigerate until ready to eat. Serve.

Makes 8 servings.

• 1 medium onion
• 1 celery stalk
• 1 carrot
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 tablespoons avocado oil
• 1.5 pounds yellow peppers
• 0.75 pound potatoes
• 3 cups water or chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 1 small hot red pepper or 1 pinch chili pepper flakes

Chop onion, celery, carrot, and garlic. Add to 4-quart heavy-bottomed pot. Drizzle with oil, stir to coat over low heat for 10 minutes or until vegetables are soft.

Makes 1 serving.

• 1 frozen Impossible Burger patty
• 1 brioche burger bun
• 1 thick slice of Tillamook medium cheddar
• 1 slice of sweet onion
• 1 slice of heirloom tomato
• 0.5 avocado

Toast bun and set aside. Cut slices of cheese, onion, and tomato and set aside. Slice avocado into 0.125 inch thick pieces and set aside. Set oven to broil at ‘HI’ temperature. Wait 5 minutes for it to warm up. Place patty on a baking sheet and put in broiler for 4 minutes. Remove from broiler and flip patty. Return to broiler for 2 minutes. Remove from broiler and place cheese on top of patty. Return to broiler for 2 minutes. Remove from broiler and put patty on bun. Layer on onion, tomato, and avocado. Serve.

Makes 8 servings.

• 14 ounces (1 can) diced tomatoes (do not drain)
• 1 cup water
• 5 garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 2 teaspoons garam masala
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 cup heavy cream or whole coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 0.5 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 4 cups Basmati rice

Wash rice, add water, and start cooking in a rice cooker.

Makes 4 servings.

Dressing

• 0.5 cup peanut oil
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
• 3 teaspoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons seasoned rice wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 0.25 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Add all ingredients to a mason jar and seal. Shake well. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Salad

Makes 4 servings.

Less-Wet Cucumbers

• 4 Persian cucumbers (aka cocktail cucumbers)
• 2 tablespoons salt

Trim the cucumbers and cut into 0.5-inch thick pieces. Place in a small bowl. Sprinkle with salt and toss well to coat. Allow to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. Rinse off salt mixture and pat dry.

Marinade

• 2 tablespoons honey
• 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons mirin
• 2 teaspoons avocado oil
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 1.5 teaspoons chili garlic sauce

Makes 4 servings.

Makes 8 servings.

Graham Cracker Crust

• 10 whole graham crackers, broken into 1-inch pieces
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 3 tablespoons sugar

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 F. Process graham cracker pieces in food processor to fine, even crumbs, about 30 seconds. Sprinkle melted butter and sugar over crumbs and pulse to incorporate, about 5 pulses. Sprinkle mixture into 9-inch pie plate. Using a large spoon, press crumbs into even layer on bottom and sides of pie plate. Bake until crust is fragrant and beginning to brown, 15 minutes. Transfer to wire rack.

Makes 8 servings.

Butter Crust

• 1 tablespoon sour cream or 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
• 3 tablespoons ice water
• 1.25 cups pastry flour
• 1.5 teaspoons sugar
• 0.5 teaspoons salt
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, frozen, cut into 0.25 inch cubes

Mix sour cream and ice water in a bowl until combined. Process flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor until combined, about 5 seconds. Add butter and pulse mixture until butter is the size of larges peas, about 10 pulses. Pour half of the sour cream mixture over flour mixture and pulse until incorporated, about 3 pulses. Repeat with remaining sour cream mixture. Pulse until mixture starts to bead. Turn dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap and flatten into a 4-inch disk. Wrap tightly in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour. Before rolling dough out, let it sit on counter to soften slightly, about 10 minutes.

Makes 2 servings.

Makes 2 servings.

• 0.25 cups roasted buckwheat aka kasha
• 1.5 cups water or milk
• 0.25 cups chia seed
• 0.25 cups flaxseed
• 0.5 cups almonds, roasted and unsalted
• 1 Fuji apple, chopped

Pour buckwheat into a large, microwave safe bowl. Add water. Microwave for 5 minutes. Remove from microwave and let buckwheat rest for 5 minutes. Grind flaxseed in a coffee grinder. Add chia seed and ground flaxseed to buckwheat and stir together. Sprinkle apple and almonds on top. Serve.

Makes about 2 quarts. Substitute 4 teaspoons vanilla extract for the vanilla beans by adding the vanilla extract after the mixture cools, before putting it in the refrigerator.

Makes about 15 cookies.

I suspect that if you take a somewhat random group of human beings and ask them to organize themselves in order to allocate work and limited resources, most of the time they will find themselves playing a zero sum game with each other. I call it the +1-1=0 game.

The other game to be played is the 1+1=4 game. It’s the game of abundance, of creating a bigger pie, of win-wins that benefit everyone. It’s a lot harder to pull off. It requires leadership and shared culture (which also requires leadership). Our modern society is evidence it can be done.

Speak Up

I must speak up in public forums like LinkedIN, Twitter, and Christmas dinner. I’ve been taught that talking politics is impolite. But leaving good ideas unsaid and undefended, and letting bad ideas dominate the conversation and lead to bad decisions is even more impolite.

Change My Mind

I must listen, learn, and change my mind, which is way harder than defending my beliefs and standing my ground. It requires humility to admit I was wrong and courage to let others see my mistakes. I have to love my community enough to do what’s right for us instead of what makes me look good.

Imagine you have a team of 5, a leader plus 4 others. The leader chooses not to contribute ideas, preferring to select from the ideas of his team. The team members are equally persuasive and generate equally good and viable ideas, but the ideas are as opposite/orthogonal/different as they can be.

The team has decided to make decisions together and fully commit to those decisions, so all their creative, persuasive, and intellectual energy operates in concert. They recognize that to do otherwise, to decide individually what to do and then work individually to accomplish their individual goals will lead to everyone spending tremendous energy to…cancel each other out and go nowhere. It is better to be wrong together than to be right separately, because being wrong together offers the prospect to progress and learn, and eventually move in the right direction together, with great energy and speed.

Next time you get the urge to try out some new tech in production please remember this: 5 years from now, long after you got bored with it, some poor sap is going to be stuck fixing bugs in that new tech code you committed, because no one ever took the time to rip it out, and something in production depends on it. You’ve just introduce tech debt that will most likely be wasting someone’s time for many years to come.

An anti-pattern I keep running across is trying to solve tech debt problems by adding a new tool to the stack. It’s like planning to pay off some of your $10K in credit card debt by getting a new card with a $5K limit with a lower interest rate…but then using $1K of it pay down the old card and spending the other $4K on new stuff. Now you’ve got $14K of debt to service.

When someone says ‘we are laying a foundation for X’ I take it as code for wasting resources and the sort of lazy thinking that goes with it…at least if they are talking about going dark to make some software, whether its about the code, infrastructure, tooling, UI, or UX. Real (successful) developers ship value now; rinse, repeat. You don’t win a race by standing still.

My ideal product manager is more interested in disproving their idea than proving it.

They are a scientist with the humility to expect they’ll be wrong, the patience to try again, and the hunger to find the truth however unaesthetic it may be. They are a business person, more interested in getting results than questing after their ideal UI or zero bugs. They are a crafts person, not an artist–they value utility over beauty. They are a judge, not a legislator. They are an anthropologist, not a therapist. They are editor, not an author.

A couple months ago my wife got locked out of Steam while trying to remember her password and we had to give up on a rare chance to play some Don’t Starve Together, um, together. It got me thinking…DRM is a pain in the butt sometimes. I wonder what FOSS games are out there.

Turns out there are some rather good ones available, unless your aim is showing off how much you can spend on a game system. That’s not my aim–a while ago I realized that the best gameplay is not coming out of the game industry’s big budget blockbuster hit machines, but from indies plying their art as best they can.

I’ve heard tell that the WWAN module lodged inside my laptop can give me my coordinates on planet Earth. I thought I’d see if it was true. Fortunately, a number of brave souls have blazed the path, I needed only to rediscover it.

Funny side note

Did you know that your super modern WWAN module uses 1980s-era modem commands to control it? You know, AT…OK, blah blah blah. Who knew, right?

Look. The reason its so hard to find (great) DevOps engineers is that is a shit job at most companies. When last I was hunting for a DevOps lead, most of the folks I talked to had war/horror stories about working at a company (or two or three) where they were on duty 24x7, the codebase was fragile, they got paged a lot (at 2a), and they weren’t given the time or help they needed to dig themselves out of the hole they were hired into.

I flashed a Lenovo x200 with Coreboot with Intel microcode enabled, ME removed, and the gigabit ethernet firmware from Libreboot. Everything seems to work with OpenBSD (my daily driver OS). Unlike with Libreboot, which comes with a Grub2 payload, Coreboot uses the SeaBIOS payload by default and it can boot an encrypted OpenBSD volume. I’m encountering what seems to be a random lockup every few days, haven’t had a chance to troubleshoot it yet.

Democracy and government secrets are at odds with each other. Keeping secrets and accessing the secrets of others is a way to gain power. And while we want our government to gain power over people that seek to harm us, we do not want them to have power over the innocent citizen they answer to.

The solution is transparency. The NSA must make a monthly copy of all the data and software from their systems and make it available to the public 2 years later. 2 years gives the NSA and our government time to take advantage of their secrets. And then it gives the people a chance to scrutinize the NSA’s choices.

Amazon used to have outstanding customer support. But it seems their focus is elsewhere these days. In the past I’d contact them via phone or email and someone would try to understand my issue and resolve it in my favor. But yesterday I had a phone+email exchange about a very late order that they struggled to understand and chose not to fix–it seemed it wasn’t a fit for their playbook, so they couldn’t figure out what to do except to tell me I’m out of luck. The fix would have been easy for an empowered, quality CS rep to handle, but that’s not what I got.

It seems the bigots have come out of the woodwork recently, emboldened by Trump’s election. If someone behaves that way around me I’m recording a video and posting it online, for all to see. I’ll ask for their name and add it to the video’s description so its nice and easy for search engines to index.

