2019-08-14

John Barton
Yep, a newsletter
Yep, a newsletter

Happy Wednesday friends. Not much in this issue for the finance nerds but some good tech and culture links.

Tech

3 Kinds of Good Tech Debt
A practical and pragmatic take on “things you think are bad but are actually OK”. I’m especially fond of hardcoding all the things.

Scaling Static Analyses at Facebook
Interesting to see hard data on how to successfully integrate static analysis into a development workflow. Timing is everything.

Ten Unexpected Uses for LINC Preview Links
If you’re doing any kind of modern JS app build I highly recommend you check out LINC for their infinite staging build environment stuff. Very cool and I use it almost every day.

The Right Way to Ship Software
Spoiler: there is no right way. Great read on the various process knobs you can turn and the contexts in which you might want to turn some of them.

Why React Hooks?
This has been my favourite overview of React hooks and explains all the expected benefits you should get using them rather than just saying “they’re the future, use them”.

Business & Management

No business links this issue. I didn’t read anything that particularly impressed me over the past couple of weeks.

Culture

‘Dad Builds’ Are Making Lazy Gaming OK, And I Love That
I’m extremely here for this phenomenon. Being a dad and a founder has put a lot of gaming out of my reach and anything that can bring it back in makes me happy.

Charles And Ray Eames Made Life Better By Design
A great look at one of my favourite pieces of home architecture. I love the way they used the constraints of cheap commercial components to still make something very expressive and homey.

The Flawed Reasoning Behind the Replication Crisis
An interesting essay suggesting that science would be in better shape today if everyone used Bayesian probability in experimental design ahead of straight up frequentist inference. I’m not 100% on board but it’s a pretty reasonable argument.

On the Evolution of Fatness in Society
My interest in “fatness as social construct” articles seems to increase more and more as I slide into middle age. I wonder why?

Contractually Obligated Nautical Fact

The Pirate Who Penned the First English-Language Guacamole Recipe
William Dampier did many bad things in his life, but he did bring Guac to the rest of the world so I guess on balance he was OK?

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