Theron Stoddard

Did you guys know that it’s going to be the 3rd Olympic Games in ✨LA✨? 💥The first one was in 1932, and 💥the second in 1984. We already have an infrastructure from before, and you can even go check it out. 🪻LA City is working on restoration now. If you haven't been, the LA Memorial Coliseum is a must-see—it's where history was made and where it will be made again! 🪻But it's not just about the history—it's about the California vibe. The upcoming games will showcase not just the athletic prowess of competitors from around the world but also the unique spirit of Los Angeles. Picture this: the sunny beaches of 🪷Santa Monica🪷, the glamorous streets of Hollywood, and the innovation hub that is 🪸Silicon Beach🪸—all coming together to create an unforgettable experience. 🪻What’s even cooler? Celebrities are already getting hyped about it. Think of athletes training with the backdrop of Malibu sunsets, or events being streamed live from the heart of Downtown LA, where old meets new in the most dynamic way. The LA vibe is all about blending culture, sport, and tech in ways that only this city can. 🪻And hey, while LA is buzzing with preparations, it’s also a great reminder to find balance—just like how the city balances its rich history with forward-looking innovation. Whether you’re catching a wave in Venice or grabbing a coffee in West Hollywood, it’s all about embracing what’s coming while enjoying the moment. So, how did you spend your Saturday ? Dreaming about the future or soaking up the Cali sun? Let me know in the comments! #testing #engineering #LA2028 #software #firmware #retrocars #qa #development #OlympicGames #cicd #sports #innovation #olympicUSA

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Today, the SAS9 division embraced creativity and innovation with a twist on a beloved tradition: non-traditional gingerbread house building! The tradition of decorating gingerbread houses started several hundred years ago — a reminder of how long-standing practices can bring joy and connection. Just because something has been done the same way for years doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. Our activity was a fun and delicious way to remind ourselves of the power of thinking outside the box. By challenging traditional methods, we unlock new possibilities, whether in holiday fun or tackling workplace challenges. How are you reimagining traditions or approaches in your work or personal life? Share your ideas below—I’d love to hear! #Innovation #TeamBuilding #HolidayTraditions #Creativity

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Here at Teamgage we've recently spun up a system for ✨ visual regression testing ✨ to pick up on the issues that functional tests just can't spot. I wrote up our experiences here so that you too can spin up a self-hosted-cypress-powered-visual-regression-test-in-your-devops-pipeline (or SHCPVRTiyDoP as I call it for short)

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Finally wrapping up an effort to take some technical notes and thoughts I have been working over the last several years, and then publishing into a blog. From an implementation side, modest effort if that, a NextJS implementation. Much more difficult to fine tune a writing style, and define what type of content I would like to present. So far, this has been a great exercisize to reflect on thoughts, create a few small side projects for practice.  The Internet has not shortage of 'how to' articles, which are consumed at the speed of light by ChatGPT, digested, and a lot of the time the answers provided fairly right, or sometimes dead on. I was iniitially reluctant add redundant content (how to do 'x' with 'y'), but decided there might be value is sharing ideas and side projects.  So anyways, my first stab at this is available at the following URL, in draft format. Enjoy!  https://lnkd.in/gxi9zjV4

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I consistently hear from my contacts in the medical field that they *hate* the EMR/EHR systems they are forced to use. "I wish it did this..." or "why doesn't it do that..." or "why is it so hard to do this..." and so on and so on. Especially when it comes to charting. Nurses, doctors, etc spend a tremendous amount of time charting on patients... not just because they *should* or because accurate notes and observations are critical to patient care, but because the sad reality is they need to cover their butts for legal reasons, state audits, etc. However, I've witnessed first-hand the chaotic high-stress nature of what nursing staff have to deal with on the daily and *time* is often a problem. I've seen these people spend *hours* at the end of their shift charting or even charting after hours, off-the-clock, etc just to try and catch up. After all, their licenses are on the line. A lot of these systems are so monolithic, complex, and cumbersome... it's amazing anyone gets anything done at all. As an engineer, my gut reaction was: I can build something better. My wife practically begged me: "PLEASE build something better. I can help. I can tell you everything that sucks about all these systems." But then I was smacked with reality: Most of these companies and institutions spend a ton of time and money on the systems they have in place and are typically reluctant to pry themselves away from these systems. It's too hard. Too expensive. Too time consuming. Luckily, there are new add-on systems to simplify these kinds of things, but I still feel like building a more modular, simpler system with stellar integration support and data import/export facilities, and a cleaner easier UI and voice dictation support would be ideal. But I'm also one man with limited time and resources. I often wonder how much innovation has been stifled under these same circumstances. I'm certain the list is long. And that is a shame.

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Good management of technical debt empowers you and your team to provide greater value to your customers, and to do so faster. Ultimately, your customers will feel everything that you invest time in. Technical investments are worth it!

