The hottest Software Engineering Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Technology Topics

Why Platformer is leaving Substack

Platformer • 12755 implied HN points • 12 Jan 24
🕹 Technology AI Apps Innovation Social media Software Engineering
  1. Platformer has decided to move off of Substack and migrate to a new website powered by Ghost
  2. The decision was influenced by concerns over how Substack moderates content and promotes publications
  3. Substack faced controversies over hosting extremist content, leading to Platformer's decision to leave for a platform with more robust content moderation policies

How to lead projects from start to finish as a software engineer

High Growth Engineer • 1285 implied HN points • 10 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Software Engineering Project management Leadership Communication Documentation
  1. Successful software engineers need to know how to lead projects, not just code
  2. Key project management steps include kickoff, setup, planning, execution, launch, and close-out
  3. Communication, alignment on goals, and iterative feedback are crucial throughout the project lifecycle

I wish I started doing this on day 0 of my career as an engineer

High Growth Engineer • 1574 implied HN points • 18 Feb 24
💼 Business Productivity Career development Software Engineering Time management Planning
  1. Planning is crucial to avoid feeling unproductive and getting pulled in different directions throughout the day.
  2. By planning your day, you focus on what's important and maintain control over your daily tasks.
  3. Even a simple daily plan of one main goal can significantly improve your productivity and time management.

You're not a true software engineer unless...

A Perfectly Cromulent Software Engineer • 99 implied HN points • 07 Apr 24
🕹 Technology Software Engineering Tech community Humor Alcoholism Online Communities
  1. In some tech communities, there's a concept called 'No True Scotsman' fallacy where group definitions get reshaped to exclude counterexamples.
  2. Humor in tech, especially when joking about expertise, can inadvertently lead to gatekeeping and exclusion, promoting dogmatism and fragmentation.
  3. Tech choices should not define our worth or belonging - divisive jokes can lead to isolated communities that hinder growth and acceptance.

Simple tricks to level up your technical design docs in 2024 👌

High Growth Engineer • 1108 implied HN points • 28 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Career development Documentation Software Engineering Feedback
  1. Design docs help to reduce risk, document decisions, and align on technical choices.
  2. Make design docs concise with only essential information for decision-making to ensure they get read and progress smoothly.
  3. Get individual feedback first before group sessions to make the review process more efficient and effective.
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How to grow from a mid-level to senior Data Engineer

SeattleDataGuy’s Newsletter • 694 implied HN points • 14 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Data Engineering Software Engineering Learning Teamwork Leadership
  1. To grow from mid to senior level, it's important to continuously learn and improve, share new knowledge, work on code improvements, and become an expert in a certain domain.
  2. Making the team better is crucial - focus on mentoring, sharing knowledge, and creating a positive team environment. Think beyond individual tasks to impact the overall team outcomes.
  3. Seniority includes building not just technical solutions, but solutions that customers love. Challenge requirements, understand the business and product, and take initiative in problem-solving.

The Sliding Window Technique[Technique Tuesdays]

Technology Made Simple • 279 implied HN points • 28 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Algorithms Problem Solving Software Engineering Artificial Intelligence Data Structures
  1. The sliding window technique is a powerful algorithmic model used for problem-solving in coding interviews and software engineering, offering efficiency and practicality.
  2. Benefits of using the sliding window technique include reducing duplicate work, maintaining consistent linear time complexity, and its utility in AI feature extraction processes.
  3. Spotting the sliding window technique involves identifying keywords like maximum, minimum, longest, or shortest, dealing with continuous elements, and converting brute-force approaches into efficient solutions.

Weekly Top Picks #67

The Algorithmic Bridge • 116 implied HN points • 18 Mar 24
🕹 Technology AI Tech news Artificial Intelligence Software Engineering Data science
  1. The post discusses Nvidia GTC keynote, BaaS in science, Apple's potential collaboration with Google Gemini, and more key AI topics of the week.
  2. It features conversations between Sam Altman and Lex Friedman, touches on jobs in the AI era, and examines the response from NYT to OpenAI.
  3. There's a question about whether OpenAI's Sora model is trained using YouTube videos, among other intriguing topics.

