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I learnt this week - 14th April 2025
The links today including the best programmers, improving retrospectives, a live tube map, unusual trading cards, prioritisation, complex decisions, MCP issues and conversational interfaces.
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TCL and not fixing bugs
A blast from the past with the language TCL and a nice explanation why some bugs just don’t get fixed.
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Legal shoplifting and high agency
A place in Japan where you can shoplift, as long as you are silent, and what does it mean to have high agency?
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AI projects and naming
Can we know tackle projects that were too big using AI and should we ignore getting the best name for something?
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DIY weather prediction and strategy selection
A way to run weather forecasts with orders of magnitude less computing power and picking a strategy based on what your opponent/competitor doesn’t want you to do.
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Writer's block and Alpha School
An illustration of how to defeat writer’s block and a new school that is getting amazing results.
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GPS alternative and Mandelbrot set
A new approach to working out your location without using GPS and an online Mandelbrot set explorer.
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A 2013 Apple advert and normal engineers
A brilliant advert from Apple in 2013 and the need for “normal” engineers on teams.
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CTO Handbook and Time Portal
A free handbook for startup CTOs and a game that involves you identifying a time and a place.
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Apple & AI is like MS & mobile and AI to seed a power revolution
Could Apple miss out on AI in the same way Microsoft missed out on mobile, and could the AI bubble bring a revolution in power?
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Acorn, a toaster and Eagle Scout award
A history of Acorn (and my links to it), a repairable flatpack toaster and a regret removed with an Eagle Scout award.
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AI without the BS and code reviews
An excellent keynote video on AI with some great hands on demos and a study backing up what makes code reviews useful.
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AI agents v records, London Eye and no sales calls
No post yesterday as I was in the Netherlands for work but today we have the move from data records to AI agents, the history of the London Eye and an unusual approach to enterprise sales (no sales calls).
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Economic disruption and the thermostat battle
A predicted upcoming economic disruption, and it is not AI, and the battle for the thermostat that is very real in our house.
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Orders of magnitude and a new type of clock
The impact two orders of magnitude can have on what is needed to accomplish a task and a new type of clock designed to be the basis of an approach that is more attack resistant than the existing GPS infrastructure.
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The red of Mars, AI variability and strong engineers
Some funky science may have worked out that we have been wrong on why/how Mars is red, the variability difference between AI generated code and programming language code, and identifying a “strong” engineer.
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English for programming, blogging v AI and speaking up
Is there a chance that all programs in future will be written in English rather than a programming language? Why we should still blog even though AI can create everything so well and so quickly. And how to speak up for something you believe in.
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Mona Lisa, people as resources and AI saves a life
How the Mona Lisa became the most famous painting in the world due to newspapers, forgetting people are really people and the advice from ChatGPT saving a life.
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Dream job video, software quality and annoying engineers
A great video from Google with a nice twist, four categories of software quality and way to annoy engineers (not just senior engineers as the title says).
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The IT jobs downturn, item purposes and no sales calls
Today the links cover the significant downturn in the IT job market, why people buy things that are not just for what they do and an approach to avoiding enterprise sales calls by using email instead.
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Discovery coding, 2%ers and qubits
Another varied selection today with links to a style of coding called “Discovery Coding”, the 2% of people that leave introverts energised and a nice introduction to the Microsoft announcement around qubit (quantum computers) developments.
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The Goal, a calculator app and a washing machine
Today includes a review of the book “The Goal”, how complicated a calculator app really is and an illustration using a washing machine of how the unexpected can throw a spanner in any estimates.
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Opinions, mazes and sofas
A wide variety today covering strong opinions, idea and growth mazes and getting sofas around corners.
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Coding, network projects and travel tips
The links today are about developing code without thinking, interesting network projects and extensive travel tips.
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Productivity killer, startups and aliens, and build times
Today we have the main developer productivity killer, startups and aliens, and build time.
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AI jobs scam, book lengths, WASM and Git line endings
Today’s links are about an AI job application scam, why non-fiction books are too long, whether WASM will replace containers and how line endings cause problems in Git.
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Data structure, SaaS v AI agents, chat UIs, developer philosophy and MCP
A collection of links about changing a data structure, SaaS v AI Agents, chat UI for development, a developer philosophy and the Model Context Protocol.
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Blogging, AI interviewing and coding hats
A collection of links about blog writing, AI and the interview process and coding hats.
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