Software Engineering

88 articles · all categories

5 articles from May 2025 · show all

Software architecture IS Conway's Law

Can you even have architecture before there's a team?

Common abstraction traps

Here's a few common abstraction traps that suck you in, look like they improve your code, then turn into bad ideas as your system grows.

DRY – a common source of bad abstractions

The worst and hardest to maintain code that I've seen or written has been in pursuit of DRY

Why websites and webapps are different

The website vs webapp debate is at least as old as my career. And it keeps coming up. One camp says "React is too complex you don't need any of that", the other camp goes "I don't understand how you live like this". Both are right.

How do you find time for cleanup work

A reader asks how do you find time for technical cleanup work. If OKRs and bugs take priority, when will you make improvements?