There is no boolean so simple that I won't get it wrong at least once in the space of a few hours of programming. Therefore, I work in tiny steps and lean on tests.

Even when it's not an industrial-strength "real-life" project situation, discussions of testing strategy are quickly transformed into discussions of interpersonal conflict and individual emotional turmoil. And that's why you need an adviser like me: help navigating the hard parts. ;)

This emerged during Office Hours Chat! today. (tiny 🧵.) Work describes the tasks we do and why we do them, but Job is only a mechanism to exchange tasks/time/energy for money. Sometimes we have the opportunity to do Work at Job and we often feel happier when we do this.

@kathleenmadigan.bsky.social I propose that you start a Patreon with just one subscriber tier called "Termite". I imagine many folks would be happy to give you $5/month.

Someone contacted me today to ask me about my approach to teamwork for "Agile groups", but left a fake email address, so I don't get to answer them. What a pity. I think I could have enjoyed that conversation.

Would you like results without blame in 2026? Are you tired of being told you're doing it wrong? experience.jbrains.ca

Software design techniques represent, at their core, a guess about what a hypothetical future reader will understand more with a lower investment in effort, time, and money. I consider "guess" the key word of that claim. What makes you guess more accurately? Experience, knowing the audience, ...

Designing software means forever balancing two opposing consequences of the limits of working memory: - wanting conciseness and relying more on tacit knowledge to make writing code feel easier - wanting clarity and relying less on tacit knowledge to make understanding code feel easier No escape.

Something something great minds thinking alike... #refactoring #evolutionarydesign Different articulations of a mental model will click with different people, but those models tend to be much more alike than they are different. :)

I've been focusing a lot recently on refactoring. Simultaneously one of the most valuable and rarest developer skills. In this post, I talk about the different levels of refactoring: * Primitive (the basic "moves") * Tactical * Strategic codemanship.wordpress.com/2025/12/18/r...

Apparently they liked it enough for us to do it again. We are Refactoring Astro for at least two hours next week, live and in public. Join us! dateful.com/eventlink/32...

🧵 As we figure out what role LLMs and Gen AI systems will play in developing software, I await with interest actual experience reports, such as this one: (> next)

Sometimes we struggle getting buy-in from others about improving our software designs. I think I know one of the ways that happens: blog.jbrains.ca/permalink/a-...

Vague musings about software design in the age of Generative AI. At least it's relatively short: blog.jbrains.ca/permalink/in...

How's this for fortunate timing?! Just after writing a thread about the "ask your programmers!" strategy from _Frictionless_ (thread linked), I read the following in one of those email newsletters that we all subscribe to and never read. (next post) bsky.app/profile/jbra...

On the one hand, it amazes me that this very simple and obvious strategy isn't the first thing that executives think of when they wonder how to improve results in their software development groups. On the other hand, it doesn't surprise me at all that a person would shy away from it.

I'm doing some refactoring/adding tests in public on an Open Source project on December 2, in case you'd like to join us: discord.gg/astro-lounge...

If you do the Saff Squeeze and you _don't_ finish by laughing out loud at your own mistake, then did you really Squeeze? 🤔

Does this sound like you? Evolutionary Design/TDD has, for me, been an adaptive response to uncertainty (even anxiety!) I have felt while trying to write software.

I'm looking for a client interested in getting help to simply think more clearly for an experimental 3-month program. What could you do with weekly conversations with a wise, caring partner, whose primary concern was helping you make sense of your world?

How can writing things down in an Inbox be so powerful? blog.jbrains.ca/permalink/bl...

I try not to be quite so blunt about this these days, but I stand by the overall message: you have probably been trying to go too fast. And I get it. No blame, really! If you don't have at least one impatient customer, then you have a hobby and not a business, right? :shrug:

I have a new challenge for 2026 and I have spent approximately 20 minutes on it so far. This resource, I presume, is going to help me. dexonline.ro

Before you react to this story one way or the other, please listen to the podcast I've shared. Even if just in the background. It quite literally the least you can do. www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-p...

Well, my newest Master Class was a hit. As it is with my live work with programmers, we start with all the technical issues, then pivot hard in the last 30% to the deeper interpersonal problems. codecamp.ro/masterclasse...

"Yes, but we don't live in Qazaqstan, we live in Königswiesen!"

I formally submit my application for the role of CEO of #HTMX @htmx.bsky.social @htmx.org 🤷

The limit of making prompt libraries more precise is a programming language.

A telling of the story of how Carl Sagan tried to encourage young people to learn more about critical thinking. youtu.be/-Pc3IuVNuO0 #codecamp

When we use LLMs to generate code, we get Common Practice amplified and thrown back into our faces. We also entrench Common Practice. So... Which practices are common? Would you like more or less of that? #codecamp

With a code sample of computing the most frequently repeated letter in a string in Java, @venkats.bsky.social shows us an example of code that looks complicated (even ridiculous), but is truly merely unfamiliar to the typical reader. #codecamp

According to @venkats.bsky.social I am so old that the Gen AI takeover will make me into a boutique consultant who will be able to charge higher prices, not lower ones. I appreciate him for the ray of hope. #codecamp

Iată o nouă provocare pentru 2026.

Does nobody here care about the difficulties of navigating a job in software development or do I merely need to attract a new batch of followers? 😉

Active Stakeholder Participation Or Make yourself known to the business 🤔 #codecamp

The Three Amigos, aka Collaboration among customers, programmers, and testers, makes an appearance, but wearing a mustache because nobody paid attention to them the first time around. #codecamp

Fred Brooks has entered the chat. #codecamp

Echoes of _Never Check Email in the Morning_ in @markrichardssa.bsky.social encouraging folks to devote time to caring for their career. #codecamp

Excellent! If @markrichardssa.bsky.social has it right and programmers will be nudged towards architectural responsibilities, it seems to me that the lessons we can learn from Evolutionary Design will be invaluable. That will make it easier to trust the programmers to whom they delegate decisions.

Good news: we already knew what to do. Bad news: we didn't do it. More bad news: we had to rediscover it in order to notice that didn't do it. Good news: we can still do it. (This refers to Microservices in a Single Process, aka Modular Monolith.) #codecamp

Evolutionary Design, and in particular TDD, can help folks learn both how to build Microservices in a Single Process and why that might be wise. And this is merely a synonym for Modular Monolith. #codecamp

Microservices are to SOA As Microtests are to Tests That is, we say that we're doing the first one, but we're really merely doing the second one. #codecamp

I expected @kevlin.bsky.social to say it, and he did. The problem isn't the Modular Monolith so much as the reason to want one. This is another name for what I usually do: build Microservices in a Single Process. #codecamp

OBS Studio + external webcam = video falling behind audio gradually, unpredictably, and increasingly. How to fix: jb.rainsberger.ca/permalink/vi...

ICYMI #5pinbowling fivepinbowling.substack.com/p/simplifyin...

The LabVIEW Experiment interviewed me recently. We had just a good time that the conversation has been split into two parts. Part 1 has just been released. Enjoy! www.thelabviewexperiment.com/episodes/sea...

If you'd like a 96-minute-long meditation on this assertion: www.imdb.com/title/tt0056...

"I am actually a princess," the frog said. "Oh no!" said the prince. "My curse can only be lifted by a prince listening to me." "Of course," said the prince, and bent down with puckered lips. "What are you doing?!" "Kissing you, like you asked!" "No!" The frog hopped away, muttering.