The hottest Engineering Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Business Topics

Episode 30: Better Built By Burkhard

burkhardstubert • 59 implied HN points • 15 Nov 22
🕹 Technology Engineering
  1. Many development kit providers focus mainly on hardware, but customers actually need software solutions too. It's better if they offer a complete package that includes useful software support.
  2. Several manufacturers are already adding value through software features. For example, some provide remote management and monitoring options, which help save time for their customers.
  3. Understanding customer needs is key. If companies build systems that help customers easily create their own software, it can lead to quicker product launches and better overall success.

I'm glad to be a 33 years old (ancient) software engineer

Sheep Code • 26 implied HN points • 22 Jan 25
🕹 Technology Engineering
  1. You'll enjoy coding much more as you gain experience over the years. It might feel boring now, but in time, it will become something you love doing.
  2. You have the potential to earn a lot more than you think. With hard work and the right opportunities, a six-figure salary is very achievable.
  3. Being smart isn't the only key to success in tech. Being effective, working well with others, and solving problems can matter even more.

Edge 445: A New Series About Knowledge Distillation

TheSequence • 35 implied HN points • 05 Nov 24
🕹 Technology Engineering
  1. Knowledge distillation helps make large AI models smaller and cheaper. This is important for using AI on devices like smartphones.
  2. A key goal of this process is to keep the accuracy of the original model while reducing its size.
  3. The series will include reviews of research papers and discussions on frameworks like Google's Data Commons that support factual knowledge in AI.

Avoiding the Billion Dollar Mistake Managers and Engineers Make [Storytime Saturdays]

Technology Made Simple • 39 implied HN points • 09 Oct 22
🕹 Technology Engineering
  1. Fixing the billion-dollar mistakes made by managers and engineers can lead to significant financial benefits that will continue to grow.
  2. By addressing this mistake, individuals can achieve great rewards while actually reducing the amount of work they do.
  3. Learning to avoid this mistake could result in monetary gains without the need for extra long hours or hard work.
Get a weekly roundup of the best Substack posts, by hacker news affinity:

Massed Muddler Intelligence

Breaking Smart • 72 implied HN points • 11 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Engineering
  1. The concept of Massed Muddler Intelligence (MMI) entails a new approach to scaling AI, emphasizing the importance of agents, local trial-and-error, and muddling through over monolithic, deterministic training models.
  2. MMIs aim to leverage the principles of embodiment, boundary intelligence, temporality, and personhood to design scalable AI systems that resemble Service-Oriented Architecture in computing.
  3. Building MMIs involves compositing different elements deliberately to create a language of differentiated forms, akin to how reinforced concrete combines materials in defined geometries to achieve specific properties.

SRE book notes: Reliable Product Launches at Scale

Bit Maybe Wise • 19 implied HN points • 16 Feb 23
🕹 Technology Engineering
  1. Optimize launch coordination engineering to balance cost and benefit during product launches
  2. Avoid re-implementing existing solutions by converging on common infrastructure libraries in large organizations
  3. Rearchitecting a product becomes necessary when it grows significantly, leading to increased complexity and fragility

This Week in LLM Land

Prompt Engineering • 19 implied HN points • 28 May 23
🕹 Technology Engineering
  1. ChatGPT conversations are now shareable to prevent screenshot sharing and misinformation.
  2. Tree-of-thoughts prompting is a new approach where LLM is prompted with multiple initial steps and evaluates each one.
  3. A new highly performant open-source model called Guanaco outperforms previous models and was fine-tuned using a new approach named QLoRA.

How To Estimate An Engineering Project (Or Really Any Project)

Throwable • 19 implied HN points • 03 Sep 23
🕹 Technology Engineering
  1. Estimating projects is not impossible, but relies on understanding uncertainties and mapping outcomes to a distribution curve.
  2. Providing project estimates as a range with an error rate is a more accurate way than giving a specific date.
  3. Reducing uncertainty in a project can help narrow the estimate range and improve predictability of outcomes.

