Sam Phillips

Apple’s new “mail categories” sure has created a lot of familial technical support…

The people who think they are good at everything because they are good at coding are also bad at coding.

2025 Book Thread 📚

Book 1 of 2025 was Orbital, by Samantha Harvey

Amazing imagining / telling of the experience of astronauts on the space station, beautifully and wistfully written. Amazing how the intersection of space "technical" stuff and dreaminess works.

www.amazon.co.uk/Orbital-Awe-...

Big jokes using Voxi @vodafonegroup.bsky.social support - if you don't write something every minute or so, it cuts you off!

Taking it very seriously, as you can tell

More like ickTok, amirite

CMAT - Have Fun! (Jools' Annual Hootenanny 2024) YouTube video by BBC Music

CMAT’s Hootenanny performance of Have Fun is now up on YouTube. It’s something else from one of my favourite artists right now :)

youtu.be/gWaNwqFDUdc?...

Built something with Retool today for the first time in a while. So powerful and quick.

Docs are SHOCKING though. The google results are useless community posts and the official docs are disorganised and incomplete.

Testament to the quality of the product that you can build without any support!

Prosperity without Growth: Foundations for the Economy of Tomorrow Prosperity without Growth: Foundations for the Economy of Tomorrow eBook : Jackson, Tim: Amazon.co.uk: Books

Book 8 of 2024 was Prosperity Without Growth by @proftimjackson.bsky.social.

Interesting to understand what an economy that doesn’t rely on growth could look like and aim towards.

amzn.eu/d/2JtJcgA

Always an insightful, vulnerable and interesting read Chris - I genuinely look forward to this post! I’m also working on what a tech career outside of leadership (well, specifically management) can look like, so I appreciate your insight there :)

Thank you for sharing.

every year I blog my thoughts on the year before - here's my blog post for 2024 in which I cover my professional and political career, my personal life, and reflections on my transition chrisn.xyz/reflections-...

I feel like there’s two spectrums of nihilism:
- depressing: …nothing matters
- optimistic: yay! nothing matters!

All projects are agile... eventually.

State of JavaScript 2024 Take the State of JavaScript survey

In the State of JS survey when I answered I was a woman, I was asked to share this link to invite more women:
survey.devographics.com/survey/state...

I nearly didn't do it, the JS ecosystem drives me nuts, but if I don't contribute, it will continue to drive me nuts and I'll remain unrepresented...

“How much longer will this take to build”? Not much longer. It’ll just break all the time.

New laptop... going to a bunch of websites for the first time, as you'd expect. Type "Li" into the address bar and realise this laptop has never been to linkedin.com

Lucky it. Half tempted to keep it unsullied!

A thing I do remember though: yes, there is a React hegemony when it comes to frontend frameworks and the code most of my dev pals work in.

Not true for the user-experienced web as a whole. 46% of it is Wordpress (how much of that has React? None?). Govt? Amazon? YouTube? Big apps? Not React.

Things you forgot (or never knew) because of React If you don't often look beyond established comfortable defaults, you might be surprised to learn just how far the world of frontend has moved away from React, and how big that gap continues to grow.

joshcollinsworth.com/blog/antiqua...

Super good stuff from @collinsworth.dev

I send the same 5 blog posts to pretty much every new software engineer I mentor.

They're all articles I wish I'd read when I started my career, about salary, priorities, and decision-making.

Sharing here in case they're helpful: 🧵

Your code is a liability Every chunk of code you commit is more for someone else to read, digest and understand. Every complex “clever” expression requires another few minutes of effort for each of your team. They must now i...

Startup CTOs - your code is a liability.

I wrote the first version of this post in 2012, and it's still as true as ever.

www.chrismdp.com/your-code-is...

G'morning Manchester tech people, here's some locals you can follow.

Let me know if there's anyone here I can add.

Plus, be careful this morning, it's icy out ⛸️❄️

go.bsky.app/UzwaD5

GitHub - arkhipov/temporal_tables: Temporal Tables PostgreSQL Extension Temporal Tables PostgreSQL Extension. Contribute to arkhipov/temporal_tables development by creating an account on GitHub.

These look cool - Temporal Tables. "A temporal table is a table that records the period of time when a row is valid."

github.com/arkhipov/tem...

An oft-ignored thing for me is that some people are *excellent* at code review… they really can spot bugs seemingly just from a glance. But that’s a minority. I think sometimes we get distracted by this super power and expect it from everybody.

Seems like we could to more to play to strengths.

If you really care about productivity, why aren't you examining the value of mandatory code review? I know this is my least popular take, but it remains unclear to me that it improves quality commensurate to cost, and it's the most unquestioned shibboleth in tech today

Microservices are Technical Debt YouTube video by NeetCodeIO

Microservices are Technical Debt

(Not watched the whole thing, but thought it was an interesting contribution)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcJK...

git reset --hard: yuck git reset --keep: hmm yes

Check out git reset --keep as a less destructive alternative to git reset --hard

adamj.eu/tech/2024/09...

This week in Feeling Old in Tech: none of my team had ever used Subversion. I envy them.

Growing Wings: The inside story of Red Bull Racing: Amazon.co.uk: Hunt, Ben, Horner, Christian: 9781529929348: Books Buy Growing Wings: The inside story of Red Bull Racing by Hunt, Ben, Horner, Christian (ISBN: 9781529929348) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

Book 7 of 2024 was Growing Wings: The inside story of Red Bull Racing by @benjhunt.bsky.social.

Lots of fun detail and history for an F1 fan (even a red bull disliker), especially the original interviews with the drivers and Christian Horner.

amzn.eu/d/0alweBt

Mom and Me and Mom: Amazon.co.uk: Dr Maya Angelou: 9781844089154: Books Buy Mom and Me and Mom by Dr Maya Angelou (ISBN: 9781844089154) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

Book 6 of 2024 was Mom and Me and Mom by Maya Angelou

I love the biography series rationed myself to one a year, so after 8 years I finally read the last instalment. It’s more of a themed work, without the detailed narrative passages of the others. But still, something else.

amzn.eu/d/8DbiRWn

Amsterdam: A History of the World's Most Liberal City : Russell Shorto: Amazon.co.uk: Books Buy Amsterdam: A History of the World's Most Liberal City 1 by Russell Shorto (ISBN: 9780349000022) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

Book 5 of 2024 was Amsterdam by Russell Shorto.

When visiting somewhere for the first time I like to read a book written by a local about the place. Obviously didn’t get finished until I was back.

amzn.eu/d/7CHSegB

1491: The Americas Before Columbus: Amazon.co.uk: Mann, Charles C.: 9781862078765: Books Buy 1491: The Americas Before Columbus 1 by Mann, Charles C. (ISBN: 9781862078765) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

Book 4 of 2024 was 1491: The Americas Before Columbus by Charles C Mann.

It’s traditional that I mug myself off with a dense academic-ish book once a year that takes ages to read. Learned loads. Plenty of heavy historiography so did some executive skimming to get it finished!

amzn.eu/d/bSugv93