01-May-2025 Content of Interest

Software

Two publishers and three authors fail to understand what “vibe coding” means (Simon Willison) Vibe coding does not mean “using AI tools to help write code”.
What’s the Future of Middle Management? (Gretchen Gavett, Vasundhara Sawhney, HBR) Another AI victim.
Avoiding Skill Atrophy in the Age of AI (Addy Osmani) "Use AI it to amplify your abilities, not replace them."
How to Use AI to Reduce Technical Debt (Federico Trotta) "The major difficulty of managing technical debt is that it is created daily with every line of code"
There are 47 Million Developers in the World (Antonija Bilic Arar) Interesting stats.

Senators call for investigation into BCI privacy (Elise Reuter) "protections are less clear when BCI devices are used for a nonmedical purpose, such as playing video games"

What is Architecture? (James Heward) "Architecture can be broadly defined as the practice of making the right choices at the right time and ensuring those choices are implemented correctly and remain fit for purpose."
Business Won’t Let Me and other lies we tell to ourselves (Oskar Dudycz) Making Trade-offs, Not Excuses
Event-Hidden Architectures (Charles Zedlewski) "Burying events doesn’t just simplify engineering, it grants engineers with new powers in the process."
On Bloat (Rob Pike) Bloat is inevitable, but can be costly, even dangerous

Ceribell wins FDA nod for algorithm to detect pediatric seizures (Nick Paul Taylor) "Combining a disposable, flexible headband and pocket-sized, battery-operated recorder, the system captures and wirelessly transmits EEG signals."

The Impact of AI on Software Development (Mike Fisher) "the future of software development will prioritize architectural expertise and the orchestration of AI agents over traditional coding"
The 800-pound gorilla (Johnny Rodgers) The Teams vs. Slack story.
Let GitHub Copilot interact with your local PowerPoint and Word documents (Bart Wullems) MCP: "USB-C port for AI applications"
Monolith-First - are you sure? (Oskar Dudycz) "if you can’t deal with modularity, then neither monoliths nor microservices will work for you."
Vibe Coding: Revolution or Reckless Abandon? (Addy Osmani) "it dangerously lowers the bar for introducing subtle bugs, security flaws, and unmaintainable complexity."

Innovative EEG Brain Sensor Fits Between Hair Strands (Greg Uyeno) "The small electrode, attached by microneedles, improves data quality"

Why I Program in Lisp (Joe Marshall) "It is a language that was designed to be used as a tool for thinking about problems, and that is the fun part of programming."
Time Management (Mike Fisher) Structured Time Management Techniques and Productivity-Boosting Frameworks
What Agentic Workflows Mean to Microservices Developers (Janakiram MSV) "Agentic workflows are not a replacement for microservices; they serve as a new coordination layer built upon existing service invocation."
The 13 software engineering laws (Anton Zaides) Good read.
Vibe coding doesn’t jibe (Mike Zamansky) "Don't even think about a vibe coded surgical assistant." Let's hope not! Also, the educational angle is interesting.
Finding your way in the AI landscape (Bart Wullems) Yeah, it's a jungle out there!
The Best Programmers I Know (Matthias Endler) Good list: "traits I observed in the most exceptional people in our craft."
The machines are rising — but developers still hold the keys (Mike Mason) "'vibe coding'... will lead to code that's more error-strewn, more expensive to run and harder to change in the future."

How To Become An Expert At Anything: 5 Scientific Steps To Mastery (Eric Barker) "Whether you're trying to improve work skills, do better at school or master a hobby, the same principles can help."
Programming with an AI copilot: My perspective as a senior dev (Mathijs Lagerberg) "Nobody wants to miss the boat, so everyone jumps on board. Often without thinking." Indeed!
Temporal lands $146 million at a flat valuation, eyes agentic AI expansion (Anna Heim, Ingrid Lunden) "the need to execute long workflows reliably is real"
Learn to code, ignore AI, then use AI to code even better (Kyrylo Silin) "What's clear is that AI is changing how we code."
Getting Started with TDD: A Practical Guide to Beginning a Lasting Practice (Tony Distinti) "The important thing is that the TDD practice produces good, well-tested code, while meeting you exactly where you are."
Failure Again (Mike Fisher) "Failure is not only inevitable but desirable if we can learn from it."

Singularity & Serenity (David Heinemeier Hansson) "But it really does feel like we're on the cusp of something."