Building a Simple Live Streaming Platform[System Design Sundays]

Technology Made Simple • 119 implied HN points • 18 Mar 24
🕹 Technology System Design Platforms Coding Software Engineering
  1. When designing a live streaming platform like Twitch, key steps include ingestion, transcoding, packaging, CDN utilization, and database management.
  2. Challenges like low latency, scalability, and reliability must be addressed for the success of a live streaming platform.
  3. To enhance a streaming service further, consider advanced technologies like adaptive bitrate algorithms, advanced caching, and community features.

A quick introduction to Memory Pools [Math Mondays]

Technology Made Simple • 179 implied HN points • 27 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Memory management Software Engineering Optimization Performance Programming
  1. Memory pools are a way to pre-allocate and reuse memory blocks in software, which can significantly enhance performance.
  2. Benefits of memory pools include reduced fragmentation, quick memory management, and improved performance in programs with frequent memory allocations.
  3. Drawbacks of memory pools include fixed-size blocks, overhead in management, and potential for memory exhaustion if not carefully managed.

Engineering Managers Should Not Exist

Victor’s Substack • 41 HN points • 26 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Management Software Engineering Project management HR Consulting
  1. Software engineering managers should not exist as they generally take on multiple roles poorly, whereas specialists could excel at each task.
  2. Engineering managers often were mediocre engineers who compensated by picking up non-engineering tasks and ended up in managerial roles.
  3. Best teams often function well without an engineering manager observing their every move, allowing engineers to focus and be more productive.

Beyond Guesswork: The Art and Science of Project Estimation

Mindful Matrix • 179 implied HN points • 08 Feb 24
💼 Business Project management Software Engineering Risk Analysis Communication
  1. Project estimation is a critical skill influencing project success; it involves setting realistic expectations, aligning efforts, and managing resources effectively.
  2. Key considerations in estimation include understanding project scope, conducting risk analysis, and utilizing estimation strategies like historical analysis and buffer times.
  3. Transparency and communication are crucial in estimation; transparency helps manage stakeholder expectations while effective communication ensures clarity and trust in the estimation process.

Attitude: The Secret Ingredient in Software Engineering and Beyond

Mindful Matrix • 219 implied HN points • 29 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Software Engineering Growth mindset Continuous Learning Feedback Collaboration
  1. Having a growth mindset is essential in software engineering and life. Viewing challenges as opportunities for growth helps in overcoming obstacles and achieving success.
  2. Failure should be seen as a learning experience. Embracing mistakes, analyzing them, and using them as lessons leads to resilience and growth.
  3. Receiving feedback with an open mind and using it as a tool for improvement contributes to rapid skill development and fosters a collaborative work environment.

AI and Knowledge Work

Tanay’s Newsletter • 119 implied HN points • 22 Feb 24
🕹 Technology AI Software Engineering Customer Support Consulting Productivity
  1. AI is enhancing productivity and quality in knowledge work like software engineering and customer support.
  2. AI benefits are not uniform; it tends to help lower performers more, but can also assist top performers by reducing menial tasks.
  3. AI is not a cure-all; it has limitations and understanding when to use it is crucial for optimal results.

What makes a software engineer effective?

Elevate • 477 implied HN points • 29 Nov 23
🕹 Technology Software Engineering Team Dynamics Communication Personal Development Problem Solving
  1. Effectiveness in software engineering is about focusing on what matters most and delivering value to users, the business, and career with the available time.
  2. Traits that help software engineers be effective include caring about user needs, being a good problem solver, and keeping things simple while prioritizing quality.
  3. To excel as an exceptional software engineer, embrace change, balance technical debt and innovation, and emphasize continuous learning and teamwork.

