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Software Architecture: After Infatuation Comes the Shock

June 29, 2026

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Development Practice October 26, 2023

Redundant Information

Hi, “After importing, we unpack the file and read the meta-information.” “And where do we write it?” “This information is stored in different databases. The path information is distributed across all service databases so that they know how to access the files. Other data is stored in the system database and in each tenant database.” Does that sound normal to you? It shouldn’t. What we are experiencing here is information duplication. “But Marcus, why is that so bad? We just need the information in different places.”

Marcus Held

SME Software Development October 23, 2023

Broken Windows

Hi, A week ago, during my talk on “Pragmatic Programming with Kotlin” , I discussed the Broken Window Theory. Originally, it’s from criminology. In criminology, the broken windows theory states that visible signs of crime, anti-social behavior, and civil disorder […] encourage further crime and disorder […]. ~ Wikipedia Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt have applied this concept to software development. Whenever there’s poor design, an unclear class, inadequately tested code, or unused assets in the repository, it becomes more likely that more “broken windows” will follow.

Marcus Held

SME Software Development October 19, 2023

Scream-Driven-Development

Hi, You probably know this feeling. You want to make a Breaking-Change in your system. Maybe you want to change an API. Or you’d like to switch up your environments. Or you want to shut down a service because it’s no longer needed. Whenever I face such a decision, I wonder about its consequences. Will it affect other stakeholders? The answer is often, yes. This is the case now. I want to conduct deployments more frequently in an environment. It’s used to test the upcoming release. And, to keep the feedback loop short, I always want the current development status on the platform.

Marcus Held

Development Practice October 16, 2023

Editor Fluency

Hi, Today, I gave a presentation titled “Pragmatic Programming with Kotlin” at KKON. It was once again a great pleasure. And because the RabbitMQ Summit is coming up this Friday, followed by the W-JAX in two weeks, I really didn’t feel like creating more slides. So, I opted for live coding. That way, I’m certainly faster in preparation (tm). But aside from my laziness, there was another reason why I chose to do this.

Marcus Held

Development Practice September 25, 2023

Deliberate Practice

Hi, Currently, I am practicing calligraphy. My handwriting has always been purely “functional.” Every day, I write out all the letters of the alphabet, focusing on the quality of each stroke. Five years ago, I practiced touch-typing. Every day for 10 minutes on https://www.keybr.com/ . Seven years ago, I banished my mouse within the IDE. I had to learn how to operate everything using the keyboard alone. And ten years ago, I focused on the Shell. I performed all operations on my system there.

Marcus Held