Monthly Digest — March 📌
Monthly Digest — March 📌
2000+ subscribers, recent articles and some great readings
Hi there! March is almost over and it's time for our monthly digest.
For all new people who joined recently, this is a special issue I write at the end of each month. I use it to recap the recent articles, share Refactoring news and other resources.
🎉 2000 Subscribers
I have been writing Refactoring for six months, and we just hit 2000 subscribers! It's incredible when you think we were 1000 in January.
Thank you all so much for trusting me with your attention 🙏
I am constantly thinking about how I can improve the newsletter and what the next steps should be. I have some ideas 👀 but I would really love to hear from you.
Feel free to reach out and let me know how I can make Refactoring better for you. I read and reply to all emails and comments.
✍️ Articles
Here is a roundup of the new articles I have published this month:
💰 The Operating Cost of New Features
Development costs for new features can be roughly divided in two stages:
🚚 Delivery Cost — cost you sustain to develop the feature until the first deliverable.
🏃♂️ Operating Cost — cost you sustain to maintain and evolve it until...forever!
Good design should especially minimize the latter, as it compounds over time with that of other features.
In this article I explore the nature of such costs, and what we can do to reduce them in the long run.
👔 Staying Technical as an Engineering Leader
As a founder and CTO, I have seen my company grow from when I used to write all the code, to the point I wrote none.
Here I share my perspective about why you should remain technical as a leader, and provide some advice to do so effectively.
🔥 Choosing between Boring and Exciting Tech
Choosing which technology to use for a new feature or service is hard. Pros and cons are usually:
Hard to articulate
Obscure to most decision makers
As a result, many choices end up being backed by little more than gut or personal taste.
Is there a better way? I believe so, and I tried to write about it.
📚 Readings
📑 The Art of the Desk Setup — by Arun Venkatesan
This is simply the best article I have ever read about creating your desk setup. It is very design-oriented, which won't be for everybody, but I love how Arun always grounds choices to emotions, recognizing the bond that we create with objects around us.
📑 The Tools Don't Matter — by Ken Norton
If you were a tennis player and had the chance to get advice from Serena Williams, would you ask her what kind of racket she uses? No, right?
Managers sometimes become obsessed with tools (I am guilty of that). Ken does a great job at explaining why tools don't matter that much, and what you should focus on instead.
📺 How The Economic Machine Works, in 30 mins — by Ray Dailo
This is clearly off-topic, but I believe it is very relevant in these uncertain times. It's incredible how much information is condensed in this 30 mins video, while still being really easy to digest.
Ray Dailo is such a clear thinker, and he is really good at explaining things. If you are even remotely interested in the topic, you should watch this video.
🎁 Deals and sponsors
Since last week I have started accepting sponsorships from a few tools and initiatives I really love and use myself 🤗
📈 Waydev
Waydev provides visibility into engineering work by aggregating Git data into actionable insights and real-time reports.
It’s a great tool. As a subscriber, you can try it for free and then get 20% off with the following code: LUCA20.
And that's it for March, see you next week! In the meantime, please let me know if you have any question or topic you would like me to cover! 📣 I read and reply to all emails I receive.