Another Dev's Two Cents

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Nish Tahir

Principal Software Engineer. I write about engineering and fun projects I work on.

📍 🌎 https://social.nishtahir.com/@nish

Is GitHub Copilot For Everyone?

I've been using GitHub Copilot (Copilot) for almost a year. As discussed in a previous write-up, I consider it a modern iteration of IntelliSense or autocomplete. If you're not yet acquainted with it, Copilot serves as an IDE integration that leverages the context surrounding your code

I looked through attacks in my access logs. Here's what I found

I've been self-hosting for over a decade. It's freeing because I own my data, and do not depend on any platform other than my cloud host, which I can easily switch off. Self-hosting gives much insight into what it takes to run a cloud service. Anyone

Exploring properties of function composition in Kotlin

Function composition is a technique where you create a new function by applying the result of one function to another. I've sometimes heard this described as "chaining" multiple functions together. Assuming two functions \(f(x)\) and \(g(x)\), we can compose a new function \(h(x)

Being busy is not the same as being productive

Being busy means having a lot to do. This stands in contrast to being productive, which measures effectiveness towards a purpose. Productivity efficiently utilizes time to accomplish set priorities. It requires clarity of purpose and the ability to discern the relative importance of work that needs to be done. It&

Information sourcing - An underrated skill everyone should know

Ok, so what did I learn? With the ever-increasing pace at which content is created, SEO and search engines trying to make search more intuitive[4], it's becoming increasingly more and more difficult to separate high-quality information from the chaff.

On OpenAI, GPT, and products

This week OpenAI had a fantastic keynote at their Dev Day event. They announced new products and enhancements to ChatGPT[1]. Interestingly, some parts of the internet described the keynote as an "Extinction Event"[2] for many AI startups. Many of the startups reportedly facing extinction share the

Effective Resume Tips - Showcasing your value

I frequently receive requests for resume advice from a diverse range of job seekers, including recent college graduates, boot camp attendees, and seasoned developers. While I often share tips verbally, I've recently realized that I haven't documented these insights. While there is no shortage of resume

It's 2023. Your API should have a schema

Here's a story you might find relatable. We kicked off a new integration project that started 3 months later than everyone wanted. APIs just shipped after a bunch of delays. We were handed API docs and a test environment and started work building out the new feature. The

On AI-assisted Software Development

It is not every day we get new tools that have the potential to change the very nature of our jobs. If you haven't been following advancements in the AI scene, new Large Language Models (LLM), most notably GitHub's Copilot, Codex, and ChatGPT are beginning to

What is a Staff Engineer?

"I've worked with a couple of Staff Engineers on different teams in the past and I've seen them do different things, but I've not been able to pin down exactly what they do." I get this question quite frequently. Sometimes from engineers