April 3, 2023

Variable Name Antipatterns Named and Explained

There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things. – Phil Karlton

Let’s talk about variable name antipatterns!

March 28, 2023

Cold Water for Your Code Coverage

Code coverage, the percentage of your code covered by automated tests, is a metric associated with quality. In this post, I’d like to investigate this association. And pour some cold water on it.

March 26, 2023

Does ChatGPT Mean Software Engineering Is Over?

Here’s an argument that’s gaining momentum in my field: AI will eliminate or greatly reduce the programming profession.

March 21, 2023

One-Sentence Summaries of Popular Technology Books

Here are some one-sentence summaries of books that have helped me understand programming and technology.

March 15, 2023

How to Run an Agile Retrospective for Leaders

Retrospectives are one of my favorite engineering team practices. In this post, I’ll explain why and how I run retros.

March 1, 2023

Type Your TypeScript Library Functions

There’s been a lot of recent discussion in the TypeScript community about typing functions. These arguments tend to take binary positions: always type your functions, or never type them unless the compiler demands it. Which is the best option?

January 12, 2023

The Power of CRUD Operations Explained with SQL

CRUD is an acronym that’s used a lot in web and mobile development. Frontend engineers in particular might wonder what it means and why we use it. In this post, I’ll explain CRUD using PostgreSQL, and talk about why it’s important.

December 29, 2022

How to Create a Timer or Polling in React with setInterval

Have you ever wanted to create a timer in a React app? This could be in support of a UI timer or polling. In this post, I’ll explain how to create a timer effect in a React application using hooks and setInterval.

December 20, 2022

My Feature Writing Template: Given/When/Then

When preparing feature development work, I write Gherkin-style tickets, which follow the “Given/When/Then” format. Many people call these stories, and I do, too. This technique is incredibly effective! But why? In this post, I’ll try to answer that question.

December 3, 2022

Button, Link, or Neither? Three Principles for Clarity and Accessibility

Which HTML elements should we be giving a user to click? In this post, I’ll share some best practices for clickable elements.