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Zooming Out
It’s mid 2026. We’re over 6 months past the point where most people in the software industry have accepted - grudgingly, eagerly, or otherwise - that everything has changed and that there’s no going back. I did a round of interviews with our dev team recently … read more › -
AI Made Me Write This
I have been inspired to write again by AI. By bad AI writing, to be exact. You know the sort. I don’t even need to elaborate at this stage. I’m by no means anti-AI. I use it constantly at work. It has transformed what I am capable of getting done as a software … read more › -
But What About the Bus Factor?
The term “bus factor” refers to the number of project maintainers who, if hit by a bus and incapacitated, would cause that project to stall. You can replace the bus crash with any other form of physical or mental incapacitation or even changes in life circumstances or … read more › -
A Tale of Two Issues
Zoid is a JavaScript library for simple arithmetic operations. The project has been around for a few years and has a sole maintainer, who works on it in her free time. Photo by Oliver Thomas Klein on Unsplash Here are a couple of issues picked out of the issue tracker - one from … read more › -
Why I Haven’t Fixed Your Issue Yet
Hi there. You opened an issue with my project on GitHub, and it’s getting kind of stale by now. I am aware of it - GitHub was kind enough to send me an email containing your report, which I scanned one morning a couple of weeks ago while I ate breakfast. I’ve even … read more › -
The Republic of Virtue: Terror, Tolerance and the Internet
I’ve recently been listening to the excellent podcast series Revolutions by Mike Duncan. Right now we are in the thick of the French Revolution. It’s really riveting stuff, and offers some fascinating insights into the interplay of groups, ideology, virtue, violence … read more › -
Confessions of an Intermediate Programmer
I am an intermediate programmer. I have a pretty good grasp of the basics. I have made enough mistakes to have a good idea why they were mistakes. I am aware that there is a lot that I need to know more about. Crucially, I have some idea of what those things are, and I am … read more ›