14-Mar-2025 Content of Interest

Med Dev

Nobody Codes a Bad System On Purpose (jeremydmiller) "The only real solution is empowered teams that constantly adapt as necessary instead of letting a codebase get out of control in the first place."
Choosing Languages (Steve Klabnik) "I do think that asking why someone chooses a programming language can be valuable"
As an engineer, I’d rather be called stupid than stay silent (Marko Antanaskovic) "would you rather be stupid or silent?"
The Heisenberg uncertainty principle for management’s opinion (Oren Eini) "not giving my opinion on something is actually a well-thought-out strategy"
How I Built a Google Docs Add-On in Three Hours (Using Vibe Engineering) (Gene Kim) “vibe engineering” — you don’t turn your brain off, and instead, you crank it way up, ... with the help of AI"
Beware tech career advice from old heads (Jacob Kaplan-Moss) "The tech industry of 15 or 20 years ago was, again, dramatically different from tech today."
complexity as entropy (Zach Tellman) "When we talk about entropy, it connotes more than temporary disorder; it has the weight of inevitability, an inexorable decline."
Role Legacies (Mike Fisher) "we should strive to leave a legacy in each position that reflects our values and priorities"
Is The Terminator coming for you? (Eric Brechner) Correct: Change is certain. Embrace it!

Software Falsehoods: you can build it cheap, fast, and good - pick two (Aaron Stannard) "It makes intuitive sense but utterly fails in real-world applications."
Debts, Tech and Otherwise (Ted Neward) "Debt in of itself isn't bad; it's when it's Inadvertent/Reckless debt that we find the angst."
Pierre "most eye-melting websites every invented", and "new git platform for small teams working closely together. Code hosting, code review, and CI"
If your product is Great, it doesn’t need to be Good (Paul Buchheit) "Pick three key attributes or features, get those things very, very right, and then forget about everything else."
Great software design looks underwhelming (Sean Goedecke) "Great software design looks simple because it eliminates as many failure modes as possible during the design stage."

What Are the Latest Trends in Healthcare Software Development - Programming Insider (Marc Berman) "Integrating key trends in healthcare software can greatly improve patient experiences."

Irreal: The Power Of Elfeed (Irreal) Interesting Lisp discussion links. Also, strongly agree on Elfeed.

Who gets to do strategy? (Will Larson) "you can work on strategy from anywhere in an organization"
On Troubleshooting (Curiositry) "systematically determining the cause of unwanted behaviour in a system, and fixing it"

Networked devices help head off medical woes and speed recovery (Nick Huber) Digital technologies are helping to guide early clinical interventions and assessments of treatment
11 medical device startups that could change the future of healthcare (Robert Lavine) Interesting startups.

Change Is Hard (Mike Fisher) "Transformation is challenging, yet possible with the right tools and frameworks."
Software Architecture is more than Boxes and Arrows (Urs Enzler) The architectural equivalent of non-functional requirements.
The sources of software complexity (Eric Normand) "Complexity is real. And it’s a killer."
How to Get Better at Delegating (Rebecca Knight, HBR) Good advice.
Radar Trends to Watch: March 2025 (Mike Loukides)

Software as a medical device: Time to develop an ethical framework? - Digital Journal (Dr. Tim Sandle) "What needs to be done to address opaque algorithms in medical AI?"

Here’s Why Wearing Many Hats is Important for a Software Developer (Giftmugweni) "Code is code and all code is just a bunch of instructions telling the machine to do something."
So you want to break down monolith? Read that first. (Oskar Dudycz) =Dos and donts from breaking down monoliths"
“I scratched my own itch” isn’t good enough (Jason Cohen) "I had the problem myself, so I built a product."
Visual programming is stuck on the form "Visual programming is not just node-and-wires"
The reality of long-term software maintenance (Ashley) I'm not a big analogy fan, but the story makes sense.
Appreciate, don’t evaluate (Bart Wullems) "Celebrate with someone, not for someone"
Tech Layoffs Analysis: Which Skills Are Still in High Demand (Kristina Nikolova) Unsurprisingly, the top 5 are all AI/ML or data science related.

Ok. So, You’re Failing (rands) Relatable story.
Pure Independence (Morgan Housel) Good read. "A simple formula for a pretty nice life is independence plus purpose."
Our next phase—Q&A was just the beginning (Prashanth Chandrasekar, Philippe Beaudette) AI is eating the world and SO is still "powered by humans". We'll see how that works out.

Diagnosis in engineering strategy. (Will Larson) "Diagnosis is understanding the constraints and challenges your strategy needs to address."
When to give up (David Heinemeier Hansson) "When do you accept that no amount of additional effort is going to get that turkey to soar?"

The LLM Curve of Impact on Software Engineers (Sergey Tselovalnikov) The Staff+ side of the curve is interesting. "your role is often to light the path for others to follow"
Bookmarklets (and Custom URL Schemes) Are Criminally Underrated (Ian Whitlock) Indeed.
We switched from Java to Go and don’t regret it (Glasskube) Benefits: "blazing-fast startup times, lower resource consumption, and a more lightweight ecosystem"
Culture is the Ultimate Scaling Mechanism (Traverse Clayton) "What keeps the machine running smoothly is a shared understanding of how decisions get made."
Software engineering job openings hit five-year low? (Gergely Orosz) Lots of interesting statistics and graphs.

Why Is Chocolate So Expensive Right Now? (Ayurella Horn-Muller) "Rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, and other climate impacts are throttling cocoa production and driving up chocolate prices."