I don’t have a healthy relationship with consumer products. Or consumer content. I spent a lot of time on World of Warcraft back in the day. I’ve spent a lot of time fiddling with apps on my iPhone. A lot. Candy Crush…nuf said. TV shows keep getting better and better. There’s so much amazing content, I could just stare at these fonts of great entertainment all day long, wasting away, if I was so inclined.

Up until a few years ago, my software choices were largely accidents of circumstance and convenience. I started using CP/M, then an Atari 800, then DOS on a 386, then Windows, then OSX, then Debian, then Arch, then OpenBSD. Somewhere in the middle there was a mobile track, starting with dumb phones, then Palm, then Windows Mobile, then iOS, then Android, then Replicant. On the web it went NCSA Mosaic, Firefox, IE, Safari, Chrome, Firefox, vimb. Then there are editors, windows managers, email clients…I used whatever was convenient and had the coolest features. I loved trying out new tech and being on the cutting edge.

We (the human race) spend/waste an enormous amount of energy writing code that won’t last. We constantly cut ourselves on the sharp edges of C, PHP, Perl, Ruby, Java, and lots of other languages that were the best and brightest of their day, but they don’t go far enough protecting us from our own stupidity, laziness, distractedness, busyness…

Point is, I’m looking for a way out of this mess. And as someone in management, I’m responsible for either doing nothing or making intentional choices about what tools galaxy my team lives in and how we go about our work of creating business value through software.

Ruby feels like working with Legos: its easy to pickup, delightful from the start, and you can make amazing things with it quickly. But as your creations get bigger and bigger, they become increasing awkward and fragile. Using Haskell is like working with steel: its difficult to get started and takes a lot of energy to do anything, even after you’re good at it, but you can build very strong, resilient, large structures.

Companies and teams tend towards mediocrity over time. Call it entropy, call it regression to the mean…I’ve been pondering my own sins in this area lately, and I find myself wanting.

Mediocrity is infectious and it kills motivation, creativity, and productivity. But its sooo easy. It can start with a bad hire, whose not that bad. They’ve been here for years, they are likeable, they are loyal, they’ve got outstanding raw potential…but they struggle to get results. So after trying unsuccessfully to level them up, I (their manager) put them on the lower risk projects, the lower difficulty stuff, because, heck, there’s infinite work and nobody else wants to do it. And firing people is hard–it hurts them, their friends in the company, me…and my boss starts to wonder if I’m a bad manager, after all, I have bad reports. Its just so much easier to sweep the whole thing under the rug and focus my attention elsewhere.

The quality of the people and the culture of a company define its trajectory. Brand is the bank where it stores the value it creates along the way. Everything else is implementation detail.

If you don’t have great people operating in a great culture, you’re operating on borrowed time. Maybe you get lucky and can ride that luck for a while, but unless you build a sustainable, quality culture, you’re dying a slow (or fast) death. If you aren’t banking your wins in your brand, its like you’re living hand to mouth–it works fine while things are good, but bumps in the road will be painful, leading to loss of talent and an eroding culture.

TL;DR scaling a dev team + code base has more to do with minimizing stupidity than with maximizing brilliance.

I’ve worked with some amount of C, C++, Java, Ruby, Python, Bourne Shell, PHP, HTML, Objective-C, Haskell, and Javascript, among others. I’ve come to imagine that the range of code quality, of an average line of code by an average engineer, using C as a sort of baseline, looks something like this:

FOSS just gets better and better, feature-wise and ethics-wise…and it seems Proprietary keeps getting better feature-wise, but worse ethics-wise. Its got me asking myself why I’m not fullstack FOSS, and…its the money. I rather like my Silicon Valley, electric car driving, Napa valley wine drinking, private school for the kids, lifestyle. I don’t see a good way to keep my life and make FOSS software fulltime.

Here’s where I think we stand today:

The scale goes from low to high morale. My biggest realization of the past five years, related to morale, is how weak a tool high comp is for driving morale. It can make people very happy for a short time, but after that it doesn’t do much on its own–the steady state for high comp (alone) is no better than the ‘passively looking’ step of the scale.

1. rage quit
2. actively looking
3. passively looking
4. not looking
5. like the work
6. working efficiently
7. like the boss
8. like the coworkers
9. appreciated
10. learning
11. doing the best work of my career
12. respected internally
13. world famous and loved by many

Privacy Matters

The freedom to speak in private is essential to democracy. The less private your conversations, the more careful you are about what you say. And being careful leads to less candor, less criticism, and less innovation. Thought and private speech are the breeding ground for new, sometimes controversial ideas. They are how we prototype, think new ideas through, refine them, and get them ready for wider distribution and discussion.

When I joined Mixbook 4 years ago, we were running very large, coarse experiments, where we’d spend 3-6 months with 2-4 people building some new feature until we thought it was done, then we’d ship. These days, we’re a bit leaner, with the same sized teams typically shipping a new experiment within 2-4 weeks. But we don’t want to stop there. Lately we’ve been talking about how to get it down to 1-2 days per experiment, so we can ship 5 or more per sprint.

I run OpenBSD on my main laptop. OpenBSD doesn’t come with a Gnome-like Network Manager…you are on your own to keep your laptop connected to the wifi network, to manage your wifi passwords, etc. The OS makes it easy to connect to the wireless network to be sure…it just doesn’t automate away connecting to a different network at work and home and such.

Level 1

No process or rules to get in the way! All we do around here is code. It’s like 5 years old playing soccer–everyone runs straight at the ball/latest shiny object. Yay!

Level 2

We have rules/principles/policies/best-practices that we hope (aka think) will make us more productive, i.e. we use CI and CD! All PRs require a code review. 100% test coverage. 20% time (for innovating). We use Scrum/Kanban/Agile. We use planning poker. We use burndown charts.

If you’re in the market for a tool that syncs your email over IMAP, I recommend you check out mbsync. On my hefty machine, offlineimap takes many minutes to sync, all the while pegging a CPU at 100% and slowing my machine to a crawl. On the other hand, mbsync sips 5% CPU, finishes much faster, and has no noticeable impact on me while doing other tasks on the same machine.

I was poking around some old Haskell code the other day, when I realized that, since switching to Vim (from Atom) I hadn’t setup the necessary plugins in Vim to get syntax checking and such for Haskell.

Seeing as Stack is the new Haskell installer hotness, I installed it and used it to install a bunch of ‘global’ packages for use with my runghc based scripts. I installed ghc-mod and hlint, but I didn’t see any error messages when I messed up the syntax of my Haskell code. A bit of investigation revealed that Syntactic dropped support for ghc-mod, but that hdevtools was supported. I installed that, loaded my Haskell code into Vim, and this time I got errors about missing libraries. I realized hdevtools was looking for the libraries in the system GHC instead of using my global Stack based libraries. To get it to use the global stack libraries instead I:

Scrum Master is a greatly misunderstood and under appreciated role. On most teams I’ve encountered its taken on by the PO or its ignored entirely. I’m guilty of this sin myself and when I am not ignoring it, I’m playing scrum master across way too many teams, in addition to way too many other duties, so its not done terribly well…better than nothing I suppose, but better is possible, and, I think, a good investment.

By 2020 OpenBSD will be in the top 25 on Distrowatch, because of an increased interest in security. By 2025 US legislation will have shifted the cost of poor software security practices from the consumer to the website/software maker in the US. By 2030 all the mainstream (desktop and server) operating systems will be open source and sponsored/supported by at least one large (for profit) company.

The more I learn about network security, the more trying to secure a Linux server feels like trying to make my house seaworthy–I’d be better off buying something that was built for seaworthiness from the start, like a boat. Security, like seaworthiness, is not a feature that’s well suited to being added onto a structure after the fact.

Its not just Linux of course…with hundreds of thousands of lines of private code in multiple languages and hundreds more libraries bringing in millions of lines of open source code, plus thousands of lines of configuration for machines and services both real and virtual, some ours, some belonging to others (i.e. our ISP and various 3rd party SaaS providers), I need to be patching every day just to keep up with the known vulnerabilities, to say nothing of the unknown ones. Turns out I took my house boat out to sea, it sprang a thousand leaks, and as soon as I patch the first thousand there will be another thousand to take their place.

When one is trying to increase productivity, there are 3 areas of particular interest:

1. hours worked
2. tasks completed per hour worked
3. unit of impact per task completed

Hours Worked

The company culture where you work sets the tone for how many hours you work. Startups tend to value long hours, but plenty of larger companies do too. Adding more hours can be very effective in the short-run, but in the long-run the gains can be elusive, as people shift more of their personal chores and relaxation time into their work hours in order to satisfy the expectation that they are in the office all the time, while still striking the balance that they prefer. There are plenty of tools to counterbalance the distractions and keep focused, from inspired goals to deadlines to pressure from a boss, but they don’t scale well. My guess is that its unusual to find a (knowledge worker) organization that can sustain gains from long hours when properly accounting for hours not working (but in the office!), the cost of management time to maintain a long hours culture, and the costs of employee churn.

These days it seems that a lot of SaaS tools are offering a free tier, one or more paid tiers, and an ’enterprise’ tier, which, unlike the other tiers, has amazing new capabilities but no price. Or rather, the price is ‘contact sales’.

That price is too high for me. I don’t want to contact sales. I don’t want to waste time listening to a pitch, hearing the retail price, hearing what a great deal they’re willing to offer me off the retail price because I’m special and there’s a blue moon tonight. I don’t want to email a bunch of my friends and scour forums digging for the real pricing scale, to make sure I’m not getting ripped off. I don’t want a multiyear contract that keeps me paying for a service even if its no longer right for me.

I’ve got another deck to put together. Seems like a good time to write down the Scott Bonds Rules of Presentations:

1. entertain your audience
2. do not forget to make your point
3. do not put text on your slides

Entertain Your Audience

When I’m in the middle of a hard thought problem (i.e. coding) and I interrupt my work on the thought problem to do something else, I find it difficult to concentrate on the something else. I think my brain is still working on the hard thought problem in the background, sort of like a CPU that’s still processing a different job–I’m not fully available to focus on the dinner party or new project at hand.

