Niel de la Rouviere

Niel de la Rouviere

A collection of 7 posts

OpenApr 27, 2017
Transparency in Engineering: Can We Open Source Our Whole Code Base?

As a company that already has all of their employees’ salaries online , we often get asked how far we will go with transparency . On the engineering team, this is challenging because we need to balance our value of transparency, with the security of our product and users, so the “how far” question is a tough one to answer. At our recent Madrid retreat , we aske

Working Remotely: How we develop Buffer over 10 different timezones

At Buffer, we’re a fully distributed team. We recently closed our office in San Francisco and now have a team in 12 different timezones . One of the frequent questions we receive is, “How do you work as a remote developer with so many timezones?” It’s such a great question and helps me reflect on some the unique aspects of working as a full-time developer at Buffer. It’s been such a fun journey working remotely for over t

Self-ImprovementFeb 1, 2016
The Simple Way I Strengthened My Personal Relationships (Without Leaving Work)

A few years ago, my girlfriend proposed an interesting thought: How well do I really know my friends and family? My initial thought was that of course I knew these people. We all get along and things are great. I’m friendly, they’re friendly. What more is there? However, it wasn’t as simple as I thought. This simple question started a reflection over the past few years on how I really interact in my relationships. Was I really curious and deeply invested in the people who I call my family and

I’m Getting 5% of My $96K Salary Paid in Bitcoin: Here’s How and Why

Hi there! This is an older post that we’ve kept around for transparency but that means that sometimes the information is no longer accurate. I discovered bitcoin in early 2011. At first it was something that felt like play money and almost surreal. I didn’t fully understand all the details back then, but a decentralized, peer-to-peer digital currency was just too crazy and I became intrigued. Over the years I started diving deeper and deeper into bitcoin. Along the way, the true power of it re

Buffer’s Content Suggestions: From Lean Experiment to 20,000 Shares a Day

It’s always a pleasure to see something grow. Especially when it starts out small. Content Suggestions at Buffer has enjoyed this interesting journey from small to growing, and in the span of eight months, it has quickly become one of our core services. We love helping people share to social media, and content suggestions started out with this idea in mind. How can we help users share? The Experiment One idea was to help people find fresh content. The first implementation started in the mid

OpenApr 22, 2014
From Taiwan to Bali: How I Toured Asia, While Working as an Engineer for a Distributed Team

In August I was given the amazing opportunity to join Buffer as a front-end developer. At that time I was living in Taipei teaching English. Buffer is a distributed company so while I coded for them I was able to continue teaching. At the end of October, I left my teaching job because I just couldn’t do both jobs for much longer. It left me exhausted with no time for side-projects.

From Taiwan to Bali: How I Toured Asia, While Working as an Engineer for a Distributed Team

In August I was given the amazing opportunity to join Buffer as a front-end developer. At that time I was living in Taipei teaching English. Buffer is a distributed company so while I coded for them I was able to continue teaching. At the end of October, I left my teaching job because I just couldn’t do both jobs for much longer. It left me exhausted with no time for side-projects. Wi