Antonio McMichael

@HowardU Alumni 🦬 | Principal Software Engineer @Microsoft | Thoughts are my own

[Antonio McMichael @TechManTonio]

"Gotta put in the work"

[ESPN @espn]

"I know what it's like to be unknown and to not have the lights on you and to want to be seen ..."

This was incredible from @Dame_Lillard 👏

[Sully @sullymygoodname]

Being a dad is realizing your dad didnt actually give a shit about your bedtime he just wanted you to go to bed so he could do other things.

[Hater Report @HaterReport]

WEMBY JUST DROPPED A BAR:

"The lack of experience is a strength of us...because we could do impossible stuff because we don't know it's impossible" 🥶

(h/t @ohnohedidnt24)

[Larry Fitzgerald @LarryFitzgerald]

My father was a man of strength, love and encouragement. He opened countless doors for me and my brother. He believed in us and pushed us to pursue every opportunity with conviction, he was the rock of our family. He taught us that perseverance, hard work, and unwavering commitment are the foundations of a meaningful life and personal success. I will carry his love, words, and wisdom with me always.

[Jalen @jalenblot]

Got impacted by Meta’s 8000 employee layoff on May 20th.

Got on a plane to Miami for ABFF and won the grand jury prize for best episodic series on May 30th.

God is good 🙏🏾

[remx @biigrem]

Highschool athletes will call their coach “Coach” until he or she dies. It’s a respect thing…

[Tai Lopez @tailopez]

Set unreasonably short deadlines for yourself. Work expands too much if you give yourself a lot of time.

[WyattzWorld @WyattzWorId]

The, actual, literal, definition of a poster dunk.

[Lisa @lisathebeauty1]

Seeing your body change from working out is so addicting

[GitHub @github]

We are investigating unauthorized access to GitHub’s internal repositories. While we currently have no evidence of impact to customer information stored outside of GitHub’s internal repositories (such as our customers’ enterprises, organizations, and repositories), we are closely monitoring our infrastructure for follow-on activity.

[Joe Rogan Podcast News @joeroganhq]

Mike Tyson on discipline: "The best way to receive discipline is to do what you hate to do, but do it like you love it. You do that, that's discipline."

[Lyn🦋 @_ayandamay]

Drake makes music for nggas that sigh until you ask them what’s wrong?

[Shawne Merriman @shawnemerriman]

I had NO IDEA I was being inducted into the @umterps Hall of Fame.

I showed up thinking I was there to help bring other people on stage. When the new Athletic Director @TerpsADJimSmith came on board, I told him anything he needed from me to help make the program better, call me. So honestly, I thought that’s what the night was about.

To now be part of an elite class with so many legends who came before me, and to permanently represent the DMV and the University of Maryland in this way, is something I can’t even fully put into words.

This hit different. Forever a Terp!!!! Man….. 🐢🙏🏾 🎥 @waynekimmel

[Shawne Merriman @shawnemerriman]

True story… when I got offered by University of Maryland I never wanted the coaches coming to my house. I was embarrassed by our living situation. Lights cut off, barely food in the crib and I damn sure didn’t want a roach running across the floor lol. So every time they asked, I went to campus instead.

PG County was rough in the late 80’s and 90’s. We had just had a shootout in our neighborhood. Coming out of high school I was the #1 player in the DMV and a lot of big names were leaving the area, but staying home meant everything to me.

I had a lot of offers… but there was really only one choice.

I think things turned out alright… HOF!!!! 💯

[𝐐𝒎𝒂𝒙 ✰ @itzQmax]

One thing about God? He will pull you out of a situation you created with your own decisions… and still hold you like you never disappointed Him. I don’t understand that kind of love 😭😭😭

[Justin Skycak @justinskycak]

Your goal is NOT to prove you're smart. It's to make problems go away.

[Dave W Plummer @davepl1968]

I've been coding for 40 years. Here are the top 5 things I wish I knew when I started.

1. 90% of the job is debugging and fixing, not creating new code. Which is still fun if you're good at it.

I used to think programming was mostly writing fresh, clever stuff. In reality, most of your time is spent in other people's (or your own past self's) messy code, chasing down why something that "should" work doesn't. Get really good at debugging early. Learn assembly reading, call stacks, and kernel debuggers. It pays off hugely. The best engineers I saw were absolute magicians at this.

2. Manage complexity from day one (ie: don't write slop and "fix it later" if it goes somewhere).

Very early on, I'd hammer out code and refactor afterward. Big mistake. Now I start with clean, skeletal structure (minimalism first) and flesh it out carefully, with AI or not.

Messy code compounds and becomes unfixable. Upfront discipline on architecture, naming, and simplicity saves enormous pain later, especially in large systems like Windows.

3. Tools and processes matter more than you think

We suffered with basic diff/manual deltas instead of modern source control like Git. Branching, testing, and good tooling would have made porting and collaboration way smoother. Invest in your environment, automation, and reproducible builds early. Good tools amplify your output; bad ones (or none) drag everything down.

4. Understand the problem and existing code deeply before writing

Don't jump straight to coding. Map out the problem, study what's already there (you'll inherit a lot), and plan. Low-level knowledge (hardware quirks, alignment issues on different architectures like MIPS/Alpha) was crucial. Also: assert early and often. It forces clarity.

5. People, politics, and "the right tool for the job" beat pure tech arguments.

Brilliant engineers still argue endlessly. Sometimes it's about ego, not merit. Learn to spot the difference and "steer" the conversation rather than "winning" it.

Bonus from experience: Side projects like Task Manager (started at home because I wanted the tool) can become your biggest hits. Ship small, useful things often. If you're just starting, focus on fundamentals, patterns over syntax, and building resilience for the long haul. It's going to be a wild ride, but the fundamentals still matter.

[Benjamin @bschne]

upon Doing The Thing, you will invariably find two things to be true:

1. Doing The Thing was pretty easy, actually
2. not having Done The Thing was bothering you more than you thought it was

[BOSS @thebeautyofsaas]

it is an unwritten rule of life that after every prolonged period of hardship and uncertainty, there is going to be a period when you are going to achieve quantum leaps across multiple areas of your life. the only requirement is that you do not give up on yourself

[Casey Jacobson @401Casey]

If you’re ambitious I’d highly recommend working in an organization or a team where people have your similar sense of urgency or you will slowly go insane