Recently I was asked how I figure out whether the resume I’m looking at belongs to an ‘A’ player or someone of a lesser grade. Here’s what I said:

A’s tend to list accomplishments, and they tend to have accomplishments that really stand out, even in their hobbies. You see stuff like 1st place in the Chicago Assembler Speed Competition on A engineers’ resumes. Designers point to a portfolio that you look at and go ‘wow’. Managers talk about team transformations or compelling business outcomes. ‘A’ product managers look like CEOs–they display strong evidence of vision, leadership, and meaningful outcomes.

Sometimes you want ‘open .’ to open a directory in your favorite GUI file manager, not EasyTag. Sometimes you wonder how EasyTag ever come to be the default app for opening a folder. Sometimes you do this:

$ xdg-mime query filetype .
inode/directory
$ xdg-mime query default inode/directory
easytag.desktop
$ xdg-mime default nautilus.desktop inode/directory
$ xdg-mime query default inode/directory
nautilus.desktop
$ open .

You’re welcome.

I posted this on my personal Facebook account yesterday morning:

I am a hipster. That is all.

When a software company is searching for a new CTO or VP of Engineering, they tend to look for either a Chief of Surgery or a Head Coach. Hiring the right (or wrong) one can mean the difference between success and failure as a company. Knowing which you are can help you choose the right opportunity.

The Chief of Surgery is one of the best, if not the best, software engineer at the company. Often they are career engineers with limited management experience. But for a small startup where getting the code right is critical and the CTO is 1/4 of the development team, the CoS offers a huge boost in productivity by setting coding standards, establishing the architecture, drawing the technology roadmap, and coding like crazy. Basketball equivalent: Michael Jordan.

For months I struggled with frequent audio dropouts while connecting to stereo through my Airport Express from my Mac laptop. My connection was strong (5/5 bars on wifi) but I still had dropouts. I tried every manner of fix and none was satisfactory. Until now. I seem to have stumbled on a solution and its one I had not read about before. No doubt it won’t work for everyone because of the many different possible causes for bad connectivity to your AirTunes device of choice. But here’s what worked for me.

While developing a Rails apps using PostgreSQL (unlike MySQL) I often run out of db connections and see errors like

and when I do, my Rails app stops working. Restarting Postgres fixing the problem, but it was harder to restart postgres that I expected. Here’s how I do it.

To restart PostgreSQL I added a function to my ~/.bash_profile file:

After saving and restarting Terminal, running ‘pgr’ will find all the postgres process and kill them. Once launchd notices postgres is down it restarts it because I setup launchd to keep postgres running no matter what. If you don’t have postgres setup to stay running, you would need to start postgres whatever way matches your setup. I tried a number of different solutions before I arrived at this one:

I looked around for an easier way to post an internal IP to DynDNS, but I didn’t find one. Scripting to the rescue.

If you have a paid account at DynDNS (may work for free ones too, I’m not sure), you can update a DNS entry by hitting a URL like this:

There’s more than way to go about it, but I prefer using the open source ClamAV and a script that runs to scan each email as it comes in.

Setup ClamAV

I would like my Facebook Connect app to publish stories to my users’ Facebook news stream. I went looking for how do this with Facebooker and figured out an answer.

Want more traffic from your friendly neighborhood search engine to your site? Here are some of the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tricks I’ve picked up along the way.

Rule #1: make it easy for the search engines to see and understand your content

Many usability professionals focus on, well, usability. But there’s more to usability than an intuitive interface. The best stuff in our lives are pleasant, fun, even habit forming.

The Scott Bonds Usability Scale

1. Unusable. Not useful or usable in any sense.
2. Functional. Very useful, but requires instruction (manual, training, demo, etc) before a desired feature is understood.
3. Usable. Intuitive, requires little instruction before the user is proficient.
4. Pleasant. Using it is satisfying and enjoyable.
5. Fun. Use it for its own sake, possibly independent of its core ‘function’.
6. Addictive. So fun its difficulty to give up its regular use.

They do look good on your bookshelf, but are you really ever going to read them again? You can free up space in your home, save the environment, and spread knowledge throughout the world by getting that book off your shelf into the hands of an eager reader.

• 1 pound broccoli
• 0.5 cups avocado or grapeseed oil
• 0.5 cups water
• 1 teaspoon salt

Boil broccoli in water for 10 minutes. Drain water. Transfer broccoli to blender. Add oil, water, and salt. Blend until smooth. Add more salt to taste. Add more water if you like it thinner and more soup-like. Serve hot or cold.

Don’t like broccoli? Me neither. But hold on to your soup bowls, this is a way to eat it that tastes pretty good.

Makes any number of servings.

• Brussels sprouts
• avocado or grapeseed oil
• salt

Cut sprouts in half lengthwise, so that the stem is cut in half. Pour a generous layer of oil in a pan. Cover pan with sprout halves, flat side down. Cover pan with lid. Turn on heat to medium. Cook on medium for 5 minutes or until brown. Line a bowl with a paper towel. Turn off stove and use a slotted spoon to move the sprouts into bowl. Sprinkle salt over the sprouts then toss them. Serve.

Makes about 12 servings.

There’s Hagen Daz, Dryers, and a whole lot of other companies making ice cream. Coldstone’s the latest craze and gelato has enjoyed a recent surge in the Berkeley, CA area. But they’re all pretenders to the Double Rainbow throne.

Double Rainbow makes the best ice cream I’ve had outside of homemade. Gelato’s great and all, but I’ll take a scoop of DR over any gelato I’ve ever had as well. Try the chocolate chip.

Makes about 8 servings.

• 3 leg-and-thighs of chicken
• 1.5 cups pearl barley
• 2 carrots
• 2 stalks of celery
• 0.5 white onion
• salt
• pepper

Wash chicken. Put chicken into a large pot. Add water to pot until chicken is covered. Wash barley and add to pot. Grate onion and add to pot. Add 2 teaspoons salt.

Simmer for 1 hour. Cut carrots and celery into 0.25 inch thick pieces and add to soup. Simmer for 5 more minutes then remove from heat. Remove chicken and let cool under a wet paper towel. Remove bone and skin, cut into chunks and throw back into soup. Stir and enjoy! Salt and pepper to taste. Add water if you prefer a thinner soup.

Makes 10 servings.

• 0.5 cups avocado or grapeseed oil
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 large yellow onion
• 1.5 pounds lean ground beef or Impossible Burger
• 15 ounces tomato sauce
• 12 ounces tomato paste
• 1 bottle of red wine or 4 cups of Burgandy
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 1 tablespoon thyme
• 1 tablespoon sage
• 1 tablespoon basil
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 56 ounces (2 cans) Italian-style tomatoes in basil

Add oil to a large pot. Set stove to medium heat. Press garlic and add to pot. Fry garlic until starting to brown, about 1 minute. Chop onion and add to pot. Cook until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add ground beef and cook until the meat is brown, about 2 minutes. Stir in the remaining ingredients, except for the Italian-style tomatoes. Turn down heat to low. Put a colander into a bowl and pour the Italian-style tomatoes into the colander. Pour the sauce from the Italian-style tomatoes into the pot. Place splash guard over the pot. Cook, stirring every 10-15 minutes until very thick, about 4-5 hours. Add the Italian-style tomatoes. Cook for another 30 minutes. Serve over noodles. Add parmesean cheese to taste. Goes great with garlic bread.

Bread Machine Variant

Makes 1 loaf. This method is way easier than the original, which you can find right after this one.

• 0.75 cup whole milk
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 0.5 teaspoon lemon extract
• 0.5 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 600 grams bread flour / 3.5 cups
• 0.5 cups sugar
• 0.25 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick butter
• 1 package of yeast
• 0.75 cups golden raisins

Put all the ingredients, up to and including the butter, into the bread maker, in the order they are listed. Make a small hole in the flour, taking care not to go so deep as to get to the liquid. Pour the yeast in the small hole, where it will stay dry. Set the bread maker to make regular, basic bread. Start the break maker. When the bread maker beeps to allow mixins, add the raisins. Once the bread is done baking, remove it from the pan and let it cool on a rack.

Hey everyone–I’m in the middle of reworking the site. So theres not much to see at the moment, as you can see. ;) More to come…

I’ve done my share of dabbling in neurobiology literature and within said literature is information about our eyes. We dont perceive the world as a raw stream of color and brightness–we see objects that retain their integrity even as we turn our heads or they move around. Anyone whos written AI visual navigation/targeting systems can attest to what an impressive ability this is.

Our eyes and brain dont do this in one step. Much like a programer uses functions to organize code at different levels of abstraction so too our brain constructs the visual world in layers. First there are points, then lines, then other constructs like right-angles, and parallel lines. There are actually brain cells that detect parallel lines. All these primitives are used to form ever more complicate objects until we can look in a room and quickly identify a chair as a chair rather than a bunch of pixels impacting our retina.

Maybe its just me, but I’m getting tired off all the comic book evil that we have in games these days. Whether youre playing KotOR or Fable youll notice that when you decide to veer to the dark side of the force its pretty obvious that what you are doing is evil . That is to say comic book evil–no grays here, pretty much anyone on the planet would judge the evil action as such. But evil in the real world is all about the shades of grey where otherwise good people keep pushing the boundaries of propriety one inch at a time all the while rationalize and justifying their actions. Its subtle and insidious. And its much more seductive and powerful than what I’m finding in games that offer the choice between good and evil.

Scott Writes:

I just graduated from Cal Poly with a Computer Engineering Bachelors degree. I took a computer graphics course using java3d which I really enjoyed. I’m trying to figure out what Id need to do to be attractive to Electronic Arts as a game programmer . I’ve been entertaining getting a masters degree in computer graphics at UC Davis, but am thinking maybe there is more straight forward approach. I commend you on the amount of networking you did to get into the company. Id like to get some advice from you or someone you think could help me to figure out how to get from where I am now to designing outstanding video games. I have just started a firmware engineering job in which I’ll be doing heavy C and assembly language coding. I’m hoping I can put together a plan, perhaps a custom masters degree specified by EA? What do you think.

