This collection explores full-text search in PostgreSQL, the importance of technical writing, server management philosophies, developer productivity, blogging without expectations, CSS analysis, and consulting wisdom.
PostgreSQL Search Capabilities
PostgreSQL Full-Text Search Engine by Xata
PostgreSQL’s built-in full-text search is surprisingly powerful, yet many developers reach for separate search services before exploring what Postgres can do natively. This article breaks down the capabilities and trade-offs of using Postgres for search. For many applications, it’s more than sufficient and eliminates the complexity of maintaining another service.
Writing as a Developer Skill
Why Engineers Should Write by Yield Code
Writing isn’t just about documentation, it’s a tool for thinking clearly and communicating technical decisions. This article makes the case that writing is a core engineering skill, not a nice-to-have. I’ve found that the act of writing forces you to clarify your own understanding in ways that thinking alone doesn’t.
Personal Server Management
How I Run My Servers by Wesley Aptekar-Cassels
Wesley shares his philosophy and practical setup for managing personal servers. It’s refreshing to see a pragmatic, minimalist approach that prioritizes simplicity and reliability over chasing the latest tools. His choices reflect thoughtful trade-offs between convenience, cost, and maintainability.
Measuring What Matters
Developer Productivity by Jeremy Mikkola
Measuring developer productivity is notoriously difficult, and most common metrics are actively misleading. Jeremy explores what actually drives productive development and why many popular productivity measurements miss the point entirely. This has influenced how I think about my own work patterns and what metrics actually matter.
Blogging Realistically
Nobody Cares About Your Blog by Alex Molas
This brutally honest take on blogging is oddly liberating. Alex argues that accepting that few people will read your blog frees you to write for better reasons—documenting your learning, clarifying your thinking, or building a personal knowledge base. It echoes the “publish without expectations” mindset and makes blogging feel less pressured.
Reverse Engineering Design
Threads App CSS by Ahmad Shadeed
Ahmad reverse-engineers the CSS architecture behind Meta’s Threads app, revealing the implementation details of a major production application. This kind of analysis teaches you how large-scale applications handle styling challenges and what patterns work at scale. Learning by examining real implementations is invaluable.
The Consulting Path
Be Consultant by Jacques Mattheij
Jacques offers candid advice about transitioning to consulting work, covering both the benefits and the challenges that people often don’t talk about. If you’ve ever considered consulting or freelancing, this provides realistic expectations about what that career path actually involves—the freedom, the uncertainty, and everything in between.