101 / Why I Adore The Night

Hey hey, how's it going? To celebrate 100 issues of Tech's Weekly last week, I announced I'm giving away an eReader. Today was the deadline and I've drawn a winner from all of my subscribers and wrote to them—congratulations to the lucky person! 🎉

Projects of Friends

One of my best friends, Jan Früchtl, has released his side project, CouchTimes! It's an iOS-native, simple and elegant TV show tracker.

Add all your favourite shows to the watchlist, pin the ones you're watching or want to watch (who's excited for the new season of Black Mirror?) and mark episodes as seen quickly with a swipe. Maintain a list of all-time favourites so you'll never come up empty if asked for a recommendation. And if you drop your phone, all your TV shows and the progress is saved securely in iCloud. Did I mention there's no tracking?

Go download CouchTimes today from the App Store, it's free!

Quote of the Week

All of humanity‘s problems stem from [hu]man‘s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.— Blaise Pascal

Culture

• My product is my garden (herman.bearblog.dev)

  Herman Martinus treats their projects like other people treat their gardens, which can help feeling connected to them and having fun in the process.

• Choose Boring Technology Culture (charity.wtf)

  Charity argues that you need a good organisational culture and provide a safe space for people so they can create the fun part.

• You should be using hackdays to supercharge your roadmap (ntietz.com)

  ntietz explains the incredible benefits of doing hackdays (or hack weeks).

Technology

• HTMX is the Future (quii.dev)

  Chris James explains how HTMX works and why you might prefer it to modern SPAs.

• GPT makes learning fun again (vipshek.com)

  Vipul Shekhawat compares Google to GPT-4 for learning about LEDs.

• How companies use dark patterns to keep you subscribed (pudding.cool)

  Caroline Sinders subscribed to 14 services and observed the so-called "dark patterns" when cancelling.

• Monoliths are not dinosaurs (allthingsdistributed.com)

  Werner Vogels about software architecture and why flexibility is more important than what architecture you use.

• Give it the Craigslist test (ericaheinz.com)

  Erica Heinz argues you should build a low-fidelity product first so you know if people use it, it's for content and functionality (not design).

Cutting Room Floor

• Why I adore the night (theguardian.com)

  Jeanette Winterson explains why it "is a mistake to fight the cold and the dark".

• Whatever the Problem, It’s Probably Solved by Walking (nytimes.com)

  Andrew McCarthy writes an ode to walking and explains how clears your mind and allows you to find yourself.

• The Real Climate Job of the Future: Carbon Accountant (bloomberg.com)

  Paul Ford argues that the job of the future isn't working in solar or hydrogen or a flashy start up trying to solve the climate crisis—it's the carbon accountant who makes sure carbon-standards are met for each country a company operates in.

• 'Ted Lasso' Has Lost Its Way (theatlantic.com)

  David Sims about the problems of season 3 of Ted Lasso.

• Thinking Fast and Slopes (drorpoleg.com)

  Dror Poleg explains why, in our interconnected world, Kahnemann's prospect theory doesn't always apply and we should push into the trails of the distribution of outcomes: brace for turbulence and encourage optimistic bets.

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