2024.09.23 - Why Scrum is Stressing You Out

Title: 2024.09.23 – Why Scrum Is Stressing You Out

self‑hosting & web of the ’90s & Goodhart’s Law & 金刚功 & 五福 & 弄潮儿

This Week’s Hot Topics

Why Scrum Is Stressing You Out https://rethinkingsoftware.substack.com/p/why-scrum-is-stressing-you-out
Why would sprints be more stressful? Aren’t they just more frequent, shorter deadlines instead of the occasional huge one? Doesn’t that save you from having to crunch at the end of a project? This reasoning sounds logical, but it overlooks important details in the real, lived experience of today’s software developers. Here’s how I think sprints are doing us wrong.

A Gentle Guide to Self‑Hosting Your Software https://knhash.in/gentle-guide-to-self-hosting/
And like every hobby, there are a lot of gatekeepers—people who believe you must have a personal server you can physically touch to call yourself a self‑hoster. Eh. Don’t listen to them. Self‑hosting is as much about the software as it is about the hardware. I say we get the enthusiasts by any means necessary; they will eventually grow into full‑blown self‑hosting. Or not. It doesn’t matter! This is supposed to be fun—why are you stopping people from having fun?

The Weird Web of the ’90s https://gomakethings.com/the-weird-web-of-the-90s/
A lot of folks in the Indie Web space call this a “digital garden.” While I like the concept, the idea of an entire website as a wiki always felt too limiting, too rigid for me. Then I stumbled on Tom Critchlow’s article on Streams, Campfires, and Gardens, and something clicked. My personal site isn’t just a digital garden.

AI Code Generation as an Agent of Tech‑Debt Creation https://greaterdanorequalto.com/ai-code-generation-as-an-agent-of-tech-debt-creation/
That famous Steve Jobs line, “A‑players hire A‑players, B‑players hire C‑players?” Well, it may have been heartless, but there’s a logic to it. That said, I think it needs updating for the modern era: “A‑players hire A‑players, B‑players hire C‑players who hire AI chatbots, and pretty soon nobody knows how the heck anything works anymore.” Related:

• The Subprime AI Crisis
• Legacy Modernization Meets GenAI
• Forget ChatGPT: Why Researchers Now Run Small AIs on Their Laptops
• Try Out OpenAI o1 in GitHub Copilot and Models
• Empowering YouTube Creators with Generative AI
• LLaMA‑Omni: Seamless Speech Interaction with Large Language Models
• Void: An Open‑Source Cursor Alternative
• AIEditor: A Next‑Gen Rich Text Editor for AI

Deep Reads

From Node.js to Deno: How It All Began https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxitJn9MwYs
After your enthusiastic feedback on our Node.js documentary, we’re excited to present a special feature on Deno! Created by Ryan Dahl and Bert Belder—the innovative minds who contributed a lot to Node.js (one of them even created Node.js)—Deno represents a new chapter in the world of JavaScript runtimes. In this short documentary we explore Deno’s origins, the motivations behind its development, and the valuable lessons learned along the way. Join us as we dive into the fascinating world of Deno and discover what sets it apart from Node.js! Related: Deno 2.0 Release Candidate.

How Discord Reduced WebSocket Traffic by 40% https://discord.com/blog/how-discord-reduced-websocket-traffic-by-40-percent
At Discord we’re always looking for ways to improve our services and boost performance. After all, the faster our app gets, the sooner you can get back to your friends and conversations! Over the last six months we embarked on a quest to cut the bandwidth our clients use—especially on iOS and Android—hoping that lower bandwidth would lead to a more responsive experience.

Optimising for High‑Latency Environments https://csswizardry.com/2024/09/optimising-for-high-latency-environments/
Chrome has recently begun adding Round‑Trip‑Time (RTT) data to the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX). This provides fascinating insights into the network topography of our visitors and how much we might be impacted by high‑latency regions.

Embracing Introversion in UX https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2024/09/embracing-introversion-in-ux/
This article celebrates the power of introversion in UX research and design, going beyond what’s been covered in existing discussions. Victor Yocco debunks common misconceptions, highlights the unique strengths introverted researchers and designers bring, and offers practical tips for thriving in a field that often seems geared toward extroverts—all sprinkled with real stories from introverted UX practitioners.

Goodhart’s Law in Software Engineering https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/goodharts-law-in-software-engineering/
I guess the best I can say is “use your best engineering judgment.” Evolution is mindless; people aren’t. Again, not an actionable or scalable bit of advice, but as I get older I keep finding “use your best judgment” is all we can do. Knowledge work is ineffable and irreducible.

Advancing Our Chef Infrastructure https://slack.engineering/advancing-our-chef-infrastructure/
Enhancing safety and scalability.

Fresh Finds

Oracle, it’s time to free JavaScript. WebKit Features in Safari 18.0 2024: 0.5% of the Global Top 200 Websites Use Valid HTML React 19 Cheat Sheet deck.gl: GPU‑powered, highly performant large‑scale data visualization FortuneSheet: a drop‑in JavaScript spreadsheet library that provides rich features like Excel and Google Sheets

Announcing Swift 6 CuPy: NumPy & SciPy for GPU The 6.11 kernel has been released Simple Icons: 3,205 free SVG icons for popular brands The 10 best tools to green your software

Products & Others

You can recover the mental energy you waste in twenty minutes of practice https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/aKIGKkyaTfd08APCbhUmcQ
First, everyone should learn the “Eight‑Section Vajra” (八部金刚) to protect your physical health. Some people ask, “Can I just sit meditation without doing the exercises?” Sure—you can skip the exercises if you don’t have time. Just protect your health first. If you catch a cold, start practicing right away; you’ll feel better quickly. Even decades‑long ailments can improve, so why let a simple cold linger?

Liu Lihong | Reflections on the “Five Blessings” (五福) https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/4Im6AjSQto0tC5pGVWin7A
Excerpt from the Shangshu (Book of Documents) – Hongfan … (content truncated)

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Originally written by Ping Xia (平侠) and published in Chinese on Web技术周刊 (Web Tech Weekly). Translated and adapted for DriftSeas with permission.