tl;dr in tech - Issue #106
Unicode Is Harder Than You Think
By: Marco Cilloni
tl;dr: “This article attempts to briefly summarize and clarify some of the most common misconceptions I’ve seen people struggle with, and some of the pitfalls that tend to recur in codebases that have to deal with non-ASCII text.”
Should I Change Job?
By: James Stanier
tl;dr: "At every job, you should either learn or earn. Either is fine. Both are best. But if it's neither, quit." The article elaborates on this idea, explaining the symbiotic relationship between learning and earning. Learning increases earning potential by opening doors to bigger roles and opportunities. Earning more money can enable one to take financial risks for further learning, such as accepting a pay cut for a more senior position at a start-up.
Attention Is All A Manager Needs
By: Phil Calçado
tl;dr: “All this talk about managing information at scale makes me think of challenges faced by engineering managers and directors as they have to deal with both information overload and scarcity simultaneously. This is a recurring major topic when coaching new managers or folks who made the transition to senior management. In this article, I am going to discuss the challenges and offer a few practical tools that have worked for me in my own journey.”
Square’s Updated Growth Framework For Engineers And Engineering Managers
By: [Author Unknown]
tl;dr: Square has updated its Growth Framework for Engineers and Engineering Managers, reflecting significant changes over the past four years. The revised levels guide hiring, promotion, and encode the company's values, with a focus on clarity, consistency, and adaptability.
How We Built The Canva Apps SDK
By: Martin Cronjé
tl;dr: Martin’s article outlines the development of the Canva Apps SDK, transitioning from a plugin model to a more flexible app-building platform. The process involved building a secure sandboxed environment, creating a new build-and-deploy pipeline, and designing APIs with a focus on simplicity, safety, evolvability, and consistency. Iterative development, continuous feedback, and a balance between alignment and empowerment were key technical strategies in the SDK's creation.
A Few Weird Ways Of Displaying Git Hashes
By: [Author Unknown]
tl;dr: The author explores alternative ways to represent Git hashes beyond the conventional hexadecimal format, experimenting with three unconventional methods: emoji, word and color representation of hashes. The author provides examples of these representations using recent commits from one of their repositories. The post emphasizes the experimental nature of these ideas.
Enabling Good Work Habits Through Reflective Goal-Setting
By: Abi Noda
tl;dr: Abi highlights a study on developers' productivity, revealing that reflective goal-setting leads to improvements. 84% of participants identified concrete goals through reflection, 80% saw positive behavior change, and 92% planned to maintain new habits. The key takeaway is that reflective goal-setting not only enhances awareness and productivity but also encourages lasting behavioral changes, empowering developers to gain control over their work.
Bottleneck #04: Cost Efficiency
By: Stefania Stefansdottir, Sofia Tania
tl;dr: This post discusses cost optimization for scale-ups by emphasizing the importance of a cross-functional team to analyze and execute cost-saving measures. It outlines strategies like rightsizing resources, using ephemeral infrastructure, and consolidating tools. A key takeaway is the need for a detailed analysis of cost drivers, such as compute vs storage vs network, to identify specific levers for cost reduction, ensuring alignment with the company's unique needs as it scales.
My Problem With The Four-Document Model
By: Hillel Wayne
tl;dr: Hillel critiques the 4doc model for user documentation, highlighting that it's not universal or comprehensive. While effective for tools, it may not suit frameworks and languages. The key takeaway is that relying solely on the 4doc model can limit documentation effectiveness, and a more flexible approach that considers the specific subject being documented is encouraged.
Some Tactics For Writing In Public
By: Julia Evans
tl;dr: Julia discusses various strategies and tactics to engage with comments and feedback on her writing, especially in the context of technical blogging. Key points include: (1) Talking about facts leads to fact-based comments and discussions. (2) Sharing personal stories encourages good discussions and helps in understanding the context and different perspectives. (3) Asking technical questions or mentioning uncertainties invites answers and makes the comments section more valuable, among other strategies.