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How-to guides, tooling tips and real-world advice for developers and product managers tired of broken software. Let’s fix this mess together.

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How-to guides, tooling tips and real-world advice for developers and product managers tired of broken software. Let’s fix this mess together.

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Roiling ocean

This has happened before. It's happening again.

Doc Norton has navigated two genuine sea changes in software development—mainframes to PCs and desktop to web. Agentic coding is the third, but unlike the prior shifts that expanded the profession, this one compresses it. The timeline to move is shorter than you think.

Doc Norton

Toy race car headed for a smashed coffee cup and clock

Three Amigos with AI: Stop building the wrong thing faster

Andy Vida

Line drawing of a rocky mountain peak with a base camp and people building structures

Quality you can’t generate: AI is only as good as your constraints

Dave Mosher

A figure looks off towards the horizon. On the left is a giant robot, on the right a splash of vibrant color, connected nodes and a city unfurl.

Why we're not chasing the AI hype (And what we're doing instead)

Todd Kaufman

Double Takes

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Double Takes

TDDing with Claude is like having a pair that removes all the failing assertions every time you go to the bathroom.

Steve Jackson

State machines are the answer for those seeking determinism in the era of AI agents.

Dave Mosher

A Slack conversation left Doc reflecting on what bug bashes say about the systems we work in.

Doc Norton

Test-driven development is to programming what double-entry bookkeeping is to accounting.

Neal Lindsay

The fundamental character flaw of the software creator is not the misguided belief that they can solve any problem with software. Instead, it is the belief they can understand how their own software works before they create it.

Steve Jackson

We may need a SaaS appendix for Zawinski's law:

Any SaaS platform attempts to expand until it is a social network.

Matt Jones

Process flow machine with fluffy imaginary creatures making it work

Speed is a side effect of making the system work

When leaders demand speed, teams often cut corners on validation and composition—ironically creating the brittleness that slows everything down. Real speed emerges from flow, small batches, and systems designed for adaptation, not from pushing harder on execution.

Doc Norton

Maximize software investment

efficient software

teams

productivity

Rubber duck in fedora and trench coat stands next to a vintage microphone

IndyPy Talk: Pydantically perfect in every way

In this IndyPy talk, Kyle Adams helps you learn advanced Pydantic techniques to bring order to chaotic, real world data.

Kyle Adams

Software tooling & tips

python

data-engineering

Rubber duck in fedora and trench coat next to a quality control stamp

Pydantically perfect: Declare rich validation rules

Learn how to validate datatypes that go beyond Python’s primitives with Pydantic. The post covers different validators included with Pydantic as well as how to write your own custom validators.

Kyle Adams

Software tooling & tips

python

data-engineering

A machine in bright colors intakes objects in a large funnel and outputs transformed objects through the bottom

Why product operating model transformations stall—and what to do first

Transitioning to a product operating model? Codify your culture first. Principles and trade-offs create the decision-making framework that makes transformation stick. We cannot change what we do not name.

Michael Toland

Product management

communication

product-innovation

professional-growth

scaling-challenges

teams

A ratatouille dish surrounded by cyber bits sits on a wooden kitchen worktable while a team of cooks works in the background

Anyone can code: Software Is having its Ratatouille moment

Gusteau said it best: "anyone can cook", and now, "anyone can code." LLMs and agentic coding are the Remy to our Linguini. Our job isn't to guard the kitchen—it's to help others cook something worth serving.

Dave Mosher

ai-ml

founders

consulting

Cover for healthcare sofware challenges report

Symptoms to sources: Biggest software challenges for healthcare in 2026

Test Double gathered insights from healthcare leaders on priorities and challenges. We share a framework to diagnose symptoms and solve the hardest problems in healthcare software.

Cathy Colliver

Maximize software investment

assessments

legacy-modernization

api

efficient software

ROI

Rubber duck stands next to a power up mushroom

Power up scripts for Rails apps Part 3: Kubernetes

In part 3 of the three part series on Rails scripts, learn about short shell scripts for simplifying Kubernetes interactions from Rails apps.

Ed Toro

Software tooling & tips

aws

devops

productivity

rails

ruby

Rubber duck wearing a trench coat and fedora stands next to a mushroom.

Power up with Rails scripts Part 2: Docker

In part 2 of the three part series on Rails scripts, learn about short shell scripts for simplifying Docker interactions from Rails apps.

Ed Toro

Software tooling & tips

devops

docker

productivity

rails

ruby

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