2019#6 Readings of the week
3 minutes read | 550 words by Ruben BerenguelSoftware engineering, adtech, psychology, python. Expect a similar wide range in the future as well. You can check all my weekly readings by checking the tag here . You can also get these as a weekly newsletter by subscribing here.
Finding Lena Forsen, the Patron Saint of JPEGs
I have written about Lena Forsen (previously Soderberg) before. This is an article explaining the story behind the classic picture, the issues that have arisen with it after the years and a bit of the take of the subject, Lena.
Incrementally migrating over one million lines of code from Python 2 to Python 3
Did you know, Dropbox (the client) is written in Python? Well, I did, but wasn’t aware of its scale. And, now it’s mostly Python 3, which is good to know. Bonus points for Dropbox for using pytest as well.
How Criteo is trying to navigate GDPR
Since I work in adtech, I need to keep up with what’s up and how everything is going. This article explains a bit the impact of GDPR on Criteo, one of the largest players in programmatic advertising in Europe. By the way, Criteo have a superb engineering blog, although it can be a bit hard to read through an adblocker. By the way, the linked post is behind a paywall. Paste the URL of the link on Google and click on the first search result to be able to read it if interested.
10 Reasons Why GTD Might Be Failing
The title of the linked article should end in for you. It lists the common problems a GTD newbie-intermediate can face. Been there, done that. Still am, probably.
Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion Dollar Company
The story of GumRoad, the publishing site. A very interesting view on startups.
StranglerApplication
One of Martin Fowler’s refactoring approaches. I’m pretty sure you’ve done this, turns out it has a name.
The de Havilland Comet
The story of the first passenger jet disasters, and why they happened.
Simple dependent types in Python
They may be a bit too simple for what you may be looking for, but the potential is there. Also, linked to the following, which I found ideal.
1-minute guide to real constants in Python
There’s actually a Final type coming, someday, to Python, which will make constants real constants. Looking forward to that.
The Dunning-Kruger effect, and how to fight it
There is a quote in this interview of David Dunning which is just brilliant:
The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club. People miss that.”
📚Atomic Habits
This week I have finished Atomic Habits (affiliate link). I didn’t expect much, after having read so many productivity books during my life. And indeed, there was nothing new I hadn’t read before, but the presentation, examples and overall feel of the book have been excellent, I have rated it 5 stars in Goodreads, which is not something I do frequently (once per year, approximately).
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