Martijn Writes:

I’m sure you probably are already aware of this, but just in case you missed out on it. It’s the EA University Programme, i think a lot of your readers would be interested in this link.

Updated on October 11th, 2013

Removed the link to Martijn’s email. Remove the link to the EA University Programme, that page no longer exists.

Todd Writes:

Hi. I’m considering changing careers but I’m not sure about the best way to do it. After graduating a few years ago with a doctorate in clinical psychology, I obtained a faculty position at a major university, where I now work as a clinician and researcher . While I have been successful thus far in my area of study, I have made a decision to pursue a career in game design and development. I have some experience in managing large projects, so I might be able to apply for a project director type of position, but I’m most interested the artistic end of game design. I am considering taking a certification course in 3D character design and animation at the university where I currently work. But I dont want to spend the money, or begin transitioning from my current position, if my chances of being able to break into the industry are slim to none. I’m sure to be competing with students who have had much more experience in computing and art than I could ever hope to obtain at this point in my life (even though I’m only 30). Do you think my training in psychology, and the skills that I have developed as a clinical research scientist will be desired by a game company? What type of additional training would you recommend? How much experience do most new hires (those individuals who are fresh out of college or internship) have in the area of 3D character design? I’m wondering if a 9-month intensive course would be sufficient to compete. Are there any jobs that I might be suited for in this industry? Any advice would be very much appreciated.

James Writes:

[For internships at EA] I noticed that the applicant pool consists of about 720 students, and they only take in around 60. I had a question as to where most of these internship applications and opportunities fall . And also if 720 or so applicants consist of both high school students, current college students, and college grads.or just grads. Also, if you could tell me how many internships do they offer in the Marketing/PR department for the summer. This will help my gauge my odds of getting in.

I’ve decided to eliminate comments from this site ‘cause 99% of the stuff I was getting was SPAM and of the 1% of legitimate stuff about 90% of it was a question that is better suited to email than to commenting on a particular post.

Eric Writes:

I am interviewing for a Desktop Support position on Monday for EA Tiburon in Orlando. Is there any advice you can give me? I’ve also been told there will be a written technical assessment. I was looking at your game design questionaire and was wondering if it would reflect any of those kinds of questions.

My Reply:

I’ve never had a technical assessment since I haven’t applied for a position where it would be appropriate. Cant be too much help there. That said, my advice is to get business cards from everyone you interview with (or at least get their contact info if they are not carrying cards). If you get the gig it won’t be as useful, but if you dont hit it out of the ballpark on your first attempt youll have a handful of new contacts that will likely give you the time of day if you call them and ask what you could do better next time.

Jeff Writes:

I hope you know someone in the Arts/Textures/Graphics department at EA that can answer a question for me. I currently attend Ohio State where I am studying Computer Science and Engineering. During the course of my major (which I begin in less than a month), I will have the opportunity to take a number of graphics courses, though all of these courses are centered in building graphics through the C language, at least from what I’ve been told. I have recently become aware of a smaller school in Ohio that offers a Game and Simulation Development degree that concentrates on the “arts/theatre/graphical elements” of game design. I want to work my way up the ladder and be a game designer in the future. Given EA’s way of creating a games graphics (whatever that way is), would a programming intensive background, or the above Game Development background serve me better?

Stephan Writes:

hi my name is stephan i want to know if it is possible for me to make my own xbox videogames on my computer if so what software do i need and whatt are the steps to making the games like graphics and game modes and create player etc

My Reply:

Making games for the Xbox is an expensive endeavor requiring thousands of dollars of equipment and software from Microsoft. And since writing for the PC isnt all that different from writing for the Xbox I would suggest that you focus your efforts on the PC instead. Visual Studio + the DirectX SDK from Microsoft are the programming tools of choice but VS is expensive (DirectX works with VS and is free). You can find freeware tools that are like Visual Studio that will enable you to write games that make use of the free DirectX SDK and I suggest you locate one of those. C++ is the language most games are made with, but if you dont need extensive multimedia support (as you might not with a board game) then you will find Visual Basic a good language to learn with and make your game. There are a number of books available from Amazon that teach how to make video games. You should buy one or check one out from your library.

Rudy Writes:

I was reading some stuff on your website and just want to say, it’s a really cool idea. Congrats on landing the job with EA! I was wondering if I could get your opinion on something, from someone who has been through the interview process before , I really value your opinion.

Last week at Siggraph I dropped off my reel /resume at the EA booth. The next day they brought me in for an interview at the convention. I have no idea how many people they brought in, but I was excited nonetheless. The interview felt pretty informal and didnt last any longer than 20 min, but i felt it went well.

Stephan Writes:

my name is stephan i am 12 and i have an idea for a game mode on live 2005 it is called become an nba star .it is when you create a player then select his position, home town,school and,statistics, you can create his family members so they can be there on draft day.then what he will wear on draft day and a voice cause he will narate his career and how he feels.then show david stern announcing the last pick of the draft and show him going up getting his cap and shakingf his hand.then teams will start acalling you on your cell phone asking you to play in the summer leage teams during the games scouts from other teams will look at you and at the end of the summer leauge games teams will call you offering contracts.then you will decide what team to accept the contract from. the people would have left callback numbers on your decision.you will start on the bench you only will get a couple of minutes a game.then by about the 3rd game the star player at your position will get hurt at a practice then the coach will aproach you telling your the starter. but whe you are one the bench you can accelorate the time untill you are put on the bench.when you create a player you will be asked to put you complete name bet so it can be said buy the copmmentators a list of names that can be pronounced by the commentators you can press a button to see how the names sound.you also have the option to develope naturally by game or earn points toward an attribute. over the course of years if you become a good player you will be called by endorsers.soon you will be able to design your own clothes,shoes,headbands,etc.once your contrac tis over you will be offered another one or be released.you will also earn a nickname from your most popular teammate based on the way you play.soon you will be able to buy cars houses clothes,etc but at the start you have to pick from the stuff you can afford based on your salary the more money you make the better stuff you can buy.you will eventually you wll be having press confrences.dont worry,you will have time to type in answers to questions they ask you pretty soon you will get to see your self on tv and hear what other coaches and players have to say about you and your game .at the end you will et up a press confrence announcing yoor retirement.the in acouple of year wich will be simulated based on how much money you have left you can buy one of the most domonate teams that have become bad (at this point it would have auto switched to franchise mode).if you could geta chance to give this to to the creator of live 2005 and see if he likes it. (if he likes it and can get all this done and add some stuff to it. you can take all the credit if he doesnt like it you can say you got it from a kid who wants to work at ea when he gets older

Stefan Writes:

Hey Scott, My name is Stefan Stignei and I’m going to be a sophomore next year at OSU. I’m majoring in New Media Communications and minoring in Commnunications. I’m also going to be a Resident Assistant in my hall which I’m really pumped for because I love meeting new people and would like to help them out.

Anyway I would love to work for a video game company. I’m going to apply for an internship at EA Games this year and I am wondering if there is anything I need to know about the work. I’m interested in Production and Marketing/Public Relations.

Justin Writes:

Hi, my name is Justin I. I live in southern part of California. I am only 14 years old but I am serious to pursue this kind of job. I’ve made maps for games like counter-strike , Medal Of Honor, Call Of Duty, and some more. I am currently working as a mapper for a Half-Life 2 mod called Insects Infestation. I dont know what its like to work at ea, or if its good pay. Also what college is fit for this. EA is one of my favorite game brands, I like mostly first person shooters, like the battlefield series. I’m waiting for the new one to come out ;). It would mean very much to me if you can answer my questions.

Albert Writes:

My name is Albert, and I first want to thank you on having a great website. It’s very helpful to those who are planning on joining EA and need some advice on what to expect and what is expect of you. I have several questions I need to ask. I would like to know if you have heard any information about EA expanding their office in Orlando, Fl. I am in the process of getting my BA in Computer Animation , and I hear that EA is building an academy at the University of Central Florida. Will the professors be EA employees? What requirements (skills) are needed in order to intern as an animator at EA? When submitting my portfolio what materials would I include? Does one need to have excellent drawing skills to be considered for a 3d animation position. I work full time and I go to school full time, so it is hard to concentrate on both drawing and animation. I usually stick to animation: even though, drawing does give me the vision and perspective to do my animations. How were you able to network with so many people who worked at EA? Did you come in contact with them before or after you joined EA? If you can give me some tips I would greatly appreciate it. I do apologize for the bombardment of questions, but I am very interested in becoming an EA employee.

Merenia Writes:

Hello, My name is Merenia, I am 13 years old. I go to high school in New Zealand. I know I am to young to get a job as big as this, but I thought I would email you to ask a few things.

I am an animal, art and computer lover. I love stragic games, like The Sims and Zoo tycoon. I own about 4 of The Sims and I hope to buy others. I am excited to hear Sims 2 coming. I am more into computers then the t.v and my dream job that I want when I grow up is to do computer graphics or be game creater,something cool like that. ;D I was just wondering if you could send me some information about Ea games and job opportunities that may come up in the future. Its taken me a while to find your email to email you, and I am happy I have found it. EA games is my favourite brand of games, and I know I can always trust the quality of your work.

Chris Writes:

hello, i need to know how do i get a job in pogo to work for them i go to info.ea.com and it dont take me were i should take me so i can get a job in there can you help me please you can email me how i can getin please email me at [redacted]. | please get back to me please hank you very much

I’ve decided to take down the forums. It seemed that most people prefer to email me their questions directly, so I’m going to answer the choice ones in the blog. Besides, there are a ton of forums like those at the IGDA and elsewhere that are more trafficked and probably better suited to ongoing conversations on the topic of getting into the industry because they have a lot more participants. I’m taking a bunch of the posts and reformatting them as posts so we get the added benefit of having all the content searchable through a single click. I’ve also updated the FAQ and I’m going through and cleaning up the cobwebs around the rest of the site.

