It started with a fact check. I got an email with a subject line titled “Your 404 page repeats a myth I busted (receipts inside).” The message essentially was a takedown of the poem I have on my 404 page, … Read more
The worst job interview I ever had wasn’t a knowledge meltdown, coding assessment failure, or a complete language misunderstanding with the interviewer (although I’ve had all of those, too). No, the worst job interview I had was something I can … Read more
After six months and eight failed bids, the Ellisons made the Warner Bros. Discovery board an offer they couldn’t refuse. The potential Netflix acquisition would’ve been akin to fusing LVMH and Walmart — HBO’s prestige TV and Warner’s iconic IP, … Read more
No-one really likes engineering war stories, but this one’s relevant because there’s a moral to it. I’ve talked before about defining technical debt as technical decisions that provide immediate value, but with long-term negative impact if they aren’t cleaned up. … Read more
Become a Supporting Member For 15 years, Longreads has published and curated the best longform writing on the web—and we wouldn’t exist without dedicated readers like you. Give today and ensure that quality journalism continues to flourish. Monthly Annually Monthly … Read more
2 Sep 2023 4 mins The great thing about measuring developer productivity is that you can quickly identify the bad programmers. I want to tell you about the worst programmer I know, and why I fought to keep him in … Read more
* available in Rust nightly. There are several aspects of Rust that I’m not particularly fond of but the one that takes the cake is core::io::BorrowedBuf which I despise with passion. It’s a nightly feature which puts in question my extreme emotions … Read more
What if you set out to make the worst website you possibly could? So poorly designed and full of frustrating patterns that users would not only hate the experience of using this website, but would also come to hate your … Read more
Or, how to ensure you learn absolutely nothing. One of the wisest and most important pieces of advice I received as a startup founder was this: “The worst outcome is a mediocre success”. Now, this is not a simplistic exhortation … Read more
Mar 16, 2024 Thomas Ptacek wondered on mastodon whether there were any Spelling Bee pangrams that would get you to the highest scoring level on spelling bee just by finding that word. I like to play spelling bee, and this … Read more