A bonus conversation with Sol Bergman, who left payment software for beekeeping and still writes code, mostly for the bees.
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Sol Bergman spent a decade writing payment systems, then moved to the edge of the Fens to keep bees. He talks about seasons, patience and the hive scale he built from a bathroom scale and a microcontroller.
Bees don’t do deadlines. They do weather.
Sol Bergman
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Maya Sol, the last time we spoke you were on call for a payments system at three in the morning.
Sol And now I’m up at five because the bees are. It’s a better reason to be awake.
Sol Software runs in two-week sprints. Bees run in one-year seasons. You can’t ship spring early.
Sol Each hive sits on a scale I built from a bathroom scale and a tiny computer. When the weight jumps, the nectar is flowing.
Maya So you didn’t leave code behind.
Sol I left behind code that nobody loved. This code tells me when to make honey.
