It’s January, and that means we can all post our brand new resolutions! I’ll go first, don’t be late posting my newsletters. Whoops! Well, at least that’s one less thing to worry about, fail fast they say! Let’s dive into some links.
1. Frameworks for Understanding Databases(12 minutes)
Before working at Parse.ly, my entire universe revolved around Relational Databases. It wasn’t until I had to deal with Big Data™ that I started to understand the requirements for different databases. In this post, Almog Gavra gives a quick whirlwind tour of useful frameworks for thinking about databases. Extremely valuable to anyone trying to grok the high-level tradeoffs between each one. He also recommends Designing Data-Intensive Applications, which I also agree with. If you are interested in learning more about this field, it is the canonical source.
2. Microservices should form a polytree (7 minutes)
This link was submitted by Chris Wisecarver.
Speaking of Big Data™, it’s one thing to store the data, but what about processing it? As your project for collecting data grows, you’ll likely start splitting parts into Microservices. Matias Heikkilä offers some advice on structuring those Microservices into polytrees. This structure helps keep cycles at bay and helps keep the overall architecture easier to manage. Speaking from experience, directed cycle failures are not something you want to deal with in the middle of the night.
3. Short Little Difficult Books (10 minutes)
If your resolution involves reading, what better way to pump up those numbers than short books? Lincoln Michel gives a bunch of recommendations based on different categories of what he considers difficult. Oulipian projects, unconventional prose, and even surreal storytelling. I went down the rabbit hole looking up some of these books. There’s something for everyone. I Also had to look up the word “Oulipian”.
4. The Illusion of Shared Understanding (8 minutes)
Assuming everyone’s mental model is the same as yours is a great way to sewer your initiatives. As a Staff Engineer, writing RFCs becomes an important tool in your arsenal for change. Roman Nikolaev talks about how simple misunderstandings can fester into bigger problems. Writing your thoughts clearly is a force multiplier beyond your coding abilities. It’s absolutely worth time-boxing yourself to get some thoughts onto paper, for others and for yourself.
5. Finding and Fixing Ghostty’s Largest Memory Leak (11 minutes)
One of my favorite things about ghostty is how much Mitchell writes about it’s development. Mitchell, famous from previously co-founding HashiCorp, talks about a memory leak while walking through the internals. I’ve never built a terminal from scratch, hope I never have to, but enjoy reading about the journey. Here’s another bonus share of this video of Mitchell talking about search internals (Thanks Nelson) for Ghostty.
6. VIDEO: How to stick with your projects, even when they’re janky (26 minutes)
If you read this title and think “my project isn’t janky”, don’t worry, it’s still a valuable video. Every project you work on will eventually hit a lull you’ll need to break through. The secret sauce, according to Jeaye Wilkerson, is intentionally maintaining momentum. Jeaye talks about 5 main points to help you keep the ball rolling. I especially need to be reminded of point 5 more often, take easy days.