WTF @nytimes.com

Wrote up the full story of how we went from 150 flaky tests to 2 at Thrive Market.. and what happened when we deleted them (nothing broke).

With hiring for DevRel roles increasing and junior folks often having limited in-person presentation experience (thanks to the Covid-era), I highly recommend reading Randy's advice!

Chatting today with fellow QCon organizer @danielbryantuk.com, we discussed how we prepare for talks, and I have *thoughts*, in the form of a 5-part blog series: Part 1: Preparing Yourself (medium.com/@randyshoup/...) * Sleep * Practice * Timing * Clothes * Psyching yourself up

Speaking in public is a skill like any other, and it absolutely comes with practice. But it does not come naturally to most humans. Public speaking is typically people’s number one fear, even over death. Seinfeld joked that people at a funeral would rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy!

Oh yeah and stuff like this where @randyshoup.bsky.social had written a really great set of lyrics for a Gilbert & Sullivan tune and @himal.bsky.social said someone should record it so I did. I have met neither of these people IRL

🎙️ Building software at scale? Learn from someone who’s done it. @randyshoup.bsky.social joins @charleshumble.bsky.social to share 20+ years of lessons from eBay to Thrive Market: 🧱 Monolith to microservices 🏃 Scaling teams with DDD 🚀 Why platform engineering matters 🎧 gotopia.tech/podcast

Current status 🇨🇦

Why do the characters in JAWS not simply defeat the shark in the marketplace of ideas?

Not surprised by the high divorce rate among tennis players. Love means nothing to them.

Current status: afternoon lunch of goulash soup along the Danube

Current status — working on my talk for #craftconf looking out over the Danube.

One possible benefit to this AI juggernaut could be that it actually encourages (forces?) a broader swath of developers to practice TDD. 🤞 TDD is an accelerant under any circumstances, but it seems to be required at the moment for a truly step-function AI-augmented developer loop.

Happy Star Wars Day to all who celebrate! (“May the Fourth Be With You”)

Monoliths work 99% of the time—microservices are the rare exception. Watch @randyshoup.bsky.social explain when to go micro and the real problems it solves.

At this rate MAGA will only be able to afford to rent the libs.

A @kevlin.bsky.social on the S3 to Heidelberg, complete with confused traveler. Lucky the Deutsche Bahn app knows where we are!

Battle-tested tech lessons await! Join @charleshumble.bsky.social ‬ and @randyshoup.bsky.social on GOTO Unscripted as they reveal when to break your monolith, master domain-driven design, and boost productivity with continuous delivery.

My chat with @randyshoup.bsky.social on GOTO Unscripted is out today. Randy shares insights from his experience at eBay, Google and now Thrive Market, including how to balance platform engineering efforts, and why most applications should remain monoliths. #SoftwareArchitecture #Engineering #GOTO

My father was a pioneering graphics researcher at Xerox PARC. This *extensive* interview covers: * The early days of Xerox PARC * The world's first digital videographics system, with a modern palette / canvas metaphor * The origins of modern computer animation * Growing up as a kid in Silicon Valley

If you don’t regret your early tech decisions, you probably over-engineered." – @randyshoup.bsky.social . Don’t make that mistake—join us at Agile meets Architecture! Save your spot now and get a book too! www.agile-meets-architecture.com/2025/home

Preparing for our conversation with @randyshoup.bsky.social tomorrow, I'm watching a talk of his that's simply too good to not share immediately www.infoq.com/presentation...

Super-excited to be joining @bcantrill.bsky.social and @ahl.bsky.social on the Oxide and Friends podcast tomorrow to talk about “A Half-Century of Silicon Valley”! Come for the stories of Xerox PARC inventing the personal computer. Stay for the front-row-seat view on the valley’s evolution since!

A gay guy, a Black man, and a woman walk into a flight deck— that’s not the beginning of a joke, but just a regular day at work! There was so much DEI on this plane that we could hardly get in the air. Luckily my limp wrists were able to wrestle the heavy jet back to the ground 💅🏼

OH: Newton and Leibniz were both integral to calculus. It's hard to differentiate between them.