Yeay!! Last week I accepted an offer for a permanent job with EA and my first day was this Monday. I couldnt be happierI’m working on possibly the biggest game EA’s ever done, my boss is one of the most experienced producers in the industry, my whole team is similarly badass, and I’m having a ton of fun. Besides the utter luck of landing a job with this team, it feels really good to have worked hard over the past 12 months towards a goal and to have reached it! Now the thank you notes, beers, phone calls, and dinner shall commence. And heres one of the first: thank you-all for taking an interest, writing emails of encouragement, offering advice, and being the best web community a guy could ask for. I’ll do my best to return the favor by sharing my experiences and offering what I learn as I go.

Kat Writes:

Don’t ya just hate the whole salary negotiation thing!? Lets say there was a ‘manager’ position being filled by someone with eight years experience in the industry. What kind of salary would be reasonable with which to begin negotiations? I know theres a lot of considerations and probably a huge range; I’m just looking for a baseline to get me headed in the right direction.

My Reply:

You should talk to recruiters working in the game industry. Since most game recruiters either work, have worked, or compete with EA for talent they would need to keep up-to-date on that sort of information.

Ken #1 Writes:

Hi. My name is Ken. I’ve read about the mission of EA Trax and how it relates to the music business. I think the concept is very interesting and it has caught my attention. Can you tell me anything about the Music Dept. at EA? How would I go about applying for a job in the music dept.? I havent seen too many postings on the website.

A Reader Writes:

I have some game ideas for a new strategy game based on Tiberian Twilight. I would really like to have a little time to share them with someone . I really think i know the best way to make a really snazzy strategy system. To anyone who has connections! Hook me up for just a few mins!

My Reply:

You might want to check these out:

Ken Writes:

EA has updated the job board on their website. I’ve uploaded my resume but when it shows up in the text box, a lot of my alignment is thrown off. Should I adjust it to fit the text box or leave it as it is in its MS-Word state? Which way will EA see it when I submit my resume?

I’m working some solid hours these dayshavent had much chance to post I’m sorry to say. :p I commute from Berkeley to Redwood City, so that kills 2 hours a day on top of work. But enough of that crap. I’m going to the last day of E3 next weeklooking forward to seeing the show! The game I’m working on isnt making an appearance at this one, but I’m hoping to catch an Updated on HL2. I’m working on recruiting more people to help answer questions in the forums. Ken Felton jumped in to answer a question about careers in audio. Chris Stones been graciously offering the benefit of his experience in animation. Both these guys of amazingly talentedits really cool to be working with them. Youll see what I’m talking about when our game comes out. :)

Rus Writes:

I am currently working towards my science degree, my goal is to attain a position in audio engineering or related field- it looks like w/ Steve Schnur is where I would want to go Ofcourse being the biggest fan [and best player] of Madden is a good reason, but my dream career is to be part of the awesome music and/ or sound effects behind these great games that the world craves!! Can anyone offer any suggestions about how to get into an internship in this area’ I definetely see the importance of networking in this type of business, and will use that as possible assistance. I have NEVER been so excited about anything in my life, I will take any advice!

Joel Writes:

Does anyone have any information on IT jobs available in Orlando? I’m looking to work in the Orlando area. Is there certain certifications that I should get to be qualified or is the best way to start off, is to start at the bottom and work your way up?

Rite Writes:

If you’re under 30 & probably not making a six-figure salary at EA, where do you live? Redwood City? I’m assuming most rent an apartment but what areas are safe and but have clubs, bars, shops, etc.?

My Reply:

I’m under the impression that the towns near Redwood City are not geared to single people under 30. The rent doesnt seem too bad$1200/mo for a 1 room apt or $700 for a room in a house. If you can afford a commute you might enjoy living in SF for roughly the same price and 30 minutes x2 each day.

Biggs Writes:

I’ve been doing some research on types of jobs at EA. I came to the conclusion that the type of job I wanted would be in the same Dept as Steve Schnur, He is the head of the music dept. for EA. The only thing is, I dont know what kind of schooling I would have to go to in order to work in his department . Can anybody help?

Lindsay Writes:

More questions for Chris! Just wondering which EA studio you work at–Europe, Maxis, Redwood Shores, Burnaby, Downtown Vancouver, etc. Also, if you dont mind, Id be interested in hearing about how you got into the industry yourself and any advice on the best strategy for getting into EA (networking and connections? internships? sending in countless demos?).

Thomas Writes:

Chris: Can you describe different roles or capacities that an animator might perform in the game industry? Though my primary interest is in becoming a game designer; I am also interested in cinematic cut scene direction (I did my under grad. in film).

Can one move into game design from animation or is level design a more direct route? Would you mind describing some highlights of your career as an animator? I am currently in the MFA program at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco.

Chereya Writes:

I spent Wednesday at the GDC and I have to say it was excellent. I served on a panel discussing Quality of Life and a roundtable on the same subject. Unfortunately I did a crappy job of presenting on the panelword to the wise: public speaking is a real skill that needs to be maintained and practiced (and a good presentation requires good prep). The roundtable went well though and we talked about some really good stuff. I was a fan of the idea of having an IGDA Top 50 Studios To Work For each year, sorta like Forbes does for all industries.

I’m happy to report that my gig has been extended another few months until the end of June. Its encouraging to note that my efforts are appreciated to that level! Now its on to showing that I’m worth keeping around past June. :)

Koz Writes:

What would you say would be a better route if I want to get into a production role? I could take a computer game design/programming class that will mostly focus on the implementation process or take classes that revolve around operations management and business classes.

My Reply:

From what I’ve seen all of those skills are useful to a producer, though I think you would have easier time getting a job in todays industry with programming training than with business training.

Alan Writes:

Hey Scott, You may have no way of gaining this info, but how effective has the web been for recruiting candidates at EA? Do you know of many people who have posted for positions via the web and have had success (success meaning interviews")? Would it be better to go snail mail? Just curious as to your thoughts.

My Reply:

Most of the people I talk to got in through a friend, not through a web site. Same with meI got in through networking. If you apply via mail or web you are competing with thousands of other applicants. If your friend introduces you to the person hiring your competing against just a few.

Alan Writes:

First off, excellent site. I commend you on your creativity and tenacity in achieving your goal. Great job. | I’m a screenwriter thats had moderate Hollywood success. Moderate being defined in that I’ve sold two scripts to Hollywood production companies but nothing made (yet). I also have a background in I.T. (all areas of project life cycle). | My question is, do you know if EA employs a staff of writers? (For clarification, I’m not talking about the copywriters or those who write manuals, but those writers who deal in storyline, dialogue, and character development). I hear developers are bringing in screenwriters and was curious if EA is one of them.

Ian Writes:

What type of classes would you recomend me to take if I’m interested in being any type of producer or tester? if there is anyone out there that is currently in production at EA or elsewhere could you please share what classes really helped you or any other advice.

My Reply:

If you want to be a tester you should own every game system you can get your hands on and play games constantly. Testers are often picked (to the best of my knowledge) for there ability and familiarity with games.

Kirk Writes:

I am wondering if anyone can offer any insight into more about the production internships they offer over at EA. I really only see the Tiger Woods Golf one, which is about as good as it gets, but do they offer anymore? Is this a one intern deal? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

My Reply:

The internship position I have now did not even exist before I landed itI had the good fortune of meeting the right people who offered to get me in. Keep in mind that there are lots of positions that never get advertised (my guess is less than 20% of positions in the industry are ever made public before they are filled) and some positions that are specifically created for people that have made the right friends and the right impression. You greatly limit your opportunities if you are only going for the positions that are visible through advertisements and web pages a.k.a. non-networking channels. | I’ve heard somewhere that 80% of job holders in the US got their job through a connection rather than an advertisement. The game industry places even more of an emphasis on personal connection with people they hireso that number is probably even higher. | That said, so far the only other ones I’ve seen advertised at EA have been for unannounced products with EA Partners (they handle projects that are developed by non-EA studios and they are growing fast). As far as I know, production internships are far fewer in number than those for engineering, art, and marketing. One might expect as much, considering there are often 20+ artists/engineers/marketers per production person on a team.

A Reader Writes:

Here’s another rejection QA story to read. I was reading over what Jonathan said about his experience before my interview. I had the same test he did ( I know this because the questions he posted were on my test as well). Heres my idea of what there hiring strategy is for new QA testers.

They have about 3 or so hiring periods 1 day a week (1:00, 3:00, 5:00 etc..) They pick the best scores out of each group (even if you pass) they will pick the best 3-5 people out of 20 (or how many people are there) in each group. The test I took was kinda easy. Some of the questions I know I missed, but most I’m confident were correct.

Kim Writes:

I am interested in the computer animation, game design field. My question is what is the best classes to take and what will I need to become a great future EA Games associate? What classes should I look for to make sure I am getting my monies worth?I am looking at the computer animation program and Full Sail in Orlando. But the tuition is $58,000. Is a full program like that recommended or could classes be taken at a community college or university individually? I am really interested in the artside of gaming, like character modeling. Also what is the average starting salary range of a EA Games associate with a bachelors degree. I’m sure some of these have probably already been asked sorry

Koz Writes:

Should a college student who wants to get in to the production side of video games look to take a major in say buisiness management or related buisness majors or somthing closer to computers.

My Reply:

Ian Writes:

Hi my name is Ian and I am a computer science major at Dakota State University. Where I am at right now is that I’m finding out that I am less interested in heavy programming and all the technical aspects of making games and more in to the production/testing/and possibly marketing part of it although the last one is a little iffy. I’ve started applying for multiple internships for this summer. Should I continue to major in computer science and go thru the brutal math courses or should i switch to another major that deals with the mentioned above? if so what major would that more then likely be? i would appreciate any help.

Thomas Writes:

Dear Scott and IWTWAEA posters,

Thank you for this resource. It is inspiring to read about your efforts. I’ve been putting my portfolio together for various EA Academy internships at the Redwood City campus. I was wondering if I could get some advice on my application process.

