Zack Hall

🔥 A thread of various web-dev techniques that I've found helpful.

@GergelyOrosz The interesting thing now though is that the barrier for startups to disrupt these large software platforms is severely reduced. What was once a giant moat is now a small creek. So I don’t think the risk is companies building tools internally. But massive competition.

@GergelyOrosz A lot of takes that AI will allow companies to build their own internal software. But I don’t think that’s the correct take. I think for critical systems (ticketing, payments, CRMs) a company dedicated to that will provide the superior product still.

Cannot wait for teams that build their custom JIRA/Workday replacement/custom CRM to one day turn around and ask: “Why do we have so much internal software that is buggy / has poor UX + we need to maitain?” Seen this movie well before AI, when Uber built uChat (custom Slack)

it’s on slack bro. it’s in the drive. i just put it in the notion bro i literally sent it to you on teams. did you check the airtable bro? it’s in the box bro. it’s single sign on, it’s on okta bro. no you need the yubikey. check your deel bro, it’s on gusto. check outlook bro

"We used to debate using tabs vs spaces in code we'd type out"

This is 🔥

The Twitter location dox is the first acknowledgment of something thought unthinkable in the west, that China figured out long ago - that we do not owe the whole world membership in our town square.

As a software developer, I want software out of almost everything I use

Republicans will say he’s just joking. Media will say it’s just Trump. But if it was any other President, we’d taking him seriously, and we should here too.

honestly this is so evil - sell you a smart fridge - omg cute it can show photos and leave lil notes uwu ~ waits a year ~ - fridge starts showing ads for mcdonalds you can’t get rid of

had 7 concurrent users today guess it's time for kubernetes

He’s going golfing after

Pope Francis’ reign included an astronomical increase in CVEs recorded…

When I worked on Alexa News, we talked a lot about stated vs. observed preferences. Survey-after-survey customers said they wanted the "high-brow" news sources like NYT, NPR, etc. But testing we could see they got less engagement than more entertaining options.

This *is* incredible. But this is also going to bring back brick and mortar shopping. It was already getting very difficult to trust anything online. Now, AI can just fake any product image. Ripe for cheap goods to take advantage.

Please Mr Bull, not right now, we have a lot going on

@KevinEspiritu I bought a house where the previous owners had planted it directly into the ground. Should've been included on the home inspection.

When someone tells me they planted mint directly in the ground

This is one of the wildest git diffs I've ever seen

@patio11 Learned early in my career – anytime a decision seems like it may be noteworthy (and especially if risky or controversial), record a note of it and email it. Whether it's an email to the attendees, to boss as an FYI, or simply emailed to myself. Document and timestamp.

You can keep that in your files, or you can email it to your boss as an FYI, but you want that time stamped and you want the fact of it having happened to be institutionally undeniable.

Friendly neighborhood Dangerous Professional advice: If you are ever at a meeting taking notes, and someone at the meeting expresses umbrage that notes are being taken of the meeting, and this is routine notetaking for this genre of meeting, …

I don’t want to connect my coffee machine to the wifi network. I don’t want to share the file with OneDrive. I don’t want to download an app to check my car’s fluid levels. I don’t want to scan a QR code to view the restaurant menu. I don’t want to let Google know my location before showing me the search results. I don’t want to include a Teams link on the calendar invite. I don’t want to pay 50 different monthly subscription fees for all my software. I don’t want to upgrade to TurboTax platinum plus audit protection. I don’t want to install the Webex plugin to join the meeting. I don’t want to share my car’s braking data with the actuaries at State Farm. I don’t want to text with your AI chatbot. I don’t want to download the Instagram app to look at your picture. I don’t want to type in my email address to view the content on your company’s website. I don’t want text messages with promo codes. I don’t want to leave your company a five-star Google review in exchange for the chance to win a $20 Starbucks gift card. I don’t want to join your exclusive community in the metaverse. I don’t want AI to help me write my comments on LinkedIn. I don’t even want to be on LinkedIn in the first place. I just want to pay for a product one time (and only one time), know that it’s going to work flawlessly, press 0 to speak to an operator if I need help, and otherwise be left alone and treated with some small measure of human dignity, if that’s not too much to ask anymore.

@otobrglez @Swizec Yep, no lies here.

@Swizec Both things are very true. 😅

If you’re a senior dev and you’ve never owned a product for more than 3 years, I don’t trust your judgment.