Previous Newsletters

The STRIDE Threat Model

The lead developer had pulled me aside. "Why are you exposing the user's password via the API?" "Is that a problem?" "It certain is. Here is why..." T...

The Ultimate Guide to Naming

There's an old programming joke: Computer science has two hard things: cache invalidation, naming, and off-by-one errors. 😀 There is truth in this. N...

Your New Superpower - Decomposing Services

I'm confused. I don't recall one instance of 'getting it'. I am trying to remember when I learned how to intelligently break up complicated services i...

Use 1 Rule to Decide between Class and Method State

In Object-Oriented programming, some things appear simple, but they are not. I should know; it took me a while to fully understand the critical concep...

How to Keep Your Users Happy When Working with Legacy Code

I have a confession to make: I love clean code. Almost unreasonably so. This passion used to get me into trouble when I cleaned up messy code. Extensi...

5 Psychology Lessons for the Successful Developer

I didn't expect that. He slammed his face into open palm hands and groaned: 'Oh God, what is it NOW?!?' I was about to ask this dev lead for help with...

Fun Coffee Mug Refactoring

I got this coffee mug from Santa 🎅 It's pretty funny. I chuckle every time I use it when programming. While the code reads like English, we could imp...

Flexible Hardcoding and the 3 Stages of Configuration

As a kid, I got $5 in pocket money each week. For months, I received my weekly $5, but one day, my mum decided to increase the amount to $7. No compla...

Ask 4 Questions for Outstanding Class Names

Has code made you cry? I have cried over code. Unfortunately, not in that good way, where I might have witnessed the craftsmanship of a caring master ...

An Exceptional Secret

Do you want to know a secret? What important truth do very few people agree with you on? Peter Thiel, of PayPal fame, enjoys asking interviewees this ...

3 Mistakes To Avoid And 3 Advantages To Exploit

Just go faster. Easier said than done. As a junior developer, I wanted to get to senior dev quickly. When I asked senior developers how to get there, ...

Clean Architecture - The Simplest Explanation

"No way this is Architecture!" My mind was rejecting the idea of Clean Architecture as I was learning it. It was 2010, and architecture meant cloud pl...

The Most Important Clean Code Principle

All code is dirty. By that, I mean messy and overly complicated. Well, almost all code. I occasionally read listings written by a craftsman, but it's ...