Posts by mfowler@toot.thoughtworks.com
(DIR) Post #ASBAg3w55ITgEXY8hs by mfowler@toot.thoughtworks.com
2023-01-30T18:03:13Z
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The Spotify Model generated a lot of attention. @jchyip has written a well-informed critiquehttps://jchyip.medium.com/my-critique-of-the-spotify-model-part-1-197d335ef7af
(DIR) Post #ASjWMRJiNQXSSr2MtM by mfowler@toot.thoughtworks.com
2023-02-15T15:08:35Z
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NEW POST: @apaipi looks at three ways that retrospectives can go wrong, and how to fix themhttps://martinfowler.com/articles/retrospective-antipatterns.html
(DIR) Post #ASqywpucZDsNzeAAEa by mfowler@toot.thoughtworks.com
2023-02-19T23:57:37Z
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"We just made Quentin up, and that’s okay. It doesn’t mean stories like his aren’t potentially happening everywhere, constantly. Good journalism is about finding those stories, even when they don’t exist."Sharp satire from masters of the crafthttps://www.theonion.com/it-is-journalism-s-sacred-duty-to-endanger-the-lives-of-1850126997
(DIR) Post #ASueC2ttEr7qDL4W5w by mfowler@toot.thoughtworks.com
2023-02-21T14:38:34Z
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Lots of good ideas in @jamesshore's article on testing:"This pattern language... doesn’t use broad tests, doesn’t use mocks, doesn’t ignore infrastructure, and doesn’t require architectural changes."https://www.jamesshore.com/v2/projects/nullables/testing-without-mocks
(DIR) Post #ATF9HXaE5O1lf0EJbE by mfowler@toot.thoughtworks.com
2023-03-03T15:00:53Z
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I suspect, most people, know Thurgood Marshall as only a former US Supreme Court justice. This excellent article by @Teri_Kanefield explains his long, patient work out of the spotlight to overcome the evils of segregation. https://terikanefield.com/he-changed-the-face-of-america/
(DIR) Post #AUJLDKjjrJCm6xOTUO by mfowler@toot.thoughtworks.com
2023-04-04T14:19:19Z
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NEW POST: Many software teams run into trouble because they pack too much planned work into their iterations. Teams will usually run better when they have deliberate slack, as it allows their delivery to be more predictable and gives them time to improve their environment.https://martinfowler.com/bliki/Slack.html
(DIR) Post #AUJZxqNXwfbKvV5Mpc by mfowler@toot.thoughtworks.com
2023-04-04T16:36:30Z
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I'm sad to hear of the death of board game designer Klaus Teuber. He designed many highly regarded board games, winning the Spiel des Jahres award four times between 1988 and 1995. The Settlers of Catan, his most famous game, was instrumental in getting me back into boardgaming.
(DIR) Post #AUP0NVilyNYcaU9JTM by mfowler@toot.thoughtworks.com
2023-04-06T18:40:31Z
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No surprise that Kent Beck's article "Thinking about Code Review" has an excessively good value:words ratio. His point about incentives of pull-requests is spot-on, and I really like this quadrant.https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/thinking-about-code-review
(DIR) Post #AUQ19NtDD1G0m5tTnM by mfowler@toot.thoughtworks.com
2023-04-07T17:00:50Z
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I agree very much with @simon 's message here: "These are incredibly powerful tools. They are far harder to use effectively than they first appear. Invest the effort, but approach with caution: we accidentally invented computers that can lie to us and we can’t figure out how to make them stop."https://simonwillison.net/2023/Apr/7/chatgpt-lies/
(DIR) Post #AV4CfnXg7vNoSnJQuG by mfowler@toot.thoughtworks.com
2023-04-26T14:18:55Z
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My colleague @mmason is experienced both in programming and in writing. Inthe last few weeks he's been exploring using LLMs for both tasks. Here he shareswhat he's learned from using ChatGPT on a bunch of writing projects (including the just-published radar)https://martinfowler.com/articles/2023-chatgpt-tech-writing.html
(DIR) Post #AYG0NB5EJCOnLjHiQS by mfowler@toot.thoughtworks.com
2023-07-31T13:58:31Z
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NEW POSTAs startups begin to grow rapidly, they often find that early decisions that helped them find a product/market fit lead to excessive costs once traffic increases. These costs can threaten a scaleup's ability to grow. Sofia Tania and Stefania Stefansdottir have worked with many scaleups in this predicament and share their approach to understanding and reducing these costs.https://martinfowler.com/articles/bottlenecks-of-scaleups/04-costs.html
(DIR) Post #AYSe5Ve0EDesknZ5LU by mfowler@toot.thoughtworks.com
2023-08-06T05:39:08Z
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+1 to @jwz 's argument that replies to posts on mastodon should be treated similarly to comments on blogshttps://www.jwz.org/blog/2023/08/mastodons-mastodonts/
(DIR) Post #AbP6Yakt4IQANQcnbs by mfowler@toot.thoughtworks.com
2023-11-02T16:36:54Z
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NEW POST: It's now been a year since The Muskover, what does my use of social media look like now, both as a reader and a writer?https://martinfowler.com/articles/2023-social-media.html
(DIR) Post #AcrjJn4XdcqQOh9pU8 by mfowler@toot.thoughtworks.com
2023-12-13T16:32:55Z
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Throughout my career, people have compared software development to “traditional” engineering, usually in a way to scold software developers for not doing a proper job. But this way of thinking is flawed because most people have the wrong impression of how engineering works in practice. Here I suggest where to go to understand morehttps://martinfowler.com/bliki/SoftwareAndEngineering.html
(DIR) Post #AdPnZMW9QUFSy2WwGO by mfowler@toot.thoughtworks.com
2024-01-01T21:04:41Z
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@timbray @simon I'll add a strong +1 to Tim. To really control your long-term material, you need a domain you control. Then you have the maximum flexibility on what tech to use on it.
(DIR) Post #AdQ5lxKWBOfvmyFBJp by mfowler@toot.thoughtworks.com
2024-01-02T00:53:25Z
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@simon @timbray That's a good point - and one I haven't really put much thought into.
(DIR) Post #AhoVbaDynrCfgRBPoe by mfowler@toot.thoughtworks.com
2024-05-06T13:08:53Z
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My thoughts are with my colleagues (and others) in southern Brazil who have been hit with devastating floodshttps://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/05/flooding-death-toll-brazil-rio-grande-do-sul-state-missing-people
(DIR) Post #Asg8VrfmC0dMSB5UUy by mfowler@toot.thoughtworks.com
2025-04-01T23:03:40Z
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I enjoyed this idea that authoritarian states are more like the movie Brazil than the book 1984 - because authoritarianism breeds incompetence.https://observer.com/2025/02/terry-gilliams-brazil-at-40-more-prescient-than-orwell/
(DIR) Post #AucVT4dT8UlzceCWI4 by mfowler@toot.thoughtworks.com
2025-05-28T13:53:05Z
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NEW POSTPossibly my favorite writing tip: read your draft out loud.https://martinfowler.com/bliki/SayYourWriting.html
(DIR) Post #Azvcg9bJdvXR8reiKe by mfowler@toot.thoughtworks.com
2025-11-04T14:19:05Z
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Unmesh Joshi finds LLMs to be a useful tool, but explains why their help becomes illusory if they shortcut the essential learning loop of our professional practice.https://martinfowler.com/articles/llm-learning-loop.html