![\"Screenshot](\"https://i0.wp.com/snarfed.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/arsenal-email.png?ssl=1\")
My Google account is heaven@gmail (long story), so I get a steady trickle of emails from people writing to God. Some of them are real winners.
\nsometimes right, always confident
" } ] }, "id": "post-57030", "lang": "en-US" }, { "type": [ "h-entry" ], "properties": { "name": [ "" ], "url": [ "https://snarfed.org/2026-05-05_57007" ], "published": [ "2026-05-05T12:41:59-0700" ], "syndication": [ "https://bsky.app/profile/snarfed.org/post/3ml4wbf5hhc2o", "https://bsky.app/profile/snarfed.org/post/3ml4wbf5hhc2o" ], "author": [ { "type": [ "h-card" ], "properties": { "photo": [ { "value": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/8bc1fa68e66351467e5284c8a5aa45bd515c09449cea9213a9d07e59b74710d3?s=96&d=blank&r=g", "alt": "", "srcset": { "2x": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/8bc1fa68e66351467e5284c8a5aa45bd515c09449cea9213a9d07e59b74710d3?s=192&d=blank&r=g" } } ], "name": [ "Ryan Barrett" ], "url": [ "https://snarfed.org/" ] }, "value": "Ryan Barrett", "lang": "en-US" } ], "content": [ { "value": "Consider the world\u2019s simplest database:\n#!/bin/bash\n\ndb_set () {\n echo\u00a0\"$1,$2\" >> database\n}\n\ndb_get () {\n grep \"^$1,\" database | sed -e \"s/^$1,//\" | tail -n 1\n}\n\n\u2013 Designing Data-Intensive Applications, 2nd edition, Martin Kleppmann and Chris Riccomini", "lang": "en-US", "html": "\n\nConsider the world\u2019s simplest database:
\n
\n\n\n#!/bin/bash\n\ndb_set () {\n echo\u00a0\"$1,$2\" >> database\n}\n\ndb_get () {\n grep \"^$1,\" database | sed -e \"s/^$1,//\" | tail -n 1\n}\n
\u2013 Designing Data-Intensive Applications, 2nd edition, Martin Kleppmann and Chris Riccomini
\nI\u2019ve been a daily coffee drinker for decades, and I\u2019m taking a break for a month right now. No real reason, just trying it.
\nHalfway through, not much to report. One mild headache early on. No noticeable difference in energy. (I\u2019m pretty insensitive to caffeine.)
\nI definitely still miss it though!
" } ] }, "id": "post-56957", "lang": "en-US" }, { "type": [ "h-entry" ], "properties": { "name": [ "" ], "url": [ "https://snarfed.org/2026-04-23_56920" ], "published": [ "2026-04-23T14:55:40-0700" ], "author": [ { "type": [ "h-card" ], "properties": { "photo": [ { "value": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/8bc1fa68e66351467e5284c8a5aa45bd515c09449cea9213a9d07e59b74710d3?s=96&d=blank&r=g", "alt": "", "srcset": { "2x": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/8bc1fa68e66351467e5284c8a5aa45bd515c09449cea9213a9d07e59b74710d3?s=192&d=blank&r=g" } } ], "name": [ "Ryan Barrett" ], "url": [ "https://snarfed.org/" ] }, "value": "Ryan Barrett", "lang": "en-US" } ], "content": [ { "value": "Fixed time, variable scope\nJust like content development in any other medium, software development reduces to the elimination of entropy. Unlike other media, however, there is very little else to count. The problem is that you and/or your team can only eliminate a fixed-ish number of bits of entropy per unit time, and at the outset you don\u2019t know how many bits there are in the problem to eliminate. So you say we\u2019re gonna work this much, and whatever comes out the other end of that process is whatever you get. In the current theory, and sometimes in practice, this is how sprints are supposed to work, and the material that doesn\u2019t fit is accumulated into some backlog or other.\n\n\u2013 Dorian Taylor, Agile as Trauma", "lang": "en-US", "html": "\n\n\nFixed time, variable scope
\nJust like content development in any other medium, software development reduces to the elimination of entropy. Unlike other media, however, there is very little else to count. The problem is that you and/or your team can only eliminate a fixed-ish number of bits of entropy per unit time, and at the outset you don\u2019t know how many bits there are in the problem to eliminate. So you say we\u2019re gonna work this much, and whatever comes out the other end of that process is whatever you get. In the current theory, and sometimes in practice, this is how sprints are supposed to work, and the material that doesn\u2019t fit is accumulated into some backlog or other.
\n
A few challenge coins: Long Now, Google NetOps, and our family LLC.
\n![\"\"](\"https://i0.wp.com/snarfed.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/pxl_20260415_163500591322632525349835351.jpg?resize=696%2C522&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https://i0.wp.com/snarfed.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/pxl_20260415_1635308172641069851863099692.jpg?resize=696%2C522&ssl=1\")
Ellis Island stories
\n![Line art map of the world with the text: \"keep ancient lands, your storied pomp! Cries she with silent lips. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...\" The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus, 1883](\"https://i0.wp.com/snarfed.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/pxl_20260409_1732042885193191680079811200.jpg?resize=696%2C522&ssl=1\")
![\"We](\"https://i0.wp.com/snarfed.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/pxl_20260409_1731030144599025586732167278.jpg?resize=696%2C522&ssl=1\")
![\"I](\"https://i0.wp.com/snarfed.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/pxl_20260409_1731542964968913056155872226.jpg?resize=696%2C522&ssl=1\")
![\"Framed](\"https://i0.wp.com/snarfed.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/pxl_20260409_1730586643607875736793177456.jpg?resize=696%2C522&ssl=1\")
my sentiments exactly
\n![\"a](\"https://i0.wp.com/snarfed.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/pxl_20260405_1603501957E28030240100502183359.jpg?resize=696%2C522&ssl=1\")
In my 25+ yr career in (systems) software engineering, I can count on one hand the number of real paradigm shifts I\u2019ve seen:
\nI\u2019m not saying anything new by including AI coding here. I don\u2019t fully know what its long term effects will be. I doubt many of us do. And the industry is obviously far from perfect.
\nBut coming from a late adopter, and a skeptic in general, it\u2019s still very clearly a big deal. And I don\u2019t see those often.
\n\n\n\u2026this produces what I will call the AI Developer\u2019s Descent Into Madness:
\n
\n\n\n\n
\n- Whoa, I produced this prototype so fast! I have super powers!
\n- This prototype is getting buggy. I\u2019ll tell the AI to fix the bugs.
\n- Hmm, every change now causes as many new bugs as it fixes.
\n- Aha! But if I have an AI agent also review the code, it can find its own bugs!
\n- Wait, why am I personally passing data back and forth between agents
\n- I need an agent framework
\n- I can have my agent write an agent framework!
\n- Return to step 1
\nIt\u2019s actually alarming how many friends and respected peers I\u2019ve lost to this cycle already.
\n