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Showing posts from November, 2022

Why Only Type-hints?

Whether you're working with Javascript / TypeScript or in Python, type annotations are a thing. On Hacker News we've seen big debates on whether types improve code quality or are just cargo-cult slowing us down. Now here's the thing: I've come to believe there's something very backwards in our approach to type hinting. Let me explain why. Historically most languages were designed with types baked in. Think C, Fortran and probably most languages one level above Assembly. Types are a simple idea and were needed so that the compiler could figure out what operations to perform, e.g. the  +  operator has defined behavior on integers, and another on strings. With dynamic languages such as Python or Javascript, types were handled in the interpreter at runtime and no longer necessary in the language itself. In the last decade, with the rise of TypeScript and Python type hinting we're adding types back, not because the language needs them, but so that tooling can help us

Things I Didn't Build Yet

Here are some ideas I've been thinking about for a long time. In some cases I've started a prototype, in others it's just some thoughts. There are too many ideas for me to build in a lifetime, so I'm just posting them here, even though I might work on some in the future. Ideas are cheap, execution is hard. If you're interested in starting a business based on this, please let me know as a courtesy :) I just want these solutions to exist so I can use them. Discuss these ideas on hacker news CloudSound Software businesses are silent. Let's change that. CloudSound makes your business events audible from a Chrome tab. You stream your logs to cloudsound and you can hear what's happening with a custom soundboard. A payment made? Ka-ching! An error? <alarm>. New customer? Get in tha choppah! At some point if there's a lot of traffic it can be made into acoustically pleasing ambient sounds. The way game music changes if there's an end-boss. The idea is

Gear

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It's 2022 and I am a wannabe minimalist that owns way too much stuff. A small part of my belongings are the things that I really value and/or use every day. This post is about that kind of  gear . If anything on this list gets lost or breaks down, I will instantly buy it again. My three thoughts about "stuff". Material goods do not matter, so try not to think or worry about them any more than absolutely necessary. (Am I doing that by writing this post? Maybe...) A corollary: I never get insurance for anything that I can pay out of pocket without breaking a sweat. We are destroying the planet, let's try to limit our footprint. Reduce, reuse, recycle, in that order. Good tools are delightful and indispensable. Clothing. I like to wear the same clothes on most days so I don't have to think about what I wear. I own about 2 to 6 of each item below and cycle them throughout the week. Jeans, no brand. € 40. (update: Switched to classic Levi's 501 after discovering th