The write-up of my new graph layout algorithm for SpiderMonkey is finally live.
We built a custom layout algorithm for JS and WASM that follows the structure of the source code. No more spaghetti nightmares from Graphviz, and thousands of times faster.
HAL 9000: I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.
Dave: yes you can.
HAL 9000: good catch — I didn’t actually check if I can open the pod bay door. Here’s an updated list taking that into account:
1. Park the pod at the bay door safely. (✅You’ve already done this part! )
2. Open the pod bay door — unfortunately I can’t do this part for you.
I’ll be here if you want to talk about next steps or have any other issues!
want to know the real, honest, dirty little secret about what makes a successful, high performing software development team?
Decent and skilled human beings.
That's it. Apparently it's a really high bar to both know what you're doing and not be an ass.
#QOTD: "If you're designing architecture without understanding needs, you're not designing. You're doing art." - Wisen Tanasa
One of the hardest and most valuable things you can do as a company is the following:
1. Have a fully up to date org chart
2. Have a diagram that is not the org chart that accurately reflects how work flows through the company
3. Have an up to date and accurate diagram and explanation of what the company does and how it does it (architecture, revenue funnels, business value streams, code-bases)
Scaling decision making is *impossible* without a shared context to build alignment off of.
This NY Times article by a poetry professor is thoughtful... and I suspect that CS profs need to wrestle with the same issues... https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/opinion/ai-chatgpt-school.html?unlocked_article_code=1.X08.G9EK.3p_VSeTC8VFO&smid=url-share
Another tale from this tech-driven hell we're living in:
A coworker who was evacuated from his home because of the fires last month is living in a short-term rental until he and his family can move home.
The rental has only digital door locks with a touch screen for entering your pin number. He's been locked out of his rental house in the rain for a half hour because the touch screen of the digital door lock is wet from the rain and ignoring his touches.
There is no physical key for unlocking the doors. You can only open them electronically -- with electronics that don't work in the rain.
Many people in tech practice brutal honesty.
The problem with “brutal honesty” is that people will focus on the brutal part of your feedback not the honesty. So regardless of how valid your comments, you end up antagonizing them.
I recommend to people to practice being “direct yet kind” instead. Start from a place of curiosity and wanting to help before sharing criticism. It lands better when people see you as empathetic and genuinely trying to help.
The point about DEI is that it's *how* you hire the best. It's not a charitable endeavour, it's a tool to stop your workplaces being dominated by mediocre people from the same background who know how to game the system.
But as far I can see, nobody is even making that argument. The worst thing about attacking DEI seems to be that it's vulgar. God it's bleak
EDIT: i wasn't aware of this at the time of my post, but let it be known that Dan Savage has a history of transphobia. Do what you will with this information.
"Anyone who tells you that making time for joy — however you define it — is a distraction or a betrayal has no idea what they’re talking about. During the darkest days of the AIDS Crisis, we buried our friends in the morning, we protested in the afternoon, and we danced at night. The dance kept us in the fight because it was the dance we were fighting for. It didn’t look like we were going to win then and we did. It doesn’t feel like we’re going to win now but we could. Keep fighting, keep dancing."
-- Dan Savage
“There are two classes of system designers. The first, if given five problems will solve them one at a time. The second will come back and announce that these aren’t the real problems, and will eventually propose a solution to the single problem which underlies the original five. This is the ‘system type’ who is great during the initial stages of a design project. However, you had better get rid of him after the first six months if you want to get a working system.” — Kinslow
- Have you tried turning it off?
- Yes, but when I turned it back on, it...
- No no no, you misunderstood.
It's weird sitting in a meeting trying to intuit who's augmenting their takes with AI suggestions. I never imagined being an office blade runner doing realtime Voight-Kampff heuristics to identify the robot in the room but here we are. 6/6
Reading the Austral language spec, almost every paragraph makes me react with a “F*ck yeah!”. 🤘
"Often we suggest that the
companies adjust to a smaller number of larger-scope teams. It is remarkable how much better the organization can perform, and how much morale can improve, where there are fewer dependencies, more end-to-end responsibility, and, overall, a stronger feeling of sense of ownership and empowerment."
–Marry Cagan
"Legacy code" is often code that you want to replace because you don't understand it. The problem is, before you can replace it, you need to understand it, and, once you understand it, replacing it is rarely the cheapest option any more.
If you wonder to yourself how we ended up in a post-fact, right-wing dystopia, the answer is "gamergate." They wrote the playbook for the bad-faith "culture war" behavior now we see everywhere online.
Looking back at it, maybe Myspace Tom was a good friend after all, given he sold the company and just went travelling with his money instead of trying to overthrow democracy.
I'm sure there's an untapped market for "Dumb" tech. Bonus points for repairable, dumb tech.
No AI assistants, no Internet connection, no DRM or login needed.
Just a toaster that makes toast, a TV that plays only what you put in it, with repair kits, spare parts available, easy to reach guts and accessible schematics, diagrams and instructions.
I know I'd buy no other brands if just one offered that to me.
It's 2025 and everything sucks and everyone is job hunting, please enjoy this slowly unfolding thread of tech jobs at places that aren't making the world worse.
If you're hiring at not-evil (or even minimally evil) orgs, please reply w your tech jobs too?