1. I would like to direct my mail and cover letter to a person and not To whom it may concern". Would I be able to get the proper contact name by calling EA’s HR dept, or will I not even make it past the receptionist? I suppose that I’ll know tomorrow after I try but if I fail, any backup recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

2. There are several internship positions that I am interested in and qualified for. I have already applied for several of these using the online recruiter. When I send in my portfolio and other hard materials should I also include printed versions of the various questions that are asked when applying to jobs with EA’s online recruiter? Does it look bad if I am applying for several positions? I assume that I should clearly state the codes and titles of the various positions that I am applying for in my cover letter.

3. *Since I am applying to an internship as a student, should I place my education or my work experience first on my resume? I am personally more impressed with my education but it seems like game companies don’t really care.

4. Is there any chance that someone will see my application or do I need to have personal contacts to have my application even considered? I know that networking is key; however I’ve only been in San Francisco for a short while and haven’’’?t met anyone at the IGDA who works for EA. My Clothed Figure Drawing teacher has done concept art for the LOTR games on a contract basis but afaik he is not currently employed at EA.

5. The deadline to apply for summer internships is almost here; in fact, it will be here before the GDC. Do you think that I might still have an opportunity to appeal myself at the GDC?

Will Writes:

Good evening. I currently work as a Senior Process Manager for a top 10 financial institution. In my current role, I am responsible for ensuring that our institution (over 80 million accounts) complies with multiple forms of USA Patriot Act legislation, including Office of Foreign Assets requirements and Bank Secrecy Act requirements. I manage a direct team of four Process Managers and an indirect team of over 20 Operations/Process Managers across our company, including across 6 different geographic locations and multiple business types. This is all well and good, but I am extremely bored of my job. My true passion is playing video games, which I have done since I was old enough to hold a joystick or to stick a cassette tape in a Commodore 64 and type “Load, 8, 1”. I’ve always felt that the ideal role in life would be one in which you do what you love and you love what you do. I am not in that role today. While my gaming experience goes only as deep as to have played them for countless years, I do have a number of skills that I believe are applicable to just about any business environment. I am trained and certified as a Green Belt in Six Sigma, which is a process management methodology, possess an associate’s degree in Project Management, and bring a wide array of functional skills to the table, including multi-tasking, people management, requirements definition, process analysis, leadership and a strong knowledge of regulations and legal affairs. I am not sure what the right positon would be for someone like me at a gaming company, but I do know that I would be happy with just about any position that let me help an industry I enjoyed rather than one that simply paid the bills. Any ideas on where I should start and whether or not I might find a home at EA Games with a skills et as described above?

Chereya Writes:

Hey Scott, This may be too personal but I thought Id try asking you anyhow since you’re the only person I know who might share the answer. Please feel free to disregard… What is the basic pay rate for EA interns? What other benefits are interns offered that are comparable to benefits accorded to a permanent position? ie. housing, insurance, holidays off or sick days… If my hubby-to-be gets an internship position -crosses fingers- what would the intern-role be like for married father of an infant? Just curious and want to make plans for additional income if necessary

Marquin Writes:

Alright, so, I’ll start off with a simple question–how does one go about getting a job as a software engineer at EA? I hate to come off as arrogant, however, I have learned that this may be the only chance I have–every person trying to get a job “fluffs up” their resume, advertising skills they dont really have. Thus, on a resume, I am the same as anyone else, because even though I may be honest about my skills, I look no different on a resume than someone whos fluffed theirs up. I know that EA must get thousands of job applications and resumes on a weekly basis. My question is: how does one get noticed? I think that there are 2 kinds of programmers–those that do it for the money, and those that were born with the skill. I am the latter. Even when entering college, I already had more programming and software engineering skills than most PROFESSORS (I wont even compare with the students). Again I’m sorry to be so arrogant, but I feel it is the only way to set myself apart. So, even though I may be a more talented and skilled software engineer than most 10-20 year veterans, I am immediately labeled as the “college newbie” who has “no software engineering skills” and couldnt write robust code if my life depended on it. In fact, I dont blame them for thinking this–when I see the other students in my class, even those who love to program, I would also put most of them in that category. My question is–HOW DOES ONE STAND OUT? How can I show EA that I have what it takes, that I can work with their best. If I had to, I would work for them for FREE for a MONTH just to be able to show them this: whatever it takes. I know that having the right networks count, and that I would have no problem getting a job there if my sisters boyfriends dads cousins boyfriend was a senior software engineer. But I truly believe that if only I could show them my skills, show them that I can solve anything they dish out at me with style and robustness, that they would give me a chance–if only. Any help anyone could give me would be truly appreciated.

Chris Writes:

I have about three years experience in creating stochastic simulations and visualization systems for the US Army at WSMR. In addition I am currently the Executive Producer of a CG kids show for APTN. I’m interested in flying the coop here sometime in the next couple of years. What kind of chance do I have to get into an Executive Producer slot at EA. A great deal of my experience is in getting a team of modelers/animators/programmers to create specific simulation systems for the military. In other words, I build very expensive/limited market video games. Does this kind of experience translate into something EA would be interested in?

Lindsay Writes:

Hi Scott, I came across your site while looking at the EA Academy site (actually I was examining the guidelines for loopholes to get in as an intern). I gotta say that it was pretty smart of you to start this site–talk about a great way to get noticed by the company! Anyways, I recently graduated from Vancouver Film School as an animator. I would love to get a job at EA in animation (whether it be as a mocap operator or clean up artist, etc) but am finding it incredibly difficult. As they say, one of the best ways to get your foot in the door is as an intern, however my school does not qualify for the Coop programs at EA Canada (since it is a private school) and you need to be an American to get into the USA EA Academy. So far, I’ve just been trying to submit my demo tape in hopes of landing some sort of interview (I’m going again tomorrow!) and even though I do know at least two people who work for EA BlackBox and EA Canada, so far, it hasnt seemed to help much. Anyways, I was just wondering if you had any insight as to breaking into EA as an animator. I noticed your great advice on emailing people with credits on your favorite EA games. Also, do you think it is worth a shot sending my demo to EA Redwood, or EALA even though I am a Canadian citizen (getting a visa to work in the USA is incredibly difficult unless you are some sort of genius!)? Thanks and sorry for this rambling post!

I made it past my 1 month anniversary at EA and I thought it would be good to reflect a bit on what I’ve learned and what I’m up to. I continue to be wowed by the people I work with. I’m surrounded by the best of the best and it’s at once exhilarating and humbling.

Jonathon writes:

I got to Tiburon around 3:40pm. My interview wasnt until 4pm, so that was good. I would have been there even earlier, but we had a little trouble finding the place. Good thing we left early!

So I walked into Tiburon, very cool building. I saw some arcade machines and stuff in this one room, it must have been the game room. I then found where I needed to go, told them I was there for the interview, and they gave me an application to fill out.

Jeremy Writes:

I have a couple of questions. First I am attending a community college in pennsylvania for a generalized computer degree and I am also planning on getting my mcse certification. What I am wondering is how can I get into the industry now to gain experience, I heard that testing is an excellent way to get started but what kind of experience are they looking for in testers. I love video games and EA is always been a favorite of mine, if you could tell me anything I would appreciate it.

Jon Writes:

Howdy, I’ve been reading everything you have on your site about building contacts and networking but I’ve found a snag that I was wondering if you could help me with. Currently I’m a student and the University of Texas A&M. I’m majoring in Architecture with plans on joining a graduate level program designed to teach 3d modeling, 3d programming, animation, and basically anything related to the special effects field of movies. But I want to get into games.

An Anonymous Reader Writes:

Ok i have always been interested in games and making them was always my dream job and i was woundering if there are any tips you guys could give me for making it come true i am still in high school and i am trying to figure out what i am going to do with my life and i just bought a new game (need for speed: underground) and in the back it said something about ea academy and it made me want to check it out and i did which is how i got here and figured i would ask some pros about it so here it is above well hope you guys can help.

Dave Writes:

Nice forum, Scott. I have actually set up phpBB a few times for friends I host websites for. I am presently in the process of creating a forum interface in Flash. The initial backend is CODE:NEO with MySQL, but I will probably port it to PHP, as well. Have you ever seen a message board done in Flash? I think I might have something original with that. So I want to work at EA! I infer that you already do. I recently moved to the Orlando area, which puts me close to Maitland where the Tiburon division is located, yes? What exactly does it take to get in?

The link is over there on the right. Ah heck, here it is too.

Updated on October 10th, 2013

I stopped hosting the IWantToWorkAtEA.com forums a while ago, so it seemed only logical to remove the link to them from this post.

While working to add forums I’ve decided to move the site and change Blog engines. This is the new one. I’m in the middle of restoring the content and finding my way around, so please pardon the sawdust.

Updated on October 10th, 2013

I think I was using Movable Type and changed to Wordpress. Of course these days its Octopress.

Being a production intern, it occurs to me that I make less money than I used to. ;) Starting a new career involves making some sacrifices and in my case I knew to expect some belt tightening. Planning for this has been key–at least for myself, I find that I dont need much money to live on comfortably as long as I pay attention to what I’m spending money on.

Jason Anderson emailed a couple days ago with aspirations to land an internship in marketing at EA. Hes a marketing major with a spring internship under his belt and a strong interest in EA. I put him in touch with Tara S. (she works in marketing at EA) who graciously agreed to chat with him and see if she could help. Id be happy to send more help his way if I can, so if any of yall reading this might have some words of wisdom be sure and send me an email!

I started work Tuesday and man, I’m having a great time! I really lucked out–Hunter and Lisa have tons of experience are a real pleasure to work with. Everyone I’ve met so far has been helpful and enthusiastic in fact–like Victor and Robert in IT who have been going out of their way to help me get what I need. I dont know if I’ve ever worked with more helpful IT guys. Its pretty cool. But lemme tell you about what I’m doing.

