Issue #285

25 January 2022


Issue #285
Pointer.io
Tuesday 25th January's issue is presented by Doppler


 
Quit struggling with scattered API keys and access controls. Keep your secrets in sync across environments, servers, and teams with Doppler.
 
Mix And Match Mental Models
- Will Larson
#Leadership #Management
 
tl;dr: Will believes being too attached to any given mental model is what distinguishes managers perceived to have good judgment from those perceived to have bad judgment. "Run a problem through one mental model, and then another. If both models agree on the problem or approach, then great. However, if they disagree, spend time digging into why. There’s something valuable to learn there." He shows us how he's approaching headcount planning this way. 
Designing WhatsApp
- Ankit Sirmorya
#Scale #Architecture

tl;dr: Ankit shows us how to design such a system factoring in such scale: 1 Billion users on the application per month, 650,000 active users per second at peak, 40m messages per second at peak. "The entire application will comprise of several microservices each performing a specific task." 
Why Syncing .env Files Doesn’t Scale For Secrets Management
- Ryan Blunden
#Management

tl;dr: The scary days of managing secrets are over. Introducing Doppler: the first universal secrets platform that enables developers to automate secrets and env files. 11,000+ customers use Doppler to keep their secrets in sync across devices and environments. 

Promoted by Doppler.
#Leadership #Management
 
tl;dr: The survival zone is when your energy is high, but negative at work. People in this zone are anxious, impatient and self-critical. Tony shares 6 observations to avoid falling here: (1) Become a sprinter, not a marathoner. (2) Substitute self-observation for judgment. (3) When you feel bad, remember that’s not the whole story. (4) Create a safe space for yourself within yourself. (5) Take up something you enjoy doing just for its own sake.(6) Make someone else’s life better. 

“The purpose of software engineering is to control complexity, not to create it."
- Pamela Zave
 
On Leaving Facebook
- Alex Kotliarsky
#CareerAdvice #Meta
 
tl;dr: "I left Facebook (Meta) in 2021 to join a small startup called Replit. Leaving wasn’t easy, and during the process I’ve talked to half a dozen friends who were in the similar situation. I hope this post would be useful to senior engineers who are looking to leave."
How I Got Pwned By My Cloud Costs
- Troy Hunt
#Cloud

tl;dr: "I guess I'm looking at this a bit like the last time I lost data due to a hard disk failure. I always knew there was a risk but until it actually happened, I didn't take the necessary steps to protect against that risk doing actual damage. But hey, it could have been so much worse; that number could have been 10x higher and I wouldn't have known any earlier." Troy dives into the 17.3GB data spikes that caused his Azure bill to rocket. 
The Curse Of NixOS
- Wesley Aptekar-Cassels
#OperatingSystem

tl;dr: "I don't think that NixOS is the future, but I do absolutely think that the ideas in it are, so I want to write about what I think it gets right and what it gets wrong, in the hopes that other projects can take note. As such, this post will not assume knowledge of NixOS — if you've used NixOS significantly, there probably isn't anything new in here for you."
Strict Python Function Parameters
- Seth Michael Larson
#Python
 
tl;dr: Seth is surprised how little he's seen this feature used, despite being included in Python 3.0, showing us the value of passing a parameter between the keyword-only and position-only parameters in the function signature.
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