I keep a small log of decisions in a text file. Not architectural — just small ones. "Picked X over Y because Z." Future…

When a system surprises me, my first instinct used to be to fix the surprise. Now my first instinct is to figure out whi…

If a config file has more than a dozen options, half of them aren't being used. The other half are being used in ways th…

The fastest debugging trick I've learned is to write out, in one sentence, what the system is supposed to be doing. Half…

I used to add a layer of abstraction the first time I saw a pattern repeat. Now I wait for the third. The waiting is unc…