PinkLetter - Scratch the bleeding edge itch (on the side)

Welcome to my PinkLetter. A short, weekly, technology-agnostic, and pink newsletter where we cultivate timeless skills about web development.

My Ramblings This Week

One year ago, they threw me in a product that had failed to launch.

They gave me a simple task: make money.

Yeah..

Let’s leave aside the fact I sucked and still suck as a product developer. The main reason the product failed once and we are still not making money is one.

You bet it’s legacy code.

I’m sure nobody starts their day thinking how can I write legacy code today? Still, the original developers managed to create a mess of hacks with:

• Ruby on Rails
• TypeScript and Angular
• RxJs
• Redux
• Two codebases
• Two servers
• …

All of that for a CRUD application.

Don’t get me wrong, those are excellent technologies when the complexity is justified and when they are deployed properly. But it’s a recipe for disaster if neither condition is true.

I know, I know, bleeding edge tech is cool.

You know what? If the goal of the project is having fun or learning stuff, then go for it!

But if the goal is to build a business from scratch, code cannot be an hindrance: write the most boring, predictable, straightforward stuff ever—which is a challenge by itself.

It will make you so efficient your workday will shrink and create space to scratch on the side the bleeding edge itch we all have. Not to count, this will make you more effective when you switch back to building the business.

Elsewhere on the Web

Tidepool Employee Handbook by Tidepool

Q: Why can’t we just say “No politics at work?”

A: Our mission is inherently political. Also, one of our values is to “fight the default of exclusion.”

(Riccardo: This is sooooo good!)

Optional Chaining: The ?. Operator in TypeScript by Marius Schulz

In this post, I will go over the following three optional chaining operators and explain why we might want to use them in our TypeScript or JavaScript code.

How to create (lots!) of sample time-series data with PostgreSQL generate_series() by Ryan Booz

Generating sample time-series data with the PostgreSQL generate_series() function is a useful skill to have when evaluating new database features, creating demonstrations, or testing insert and query patterns. Learn what PostgreSQL generate_series() is and how to use it for basic data generation.