2021#08 Readings

This edition is kind of strange: there’s more management than “code”.

Why is it so hard to see code from 5 minutes ago?

I find this findings strange: usually I never undo to partial changes (and never commit them either). Usually when I’m doing something, I move to point C from point A, usually by writing the code to get me to B, with B kind of working. Then I’ll get to C, commit and make it look better.

Let’s talk about 4/3 time

And this is not counting all the thirds you may add as part of not-work. That’s some third stacking.

Automatic API Testing

We are slowly rolling Hypothesis (actually expect an open source library soon, there will be some examples of use) where we think it will have the most impact when writing new code. It’s not the same as QuickCheck, or ScalaCheck’s Gen but more tests is always good.

Color Arrangement in Generative Art

Tyler Hobbs is one of my favourite generative artists, and his articles are extremely useful to improve your generative technique.

🍿 Frank Sinatra - It Was A Very Good Year (in studio) (1965)

Sinatra recording this song. Interesting to see.

Google to Stop Selling Ads Based on Your Specific Web Browsing

This is the Internet Archive snapshot of a paywalled article from the WSJ. If this is true (and it looks so) it will be huge for adtech.

Beware of tight feedback loops

[…] after achieving proficiency in a field, tight feedback loops are useless. That’s because initially, the learning environment is gentle. There are many things of interest in this post, but this is what has resonated most. Most gentle environments are only gentle up to a point: when you reach a high enough level you drop the training wheels and lose the feedback loops that helped you.

For example, a junior individual contributor has tight feedback loops in code review, delivering regular code and tests passing. A senior software architect has longer, more noisy (will depend on the rest of the team and require a wider range of abilities) feedback loops in the designs that come to life.

Lessons I Learned at Google

I’m keeping this one, because it’s one I know inside out:

Lesson: Everything prepares you for what’s next.

2011 – The Emergence of Hadoop

A short lesson in history by Datanami, in particular about the early days of Hadoop: how it came to be, evolve and die.

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