Too Big, Too Small, Just Right

Two More Billion Dollar Mistakes

Hi,

You might have heard that null was referred to by its creator, Tony Hoare, as the “billion-dollar mistake.” In 2009, he publicly apologized at QCon for taking the easy path in 1965 by inventing null:

“I call it my billion-dollar mistake. It was the invention of the null reference in 1965. At that time, I was designing the first comprehensive type system for references in an object-oriented language (ALGOL W ). My goal was to ensure that all use of references should be absolutely safe, with checking performed automatically by the compiler. But I couldn’t resist the temptation to put in a null reference, simply because it was so easy to implement. This has led to innumerable errors, vulnerabilities, and system crashes, which have probably caused a billion dollars of pain and damage in the last forty years.”

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Marcus Held

My War on Kubernetes

Hi,

I need to make a confession right off the bat: I’m at odds with Kubernetes.

It’s not Kubernetes’s fault, though. It’s my projects. Or rather, the teams I’m part of.

These are teams with a maximum of 30 software developers, plus a few business people and designers on top. But there aren’t that many developers.

These teams don’t need Kubernetes!

No. To put it more bluntly: These teams can’t handle Kubernetes!

Marcus Held

Survivorship Bias in Tech

Hi,

Do you know what Survivorship Bias is?

[…] According to Survivorship Bias, the probabilities of success are systematically overestimated because successful individuals or states are more visible than unsuccessful ones. ~ Wikipedia

This cognitive bias is interesting because it affects us in development as well. For 15 years, I have been working mainly in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are companies with up to 250 employees. Clearly, these are not large corporations.

Marcus Held

Challenges in SMEs Are Similar

Hi,

Currently, I am writing a new article for Golem.de.

In this context, I have been reflecting on the similarities in software development in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The German Federal Statistical Office defines SMEs as companies with 10 to 250 employees and a turnover of less than 50 million euros.

At first glance, this range seems very wide. Intuitively, one would expect the challenges and solutions to be very different as a result. And to some extent, this is true. However, this does not align with my experience over the last 15 years, during which I have worked exclusively in SMEs. On closer inspection, it turns out that the number of developers is not that different after all.

Marcus Held

Three Topics

Hi,

This year, I’m a bit behind with the newsletters. For one, I’m deeply involved in client projects – and the client always comes first. Additionally, since the beginning of the year, I’ve been battling pneumonia. It only started to improve this week. The symptoms were mild - after all, I continued to work - but I noticed a lack of energy for tasks beyond my duties.

To get back into the swing of things: Today, I have three short topics for you.

Marcus Held