May the fourth be with you. And if you are wondering, yes, I waited until today to make that joke. If you don’t like Star Wars, that’s ok! None of the following links will contain any more references. 1. Done, and Gets Things Smart (20 minutes) This is one of my favorites from Steve. It’s not a quick read, but I think it’s a good one for engineers looking to make an impact. He critiques the hiring mantra “Smart and Gets Things Done” and instead pushes for “Done, and Gets Things Smart”. The idea is that you want engineers who can get things done and then evolve the system. He then talks about how crucial these engineers are to the success of a company. ...

It’s April and the Easter bunny has come early with a basket full of links. The bunny has also brought warm weather which means I can start going for bike rides again. Let’s check out some fun links. 1. The Tyranny of Stuctureless (23 minutes) Have you ever wondered what the downside to having a flat organization is? Well, wonder no more! I’ve read this one a couple of times but it never fails to hold my interest. The article is even cited under “Criticisms” on the Wikipedia page for Flat Organization. I see some overlap with one of last month’s links, Embrace Complexity, talking about nominal vs emergent structures. Some interesting quotes: ...

It is March! That means another exciting roundup of all the things I think are neat. Let’s go. 1. Collection of insane and fun facts about SQLite (5 minutes) Did you know SQLite is the most deployed and most used database? That three people maintain it? Or, that it’s so fast it competes with fopen. This article reshaped my expectations of SQLite and what it’s capable of. It’s also interesting when paired with the work fly.io is doing on LiteFS (a FUSE file system that replicates SQLite transactions over a network). SQLite is not the little toy database engine I mistook it for. ...

Welcome to the inaugural edition of thelinklist.dev’s first email. I’ve rounded up some thought-provoking, inspiring, and entertaining links that I hope you’ll enjoy. Let’s dive in! 1. Lessons Learned From Payments Startups The lessons here aren’t specific to payment startups, they appeal to a much broader audience. He talks about optimizing for change, comprehensive testing and continuous deployment to help maintain simplicity. The section on decision logs is something I’m considering how to better implement in my daily work. ...