Posts tagged "Essay"
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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 › -
High Modernism & Software Design
Brasília was envisaged as the dawn of a new Brazil. Purpose-built from the ground up on a pristine site in just 41 months, it attempted to remould and redefine what it meant to be Brazilian in its own logical, elegant, efficient image. Brasília by Ramon Buçard on Unsplash This … read more › -
What Might Happen If You Share It
I grew up in the Winamp days. Napster, Limewire, cracks & warez, remember? Winamp was always open. And alongside my playlist of illicitly-downloaded mp3s would always be MilkDrop. If you don’t know, MilkDrop is absolute zenith of audio visualization software, and it … 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 › -
Welcome to the Twitterscape
The land is flat and vast, extending as far as the eye can see. There is no sun, as such. Rather, an ambient glow with no obvious source permeates. Occupying this Plane is an ocean of people, gathered into groups large and small, distributed irregularly, coalescing and scattering … read more › -
On Working Alone
Earlier this year I quit my job to work full-time on an open source ecommerce framework. After three years working as the lead of a small team within a department of around 20 devs, I’m now back to working alone. Here are some reflections on the thrills and perils of the … read more › -
Museum of the Analog Native
If you, like me, were born in the 1980s, then you are a member of the generation of analog natives - those who grew up during that period in which the Information Age reached the masses. Of course, all of humanity up until that point lived fully analog lives; but uniquely, our … read more › -
The Covert Opt-In
About 13 years ago I built a web shop for my dad’s company. Like many small businesses, the company does not have an in-house development or IT department, so anything vaguely website-related tends to end up in my inbox. This is how I recently found myself in a conference … read more › -
Productivity Is Happiness
When we talk about productivity, it is usually in the context of our professional lives. Is this fair? Does productivity begin and end at the office door? I’d like to address this question indirectly, by backing up and taking a high-level look at the subject. No tips or … read more ›