The Daily Index — Wednesday, August 14, 2024 · TLDR Index

ARTICLES & TUTORIALS

TLDR Web Dev

TLDR Web Dev

EFFECT BEST PRACTICES

This is a compilation of best practices, pitfalls to avoid, and code snippets for using the Effect library. It emphasizes the importance of using Effect for fallible operations and avoiding unnecessary use of "any" and "unknown" types. Developers should also handle errors appropriately and avoid common mistakes like swallowing errors and misusing Effect.catchAll and Effect.retry.

ethanniser.dev · 4 min

TLDR Web Dev

YOU SHOULD MAKE A NEW PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE

Programmers should create their own programming language as a learning exercise. Creating a language, even if it's "bad," offers valuable insights into language design, parsing, runtime execution, and the inner workings of other languages. By experimenting with different language features and implementation choices, programmers can gain a deeper understanding of the tools they use daily.

ntietz.com · 8 min

TLDR Web Dev

MAKE THINGS SIMPLER THAN POSSIBLE

Simplifying concepts beyond what is strictly accurate makes them easier to learn. This concept originates from Dante Alighieri's work, which in turn references Aristotle's observation that examples are not always the foundation of an argument. Simplifying beyond truth can be useful in the initial stages of learning something, allowing for learning complex concepts turn-by-turn.

quuxplusone.github.io · 3 min

TLDR Web Dev

IT'S IN THE STORIES

Leaders who go beyond their expected roles to connect with employees are more memorable and influential than those who don't. Good leaders should focus on producing these memorable anecdotes that carry their desired message, rather than simply focusing on their official duties. This article goes over various stories and examples of good leaders who have done so.

registerspill.thorstenball.com · 7 min

TLDR Web Dev

350M TOKENS DON'T LIE: LOVE AND HATE IN HACKER NEWS

This post analyzes Hacker News posts to understand community sentiment and trends. Using a large language model, its author analyzed over 100,000 posts and millions of comments to identify popular topics, like programming and computer science, and topics that evoke negative reactions, such as FTX and police misconduct. Certain topics, like GNOME and Google, can generate both positive and negative reactions because they are divisive.

outerbounds.com · 15 min

TLDR Web Dev

ONBOARDING AS A WEB ENGINEER @ PINTEREST

Rebecca Yi and Jordan Cutler, two Senior Web Engineers at Pinterest, share their onboarding experience, detailing the structured learning program they went through, from the first week's Pintro sessions to launching their first projects two months later. The onboarding program included a combination of company-wide engineering sessions (Basecamp) and team-specific web engineer curriculum, which covered topics like web architecture, data fetching, and performance optimization. They both found their first projects, a performance audit and a Pin video feature improvement, an impactful and valuable learning experience.

links.tldrnewsletter.com · 8 min

TLDR Web Dev

THE C̶A̶K̶E̶ USER LOCATION IS A LIE!!!

This blog post discusses the complexities of location-based programming and the challenges of accurately determining a user's location. There are various methods used like user reporting, device heuristics, IP address, and edge compute. However, none of these methods can be fully trusted due to user dishonesty, device manipulation, IP spoofing, and the inherent limitations of edge compute.

austingil.com · 19 min

TLDR Web Dev

HUMANS >> DATA

Focusing solely on data to measure developer productivity is ineffective and potentially harmful - actual human interaction and relationships should be focused on instead.

tidyfirst.substack.com · 2 min

TLDR Web Dev

WHAT MAKES DOCUMENTATION GOOD

Good documentation is concise, well-structured, and uses plain language.

cookbook.openai.com · 8 min