Things for my later self

We are creatures of the earth, and like the earth it often takes heat and pressure to create a diamond.

– Ajahn Vimalo, Buddhist Monk, 2022

• Engineering is communication.

• Writing forces clarity.

• Organizations, like computer systems, scale by avoiding coordination.

• Simplicity is a property of systems. Systems include people and processes.

• Do it, then do it right, then do it better. Momentum creates clarity. Analysis paralysis creates nothing.

• Monoliths remain good. Microservices require justification.

• Microservices are tools to avoid coordination.

• The best tool for the job is the least-worst tool across many jobs. Simplify!

• Java is a great language because it’s boring! So is Postgres.

• It’s hard to beat decades of RDBMS research and improvements.

• Every abstraction is a bet that you won’t need to understand what’s underneath.

• Corollary: Abstractions don’t remove complexity. They move it to the day you’re on call.

• There is no pride in managing or understanding complexity.

• ORMs are evil. Just write SQL.

• Don’t re-write things that work.

• Code comments ARE useful.

• Dwelling on variables you cannot control creates anxiety without agency.

• The fastest code is code that never runs.

• PRs are devious, they focus attention on “do we build the bridge correct” instead of “do we need a bridge”