Article: “Throw away your first draft of your code” by ntietz

For side projects, I’m even using the prototype for a while and then re-factor later once I need to restructure/add features

Article: “Other People’s Busted Software is an Opportunity” by Chris Coyier

Just make software that is reliable. Maybe less features, and more stability.

Article: “User Feedback” by Jim Nielsen

Your users will be using the app no matter what if you solve a (difficult) problem for them. They’ll go through hops to get the results that makes them gain time.

Article: “My Two Decades Living as an American in Europe”

Of course, in order to see Europe as palaces and museums and cathedrals, you have to drag out a huge mental eraser. You have to scrub away most of what Europe actually looks like. If you’re a visitor, you have to forget the airport where you arrived. You have to ignore the ugly freeway you drove on, the bland apartment blocks you passed, on the way to your modern hotel. And if you decide to stay longer, to make a life here, you have to press delete on the nasty politicians and the social tensions, the traffic and the hideous sprawl, that are as much a part of life here as they are anywhere else.

To come abroad is to understand yourself as a product of your own culture, and to see just how specific that culture is. So much of what I thought of as my personality — whatever made me different from other people — turned out to pale in comparison with what made me similar to other people, especially other Americans.

Article: “Do I need a consultant, contractor or employee?” by Jacob Kaplan-Moss

I always had a hard time answering the question of what my company does: is it contracting or is it consulting. It turns out a bit in the middle, and depends on the clients/projects.

You should hire a consultant when you need help with strategy and/or vision, and/or you need very complex deep domain knowledge. You should hire contractors when you have specific, well-defined outcomes and need people to execute.

Illustration: “Timo Kuilder”

Illustration: “Magoz”

https://magoz.com/enlightenment-print

Article: “AI crap” by Drew DeVault

The biggest lasting changes from machine learning will be more like the following:

• A reduction in the labor force for skilled creative work
• The complete elimination of humans in customer-support roles
• More convincing spam and phishing content, more scalable scams
• SEO hacking content farms dominating search results
• Book farms (both eBooks and paper) flooding the market
• AI-generated content overwhelming social media
• Widespread propaganda and astroturfing, both in politics and advertising

Article: “Why are websites embarrassing?” by Robin Rendle

First, I think great web design requires discipline.

But really the baseline of web design is so low because there’s a lack of tenderness, care, and empathy. It’s because we don’t see the making of a website as a worthy profession. It’s because we hope to squeeze the last bit of juice from the orange by mulching people in between modals and pop ups and cookie banners.