Tech — Work — Ramblings

by Mike Kalvas

I see you're not using JavaScript (which is awesome!) on one of my pages that uses it to provide a better experience. If you see something not working right, please let me know. My site should work exactly the same without it apart from any exceptions noted here.

I use prism.min.js to do syntax highlighting. It clocks in at 23kb total in size. Since the majority of the writing I do involves coding, I personally find this to be a worthwhile trade off. If you choose to keep this disabled, rest assured, the code examples are still there, they just may have some extra whitespace and obviously no syntax highlighting.

I do no tracking at all and am a zealot about keeping my pages as small as possible. If you're reading a page of mine that transfers more than about 250kb over the wire (including my most gratuitous indulgence — fonts) I've messed up.

So, if you'd like to have a slightly richer experience, consider enabling javascript for my site and I promise your trust won't be misplaced.

202411301147 Developers are effective relative to their systems

In economics, someone can be 10 or 100 times more effective (in terms of the wages they make) just by crossing a border. A taxi driver in one of the poorest countries on earth would make a lot more money doing the exact same work in New York City.

In 202109061338 Software Engineering, we talk about “10x developers”. Many people talk about it derisively while others believe in it fanatically. The idea is that one developer can be better than 10 others. Whether you believe in that interpretation or not, the economic interpretation of a 10x developer can hold water. If a developer makes the system they’re in better and more effective, they can leverage those changes to be 10x or w/e… #wip had to stop writing finish this note better and cite sources

Crafting code podcast 027