Is Your Team a Cost Centre Without Product Understanding?

🔮 Crafting Tech Teams • 19 implied HN points • 31 Jul 23
💼 Business Engineering
  1. Product understanding is crucial for a strong team. A team without it may struggle to bring products to market efficiently.
  2. Ensuring a strong product culture is essential. It involves keeping the product team and founders aligned and integrated into the engineering process.
  3. Maintaining a balance between product and engineering value streams is key. This helps in avoiding a disconnect that can make a team function more as a cost center.

Stubs (II)

Only Wonder Knows • 19 implied HN points • 28 Jul 23
🔬 Science Engineering
  1. In time domain analysis of stubs, keeping stub delay less than half the signal rise time leads to undistorted waveforms.
  2. Rules of thumb for stub analysis suggest keeping stub delay below half the signal rise time for minimal effect.
  3. In high-speed designs, stubs usually aren't an issue if good engineering practices are followed, but caution is needed when boards are very high-speed.

Starforge. Director's Cut ;)

A Journey of Learning • 19 implied HN points • 13 Mar 23
🕹 Technology Engineering
  1. The makerspace is off to a great start with a lot of paying members and new equipment being added
  2. Acquiring a CNC mill was a great surprise and opens up many possibilities for creating new things
  3. The focus is shifting towards community events and buildathons to keep the organization active and engaging

RDEL #10: How much does task significance improve performance?

Research-Driven Engineering Leadership • 19 implied HN points • 18 Sep 23
💼 Business Engineering
  1. Connecting work with impact significantly improves performance. Demonstrated impact on performance by showing employees how their work benefits others.
  2. Engineers can lose empathy for the significance of their work especially on internal-facing teams. Engineering managers must find ways to connect engineering work with the end user to boost performance.
  3. Tying engineering tasks to real outcomes for customers boosts empathy and productivity. Strategies like sharing customer feedback and shadowing customer success teams can help engineers understand the impact of their work.

Engineering Leadership Principles

Software Engineering by Hugo Dias • 19 implied HN points • 03 Mar 23
🕹 Technology Engineering
  1. High-performing teams have clear purpose, small size, stable structure, and autonomy for improvement.
  2. Ensuring project completion, minimizing waiting times, and shipping regularly are key to effective project delivery.
  3. Product success relies on setting clear goals, measuring progress, iterating frequently, and valuing team ideas in feature development.

SRE Evangelist

software + caffeine = blog • 19 implied HN points • 06 Mar 23
🕹 Technology Engineering
  1. The role of a Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) can vary greatly depending on the company, from Ops+ to Developer+ to 24x7 on-call incident responder.
  2. Successful SREs must be great evangelists, able to communicate effectively and passionately about reliability.
  3. SREs need to be force multipliers within their teams, encouraging a culture of reliability and making sure the value of reliability is understood and embraced.

Coaxial Drones

Barn Lab • 19 implied HN points • 30 May 23
🕹 Technology Engineering
  1. Coaxial drones have improved flight efficiency and longer flight durations due to their balanced torque effect from counter-rotating rotors.
  2. Coaxial drones are simpler in design with fewer motors and Electronic Speed Controllers, resulting in reduced weight and complexity compared to quadrocopters.
  3. Coaxial drones offer larger payload capacities, less noise, and are easier to transport, but their flight mode complexity presents challenges in control design.

How do I evaluate LLM coding agents? 🧑‍💻

LLMs for Engineers • 19 implied HN points • 31 Aug 23
🕹 Technology Engineering
  1. LLM coding agents have advanced from simple code completion to creating entire code repositories. This shows how technology is evolving to assist with more complex software development tasks.
  2. Evaluating these agents relies on benchmarks like HumanEval and MBPP, which test their coding accuracy. These tests are important to see how well the agents are performing.
  3. While there are new tools and benchmarks for LLM coding agents, users might still need to create specific evaluations for their own needs to get the best results. It's essential to tailor assessments to fit unique projects.

