Use Boring Solutions

Often when working with both startups and project teams at larger, more seasoned companies I encounter a variation of the not invented here syndrome. This usually starts with the well-intentioned idea that in order to build the actual product you need ancillary services A, B and C in order for the product to work. However, more often than not instead of building the 'perfect' solution for your product yourself it might be a good idea to take a step back and think about ... Read more

HTML is an API

HTML is an API or rather it could be if we used more in the way it was intended. In a comment on this Hacker News post about Toapi, a library that makes clever use of XPath expressions in order to provide an API from existing web pages, a user wrote Now I don't want to be a downer: but we collectively seem to have forgotten that HTML as a markup language with sufficient semantic elements, is a perfect API in itself. ... Read more

Analysing the Complexity of Angular Apps

Analysing an existing application if you join a project. Assessing the quality and maintainability of an application. Identifying soft spots in an application which could benefit the most from refactoring. There are numerous reasons for wanting to size up the complexity of an application. In addition to general and language-specific tools provided by IDEs and applications such as SonarLint / SonarQube it can be useful to not only take framework specifics into account but to actually make use of them to get a better ... Read more

Water Cooler Talk Is Toxic

An often-heard counter-argument against remote work is that those working remotely will miss out on so-called water cool talk, i.e. communication that happens casually and outside of scheduled meetings and discussions. In my opinion that kind of talk can be considered toxic. If it's merely about socialising and getting to know your co-workers better that's certainly fine and conducive to a positive work environment. However, often water cooler talk involves bandying about rumours as well as creating information silos between those who happen ... Read more