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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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An idea board overflowing with both new and old post its and papers

Product managers

Product managers

Product managers

Great company cultures hold people accountable

Principles without consequences are aspirations. Here's the framework for turning codified culture into real behavioral change.

Michael Toland

Product management

Tradeoffs chart for changeability, cost, and reliability

What is legacy software in the age of AI?

Todd Kaufman

Legacy modernization

Three people emerge from darkness toward light and a neon green path

In the age of AI we’re in this together

River Lynn Bailey

River Lynn Bailey

Cognitive hazard study diagram showing a laptop, coffee mug, and documentation sinking into a tarpit

Organizational observability: The AI alignment problem starts upstream

Dave Mosher

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

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

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

Power up with Rails scripts Part 1: Environment setup

Short shell scripts for simplifying onboarding from Rails apps.

Ed Toro

Software tooling & tips

productivity

rails

ruby

Rubber duck next to a classic marble maze tilt game

Pydantically perfect: Normalize legacy data in Python

Learn how to normalize inconsistent data structures in Python with Pydantic. The post guides you through different approaches and pitfalls, using Pydantic's alias path and alias choices features.

Gabriel Côté-Carrier

Gabriel Côté-Carrier

Software tooling & tips

python

data-engineering

legacy-modernization

Team of business professionals runs around an empty office while screaming

5 rules to avoid the 95% AI project failure rate

MIT research shows 95% of corporate AI pilots fail. The problem isn't the technology—it's transformation. Based on decades of implementation experience, here are the 5 non-negotiables every C-suite needs to master for AI success.

Ed Frank

ai-ml

communication

leadership

ROI

Person at a desk focused on their laptop

Keep your coding agent on task with mutation testing

Code quality tools are helpful guardrails for humans, but coding agents benefit even more. Mutation testing is a rarely-used tool showing new promise as we leverage AI to write more and more software.

Neal Lindsay

ai-ml

node.js

testing

A triangle connects a minifig, toy suitcase, and toy laptop

AI in the workforce: A shifting talent equation

AI is transformative: reshaping the workforce, blurring roles, and breaking career ladders. Explore how orgs can balance people, technology, and business in this new era of work.

Jonathon Baugh

ai-ml

assessments

consulting

productivity

teams

Massive anvil surrounded by little anvils

The anvil of alignment: The value of monoliths over microservices

Before dismantling your monolith for microservices, understand its crucial role in organizational alignment. We explore hidden costs, Conway's Law, and strategic insights for leaders making architectural decisions.

Dave Mosher

Maximize software investment

architecture

budgeting

scaling-challenges

teams

tech-debt

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