Articles

Software engineering lessons from production, raw and honest from the heart — almost 20 years of them. Jump to a year in the sidebar, or browse categories and curated collections.

72 articles from 2022 · show all

February 2022

Immutability isn't free

Or how we took an API endpoint from 16s to 3s.

Why mentoring matters

Here's a funny video about Ivane, a construction worker with amazing productivity and work ethic. Imagine what Ivane could do if someone showed him how to use his tools 😱

How I used indie hacking to sponsor my own greencard

The longest project of my life

January 2022

Quick tip for system design interviews

What are system design interviews for anyway?

How to add Typeform as a Gatsby source

Every year I ask readers if they're enjoying my newsletter. Then fail to use those responses 😅 This year I said heck it and built a /testimonials page that shows everyone's feedback raw from Typeform. Here's how.

Why other people's code looks weird

Are you an organizer or a searcher? What about your team?

What is the goal of engineering?

How can you know you're succeeding if you don't know where you're going?

Wow API Gateway v2 is fast

A story of how my performance hunch was totally wrong and the answer that sped up an AWS Lambda 33%

Try to work for a brand

Brand helps your career in subtle ways.

The quickest way to fail a tech interview

No it's not a wrong answer or floundering with algorithms. Not even being nervous or shy or having a language barrier. Culture fit is the least of your worries if you make this mistake.

What to do when bugs are whack-a-mole

What do you do when every bug you fix creates 5 new bugs? You could laugh and move on, or realize it's a sign of bigger issues

Using DynamoDB Streams with the Serverless Framework

DynamoDB Streams are a convenient way to react to changes in your database. And surprisingly easy to use 🥳