David Tate | cat profile.txt | grep aws

The term "technical debt" is bad, and we should feel bad How to actually get important work done, without name-calling

open.substack.com/pub/badsoftw...

How to write (and read) a bug report All you need to know is that there is a problem, my work here is done

badsoftwareadvice.substack.com/p/how-to-wri...

How to understand deadlines (as a developer) "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by"

open.substack.com/pub/badsoftw...

researchers studying non human animal cognition get laughed out of science if they use a word like “knows” or “understands” about an animal (a being with a brain) but every AI paper is all “the model appears to be aware it is being intentionally deceptive and in fact is afraid of being caught”

20 behaviors to get software engineers to respect you more Sorta kinda not really

badsoftwareadvice.substack.com/p/20-behavio...

he is a stat chaser on a good day

20 behaviors to get software engineers to respect you more Sorta kinda not really

badsoftwareadvice.substack.com/p/20-behavio...

"Say little, because you are eating a hotdog and are in the middle where it’s super messy."

How to build the wrong product, semi-accidentally Ask your customers what they want, then write it down, then build it, then call them back and get a dial tone

badsoftwareadvice.substack.com/p/how-to-bui...

How to ignore issues and keep secrets Problems need to be big when you fix them, so that people know that you are strong

badsoftwareadvice.substack.com/p/how-to-ign...

How to selfishly design a system Your primary constraint is your pride

badsoftwareadvice.substack.com/p/how-to-sel...

How to ignore customers No news is good news, or everyone hates you and is creative with workarounds

badsoftwareadvice.substack.com/p/how-to-ign...

What to do when everyone else is wrong Disagree and commit? That's weak: more like disagree and commit to being a victim for the rest of the project

badsoftwareadvice.substack.com/p/what-to-do...

How to be a real programmer Excuse me, real *developer*, pardon - real *software engineer*, con permiso - real *hacker*

badsoftwareadvice.substack.com/p/how-to-be-...

Commentary: How to write a post-mortem that always blames Terry or Steve or Sally or Rebecca or that stupid mascot dog you have on our website

badsoftwareadvice.substack.com/p/additional...

How to practice isometric software development Pushing against a wall makes you stronger and does not bother the wall and is stupid

badsoftwareadvice.substack.com/p/how-to-pra...

How to use an Object Relational Mapper and never learn SQL SQL for dummies? More like SQL *is* for dummies

badsoftwareadvice.substack.com/p/how-to-use...

How to treat the people that built system you work on You are infinitely smarter than they are, better-looking, and taller - probably

badsoftwareadvice.substack.com/p/how-to-tre...

How to weaponize your experience How to use your previous, superior, experience to accidentally bully everyone

badsoftwareadvice.substack.com/p/how-to-wea...

How to use bad metaphors to explain software development Why explain when you can just compare and get to say "sort of"

badsoftwareadvice.substack.com/p/how-to-use...

How to make your programmers (look like they) work harder People need to show that they are working harder and be visibly stressed, for me to feel OK

badsoftwareadvice.substack.com/p/how-to-mak...

Reading in 2023 Almost every year I post what books I have read that year. This serves as a replacement for Goodreads, somehow. Interestingly I didn't blog here at all last year. Most of my writing was in other plac...

blog.davidtate.org/reading-in-2...

How to get into developer heaven You gotta have faith?

badsoftwareadvice.substack.com/p/how-to-get...

How to be really bad at fixing problems in software Solving the same problem over and over again means you are an expert or incompetent

badsoftwareadvice.substack.com/p/how-to-be-...

badsoftwareadvice.substack.com/p/how-to-bec...

How to decrease your empathy and stop caring about your users If they are so smart why are they using your software

open.substack.com/pub/badsoftw...

How to lead your team by yelling Don't forget insults also

badsoftwareadvice.substack.com/p/how-to-lea...

How to point stories You are subscribed to Fibanacci Quarterly, right?

badsoftwareadvice.substack.com/p/how-to-poi...

badsoftwareadvice.substack.com/p/how-to-run...

How to ship a prototype In only two easy step, (and one hard one)

badsoftwareadvice.substack.com/p/how-to-shi...

My father gave me the best life advice: "never eat hot dogs out of anger, hot dogs are for celebrating"