I've been cross posting to "X" for the few people left who aren't nazis, but "X" just changed its APIs in a way that makes it impossible to do that automatically, so I'm done. If you'd like to follow me, I'm @allenholub.bsky.social (though it's rather quiet over there) and

Last night, I was chatting in the hotel bar with a bunch of conference speakers at Goto-CPH about how evil PR-driven code reviews are (we were all in agreement), and Martin Fowler brought up an interesting point. The best time to review your code is when you use it. That is,

Two people arguing about a decision (at least past the point where any new information is emerging) is a bad sign. I'd ask myself a few questions: (1) Has the incentive system within your company encouraged competition? If your bonus depends on you being "right," you'll fight

Leadership is a characteristic of an individual. It is NOT a position to which somebody can be appointed.

A periodic reminder that leadership and management are two entirely different things. Calling a manager a "leader" is an appalling bit of doublespeak. You cannot appoint or assign a leader. You cannot be promoted through the ranks to a "leadership position." You cannot learn

I want to cut through the "Agenic AI" gatekeeping BS for a moment. Putting the conclusion first: If you know how to build a microservice and make a REST call, you're an "AI-Agent Developer." Congratulations! Everything else is trivia. An AI "Agent" is not something complicated

Ya know. I keep hearing how AI will eliminate "junior devs," but the same tech requires senior devs to fix, validate, and test the generated code. How are we to create senior devs if there are no junior devs? Just askin'.

There is an inherent problem in building an "ecosystem," as compared to an application. My Apple TV is currently useless because the sound (routed: Apple TV→HDMI→TV→HDMI→sound bar) is almost half a second out of sync with the video (which has only one hop). Apple has a

OO is so misunderstood today - a lot of people think it means "whatever java programmers do in Spring" but that's not remotely it. In case you're interested:

C++ is evolving into a culmination of useless features that make some people feel smart about themselves while not solving any real engineering problem. Its getting slower and more cumbersome on each release.

For those saying "English is the new programming language." Option A: "Make it dark green ... no, lighter ... no, a bit less blueish ... no, a bit more pinkish ... no, a little more greyish ... no, a hint darker" Option B: use #7DB097 Which option is likely to stick?

<rant> The gatekeeping associated with AI is beginning to annoy me. I have to stay on top of this stuff, so I watch a lot of videos from sources like O'Reilly as well as conference videos. Most of the stuff I watch is useless. In the worst case, the talks are just infomercials,

One of the critical issues surrounding AI chatbots is user trust. We've all experienced some lame support bot providing *no* support at all. Sometimes, it parrots a FAQ at us; sometimes it doesn't even do that (and those FAQs hardly ever answer actual questions frequently asked

AI-generated code is here to stay, but there are issues. One thing to consider is the sheer size of AI-generated code. An LLM is not particularly concerned with creating small, elegant solutions. It just puts together things that (mostly) "work" by copying from places like

The attached graphic is an excellent summary of everything that a good Product person does. You will note that "_project_ management," "manage tickets," "compel or browbeat people to build X," and "use Jira" are nowhere to be seen. One of the enormous failures of Scrum, IMO, is

Demanding a certification in a single development process (such as Scrum) is like demanding that a Michelin 3-star chef be certified in boiling water. No single process is adequate. The best processes are created by the teams that use them, and they involve elements from "all"

I am a bit skeptical of the "everyone will vibe their own apps" future. Nothing to do with the LLMs or agents. Its just that 3d printing existed for years. It is relatively affordable and simple these days. And people still buy plastic widgets that they could print.

Learned helplessness happens when you are regularly exposed to punishment for things you have no control over. You learn that punishment is inevitable, no matter what you do. The result is passivity. You don’t bother to try to improve because there’s no point. The random

I have often been told when advocating for team autonomy that some teams want to be told what to do. They often feel uncomfortable when making decisions. I'm struck by the contrast between that and what we actually do: programming and product development require creativity and

Any kind of formula you use in a meeting (like a retro) is problematic to me. Following one by rote seems the opposite of agility, and an imposed formula violates team autonomy. That said, a formulaic approach might have its place in certain conditions: (1) The formula is

@allenholub The stated purpose of the "Lightweight Process Summit" at Snowbird was to gather the proponents from the various lightweight processes to see if we could forge a common statement of values. So Martin Fowler, Alistair Cockburn, and I invited as many people as we could think of to