This page lists links to articles, blog posts or anything else that I found interesting.
An updtae on Oxide's compensation model. Where they basically pay every employee the same salary. It's interesting to see what are the second order effects of such a policy on people's behaviour. People are usually interested in doing a good job, and having such a clear and simple compensation model frees up a lot of the bureaucracy around compensation and performance review, while allowing much more fluidity in how the company is being run. Makes me think of what would happen to a society if there was a generous universal income. People are usually scared that it would lead to people doing nothing, but I'm pretty sure people still want to be part of society and contribute to it fully. Anyway, interesting to see companies trying something radically different than what's usually done, and more importantly to see what are the effects of such transparent choices.
Fascinating (very) long essay on considering AI as a normal technology. From that lens, AI doomerism and AI hype are both considered inaccurate depiction of a possible future for AI. While not minimizing the impacts AI will have on our world, it offers some keys to interpret the possible evolution of AI, and what regulation can and cannot do. What's more interesting is seeing how regulation can accelerate AI diffusion, which could then help counter the dangers of AI. For someone not versed into regulation theory, this was deeply interesting to understand how technology evolves, is adopted and diffused into our societal world. Would be interesting to read it again in several years from now, to see how it was able to predict some of the potential effects of AI.
Helpful description of how to post to Bluesky from your own Jekyll website. Following the POSSE philosophy.
Shared from Brian Merchant's post. A bit darker this time, and another description of how we try to continue living our lives as if nothing had changed. Reminds me of when Covid hit, we initially thought it would be a short spike of trouble. But lessons learned, it lasts more than that. We are likely to experience profound changes in how we will live in our societies, and we cannot comprehend that. As if our brain couldn't grasp what's coming our way. We try to stick to what feels usual, even if that means taking two work meetings in a car using mobile thetering while escaping from a wildfire.
Los Angeles in having massive fires. This post is about our society and how we can see fire everywhere (from actual wildfires to cybertrucks). A gloomy journal entry on what it's like to experience wildfires. A reminiscence of how little we are against natural disasters. Still contains some pieces of hope (people helping others - Humanity can still show up solidarity after all), but these are tenuous. I'm adding this here, so I can remember what January 2025 was like when I look back.
The fifth part of optimizing Ruby's JSON gem. A fascinating dive into Ruby internals, and how one can improve a gem performance piece by piece. Lots of treasure trove in this blog series.
An overview of an experiment implemented in Nathan Hale High School (in the US), which led to great improvement in pretty much all aspects. Due to its success, the experiment has been scaled up and implemented in a large part of the US but with mitigated success, and mostly failed afterward. The underlying lesson is that the implementation process is more important than the end goal. And involving teachers from the start and let them build their own solution is what leads to great success. I think we can make the same kind of conclusion in software Engineering as well. The best teams I worked with were the ones that developed their own way of working by brainstorming together, and not becase someone tolds them how they should work.
Kent Beck explains the difference between The Forest and The Desert, and how teams can have nearly no bugs when in The Forest. I feel I always worked in The Desert, and wonder how one can manage to transition into The Forest. Bugs being an exception seems very enjoyable, but how can we get there?
