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September 17, 2026

@iamdevloper: week of 17 September

> iamdevloper --digest --week=2026-09-17
> 10 posts returned ▋
Another week where the roadmap says AI and the changelog says bug fixes, which feels about right.
This week  
 
[01]
The most dangerous phrase in software isn't 'quick fix', it's 'while I'm in here'. That's where the real damage happens.
open on x →
 
[02]
Nobody has ever read the documentation. They have read the Slack thread where someone explained it once, three years ago, to a different person.
open on x →
 
[03]
A ticket estimated at one day and a ticket estimated at one week take the same amount of time to actually finish: three weeks.
open on x →
 
[04]
Every incident retro produces the same action item: 'add more monitoring'. We now have more monitoring than product.
open on x →
 
[05]
What's the daftest reason you've personally caused a production outage? Extra points if it was a semicolon.
open on x →
 
[06]
Caching invalidation isn't hard because the logic is complex. It's hard because everyone downstream quietly built a workaround for the bug it's meant to fix.
open on x →
 
[07]
Left a comment on the PR just to prove I'd actually read it. Nobody checks if the comment makes sense.
open on x →
 
[08]
What's the oldest TODO comment you've personally walked past in a codebase? Mine references a framework the company stopped using in 2016.
open on x →
 
[09]
Turned on the feature flag for 1% of users. The 1% found it immediately and none of the other 99% ever will.
open on x →
 
[10]
Wrote a regex to solve one problem. Now I have a regex and a support rota for the regex.
open on x →
 
Hiring  
Looking for developers? A listing runs here and on @iamdevloper. Reply to this email to ask about a slot.
From the archive  
Same week, earlier years. No feed is going to show you these again.
 
15 SEPTEMBER 2020
90% of programming is asking the right question so the answer shows up on page 1 of Google’s search results
open on x →
 
14 SEPTEMBER 2017
1/3 of US bandwidth is used by Netflix...

the rest is used by `rm -rf node_modules && npm install`
open on x →
 
16 SEPTEMBER 2019
You either die a web developer, or live long enough to call yourself a software engineer.
open on x →
> If this made you exhale through your nose, forward it to whoever you'd have sent the screenshot to.
> end of transmission
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