The “human to bot” style experience is the least exciting way to build with LLMs, but it’s by far the most prevalent integration pattern. There is a difference between the UI representation we call a “chatbot” and the integration pattern behind the scenes. Chatbots are terrible, but that’s a post for another day. In this… Continue reading Get more from LLMs by making space for governance
Skepticism in the face of magic
Intelligence isn’t spontaneous. Whether organic or artificial, it takes time and training to form—nature and nurture. But when it does emerge, what do we attribute it to? Is it the result of monumental effort, complex systems, and more than a bit of luck? Or is it just magic? In his 1968 letter to Science magazine,… Continue reading Skepticism in the face of magic
Architecture is the Hard Parts. Don’t rush into it.
I talk with a lot of people who are new in the industry. They're usually either just out of school or recently graduated from a boot camp and transitioning into a new career. Throughout these conversations, I ask what excites them about software, what they want to learn next or their career goals. I'm always… Continue reading Architecture is the Hard Parts. Don’t rush into it.
Lean into the Edge Effect for Engineering Velocity
Recently, someone at work asked me to weigh in on my experience with Developer Productivity and Velocity. I love this topic so much. There are a ton of different areas to explore. It's a delightful topic to dig into with a team that is currently "underperforming," according to them or someone else in their org.… Continue reading Lean into the Edge Effect for Engineering Velocity
Observability isn’t Monitoring, and it’s useless without Analysis
Time for some buzzword bingo. Monitoring and Observability are often used interchangeably. They’re usually seen in the context of discussions about architecture and distributed systems, with Observability being touted as the “new kid on the block.” or "rebranded monitoring." It’s not new, though. Nor is it the same thing as Monitoring. Despite the typical jaded… Continue reading Observability isn’t Monitoring, and it’s useless without Analysis
You Aren’t Just a Developer, You’re a Polyglot
And that doesn't mean you can write both Java and C#. Software development as a craft is an exercise in being multilingual. The most primitive view (read: outmoded) of a software engineer doing their job is someone who rolls into work at 10:30 am, just in time for standup. Right after our Socially Compulsory Run-on… Continue reading You Aren’t Just a Developer, You’re a Polyglot
Is Your House on Fire?
Or is there just a lingering doubt as to if you turned the stove off? These two questions deserve very different responses. We don't rush everyone outside and call the fire department if we can just go to the kitchen and make sure the burner is turned off. This severity scaled response may seem obvious… Continue reading Is Your House on Fire?
Stop committing secrets
Anything that is secret or varies per environment is configuration (though not all configuration is secret). Configuration should never be part of the application. Therefore it doesn't belong in version control and should never be committed. Inject these arguments dynamically as part of a CI / CD workflow and never expose them to the client.… Continue reading Stop committing secrets
Books I like
I learned something important from all of the books below. It's not comprehensive because my memory isn't, and will grow with time. They’re in no particular order and are grouped by domain but many will blend between the ‘Career’ and ‘Life’ categories. *Last updated Winter 2019* Technology 37 Things One Architect Knows - Gregor HohpePatterns… Continue reading Books I like
RIFM: AWS Key Management Service Best Practices
Whitepaper (Amazon) Whitepaper (Backup) TL;DR AWS KMS makes securing your information easy(ier) by abstracting the availability, physical security, and maintenance concerns of cryptographic implementations. Thanks to a first class integration in AWS you can benefit from tight integrations with the rest of the services they provide, all while providing exceptional logging to help meet compliance… Continue reading RIFM: AWS Key Management Service Best Practices