Estimating systems with napkin math (Interview)

The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source

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

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Featuring:

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

Show Notes:

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

Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!