Welcome to Product for Engineers, a newsletter created by PostHog for engineers and founders who want to build successful startups. 1. You have an information bottleneck We have a simple theory about
Want to stay current with Arthur’s writing? Sign up to get an email every time a new column comes out. The Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor has described our times as the “Age of Authenticity,” mea
I have observed that the best engineering managers I know are often also great debuggers. Why would this be? What is it about these two tasks that has such an overlapping skill set? A great debugger i
As templates, tutorials and tools become ubiquitous, technical skills are more accessible than ever. It’s no longer enough to be able to simply draw or design. Now, our US editor-at-large argues, you
In the web development world, it’s hard to go more than a few days without hearing about Vite. Its popularity has skyrocketed since its release in April 2020. At the time of writing this post, the pro
This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. It was high safari season in Tanzania, the long rains over, the grasses yellowing and dry. Land Cruisers were
Homepages are notoriously hard to write. As companies grow, they expand in two different dimensions: The product(s) get more and more features Marketing targets more and more segments As engineers rus
Eight names are listed as authors on “Attention Is All You Need,” a scientific paper written in the spring of 2017. They were all Google researchers, though by then one had left the company. When the
About a year ago, I tried thinking which database I should choose for my next project, and came to the realization that I don't really know the differences of databases enough. I went to different dat
Rules of thumb, and general philosophy Below you’ll find a collection of general principles we try to keep in mind at 37signals when communicating with teammates, within departments, across the compan
Mentorship, coaching, sponsorship: three different — and equally important — tools for developing talent One of the main responsibilities of a leader/manager is helping their staff develop. Mentorship
Want to stay current with Arthur’s writing? Sign up to get an email every time a new column comes out. Are you feeling a little guilty about reading this article? Not because of the content, of course
“Something’s a little bit off here.” That’s what I predict your first thought to be upon seeing my cubicle for the first time. There’s no screen or mouse in sight. Instead there’s a guy hammering away
“What metrics should leaders use to measure the individual performance of developers on their teams?” I get asked this question a lot. I’ve asked myself this question before, too – both as a developer
Nearly 2,000 years after it was written, Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations is rediscovered by each succeeding generation. / From the Magazine Winter 2024 The idea that wisdom is found through exploration
Subscribe for counterintuitive, surprising, and impactful stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday Does this sound familiar? You have an important project due, but as soon as you log in for the
By Peter Ramsey 25 Mar 24 Case studyDiving deeper1. The expectation of humanity2. An evolving expected value3. The rise of ChatGPTChallenge yourself CHATBOTS •10 min read•Listen "Peter, we're thinking
Pretty much every company I know is looking for a way to benefit from Large Language Models. Even if their executives don’t see much applicability, their investors likely do, so they’re staring at the
Generative AI is attracting attention as the technology has progressed in leaps and bounds in recent years, offering fresh ways to solve user problems. Since it's a relatively new area in terms of its
home subscribe → rss | email Here is a simple process for shipping software projects that works. First, decompose the project into a stream1 of headlines. Then pick an aggressive date to ship the firs
This story was funded by our members. Join Longreads and help us to support more writers. Maggie Slepian | Longreads | April 2, 2024 | 5,423 words Spring in Montana is a season of waiting, trapped in
Most people have heard of Yosemite’s Half Dome or Yellowstone’s Old Faithful, but how about the largest national park? Or which gets the most visitors each year? USA TODAY rounded up answers to the most popular park questions to help travelers better understand these national treasures and share…
Want to stay current with Arthur’s writing? Sign up to get an email every time a new column comes out. When one of my now-adult kids was in middle school, I had a small epiphany about parenting. I had
Breaking Down Tasks In a management group, someone asked for resources on teaching planning. I shared a link to this series on estimation, but quickly they came back and told me that there was somethi
Getty Images/Westend61 Kelsey Piper is a senior writer at Future Perfect, Vox’s effective altruism-inspired section on the world’s biggest challenges. She explores wide-ranging topics like climate cha
Yesterday morning, I asked on Twitter: Does anyone have good writing about fear + programming (and how being afraid to make important changes makes you a worse programmer?) and I feel like there’s thi
Engineering TLDR: At Doppler, we've enhanced our code reviews by weaving storytelling into git history, making reviews insightful and efficient. This approach, focusing on clear commit narratives, not
In the weave room, a worker uses a classic Crompton & Knowles loom to make suitable fabric for some 18th-century furniture. Bridget Badore Even before you walk into the prefabricated steel building se
If feedback isn't a gift, what is it? It's data. About our impact on a particular individual at a particular point in time. And while it may be "true" in the sense that the feedback-giver is accuratel
We ran into an interesting issue recently. On the one hand, it was routine: we had a bug — a regression — and the team quickly jumped on it, getting it root caused and fixed. But on the other, this pa
In software, engineering and design are infantile in existence compared to other sectors: mechanical, electrical, aerospace, and environmental engineering. Engineering encompasses a broad range of dis
Universally Unique Identifiers, also known as UUIDs, are designed to allow developers to generate unique IDs in a way that guarantees uniqueness without knowledge of other systems. These are especiall
Here is an origin story about origin stories. Once upon a time, we knew where we came from: Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, the Fall. Then came modern science, modern doubt. Geology, paleontology: T
This is another post in our Code Health series. A version of this post originally appeared in Google bathrooms worldwide as a Google Testing on the Toilet episode. You can download a printer-friendly
Claude and ChatGPT for ad-hoc sidequests 22nd March 2024 Here is a short, illustrative example of one of the ways in which I use Claude and ChatGPT on a daily basis. I recently learned that the Adiron
“When things aren’t adding up in your life, it’s time to start subtracting the things that aren’t helping and that are holding you back.” —Unknown The path to a richer, more satisfying life isn’t alwa
Sigal Samuel is a senior reporter for Vox’s Future Perfect and co-host of the Future Perfect podcast. She writes primarily about the future of consciousness, tracking advances in artificial intelligen
A few smart things I’ve read recently: “People in their 30s know where the world is going because they’re going to do it. I’m in my 80s so I have no idea.” - Daniel Kahneman “Every group of people who
For the past twenty or so years, my friend Chad and I have gone to Las Vegas for the first weekend of the N.C.A.A. basketball tournament. Memory often fails when it comes to gambling, but I believe th
I can only code no more than 2 hours a day, laying in my bed and with a video playing in the background so I don’t feel lonely! That was a typical day in my life 5 years ago. I was having panic attack