gautier.devTimeless articles
Here is an ever-growing list of articles that I find myself referring to over and over again. If I sent you here, it’s because I think you should read one of these, or maybe all of them.
Reading articles is a big chunk of my technical watch routine. I usually find them on Hacker News or Twitter, read them and then forget about them. However, some articles struck me by their inherent simplistic truth. Because they are so simple, they are timeless and will probably be relevant for as long as human-written software exists.
Don’t forget to take these reads with a grain of salt. Your job as a developer is to make decisions, and these articles are not a substitute for your own critical thinking.
The Grug Brained Developer
A humbling article about how we, developers, are not as smart as we think we are, written with a great sense of humor. Despite its intentionally provocative grammar, it is a goldmine of great career and architecture advice.
Imaginary Problems Are the Root of Bad Software
cerebralab.com/Imaginary_Problems_Are_the_Root_of_Bad_Software
We need to solve hard problems to keep being entertained. If these problems don’t exist, we will create them. This article is a great reminder that we should not try to solve problems that don’t exist.
And it has a sequel! cerebralab.com/Stop_future_proofing_software
In this sequel, the author writes about the “we should do things this way in case Z happens” bias being a trap, and usually the most common “imaginary problem” we developers create.
Technical Debt is a Choice
blog.izs.me/2022/11/technical-debt-is-a-choice
A new perspective on technical debt as a compromise between business and engineering.
Principle of Most Restrictive Production
blog.izs.me/2022/04/principle-of-most-restrictive-production
Keep your code readable for the next maintainer, because code is not only written for the computer, but also for humans.