I met a microbiologist today… He was a lot bigger than I expected.

This is Black History ❤️💚🖤 Katherine Johnson a mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics at NASA enabled the the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights. She earned a reputation for mastering complex manual calculations & helped pioneer using computers to perform the tasks. #BHM

Perfect description of where AI is right now — I’ve heard this point called “The peak of Mount Stupid”

“The risk of a code change is not linear”. @randyshoup.bsky.social explains why and how you can enable your organization for fast flow. Watch his talk from Agile meets Architecture and secure your spot for this year’s edition.

Hoping that today of all days we actually start judging people by the content of their character, and not by the color of their skin — whether white, brown, black, or … orange.

I've always loved the fact that the word 'sneeze' is the result of a historical accident. The original form, in the Middle Ages, was 'fnese', but someone mistook the 'f' for the long medieval 's' and wrote down 'sn-' instead. Fneezing sounds much more like a proper, nasal sneeze.

my fav guy of this type is Srinivas Ramanujan, who got invited to Trinity at the demand of GH Hardy because he sent him the greatest cold email of all time and had to be coached on how to retrofit his solutions to proofs because "my family goddess appeared in a vision and solved it" wouldnt cut it

Must-read: AI copilots as Option Value by the ever-brilliant @realgenekim.bsky.social 1. Build things faster 2. Tackle more ambitious projects 3. Build things yourself 4. Have more fun 5. Explore more options Guaranteed return on the ~15 minute investment! itrevolution.com/articles/gen...

Why might improving engineering output not generate better business results? From most to least likely: 1. You're measuring the wrong thing 2. You're building the wrong thing 3. Engineering output is not your constraint 4. Business results are non-linear 5. Business results are a lagging metric 🧵

Boss made a dollar, Grandad made a dime. But that was a poem From a simpler time. Boss made a thousand, Gave my Dad a cent. But that coin paid the mortgage, Or at least it paid the rent. Now bosses make a billion, And give us workers jack. Then smugly blame society, For the labor that they lack.

Posting this story about how Ann Telnaes got censored not least bc it'll disseminate the image Jeff Bezos censored. anntelnaes.substack.com/p/why-im-qui...

Just these 100 counties in purple produce 53.8% of America's entire GDP, and contain 41.3% of the population. 😲 Credit: @statisticurban

Stallone: I'm making a movie about composers. I'm playing Beethoven. Van Damme: I'll be Mozart. Schwarzenegger: Stop it guys, I'm not saying it.

Gorgeous and peaceful Christmas hike up Montara Mountain yesterday morning -- 8.5 miles, 2000' vertical, 3.5 hours. One of the few places in the Bay Area where you can see both the Pacific and SF Bay from a single spot ... and a great way to earn two helpings of cheesecake and apricot pie.

😄

Reminder that this image is real. From a million miles away, NASA captured Moon crossing face of Earth.

Ragù Bolognese 🎉🇮🇹😋 A mere 7 hours of effort. Tagliatelle alla Bolognese, here we come … for several months!

OH: "A man does not cry because he is weak; he cries because he has been strong for too long."

Yup. 💯 "Professional basketball was only a job in the 1950s, because the equipment (basketball and court), were rare and specialized equipment. Now that basketballs are as cheap as soccer balls, and backyard hoops are cheap, anyone can become a pro at home! The tyranny of pro hoopers is over!🤡"

To understand how software engineering will change when anyone (technical or not) can hire an AI agent to spit out code: How did filmmaking and the movie industry change now that everyone has a professional-camera (previously unattainable to non-pros) in their pocket?

Sergeant Schultz from Hogan's Heroes? 😆 (JK. Of course I remember the Captain!)

This deeply insightful takedown of the cult of "Founder Mode"(TM) is hands down the best piece of writing I have read all year (*). @mipsytipsy.bsky.social includes equal parts * Humility * Withering sarcasm * Actual experience (*) And I just re-read Accelerate last week to teach it to my team.