Weekly Picks. Week #25

Distributed systems theory for the distributed systems engineer #

A short and dense list of references that can act as good starting points for those who are interested in understanding the theory behind distributed computing.

Opportunistic Refactoring #

Martin Fowler explains when is a good time to do code refactoring. According to him it’s pretty much as soon you see an opportunity. Martin points out feature branches as one of the biggest obstacles for opportunistic refactoring.

Advice from 12 founders whose startups failed #

Learning from others’ mistakes is a hard, but we can at least try to be aware of some common fallacies. A short list from 12 founders who talk about their mistakes that contributed to the failure of their companies.

NB: Advice is a form of nostalgia, always take it with a grain of salt.

Anthropology of Mid-Sized Startups #

A 15min read that suggests looking at a startup as a tribe or a religious organisation. I’m not convinced this analogy is accurate, but it’s always interesting to look at the things from many angles.

Shipping the new GitHub Issues #

Another “How GitHub uses GitHub to build GitHub” style writeup of how Issues 3 came to life. I’m always curious to learn how other companies go about implementing big changes and this satisfies my curiosity well.

BEM Front-End Methodology (Block Element Modifier) #

I always felt that front-end is a bit behind the curve of solid engineering methodologies. Perhaps being stuck with CSS and JavaScript makes significant progress difficult to achieve. BEM looks like a step to the right direction. I will try to follow it in my next project.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Director’s cut #

It’s a great cyber-punk themed game that mixes the best elements of GTA (exploring cities), SystemShock (upgrading your character, collecting pass-codes from notebooks) and Splinter Cell (stealth missions). I also has countless ways of achieving the same goal. It also like the sense of humour in it e.g. there’s often an ebook left at the toilet in some apartments.