Hi and welcome (back)!

In an earnest attempt to be an honest person, I made sure you only had to wait about five and a half weeks this time, as opposed to sixteen months last time, and I feel a little bit proud about it.

The most notable thing I have for you today is my latest post: Getting Back into Self-Hosting. It’s about the fact that I’m getting back into self-hosting things instead of just relying on managed services, and covers a bit of “why” and a bit of “how”. It even has a drawing I drew all by myself, on my reMarkable 2!

In addition to the above masterpiece, I also bring you a few posts by others:

• Things You Should Know About Databases by Mahdi Yusuf is a nice overview of relational databases. It’s a good survey of major points for newcomers to the subject, and a quick refresher for the more experienced. The rest of Architecture Notes seems promising as well.
• Making quieter technology by Nicolas Bouliane talks about how to address some of the outrageously interruptive interactions with technology most of us have normalized. It really hits home for me.
• Choose Boring Technology by Dan McKinley is a true classic in my mind, advocating for building important things with familiar, proven technologies whenever possible. In the age of rushing toward microservices before even making anything useful, this rings true as ever.
• Libraries - how companies do not understand open spaces by Michał Tajchert suggests libraries as a model for open floor plan offices, and makes a lot of great points. While I still have some reservations—e.g., lack of privacy with exposed screen—it’s certainly a more successful model than what I’ve experienced before starting to working remotely.

If you have any thoughts about my post or any of the other linked ones, I’d love to hear them! Am I making an enormous mistake by taking on server patching? Does Mahdi gloss over anything hugely important about relational databases? Is Dan too conservative in his approach to technology choices? Is Michał way off base? Or do you passionately agree with me/them? Let me know by replying to this email, sending one directly to nik@nkantar.com, or tweeting at me.

Thanks for reading!

—Nik