Ask Me Anything - 60 Minutes with Howard

I got into my dream job because of Howard. I received mentorship on building in Web3, rust development and overall software engineering. To me it was super helpful to get expert advice throughout my learning journey, especially on topics that online resources couldn't resolve. The pair programming exercises helped me build confidence in confronting difficult coding issues with composure, as I got lots of practice analyzing various errors and drilling down to root causes. I went far beyond my comfort zone and was able to implement things I didn't think I could do.

Introduction: I’m grateful for your mentorship over the past few months. Our weekly meetings were invaluable and greatly impacted my development. Motivation for Seeking Mentorship: I sought your guidance to deepen my understanding of distributed systems and to effectively implement protocols like Kademlia. I aimed to build a robust distributed system and needed expert advice to navigate its complexities. Collaboration and Approach: Your help was crucial in several areas: Observability: You guided me in setting up OpenTelemetry (OTEL), which improved our monitoring and troubleshooting processes. Node Management: Your insights on process isolation and communication helped us manage node failures effectively. Testing: You assisted in developing automated tests for operations like FIND_NODE and STORE_VALUE, ensuring thorough coverage. Retry and Caching: Your advice on retry logic and caching strategies, including exponential backoff and LRU caching, made these implementations more robust. Distributed Systems: Your explanations of principles like the CAP theorem clarified how to balance consistency and availability in our Kademlia implementation. Impact on Development: Your mentorship greatly enhanced my understanding of distributed systems and improved my problem-solving skills. The successful implementation of key features and concepts was directly due to your guidance. Conclusion: Your mentorship has been highly effective and deeply appreciated. Thank you for your support and expertise. I highly recommend you as a mentor and look forward to future opportunities to collaborate.

I've had five sessions with Howard so far. He is technically very strong, with especially impressive skills in Solidity and Go. I am a dev, was looking to advance my skills in Web3 development. What sets him apart is his teaching style and patience. He never made me feel like my questions are too basic. He helped me a lot with understanding backend engineering logic for Web3 projects. He can explain complex concepts in a simple clear way. I've learned a lot from him.

I've had five sessions with Howard so far. I'm dev, was looking to advance my skills in Web3 development. He is technically very strong, with especially impressive skills in Solidity and Go. I think what sets him apart is his teaching style and patience. He never made me feel like my questions are too basic. He helped me a lot with understanding backend engineering logic for Web3 projects. He can explain difficult concepts in a clear easy way. I've learned a lot from him.

Howard always arrived prepared and with a clear intention of how to move forward. He is patient, knowledgable and has an intuitive understanding of how to explain concepts in a manner that it accessible. I would highly recommend!