About
I’m Eddie Hinkle: partner to Charlie, father to three, and an engineering leader in the Washington, DC metro area. I build interfaces and the systems underneath them, and what I’m actually doing most days is trying to empower product-focused software engineers. I’ve been publishing on my own website, at my own domain, for long enough to have done it badly several times. If we aren’t learning, we’re stagnating.
This is roughly the fifth version of this site. The previous ones died of the same thing every time: a deployment that rotted, or a rebuild whose scope outgrew the evenings available to it. So this one is deliberately boring underneath: every page is built ahead of time, there’s no database, and nothing here needs feeding. The old URLs still work, because people linked to them and that’s a promise worth keeping.
Values
I live and work by a set of core values, and I only take jobs where I can embrace them.
- Value every person
I believe that each person has inherent value and worth. This is part of being human, no matter where they were born, the language they speak, the religion they worship, the color of the skin or the way they express their sexuality.
- Choose whimsy
Life is too short and exists too wonderfully to be a stick in the mud...join the fun. I'm still working on the description for this.
- Stand up for good
I believe there is ultimate black and white. There are things that are right and things that are wrong. For the good of all people, it is important for me to stand up for what is right, and call out that which is bad. That means working for companies that are making a difference in the world, taking care of our planet, and standing up for people who aren't treated fairly.
- Live in draft mode
Be humble, understand that I (and everyone) is a work in progress... kind of like these core values.
- Embrace empathy
We should treat someone like we want to be treated. More coming soon...
- Enjoy the ride
The journey is more important than the outcome
- Work hard, rest harder
Still figuring this one out.
- Prioritize longevity
My health, what's best for relationships, what's best for the environment. Things like that.
Now
- I manage engineering at Indeed across both the front end and the back end, currently leading a full rearchitecture of our notifications system, moving it away from volume as the lever for engagement and toward notifications that are timely and relevant to what each user actually needs. It is the same UX instinct I have always brought to interfaces, now applied to the notification itself.
- Nights and weekends I run Syntax Labs, a one-person iOS studio, where I am building a journal called Daily and two apps for my own children.
- I write fiction when there is time, which there usually is not.
Typology
Everything above this line is me describing myself. On another page I check that against the evidence: an Enneagram result that argues with my Myers-Briggs, with itself, and with everything the people I’ve worked with wrote down. I don’t put much stock in the system, but the disagreements turned out more honest than the answer.
Contact
That address rotates every year: the number is the year it belongs to. Old ones keep working for a while and then stop, which keeps the spam manageable. If you’re reading this in a later year, use the address shown here rather than one you saved.