Here it is, all the games I can remember having ever played:

• 3D Tic-Tac-Toe, Atari 800
• 688 Attack Sub, PC
• Advanced Civilization, board
• Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, pen-and-paper
• Age of Empires, PC
• Age of Emipres 2, PC
• Air Hockey, table
• Alice, PC
• Aliens vs. Predator, PC
• Alpha Centauri, PC
• The Ancient Art of War at Sea, Apple II
• The Ancient Art of War, Apple II
• The Ancient Art of War, PC
• Archon, Commodore 64
• Archon, PC
• Archon 2, Apple II
• Archon 2, PC
• Arkanoid, PC
• Ashernons Call, PC
• Asteroids, Atari 2600
• Asteroids, Atari 800
• Autoduel, PC
• Backgammon, board
• Balderdash, board
• Baseball, sport
• Battle Realms, PC
• Battlezone, Atari 2600
• Badminton, sport
• Bards Tale, Apple II
• Bards Tale 2, Apple II
• Bards Tale 3, PC
• Battle Chess, PC
• Battlefield 1942, PC
• Battletech, board
• Black and White, PC
• Blackjack, card
• Bridge, card
• California Games, Atari 2600
• Car Wars, pen-and-paper
• Castle Risk, board
• Castle Wolfenstein, PC
• Centipede, Atari 2600
• Centipede, Atari 800
• Champions of Krynn, PC
• Checkers, board
• Chess, board
• Chessmaster, Commodore 64
• Chessmaster 2000, PC
• Chessmaster 4000, PC
• Chessmaster 8000, PC
• Chessmaster 9000, PC
• Chopper Command, Atari 2600
• Chutes and Ladders, board
• City of Heroes, PC
• Civilization, board
• Civilization, PC
• Civilization II, PC
• Civilization: Call to Power, PC
• Command & Conquer, PC
• Command & Conquer: Red Alert, PC
• Crimson Skies, PC
• Curse of the Azure Bonds, PC
• Dark Reign, PC
• Decent, PC
• Decent II, PC
• Defender, Apple II
• Defender, Atari 2600
• Deus Ex, PC
• Diablo, PC
• Diablo 2, PC
• Donkey Kong, acrade
• Donkey Kong, Apple II
• Doom, PC
• Doom II, PC
• DigDug, Atari 800
• Dragons Lair, arcade
• Dragons Lair, PC
• Dragons of Flame, PC
• DragonStrike, PC
• Driv3r, PS2
• Dungeon Keeper, PC
• Dungeons & Dragons, pen-and-paper
• Duke Nukem, PC
• Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind, PC
• Elite, Commadore 64
• Elite 2, PC
• Escape From Monkey Island, PC
• Eye of the Beholder, PC
• Eye of the Beholder 2, PC
• Eye of the Beholder 3, PC
• Fatal Frame, Xbox
• Fifty-two pickup, card
• Foosball, table
• Football, sport
• Frogger, Atari 800
• Frogger, PC
• Full Spectrum Warrior, Xbox
• Galaxian, Atari 2600
• Gauntlet, arcade
• Gauntlet, PC
• Gettysburg, PC
• Golden Axe, arcade
• Golden Axe, PC
• Golf, sport
• Grand Prix, Atari 800
• Grand Theft Auto 3, PC
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, PC
• Grim Fandango, PC
• GURPS, pen-and-paper
• Half-Life, PC
• Half-Life: Blue Shift, PC
• Half-Life: Counter-Strike, PC
• Half-Life: Opposing Forces, PC
• Halo, Xbox
• Haunted House, Atari 2600
• Hearts, card
• Heros Quest, PC
• Heros Quest 2, PC
• Hexen, PC
• Hop-Scotch, sport
• The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Apple II
• Homeworld, PC
• Homeworld 2, PC
• Homeworld: Cataclysm, PC
• I’mperialism, PC
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Atari 2600
• Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast
• Joust, Apple II
• Joust, Atari 800
• Joust, PC
• Jumpman, Apple II
• The Legend of Zelda, Nintendo
• Karate, Commadore 64
• Karate, PC
• Kings Quest, PC
• Kings Quest 2, PC
• Kings Quest 3, PC
• Kings Quest 4, PC
• Kings Quest 5, PC
• LeapPad, electronic book
• Leisure Suit Larry, PC
• Leisure Suit Larry 2, PC
• Leisure Suit Larry 3, PC
• Leisure Suit Larry 4, PC
• Leisure Suit Larry 5, PC
• Loadrunner, Apple II
• Life, board
• Loom, PC
• Lords of the Realm, PC
• Mage: The Ascension, pen-and-paper
• Magic: The Gathering, card
• MechCommander, PC
• Mechwarrior, PC
• Mechwarrior 2, PC
• Mechwarrior 4, PC
• Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002, PC
• Mine Sweeper, PC
• Miner 2049er, Apple PC
• Missile Command, PC
• Monopoly, board
• Montezums Revenge, Atari 2600
• Mortal Kombat, arcade
• Mortal Kombat 2, arcade
• Motocross Mania, PC
• Ms. Pacman, arcade
• Ms. Pacman, Atari 2600
• Mule, Commodore 64
• Myst, PC
• Nascar Racing 2003, PC
• Need for Speed Underground, PC
• Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, PC
• Netrek, Unix
• No One Lives Forever, PC
• The Oregon Trail, PC
• Outpost, PC
• Pacman, Atari 800
• Pacman, arcade
• Paranoia, pen-and-paper
• Paper-Scissors-Rock, sport
• Pirates, Commodore 64
• Pitfall, Apple II
• Pitfall, Atari 2600
• Poker, card
• Pole Position, arcade
• Pole Position, Atari 800
• Pong, arcade
• Pong, Atari 800
• Pool, table
• Pools of Darkness, PC
• Pools of Radiance, Commodore 64
• Pools of Radiance, PC
• Populous, PC
• Populous 2, PC
• Populous 3, PC
• Powermonger, PC
• Q*Bert, Atari 2600
• Qix, Apple II
• Quake, PC
• Quake 2, PC
• Quake 3, PC
• Quinn, Mac
• Railroad Tycoon 2, PC
• Rescue Raiders, Apple II
• Riddick: Escape From Butchers Bay, Xbox
• Risk, board
• Secret of the Silver Blades, PC
• Shadowrun, pen-and-paper
• SimCity, PC
• SimCity 2000, PC
• SimCity 2000: Network Edition, PC
• SimCity 4
• SimEarth
• Silpheed, PC
• Space Quest, PC
• Space Quest 2, PC
• Space Quest 3, PC
• The Sims
• Skateboarding, sport
• Skiing, sport
• Skydiving, sport
• Smash TV, arcade
• Snowboarding, sport
• Soccer, sport
• Softball, sport
• Solitaire, card
• Solitaire, PC
• Spades, card
• Space Invaders, arcade
• Space Invaders, Atari 800
• Spy Hunter, arcade
• Spy Hunter, PC
• Stars!, PC
• State of Emergency, Xbox
• Street Fighter, arcade
• SSX 3: Xbox
• Subspace, PC
• Super Mario Bros., Nintendo
• Supremecy, board
• Summer Games, Apple II
• Starcraft
• Star Wars: Tie Fighter
• Star Wars: X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter
• Star Wars: X-Wing, PC
• Star Wars: X-Wing: B-Wing, PC
• Street Fighter, arcade
• Street Fighter 2, arcade
• System Shock 2, PC
• Talisman, board
• Tanks, SGI Indigo
• Tennis, sport
• Tetris, arcade
• Tetris, PC
• Thexder, PC
• Third Reich, board
• Thumb War, sport
• Tic-Tac-Toe, pen-and-paper
• Time Commando, PC
• Tomb Raider, PC
• Tomb Raider 2, PC
• Total Annihilation, PC
• TradeWars, BBS
• Treasures of the Savage Frontier, PC
• Trivial Pursuit, board
• Tron 2.0, PC
• Ultima Online, PC
• Ultima Underground, PC
• Uno, card
• Unreal, PC
• Unreal 2: The Awakening, PC
• Unreal Tournament, PC
• Vampire: The Masquerade, pen-and-paper
• Vampire: The Masquarade - Redemption, PC
• Volleyball, sport
• War, card
• Warcraft, PC
• Warcraft 2, PC
• Warcraft 3, Mac
• Warlords, PC
• Wasteland, Apple II
• Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, Apple II
• Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, PC
• Wing Commander, PC
• Wing Commander: Secret Missions, PC
• Wing Commander: Secret Missions 2, PC
• Wing Commander 2, PC
• Wing Commander 2: Special Ops
• Wing Commander 2: Special Ops 2
• Wing Commander 3, PC
• Wing Commander 4, PC
• Winter Games, Apple II
• Wizardry, Apple II
• Worms, PC
• Worms: World Party, PC
• XIII, PC
• You Dont Know Jack, PC
• You Dont Know Jack XL, PC
• Zork, Apple II

Just to give you an idea of what kind of networking I did to get in with EA, here are the people who I was in touch with about the campaign to get a job at EA:

