Monique Mudama

CAP Theorem - Partition is a verb

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 14:05:56 -0700

People who’ve spent some time around databases usually have an intuitive sense of ACID, even if the acronym slips their mind. And if you work with distributed systems, you usually have a rough idea of the CAP Theorem, even if the details are fuzzy. The first thing you remember about CAP is probably, “Pick two out of three.” And maybe you can even remember the letters without a search engine …

Fun With Golang Slices

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 13:44:24 -0600

When I first encountered Go, I found slices puzzling. You can create slices from a starting slice or array, and the new slice will be a pointer to a portion of the original data. Got it. But wait, you can also append to the new slice - how does that even work? If you’re appending something to the new slice, what’s happening to the original slice? If it’s modified, does that mean you’re appending to the new slice while overwriting a value in the old one? If so, then what happens when you append past the end of the old slice? How would THAT work?

About Me

Sat, 15 Mar 2025 21:27:48 -0600

With 25 years of experience in the tech world, I’ve seen it all. I’m strong in both engineering (particular in system architecture and database design) and soft skills. I’m a natural organizer and relationship builder, allowing me to deliver results where others have struggled.

(Don't) use your words

Sun, 05 Mar 2023 11:17:42 -0600

Early in my career, I took a class on written communication. I don’t remember most of it, but one moment is seared in my memory. The instructor told us to write for a sixth grade reading level. This seemed like nonsense to me, especially at an aerospace company. “But what if the perfect word just happens to be more advanced?” Too bad, he said. Find a different way to say it.

A master class in persuasion

Sun, 19 Feb 2023 16:52:24 -0600

Against all odds, a stranger saves me from myself Link to heading

I’d been looking forward to this trip for months. I’d already paid for the condo. I hadn’t seen my friends in a year. The sunk cost fallacy was hard at work. So here I was, driving through falling snow on unplowed Wyoming service roads. I could see the highway, which my phone insisted was closed. I had confidence in my car, my tires, and my driving ability - but as I watched the occasional vehicle on the highway, I didn’t have confidence in my phone’s directions. Nevertheless, I was convinced that I could still make it to Jackson in 10 hours as planned. Maybe 11. I just needed to know which route to take.

How (not) to build good working relationships

Sun, 05 Feb 2023 16:39:08 -0600

Adventures in intercontinental relationship building Link to heading

A few years ago, I was assigned to a project that required significant work from two teams. I was part of a team in the US. The other team was in India. Any possible meeting times would be outside of normal business hours for at least one of the two teams. My team (myself included!) resisted meetings - we wanted to use offline tools as much as possible, even when the team in India wanted to meet with us. Thus, from the very start of the project, we only talked to each other when we needed to resolve important conflicts. Sounds good, right? Living the dream - communicating asynchronously and keeping the project moving 24/7.

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

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