Five for Friday – February 23 2024

It’s the time of year in Seattle where we see a little sunshine and briefly think that Spring is near…but it’s a trap. It will be raining and 40f next week.

Here are a few things I read this week worth sharing.

  • As I’m writing this, I’m listening to Paramore’s cover of Burning Down the House for the 900th time. Everything I love from TH magically transported to the 21st century.
    Hayley Williams and David Byrne for president!
  • As regular readers know, few things irk me more than people describing why Agile “doesn’t work” and then explaining that their process isn’t Agile at all. Anyway – this article on Agile is a tainted term contains this gem of a quote.
    There are some takes out there that agile is dead. I don’t think that’s quite true, but the word “agile” is certainly dead dead. It’s devoid of any meaning because it means everything and nothing all at once. The principles of agile development are still wonderful and useful, but there is no longer a singular word that can helpfully convey them. Maybe there really never was, but for sure none exists today.”
  • In my never-ending quest to understand enough about LLMs and GenAI to not sound like as much of an idiot as the self-proclaimed experts on linkedin, I read this article on Large Language Models Are Drunk at the Wheel
  • Will Larson has a new book – The Engineering Executive’s Primer. I’ve read the first few chapters, and as is typical with Larson’s writing, it’s packed full of relevant and pragmatic information.
  • Finally – It’s that time of the year again – it’s time for the mediocre sports league that I love anyway (MLS) to kick off another season. If you’re reading this blog / newsletter thingy from outside the US, here’s a write up on the only match you care about. Lionel Messi skill lights up Inter Miami’s MLS season opener.

And that’s it for another week. See you in March!

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