• Andrew Boer, Games 411, Publisher
• Andy Cheren, Digital Artists Management, Senior Partner
• Anourath Senebouttarath
• Aramazd Dermardirosian
• Auren Hoffman, Stonebrick Group,Chairman
• Ben Durbin
• Bing Gordon, EA, Co-Founder
• Bill Shwartz
• Bo Lasater
• Brad Klassen, former EA, QA tester
• Brian Donoho, QuickLogic, IT Manager?
• Brian McClendon, Keyhole, VP of Engineering
• Carolyn Tejirian, Midway Games
• Christopher Plummer, EA, Senior Producer
• Cormac Russell,
• Craig Alexander, EA, VP and Exec Producer
• Dan Tomalesky, Xynesis
• Dave Cobb
• David De Martini, EA, VP & COO
• David Kury, EA, Lead Animator
• David Rohrl, EA, VP? for EA.com?
• Edwin Caparaz
• Ernie Prospero, AAPR Publications
• Eric Schwertzel
• Erik Bratton
• Erin Turner, EA, Associate Producer
• Fredrik Thylander, Digital I’llusions, Designer
• Greg Buchholz
• Hunter Walker, Linden Labs, Director of Live Production
• Jane Pinckard, Game Girl Advance, Editor
• Jason Kuo, Sega, Producer
• Jeff Hosson
• Jenny Turick, EA, Executive Assistant
• Joe Brzoska, CoolGameJobs.com, Recruiter
• Joel Linzner, EA, Attorney
• John Vifian, EA, Development Director
• Jon Sell, EA, Associate Producer
• Jonathon Bass, [Coblentz, Mcabe, Duffy, & Bass]
• Jonathon Lutz, EA
• Jordon Maynard, EA, Technical Designer
• Jose Martin, EA, VP of Human Resources
• Justin Lin
• Katrina Sewell
• Kerry Massie, Bayer
• Leroy Harris, EA, Technical Recruiter
• Lior Messinger, Noks.com, Founder
• Linda Chaplin, EA, Director of Strategic Sales
• Lisa Bell, Maxis, Recruiter
• Loren Cox, LucasArts
• Matt Lewis, former EA, QA tester
• Matthew Chamberlain, Microsoft
• Matthew McKnight, EA, Producer
• Mark Long, Zombie, co-CEO
• Mark Kirk, PDI-Dreamworks
• Mel Ochoa, Bay Area Discovery Museum, Director of PR
• Micah Modell
• Michael Constant, former Activision, Senior Developer?
• Michele Bonds, Sullivan & Cromwell, Legal Secretary
• Nate Fox, Sucker Punch, Game Designer
• Neil Young, EA, VP and Executive Producer?
• Noah Doyle, Keyhole, VP of Marketing?
• Ofer Estline, EA, Development Director
• Peter Grassie
• Phil Clock
• Philip Gee, EA, Director of College Recruiting?
• Reid Shneider, EA, Producer
• Rick Kane, EA, Producer
• Robert Moreno, EA, Recruiter
• RJ Berg, LucasArts, Producer
• Russell Borogove, EA, Developer
• Sara Bergstrom
• Sean Decker, EA, Producer
• Sean Montgomery, Square-Enix, Director of Sales?
• Scott Evans, EA, Producer
• Shawn Kresal, Federal Reserve, Developer
• Stephanie Ross, EA, Recruiter
• Susan Santos, EA, Executive Assistant?
• Tara S, EA, Marketing Associate?
• Tiffany Spencer, Ubisoft
• Toby Roberts, Maxis, Director of IT?
• Trace Josling, EA, Recruiter

Updated on June 8th, 2015

What is the point of all this?

This site exists to encourage and educate future EA employees about the roles and people of EA.

When I started looking into the game industry I couldnt find much guidance about how to make the jump coming from 10 years in another industry. So, I decided I would share my experiences and try to blaze a path for the next person. Much of the blog was written while I was in the middle of figuring out how to find a job with EA. I have since been hired by EA as a producer on an unannounced action-adventure game so the tactics I have used have at least worked once!

Thanks for saying hello! If you have a question for me about getting a job in the game industry go ahead and email me. I’ll post your email message and my reply to it so everyone can check it out and participate–if youre lucky youll get some replies from my colleagues at EA…they check out these posts on occasion.

Over time I’ve answered a bunch of questions and I’ve written on a number of topics related to getting into games. Before you email you might want to do a search on the blog to see if the answer is already there, waiting to be discovered. :) The search box is at the bottom right.

I started our call by updating Lisa on my conversation with Hunter Smith, and she let me know what she had found. Basically, she feels stuff has a good chance of coming together at EARS shortly and shes still waiting to hear back from the other studios. Weve decided we should touch base one more time this year and then follow up after the holidays.

Updated on October 9th, 2013

I’ve been told by a few people that getting into the game industry these days is a bit trickier than it used to be–now that its grown into something with some amount of status (where it used to be considered more of a hobby than an industry), a lot of people have taken an interest in working in the industry. So, you might expect it would be a buyers market for talent.

Shawn Kresal sent me this article about Spike TVs video game awards show. Itll be interesting to see how well games and TV mix…I suspect it will take some trial-and-error to find a good mix. Few game makers, much like the non-actors in movies, have transformed themselves into TV–compatible celebrities so far. But hey, perhaps our day is coming!

Updated on October 9th, 2013

Removed the dead link to the article in question. Nothing to see here, move along folks…

Ofer and I met at EALA after work (well, not really, Ofer planned to stay until midnight) to talk about EA and Development Directors (DDs). First a quick tour of EALA which is presently packed with three studios. Its nice and cozy until January when the new offices come online.

I asked Ofer to tell me more about DD vs Producers at EA. I’ve heard the story from a couple Producers, but Ofer is the first DD I’ve had a chance to sit down with. He explained that the DD role is reserved for those proficient in the art of management–of people and projects. The DDs does stuff like write up the reviews, assign the tasks, manage the schedules, assign office space, and resolve disputes. They take the vision for the game from the Producer and make it happen. The DD role was split off from the producer and developer roles in order to allow these roles to be focused on design and programming respectively. That way, if you are a whiz programmer you can advance on a career track where you become a guru (technical director) without needing to become a manager and deal with all the new skill areas that such a move requires. Brilliant idea if you ask me.

On the schedule for today was a meeting with Neil Young, lunch with Erin Turner, and quick hellos with Jordan Maynard and John Vifian. I was hoping to get in touch with Rob Moreno and [Tara S.][1] as well, but I’ll have to catch them next time. I just got back and I’ve been smiling like a goofball most of the day. It was a lot of fun talking with everyone and I really dig the vibe I get when I’m at EA. But you knew that. ;) Low down on each of these meetings to follow shortly.

At Wednesdays IGDA meeting I met a few cool people that I’m hoping I’ll get a chance to stay in touch with. I usually like to follow up with an email within 24 hours, but I’m pushing about 26 here. ;) Dave Rohrl was an outstanding speaker and he seemed to me the bottomless pit of game industry wisdom and friendly wit. Liz Wakefield made the whole thing happen and seems like shed be cool to just hang with. I didnt get a chance to speak much with Jennifer Olsen, but Id love to learn more about what its like to be Editor-in-Chief for the game magazine. And Bill Swartz was a straight to the point, no bullshit, really good insights into production kinda guy. Totally been there, done that and now hes at his own studio. I’m looking forward to seeing some of them at the next event if we dont have the chance to speak sooner.

Just got off the phone with Lisa Bell. The scoop is that they already have someone internal for the position–the post to EA jobs was really more of a formality. But, even though they dont have other production positions open, Lisa said she liked my resume and would like to speak to me in December. Were scheduled for a phone call 1st week of December. Pretty cool. Glad I made that phone call. :)

So I emailed Kana Ryan and she forwarded me with a nice intro to Lisa Bell. I was getting all excited that I had a good intro into the hiring manager until I emailed Toby and he told me Lisa is in HR (and therefore a gatekeeper). I did think it a bit odd that the only credit I could find for her was a “thank you” on the Sims Online. Heh. Hopefully shell realize what a catch I am ;)I’ll see if I can convince her by giving her a phone call or two. I’m wondering if I should just take a stab at who the hiring manager might be and email some of the producers on the credits for the other SimCity games…

Its amazing what you can learn from reading the SEC filings for public companies. I thought Id check out EA’s filing in June and see what I could learn about the company. Its always a great way to see where the money really is and where the company is headed, generally speaking.

So far I’ve gleaned a few interesting tidbits:

• The new EALA is going to be pretty important. EA is consolidating the old LA, Irvine, and Vegas studios into it, at substantial expense.
• Publishing and distribution of 3rd party games has doubled in the last year, making it an important growth area for EA.
• PS/2 revenues went down quite a bit in the last year, while PC went up slightly.
• EA still makes most of its money from PS/2 but PC is a solid second.
• The US went up a healthy amount last year, but Europe was pretty flat. The US and Europe are the big markets for EA. Asia is small, but the combined total for the rest of the world as a whole is not to shabby.
• EA loaned $4m to its EVP when they hired him last year. Awfully good sport of them. ;)

I’ll be the first to admit that I find writing my own resume a challenge. On the one hand, I’m a fairly confident guy, but on the other hand, I dont really like tooting my own horn. Cant be too bold or too humble and I’ve gotta speak the right language. There are certain things I need to communicate to get past the gatekeepers and make it all the way to the hiring manager and then land an interview. Quite a skill unto itself…its a lot to build into a sheet of paper. :)

Got an email a little while ago. Looks like my first chance to check out the local IGDA chapter in SF will be coming in another couple weeks: Nov 5th at 6:30p. I wonder who I’ll meet!

I thought Id Google this sitesee if it was in the search engine already. I was surprised to find a link from another blogger! Pretty cool. Wonder how he heard about the site? So far I’ve told so few people about itmy main avenue of exposure so far is through people who I email from the domain. They sometimes notice the address. I also ‘ping’ a couple blog portals to let them know I’ve posted something. I’m going to go email this guy and ask him. Come to think of it, I probably should start thinking about raising the sites profile now that I’ve got some material up.

I just applied to a couple positions with MSs Xbox team in Redmond. I know, I know they arent EA, but I figure I need to keep my options open. They are growing fast and they are more familiar with how to leverage my kind of biz software production experience in the game space, increasing my appeal, which is good. I’ve got a few friends at MS that could help me navigate the place and I’ve worked with them before. Could be a good step on my way to working at EA. :)

I decided to copyright my DNA (TM). I mentioned this to my parents, and they produced a copy of the End User License Agreement (EULA) that I signed for my DNA when I was just a few seconds old, and complained of numerous violations (they still claim to be the original authors, with all visible evidence to the contrary). But, reading legal newsgroups has kept me abreast of the latest, and I knew that a contract with a minor is non-binding. Besides, it doesn’t even look like my digital signature. Nevertheless, they sued me for the copyrights my DNA and for the emotional trauma caused by my alleged abuse of their DNA during my alleged childhood, in what appeared to be a clear alleged violation of our alleged agreement.