Twitter, Threads, and the misunderstood nature of engineering

Midnight Manager • 19 implied HN points • 12 Jul 23
🕹 Technology Engineering
  1. Predictions in the heat of the moment may not always be accurate, it's better to avoid making them.
  2. Complex systems engineering involves problem-solving, invention, and durable product creation, not immediate catastrophic failures if work stops.
  3. Building and managing internet-scale systems like Twitter is extremely challenging due to the complexity of relationships between system components.

What's wrong with JUST generating text?

John Ball inside AI • 1 HN point • 31 Jul 24
🕹 Technology Engineering
  1. Text generation alone isn't enough; it needs to convey real meaning. Without meaning, responses can be confusing or untrustworthy.
  2. Future digital assistants should focus on Natural Language Understanding to provide clearer, more useful answers. This will help developers create better, more reliable bots.
  3. Many generative AI models struggle with context and can produce incorrect information. Solutions involving deeper comprehension of language are needed to address these issues.

Why Prompt Engineering Has Little To Do With Engineering

Teaching computers how to talk • 68 implied HN points • 05 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Engineering
  1. Large language models behave like beings rather than things, displaying strange characteristics.
  2. Instructing models doesn't involve coding; it's about guiding their actions and understanding their behavior, akin to convincing a stubborn teenager rather than traditional engineering.
  3. Similar to Isaac Asimov's fictional robots, large language models can interpret instructions in unforeseen ways, implying a need to humanize and understand them for effective interaction.

From J-10 to J-XD - History

TP’s Substack • 27 implied HN points • 26 Dec 24
🕹 Technology Engineering
  1. China's fighter jet development has evolved significantly from earlier models, with newer jets like the J-10 and J-20 showing vast improvements in technology and performance.
  2. The transition from 4th to 5th generation fighter jets has been important for the PLAAF, highlighting advancements in stealth, electronics, and weaponry.
  3. Looking ahead, the next generation of fighters, like the J-XD, will likely rely on AI and integrate with drones for enhanced combat capabilities.

January 2025 Update

Maker News • 22 implied HN points • 31 Jan 25
🕹 Technology Engineering
  1. There are some cool upgrades and hacks in 3D printing, like using a camera to see inside the printer's nozzle. This can help fix printing problems.
  2. You can now easily update your thermometer's software without needing extra cables by using a simple hack. It's convenient and makes the device more user-friendly.
  3. AI tools are becoming helpful for people who want to create projects but may not have coding skills. This can make technology accessible to more people.

A New Armonica Patent

ASeq Newsletter • 7 implied HN points • 20 Aug 25
🔬 Science Engineering
  1. A new patent for the Armonica indicates a shift from using tortuous nanopores. This may lead to new ways of detecting DNA or other biopolymers.
  2. The earlier version used a complicated meandering structure to slow down the passage of DNA, which helped with detection.
  3. The latest approach seems to be different, suggesting potential improvements in the technology.

A Bet Against AI & Hype-Driven Migrations

ppdispatch • 8 implied HN points • 06 Aug 25
🕹 Technology Engineering
  1. Many developers are questioning the hype around AI agents, believing that most will fail due to errors and costs. They think only simpler, well-designed tools will succeed.
  2. Most language migrations in software development are driven by trends rather than solid reasoning, leading to more problems than benefits. Developers should evaluate if a change is really necessary.
  3. Live coding interviews don't really show a candidate's true skills because the stress of being watched can hurt their performance. There are better ways to assess coding ability.

8 guaranteed ways to annoy your senior engineer

The Caring Techie Newsletter • 21 implied HN points • 12 Feb 25
🕹 Technology Engineering
  1. Always provide details when asking engineers to fix something. It saves everyone time if you describe what’s wrong and what you've tried.
  2. Avoid labeling everything as urgent. This makes it hard for engineers to prioritize and can lead to burnout.
  3. Be clear and prepared for meetings. Vague invites waste time and make it hard for engineers to focus on their work.

