Insights for great software & great teams

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

Sign up and get insights delivered to your inbox.

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

Want to talk shop or tackle a problem in real time? Unpack it with a developer or product manager.

Get our newsletter

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

AI changed the cost structure of software. It didn't change the value structure. The value is no longer the code you write. It's the taste, judgment, and constraints you encode into the system that shapes what AI produces.

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

Speed is a side effect of making the system work

Doc Norton

Maximize software investment

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

IndyPy Talk: Pydantically perfect in every way

Kyle Adams

Software tooling & tips

Double Takes

+ Expand posts

- Collapse POSTS

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

Simplify your code: the power of extracting functions in refactoring

Discover how extracting functions can simplify your code, improve readability, and enhance maintainability. Dive into best practices and practical examples.

Kevin Baribeau

Legacy modernization

react

testing

javascript

legacy-modernization

tech-debt

Terminal screen showing code example

Abusing promises as a locking mechanism in JavaScript

Learn to leverage JavaScript promises in unexpected ways. Promises in JavaScript are made for asynchronous data, but aside from that data you can glean a little extra information: timing.

Neal Lindsay

Software tooling & tips

javascript

node.js

testing

automation

Icon of a person standing on top of a mountain and holding a flag high

The Selfish Programmer

In Justin Searls' seminal RailsConf 2019 talk he explores things programmers can learn by building an application by and for themselves—and the surprising number of lessons that might translate to their work on teams and larger organizations.

Justin Searls

Accelerate quality software

consulting

heroku

javascript

postgres

rails

Learning Go: A JavaScript developer’s journey

Discover the phases a JavaScript developer experiences when learning Go, from confusion to curiosity, and how it reshapes their programming approach.

Brittany Moore

Software tooling & tips

go

javascript

open-source

testing

DevOps, TDD and developer productivity: Why NoOps is the future

Reflecting on DevOps, test-driven development and how NoOps can help your team focus on delivering valuable features instead of getting bogged down in infrastructure management.

Micah Adams

DevOps & security

agile

teams

Build and deploy Node.js projects on Raspberry Pi

Discover the best practices for building and deploying Node.js projects on your Raspberry Pi. Overcome common challenges and make your projects run smoothly with our expert tips and tricks.

Kaleb Lape

Software tooling & tips

automation

javascript

node.js

testing

Why managing technical debt isn't like handling credit card debt

Technical debt isn’t like credit card debt. Learn why treating it as such can harm your software development process and discover better strategies to manage it.

Sam Jones

Legacy modernization

agile

teams

legacy-modernization

tech-debt

Pile of rusty chains

Guide to zero-copy FFI with Rust and Unity

A technical guide to building zero-copy FFI bridges between Rust and Unity. Learn how to pass structs and objects across language boundaries using C-compatible memory layouts and proper ownership patterns.

Michael Schoonmaker

Michael Schoonmaker

Software tooling & tips

rust

javascript

ruby

swift

You're N.E.A.T.!

Technology is a means to an end: answers to very human questions. We want to connect with other folks who share that belief.

Ways to connect

Test Double Executive Leadership Team

Learn about our team

Like what we have to say about building great software and great teams?