Writings

2019/10/25
in tech-debt, humans
1 min read

Technical debt

Technical Debt

n. Inefficiency introduced to satisfy a requirement, because the resources (time, knowledge, solutions, funding) are not available.

I'm not sure where I saw this definition, but I loved it. It includes the motivations behind why we choose technical debt as humans.

You want a car, but you don't have $50,000 today. So, you take on debt and get the car today. Now you have the car, and you carry the debt. The debt doesn't actually hurt you. The debt only comes into play when you're making decisions.

Technical debt only hurts in a system that needs to make changes and respond to new priorities.

You need to get from point A to B.

You can build a bridge, or you can pay a toll.

You don't have time to build a bridge, or the right bridge-builder, or the steel at hand to build a bridge.

So you take the toll road – you’ve created technical debt.

That’s the debt, the cost of taking that toll now every time you need to get from point A to B.

2019/01/01
in blog, consulting, ai
1 min read

The Power of SVG in Django Templates- Storing Image Recipes Instead of Baked Images

Web developers spend an ungodly amount of time compressing, converting and manipulating images.

But like a cake out of the oven, once it's been baked – there's only so much you can do. (Editor's note: I recommend eating it)

2018/01/01
in dx, devops, process
4 min read

Review App Pattern - 10x any team's development process

Creating a "Review App" pattern allows every developer to have a "QA environment" for their branch. But setting this up is not as straightforward as it sounds. The secret to the Review App pattern is to maintain two pipelines: code-based and state-based.

Code pushes up, State pulls down.

2017/09/03
in api, design, architecture
3 min read

Essential Types of API Hygiene

"Brush your teeth, twice a day"

"Wash your hands before you eat"

"Shower every morning"

Human hygiene is ritualized from a young age – and for good reason. Hygiene rituals protect communities from plague, and individuals from easily preventable serious issues.

But do you see the trick? These rituals work because they have triggers attached to them.

Before you A, make sure you B. These triggers create habits in people, and turn us into well-oiled machines.

API Hygiene is the (often overlooked) set of practices and policies that you apply to incoming and outgoing data. Just like proper human hygiene protects health and reduces issues, API Hygiene insures that what comes into and goes out of your app keeps your system in running order.