How To Create Compound Efficiencies In Engineering

Dev Interrupted • 102 implied HN points • 20 Jul 23
🕹 Technology Engineering
  1. Efficiency improvements in engineering come from continuous habits, not just one-time decisions.
  2. Real-time visibility into metrics and guidance on 'good' metrics can drive organic productivity improvements.
  3. Automating pull requests & code reviews can significantly reduce cycle time and improve productivity in dev teams.

Absolute vs Relative

Sunday Letters • 99 implied HN points • 18 Jan 22
🕹 Technology Engineering
  1. People often think in relative terms rather than absolute ones. For example, you might feel cold or warm based on how you compare the temperature to what you're used to.
  2. When measuring success or progress, it's easy to lower your standards without realizing it. If everyone around you is doing less, you might think you're doing fine, but that can lead to problems.
  3. Not everything can or should be measured absolutely. It’s important to stay aware and not become complacent, like the frog that doesn’t notice the water getting hotter.

Atomic Energy! Can nuclear power our 100GW AI factories?

State of the Future • 29 implied HN points • 12 Nov 24
🕹 Technology Engineering
  1. Nuclear energy might not fully power the future's huge AI data centers, but it could play a significant supporting role. It offers reliable and flexible energy, especially where renewable sources might struggle.
  2. Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) could address the increasing energy demands for AI, but their high costs and complicated regulations are big hurdles. They might work well as part of a mix with other energy sources instead of being standalone options.
  3. The market for nuclear power is growing, driven by needs for cleaner energy and the specific power requirements of data centers. Big tech companies are already looking into using nuclear to meet their future energy demands.

Undeveloping conviction

Sunday Letters • 59 implied HN points • 05 Sep 22
🕹 Technology Engineering
  1. New ideas offer fresh perspectives because you come in without much attachment. This freedom helps in finding solutions to complex problems, whether in life or work.
  2. As you invest time and energy into a solution, it can create a heavy inertia that makes it hard to change courses, even if the solution isn't ideal.
  3. It's important to allow some doubt and explore different options. This can lead to better solutions, as trying new approaches helps you discover alternatives you might not have considered.

51% of Engineering Leaders Report Negative Impact From AI

HackerPulse Dispatch • 10 implied HN points • 24 Jun 25
🕹 Technology Engineering
  1. Many engineering leaders feel stressed about AI because of unrealistic expectations and fears created by hype. This has led to lower team morale and trust issues.
  2. Great software architects are those who can bridge business needs and technical work, using their influence instead of authority to create systems that both developers and stakeholders value.
  3. Understanding that coding is a journey of learning is important. Mistakes are part of the process, and simplifying problems can often lead to better solutions.

A guide to Chaos Engineering [Technique Tuesdays]

Technology Made Simple • 39 implied HN points • 30 Aug 22
🕹 Technology Engineering
  1. Chaos Engineering involves testing a system by simulating real-world failures to build confidence in its resilience.
  2. Implementing Chaos Engineering helps in foreseeing and addressing problems before deployment, improving overall product reliability.
  3. To implement Chaos Engineering, build a hypothesis of normal system behavior, simulate failures, and automate experiments to run continuously.

Manager or short order cook?

Sunday Letters • 59 implied HN points • 28 Aug 22
💼 Business Engineering
  1. Organizations often say they value things like quality, but they might not really mean it. It's important to see if they make real choices based on those values.
  2. If engineers are just completing tasks without context, it can hurt quality and user experience. This 'short order cook' approach can lead to many problems.
  3. When interviewing or leading, ask if engineers can delay releases for quality issues. It’s a good way to understand how much the organization cares about quality.

New tools or old?

Sunday Letters • 79 implied HN points • 17 Apr 22
🕹 Technology Engineering
  1. It's important to learn new tools and technologies to keep growing. Having a variety of skills helps you adapt to changes in your field.
  2. While it's good to be comfortable with familiar tools, relying on them too much can make you stuck. Balance old and new tools to stay current and efficient.
  3. Look for tools that work well together and can be reused. This way, you can get more value out of what you learn and build over time.