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I’m honored to kick off this series with none other than Barry Jones a fractional CTO with 22+ years of experience, to tackle a topic that so many teams struggle with: Why software estimation is broken. Episode: https://lnkd.in/gF5H29Sb In this episode, Barry breaks down: Why story points often do more harm than good The confusion and misalignment they create between teams and stakeholders A smarter way to approach estimation by focusing on task breakdowns and measuring queues instead. If you’re a CTO, developer, or product manager, you’ll benefit from Barry’s practical tips for improving your development process and avoiding the common pitfalls of traditional estimation methods. Check it out and let me know your thoughts!

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As an engineering leader you may have to step away from code for extended periods of time and it can be *very* hard to get back into it. You lose context, projects change, tech changes and sometimes it’s just anxiety that you’ve lost your touch. I have found that AI tools can really help get through this. Copilot, ChatGPT, etc can help jog your memory and refresh your skills in a short period of time.

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Four of my favorite quotes from today's session about 𝗔𝗦𝗜𝗖𝗦 and 𝗠𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗜𝗻 moving to a headless storefront: 1) "What monoliths do well, they do great... But when you are coloring outside the lines they can break down." 2) "Milliseconds make millions." 3) “Nobody likes to fail, but if I’m going to fail, I want it to be fast.” 4) “We became a 'yes' team rather than a 'no' team.” 𝗢𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝘂𝗻 𝗳𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻: 1) Both Sonos and ASICS are running #NextJS in #vercel with #SFCC as the backend. 2) Sonos saw a 10% increase in organic traffic after moving to Next.js. 3) When Helly Hanson migrated to Next, they started with checkout 🤯 Big thanks to Dan Laugharn, Alina Weinstein, and Eric Grigorian for sharing their experience.

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Todays Rant: The quality of software is just so bad now. I was on a WEBSITE (not an App which is a whole other rant) and placed an order to pick up some paint at Home Depot. The Home Depot website randomly sent the order to a store 30 miles away from me. Never shopped there, never ordered from there, nothing. It just randomly did this. Anyone who writes software in the back of your heads right now you're coming up with an algorithm to make sure that doesn't happen. I feel three things cause this. One there are a lot of bad software engineers writing software. Two there are a lot of bad software engineers because companies are too cheap to hire really good software engineers (and keep cutting back on the number of software engineers they hire). Three I'm not completely convinced some software does things like this. I fully believe that there is a ROI study companies do sometimes to screw up an order like this knowing full well that you'll not go get the order and order the item again from a closer store. They basically have gotten twice the money for the same product. (FYI: That's what I did although sometimes I'll go out of my way, spend my time, spend my money JUST so this doesn't happen).

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The software industry misunderstands the term “Individual Contributor." They equate ICs to people who typically handle specific tasks, solve problems, and produce work products in their field without depending on others. What they remove from the entire equation is accountability. ICs are 100% accountable and responsible for the work they do.   At Trilogy, we nurture this culture. We don't want task executors; we want roadmap owners. Engineers who can envision the current state of software products and rebuild it for the next decade.

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Ever have a problem migrating your production sized statistics to your development systems? Why would you want to? How would you do it? Come listen to Todd Mollenhauer discuss this lively topic! Register today! https://lnkd.in/gD8gTW5p

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If only they had a service blueprint, outlining how this important flow is accomplished from a user standpoint, to see the different teams and services and components involved… they could fix the gap and make things easier for themselves. I have special respect for Customer Care because they have deal with trying to help upset customers and also deal with the broken systems and services in the company. 💕💕 To the companies trying to modernize, looking at all the software components and coupling first, a word of advice: start with the users! https://lnkd.in/gT7F4hAW

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If I never retire, then I’ll avoid a significant risk: a breakthrough that radically extends human life. Living longer would be awesome, but what if I ran out of money? What are the chances, and consequences, of a longevity breakthrough? The chances seem pretty good, thanks to a critical mass of mature biochemical technologies–from gene sequencing to protein prediction–that get us closer to controlling the biology of aging. Discoveries are announced monthly, and specific drugs like GLP-1 inhibitors are believed to extend healthy lifespans by several years. Even without a major discovery like a 'longevity gene,' we will have longer lifespans from myriad small improvements like Wegovy. The life expectancy table could be very different in 10 years. The consequences would be felt everywhere. Social Security, Medicare, and pensions will be underfunded. Life insurance will be overpriced. The population will rise, and housing will be in even shorter supply. On an individual level, living longer means more years of healthcare, living expenses, and inflation. Many retirees believe they’ve saved enough to last their lifetimes, but what happens if that lifetime is 20 years longer than expected? Retirees whose assets are growing (after inflation) are on comparatively safe ground. But if a retiree is depleting savings then a longer life could mean running out of money. For retirees, the challenge is preparing for this new reality before it happens. My intention to work indefinitely sidesteps the issue, but that’s not possible for many people. If we are on the brink of redefining aging, ask yourself: Are you financially ready? What can you do today to ensure you’re secure tomorrow? #longevity #financialplanning #neverretire

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My advice to people who want to be good software managers is focus on how you want to get through the last 5% of a project. This is where most of the drama, frustration, & delays will happen. Easier said than done, but if you focus on ensuring your team comes away from project delivery with their heads held high then you are winning as a manager.

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