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Jem Young

@jemyoung.com

Engineering Leader - Commerce & Consumer UI Platform @ Netflix. Co-host of the Frontend Happy Hour podcast πŸŽ™πŸ₯ƒ. Instructor on Frontend Masters. Taller in real life.

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25.04.2023
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Latest posts by Jem Young @jemyoung.com

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Design Complex Backend Distributed Systems Everything is a System! Grab your favorite diagramming tool and develop the system-thinking skills to solve complex distributed system design challenges related to scaling, data storage, reliability, ...

Great code can’t save a poorly designed system.
Unclear requirements and hidden complexity compound until production breaks.

Jem Young (@jemyoung.com) Engineering Leader at Netflix, teaches how to design backend systems that scale by design!

πŸ‘‰ frontendmasters.com/courses/back...

07.01.2026 17:05 πŸ‘ 11 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

β€œA legitimate PhD-level expert in anything,” they said.

β€œShow me a diagram of the US presidents since FDR, with their names and years in office under their photos,” I said.

08.08.2025 18:54 πŸ‘ 3087 πŸ” 736 πŸ’¬ 330 πŸ“Œ 598

Ok, I've had whiskey and my flight is delayed, so...

time for some unadvised unadulterated software eng and management advice (thread)

25.06.2025 23:12 πŸ‘ 192 πŸ” 20 πŸ’¬ 8 πŸ“Œ 1
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🎡 California...knows how to party 🎡

16.05.2025 04:04 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
5 power rangers facing forward

5 power rangers facing forward

15 years ago if you asked me to describe what aliens look like, they'd look exactly like the new power rangers

22.03.2025 03:12 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Cozy working vibes

14.03.2025 00:13 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
A ramen vending machine

A ramen vending machine

Tonight's dinner is sponsored by...

21.02.2025 06:28 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

πŸ’Ό Hiring UpdateπŸ‘©β€πŸ’Ό

One of my amazing engineers is transitioning to being an Engineering Manager!

This leaves an opening for a Senior Backend Java Engineer on my team. The role isn't open quite yet, but I want to get the ball rolling. Descriptions below, please drop your LinkedIn links πŸ™Œ

12.02.2025 18:02 πŸ‘ 160 πŸ” 65 πŸ’¬ 8 πŸ“Œ 6

RAMEN

14.02.2025 03:16 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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vibes

14.02.2025 00:43 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Yuuuuup

03.02.2025 21:56 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Absolutely. Mind sending me an email? jem@netflix.com

03.02.2025 21:55 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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one of my kids is about to transition to Kindergarten so I put together a list of private school costs in Oakland

average cost: $34k for Kindergarten

22.01.2025 18:52 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 0

What's the point of being rich if you can't afford to do the right thing.

13.01.2025 16:29 πŸ‘ 27434 πŸ” 4138 πŸ’¬ 733 πŸ“Œ 239

If you politicize natural disasters you are a bad person.

14.01.2025 02:47 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Child on snowy ground with sled on top of them

Child on snowy ground with sled on top of them

Sledding went well

31.12.2024 02:17 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Headline: The minimum qualifying income for a home in the Bay Area is now $320,000

Headline: The minimum qualifying income for a home in the Bay Area is now $320,000

how do people live here?

26.11.2024 19:16 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

My inbox right now -

"Hey! You bought something from us within the past 15 years so here's an email about our black friday sale!1!"

20.11.2024 20:57 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

β€œYou’re in a bubble” is a notion I wholeheartedly reject. I live in a major metropolitan city. My neighbors don’t look like me, or each other. 6 languages are spoken on my block. My friends are multi-ethnic/gender/cultural.

Regressives live in a bubble, & they want to preserve it no matter the cost

08.11.2024 18:33 πŸ‘ 233 πŸ” 52 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 1

Thanks for the shoutout Kat!

05.11.2024 22:22 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Selfie of Jem Young with a "I voted" sticker

Selfie of Jem Young with a "I voted" sticker

Don't forget to make your voice count and VOTE! πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

05.11.2024 22:21 πŸ‘ 21 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
The Washington Post is not bothering to endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential election. (Jeff Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin and the founder and executive chairman of Amazon and Amazon Web Services, also owns The Post.)
We as a newspaper suddenly remembered, less than two weeks before the election, that we had a robust tradition 50 years ago of not telling anyone what to do with their vote for president. It is time we got back to those β€œroots,” I’m told!
Roots are important, of course. As recently as the 1970s, The Post did not endorse a candidate for president. As recently as centuries ago, there was no Post and the country had a king! Go even further back, and the entire continent of North America was totally uninhabitable, and we were all spineless creatures who lived in the ocean, and certainly there were no Post subscribers.

The Washington Post is not bothering to endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential election. (Jeff Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin and the founder and executive chairman of Amazon and Amazon Web Services, also owns The Post.) We as a newspaper suddenly remembered, less than two weeks before the election, that we had a robust tradition 50 years ago of not telling anyone what to do with their vote for president. It is time we got back to those β€œroots,” I’m told! Roots are important, of course. As recently as the 1970s, The Post did not endorse a candidate for president. As recently as centuries ago, there was no Post and the country had a king! Go even further back, and the entire continent of North America was totally uninhabitable, and we were all spineless creatures who lived in the ocean, and certainly there were no Post subscribers.

