Who I am
I’m Chris, a software engineer from Cape Town. With whatever I’m building, I like to understand as many of its surfaces as I can - everything that has to agree for it to work.
Day to day I work across a range of stacks and layers, inference included. The languages, the parts of the system, and the kinds of software differ, but the fundamental mechanics underneath remain largely the same. I enjoy figuring out not just how and why they work, but where they work, where they don't, and when they're worth it.
This is where I write it down: methods that worked, mistakes that forced corrections, and experiments that answer a question or explore a system more deeply.
How I work
- Look for the forest, not just the trees. Seeing where and how the pieces fit - and how that allows them to contribute to the whole.
- Know concepts natively. If I can’t explain it at 3am, in one pass and without notes, then I don’t get it yet.
- Go to basics. Take away the framework, the template, and the last project. What remains are the fundamentals - the threads that tie everything together.
- Think of the next dev. Document it while it’s fresh - even if it's obvious, especially if it's not. Because usually the next dev is me, six months down the road.
- Stay in the trenches. Stay close enough to the code to understand the hard parts, and support other developers in them.
- Invite disagreement. If no one is disagreeing, something is wrong: either the work isn't being challenged, or people don't feel comfortable challenging it. The magic is in the collaboration.
This site
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Elsewhere
- GitHub
- github.com/csriedt
- linkedin.com/in/chris-riedt
- hello@chrisriedt.com