Issue #541

What Current & Future Engineering Leaders Read

Friday 16th August’s issue is presented by Speakeasy

Slow API integrations can block revenue streams. Great SDKs solve this problem but tend to be very resource-intensive.

Speakeasy’s platform makes crafting type-safe, idiomatic SDKs for enterprise APIs easy.

Make SDK generation part of your API’s CI/CD and distribute libraries that users love at a fraction of the cost of maintaining them in-house.

— Andrew Bosworth

tl;dr: From the CTO at Meta: “One of the most common anti-patterns I see that can create conflict in an otherwise collaborative environment is people asking for permission instead of advice. This is such an insidious practice that it not only sounds reasonable, it actually sounds like the right thing to do: “Hey, I was thinking about doing X, would you be on board with that?”" Andrew argues that the problem with asking for permission is that you’re implicitly asking someone else to take some responsibility for your decision. Asking for advice creates advocates for your idea but doesn't saddle them with responsibility.

— Wes Kao

tl;dr: Two simple questions to ask yourself: (1) What’s most likely to go wrong? (2) What can I do to prevent this from happening? Wes also covers principles to help derisk work: (A) Embrace a healthy sense of paranoia. (B) Pattern match to remember what happened in similar situations. (C) If you foresee a misunderstanding, speak up and clarify. (D) Risk isn’t binary, it’s on a spectrum.

tl;dr: API design is important, yet it is only useful if it's well-documented and consistently represented across every API surface area (docs, SDKs, etc.). OpenAPI gives you greater visibility into your API, enabling you to unify all aspects of errors, responses, and parameters, ensuring consistency. This open-source documentation project will help you understand the OpenAPI Specification.

Promoted by Speakeasy

— Jordan Cutler

tl;dr: Jordan discusses the four practical approaches to saying No, along with practical examples and phrases to use: (1) The Direct Approach. (2) The Redirect Approach. (3) Change Their Perspective Approach. (4) Stonewall Approach.

Editor’s Note

We’re testing a new platform to send out Pointer. If you see any issues with this email or have any feedback, please click reply and let us know.

— Steve Klabnik

tl;dr: “I am not actually claiming we should stop giving things names. But I have had at least two situations recently where I previously found names to be kinda critical, and then I changed to systems which didn’t use names, and I think it improved the situation.” Steve shares examples.

— Jon Harrell

tl;dr: Users demand speed and efficiency. Caching database queries can significantly improve your app's performance. Discover how to use caching to get lightning-fast load times and a smooth user experience for all of your users globally, no matter where your database lives.

Promoted by Prisma

— Nicole Tietz-Sokolskaya

tl;dr: “You use a programming language as a tool of thought even when you're away from the keyboard. This makes it ripe for learning. You will learn a lot if you make a new programming language.” Notably, you will learn about grammar, language design, parsing and runtime execution. Nicole shares a couple of easy ways to get started.

— Trevor Indrek Lasn

tl;dr: This article explains the common vulnerabilities and provides practical solutions with code examples. Trevor-Indrek discusses: (1) Cross-Site Scripting (XSS). (2) Content Security Policy Headers. (3) Cross-Site Request Forgery. (4) Insecure Direct Object References. (5) Environment Variables.

— Zach Leatherman

tl;dr: “I decided to take the plunge and migrate my site elsewhere, mostly to see what it would really cost. I learned a few things along the way (and made a few mistakes) — hopefully writing them up can help you save some money on your hosting bill, too.”

ComfyUI: Stable diffusion GUI and backend.
Electric: Build local-first apps directly on Postgres.
SimpleTuner: Fine-tuning kit for diffusion models.
SpoofDPI: Anti-censorship tool.
Teable: Postgres-Airtable fusion.

Click the below and shoot me an email!

1 = Didn't enjoy it all // 5 = Really enjoyed it

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