Zenful Estimates: Ditching Task Estimates to Build a Faster Team

Dev Interrupted • 51 implied HN points • 14 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Software Engineering Project management
  1. Engineering task estimates are often costly in time and resources, leading to inaccuracies and increased stress within the team.
  2. Distinguishing between task estimation and project estimation can help teams prioritize better and allocate resources more effectively.
  3. By adopting a 'Zenful' approach that focuses on project estimates rather than granular task estimates, teams can save time, reduce stress, and improve overall efficiency.

How to beat the critical path

Wednesday Wisdom • 47 implied HN points • 13 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Software Engineering Project management Planning
  1. To beat the critical path, the first step is to acknowledge its existence.
  2. Effective project planning, like utilizing the Critical Path Method (CPM), can prevent delays and ensure timely project completion.
  3. Maintaining a Directed Acyclic Graph of project activities with expected durations is crucial in project management to identify critical paths and manage dependencies effectively.

7 Actionable Tips to Become Great at Software Engineering

Brain Bytes • 238 implied HN points • 03 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Software Engineering Continuous Learning Soft skills
  1. Set a horizon goal to guide your learning and career decisions; it could be mastering a specific area, building a professional network, or creating something new.
  2. Stay updated with new technologies and coding methodologies to remain relevant in the tech industry; consider leveraging tools like AI to enhance your work.
  3. Reflect on your career as if looking back 100 years from now to focus on meaningful, long-lasting contributions; prioritize mastering programming basics, continuous learning, soft skills, and understanding software development methodologies.

How To Fast Track Your Career As An Engineer

SeattleDataGuy’s Newsletter • 930 implied HN points • 12 Aug 23
💼 Business Career growth Software Engineering Tech industry Data Analysis Career Advice
  1. Focusing on impact in your work can accelerate your career growth and lead to more satisfying outcomes.
  2. To have more impact in tech, run towards unsolved problems, be scrappy in finding solutions, and prioritize ruthlessly.
  3. Impact can be achieved by reducing costs or increasing revenue, and understanding how your work contributes to these areas is essential for career advancement in engineering.

They should have fired him

A Perfectly Cromulent Software Engineer • 1 HN point • 21 Apr 24
🕹 Technology Software Engineering Career development Work Environment Management Productivity
  1. Transitioning to a traditional job from freelance work can be a significant change in routine and responsibilities.
  2. Challenges and growth opportunities can arise when tasked with larger, more ambiguous projects that test technical abilities.
  3. Recognizing toxic behavior in oneself or others, such as being uncooperative and rude, is essential in maintaining a positive work environment.

AI Roundup 057: Claude 3

Artificial Ignorance • 42 implied HN points • 08 Mar 24
🕹 Technology AI Software Engineering Social media
  1. Anthropic released Claude 3, a chatbot with impressive features like a 200K token context window, vision support, and multiple language capabilities.
  2. Stability AI launched Stable Diffusion 3 with a Multimodal Diffusion Transformer architecture, showcasing advancements in foundation models.
  3. The US government's charges against a former Google engineer highlight the ongoing concerns of intellectual property theft in AI, affecting relationships and technology transfers with China.

The need for beautiful code

Wednesday Wisdom • 56 implied HN points • 28 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Software Engineering Code Quality Maintenance Team Collaboration
  1. Investing time in writing beautiful code is crucial for code longevity and maintainability.
  2. Code that 'mostly works' is not the standard to aim for; focus on creating code that is always functional and meets significant requirements.
  3. Developing a culture of producing beautiful code in a team requires more than guidelines and prizes; it involves a collective shift in mindset and commitment.

Beauty in Simplicity

Mindful Matrix • 119 implied HN points • 21 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Software Engineering Principles Design Simplicity Innovation
  1. Simplicity in software engineering is crucial for elegant solutions. Simple code is easier to maintain, read, and collaborate on.
  2. Prioritizing simplicity leads to streamlined debugging, improved scalability, and lower technical debt. It makes adapting and deploying software faster and more user-centric.
  3. Applying simplicity principles involves starting simple, avoiding premature optimization, focusing on core features, implementing incrementally, and leveraging existing tools. Embracing simplicity in coding doesn't mean avoiding complexity entirely, but finding beauty and efficiency in straightforward solutions.