But if I were the paper, I would be a little embarrassed that it has fallen to me, the humor columnist, to make our presidential endorsement. I will spare you the suspense: I am endorsing Kamala Harris for president, because I like elections and want to keep having them.
Let me tell you something. I am having a baby (It’s a boy!), and he is expected on Jan. 6, 2025 (It’s a … Proud Boy?). This is either slightly funny or not at all funny. This whole election, I have been lurching around, increasingly heavily pregnant, nauseated, unwieldy, full of the commingled hopes and terrors that come every time you are on the verge of introducing a new person to the world.
Well, that world will look very different, depending on the outcome of November’s election, and I care which world my kid gets born into. I also live here myself. And I happen to care about the people who are already here, in this world. Come to think of it, I have a lot of reasons for caring how the election goes. I think it should be obvious that this is not an election for sitting out.

But if I were the paper, I would be a little embarrassed that it has fallen to me, the humor columnist, to make our presidential endorsement. I will spare you the suspense: I am endorsing Kamala Harris for president, because I like elections and want to keep having them. Let me tell you something. I am having a baby (It’s a boy!), and he is expected on Jan. 6, 2025 (It’s a … Proud Boy?). This is either slightly funny or not at all funny. This whole election, I have been lurching around, increasingly heavily pregnant, nauseated, unwieldy, full of the commingled hopes and terrors that come every time you are on the verge of introducing a new person to the world. Well, that world will look very different, depending on the outcome of November’s election, and I care which world my kid gets born into. I also live here myself. And I happen to care about the people who are already here, in this world. Come to think of it, I have a lot of reasons for caring how the election goes. I think it should be obvious that this is not an election for sitting out.

The case for Donald Trump is β€œI erroneously think the economy used to be better? I know that he has made many ominous-sounding threats about mass deportations, going after his political enemies, shutting down the speech of those who disagree with him (especially media outlets), and that he wants to make things worse for almost every category of person β€” people with wombs, immigrants, transgender people, journalists, protesters, people of color β€” but … maybe he’ll forget.”
β€œBut maybe he’ll forget” is not enough to hang a country on!
Embarrassingly enough, I like this country. But everything good about it has been the product of centuries of people who had no reason to hope for better but chose to believe that better things were possible, clawing their way uphill β€” protesting, marching, voting, and, yes, doing the work of journalism β€” to build this fragile thing called democracy. But to be fragile is not the same as to be perishable, as G.K. Chesterton wrote. Simply do not break a glass, and it will last a thousand years. Smash it, and it will not last an instant. Democracy is like that: fragile, but only if you shatter it.

The case for Donald Trump is β€œI erroneously think the economy used to be better? I know that he has made many ominous-sounding threats about mass deportations, going after his political enemies, shutting down the speech of those who disagree with him (especially media outlets), and that he wants to make things worse for almost every category of person β€” people with wombs, immigrants, transgender people, journalists, protesters, people of color β€” but … maybe he’ll forget.” β€œBut maybe he’ll forget” is not enough to hang a country on! Embarrassingly enough, I like this country. But everything good about it has been the product of centuries of people who had no reason to hope for better but chose to believe that better things were possible, clawing their way uphill β€” protesting, marching, voting, and, yes, doing the work of journalism β€” to build this fragile thing called democracy. But to be fragile is not the same as to be perishable, as G.K. Chesterton wrote. Simply do not break a glass, and it will last a thousand years. Smash it, and it will not last an instant. Democracy is like that: fragile, but only if you shatter it.

Trust is like that, too, as newspapers know.
I’m just a humor columnist. I only know what’s happening because our actual journalists are out there reporting, knowing that their editors have their backs, that there’s no one too powerful to report on, that we would never pull a punch out of fear. That’s what our readers deserve and expect: that we are saying what we really think, reporting what we really see; that if we think Trump should not return to the White House and Harris would make a fine president, we’re going to be able to say so.

That’s why I, the humor columnist, am endorsing Kamala Harris by myself!

Trust is like that, too, as newspapers know. I’m just a humor columnist. I only know what’s happening because our actual journalists are out there reporting, knowing that their editors have their backs, that there’s no one too powerful to report on, that we would never pull a punch out of fear. That’s what our readers deserve and expect: that we are saying what we really think, reporting what we really see; that if we think Trump should not return to the White House and Harris would make a fine president, we’re going to be able to say so. That’s why I, the humor columnist, am endorsing Kamala Harris by myself!

I guess it has fallen to me, the humor columnist, to endorse Harris for president wapo.st/3UqHWRM

26.10.2024 22:50 πŸ‘ 7775 πŸ” 2456 πŸ’¬ 245 πŸ“Œ 166

@chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social Let's talk smack about her tomorrow in our 1:1

30.10.2024 00:31 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
An image of the new Nintendo alarm clock. The screen says "I know where you live and I swear to god I will send the whole fking Koopa Kingdom to your house if you don't get up."

An image of the new Nintendo alarm clock. The screen says "I know where you live and I swear to god I will send the whole fking Koopa Kingdom to your house if you don't get up."

ok ok, I'm up

10.10.2024 20:57 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Me too it's great!

15.05.2024 19:15 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Your favorite’s favorite is back out here keynoting again! This time in Round Rock, TX!

Hope to see you in a few weeks at THAT conference β€οΈπŸ™ŒπŸΎπŸŽ€

I’ll be talking about how to leverage your transferable skills to build the career of your dreams πŸ”₯

09.01.2024 17:12 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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The absolute joy of flying high

31.12.2023 03:32 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

What is the point of Apple's touch ID if I have to input my password every other time? 🀦

03.07.2023 19:45 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

since bluesky is so much smaller…anyone hiring a junior/entry-level engineer in NYC?

i have about 1.5 years of experience as a SWE, but 9+ years of experience in other roles varying from social media to support engineer :)

05.05.2023 22:33 πŸ‘ 29 πŸ” 20 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 2

Not enough time in the day!

24.05.2023 20:29 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0