From the TL;DR in Tech archive, originally sent on Substack. Some links may have died since.

tl;dr in tech by Joe Karlsson - Issue #19

New Blog Alert! tl;dr: Databases are frequently left out of the DevOps discussion. In this post, I talk about best practices for setting up a database in your DevOps pipeline and then show you how to do it using GitHub Actions.

tl;dr: “As the founder of a developer tools startup, I’ve talked with hundreds, if not thousands, of software developers in the course of routine user research.” Jean presents the “truths” about building enterprise software for “99% developers,” the ones working outside of “hip companies and frameworks”:

1) Smaller companies attempt to the imitate tooling of FAANG companies despite different resources.

2) There is no gold standard development environment.

3) The goal is progress, not perfection, and more.

tl;dr: “A deep dive with five Technical Program Managers (TPM) on what the role is, how it evolved, and how engineers and managers can benefit from working with TPMs.” Gergely concludes that senior engineers already do lots of the things that TPMs do full-time. 1) Fast-growing tech companies rely heavily on TPMs to scale engineering efficiency. 2) The TPM role is spreading steadily across the industry.

tl;dr: “Discussion with Mitchell Hashimoto, co-founder of HashiCorp, who recently returned to the role of independent contributor after stints as both CEO and CTO. We talk about his journey learning to write software, how he came up with the idea for Terraform, and why he prefers slinging code to executive roles.”

tl;dr: “We’ll start by creating a positioning system that can tell us where we are. Our initial approach will be quite simple, but we’ll step-by-step improve upon it to build an understanding of the positioning method used by GPS.”

tl;dr: Co-founder and CEO at Coda’s to-do list philosophy:

1) Start every new day fresh with no weight from the previous day’s list of things to do, just a new sheet of paper with a new set of priorities, don’t compound from the previous day.

2) Do the hardest task first.

3) Have a column with next action so you can see which tasks are missing a next step.

4) Know whether it’s on your plate or someone else’s.

tl;dr: Despite saying 2021, the survey took place this January, so the results are up to date and represent the answers given by the 16,085 respondents. As with any survey or poll, be careful in how you interpret the results (many folks have noted problems around diversity or methodology). Highlights:

* esbuild was the tool with the largest year on year satisfaction growth. 5.6% of respondents are using Deno.

* Long standing libraries Axios, Lodash and Moment remain the most popular.

* Syntax is by far the most popular podcast but there are 24 others in the list to check out.

* TypeScript is by far the most common alternative ‘flavor’ of JavaScript, with Elm a distant second place.

tl;dr: “Your phone’s ability to identify any song it listens to is pure technological magic. In this article, I’ll show you how one of the most popular apps, Shazam, does it.”

tl;dr: 1) Don’t swerve around a debate. 2) Be generous with your ideas. 3) Think of yourself as the team captain, not the head coach. 4) Set the tone with cross-functional partners. 5) Write down what makes you tick. 6) Shine a light on failure. 7) Pull back the curtain. And more.

tl;dr: Charity presents strategies, such as backchanneling with contacts, effective D&I practices, and also maintains that how the interview is organized is telling

1) Was the interview conducted in a timely fashion? Were you given detailed information about what to expect?

2) Were you compensated for your any take-home projects.

3) Did they get back to you swiftly at each step of the way to let you know where you stand and what comes next?

tl;dr: What is a low-friction small thing that most will not notice, but that when they do, is a sign of craftsmanship, expertise, and pride in one’s work? Vicki has created a list relevant for ML and Data Science:

1) Python code has type annotations.

2) Accurate documentation of a repo and an easy, reproducible way to run the project.

3) Formatted and linted SQL statements. And more.

tl;dr: How do we best divvy up responsibilities in an engineering team, given the complexities of modern day technology stacks. Ben argues there are 4 things to consider:

1) Optimizing for productivity

2) Code quality

3) Risk of a developer leaving

4) Developer happiness.

Once we know how to weigh each, there are several models to consider: ownership, free-for-all, stewardship, and conservatorship, all discussed here.

tl;dr: “If you’re here because you want to fix your GIF and want the quick answer, the solution is: set your frame delay to 20ms instead of 10ms. If you want to learn a bit more about GIFs, exactly why this edge case happens, and some thoughts on how to improve things, keep reading!”