Software Engineering Myths Wasting Your Time

Brain Bytes • 139 implied HN points • 10 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Software Engineering
  1. Software engineering myths include the idea that you have to learn everything in the field, but it's more practical to focus on specific areas and have a general understanding of others.
  2. The belief that adding more programmers speeds up development isn't always true; it can lead to more delays due to increased need for communication and management.
  3. Software development involves more than just writing code; it includes tasks like planning, testing, deploying, and maintaining software.

These 7 Software Engineering Skills Give You an Unfair Advantage

Brain Bytes • 119 implied HN points • 17 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Software Engineering Cybersecurity Automation Version Control Cloud Computing
  1. Thinking like a hacker helps in identifying and fixing security flaws before they are exploited, crucial in today's cybersecurity landscape.
  2. Understanding different devices through cross-platform critical thinking gives a competitive edge and promotes reusability of business logic.
  3. Scripting and automation for repetitive tasks enhances productivity by ensuring consistency, accuracy, and freeing up time for more complex work.

Software Liability for Armchair Quaterbacks

Cybersect • 78 implied HN points • 06 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Cybersecurity Software Engineering Regulation
  1. Armchair experts in both football and software development have strong opinions without real expertise.
  2. Software bugs are complex and not solely due to moral weakness, but rather the inherent difficulty of preventing them.
  3. Proposed software regulations may not improve cybersecurity but instead burden smaller companies and benefit larger corporations.

Let's get rid of security reviews

Frankly Speaking • 254 implied HN points • 16 Nov 23
🕹 Technology Security Development Software Engineering
  1. The current security review process is outdated and not aligned with modern development practices.
  2. Implementing efficient and effective security measures may involve integrating software engineers with security teams.
  3. Scaling security efforts requires a rethink of traditional security review processes towards more collaborative and contextual approaches.

Update #70: Apple Shutters Autonomous EV Project and Griffin + Hawk Compete with Transformers

The Gradient • 24 implied HN points • 12 Mar 24
🕹 Technology AI Autonomous Vehicles Generative AI Research Studies Software Engineering
  1. Apple terminated its Project Titan autonomous electric car project and shifted focus to generative AI, impacting hundreds of employees.
  2. Challenges faced by Project Titan included leadership changes, strategic shifts, and difficulties in developing self-driving technology.
  3. Research proposes RNN-based architectures Hawk and Griffin that compete with Transformers, offering more efficiency for language models.

Two types of software engineers

Register Spill • 825 implied HN points • 09 Apr 23
🕹 Technology Software Engineering
  1. There are two types of software engineers based on how they perceive the difficulty of problems.
  2. Type 1 engineers believe non-technical problems are easy because people can just do X, while Type 2 engineers find them hard due to people being involved.
  3. Type 2 engineering embraces building with and for people, recognizing and accepting the messiness that comes with human involvement.

A deeper than average look into Stacks [Math Mondays]

Technology Made Simple • 99 implied HN points • 21 Nov 23
🕹 Technology Programming Data Structures Algorithms Computer Science Software Engineering
  1. Stacks are powerful data structures in software engineering and can be modified extensively to suit different use cases.
  2. Implementing Stacks using a Singly Linked List can be beneficial for dynamic resizing, though Arrays are often preferred due to memory considerations.
  3. Exploring variations like Persistent Stacks, Limiting Stack Size, Ensuring Type Safety, Thread Safety, Tracking Min/Max, and Undo Operations can enhance the functionality and efficiency of Stacks in various scenarios.

Exploring recent Python repositories

Mostly Python • 314 implied HN points • 22 Jun 23
🕹 Technology Programming Open Source Web Development Software Engineering APIs
  1. Use the GitHub API to explore popular new Python projects and find potential projects to contribute to.
  2. Consider filtering out AI-focused projects when exploring Python repositories to discover a variety of coding projects.
  3. Pruning repositories using specific terms can help identify non-AI Python projects to work on, providing valuable learning opportunities.