dhh – walker – 2023-05

75 items · updated 2026-05-19 23:31 UTC · RSS · Up to archive

"The kindest thing you can do to a new team member is to involve them in something real and challenging right away. Don't squander weeks of new-job enthusiasm with baby rails and play tasks. Get them into the deep end right from the start." https://world.hey.com/dhh/start-them-in-the-deep-end-8c9c77fe

dhh twitter · 2023-05-31

"The kindest thing you can do to a new team member is to involve them in something real and challenging right away. Don't squander weeks of

Great walkthrough of how to deal with problems when everything doesn't go exactly to plan. Jorge shows you the diagnosis, the code needed to fix it, and how we use Basecamp to manage the solution.

dhh twitter · 2023-05-31

Great walkthrough of how to deal with problems when everything doesn't go exactly to plan. Jorge shows you the diagnosis, the code needed to

Start them in the deep end

dhh blog · 2023-05-31

The kindest thing you can do to a new team member is to involve them in something real and challenging right away. Don't squander weeks of n

Max and his team has done more to advance the case for data protections in Europe than just about anyone. It's awesome that they're using Rails to build their internal systems to power this work. Great opportunity for someone help them with the mission!

dhh twitter · 2023-05-31

Max and his team has done more to advance the case for data protections in Europe than just about anyone. It's awesome that they're using Ra

"Even if someone acts in ways you think could be improved, are you really going to complain about it to management? Probably not, unless it's truly egregious, and if so, why wait for the 360?" https://world.hey.com/dhh/360-degrees-of-phony-back-patting-ec915f47

dhh twitter · 2023-05-30

"Even if someone acts in ways you think could be improved, are you really going to complain about it to management? Probably not, unless it'

360 degrees of phony back-patting

dhh blog · 2023-05-30

In all the years we ran 360 performance reviews – the employee assessment process where you solicit feedback from peers, reports, and manage

dhh pushed to main in hotwired/stimulus

dhh github · 2023-05-29

A modest JavaScript framework for the HTML you already have - Comparing 7593959aeb...f781cd6183 · hotwired/stimulus

dhh merged a pull request in hotwired/stimulus

dhh github · 2023-05-29

👋 Something we ran into when trying to use outlets was not noticing that the identifier used for the outlet must match the registered contro

dhh pushed to update-outlet-naming-documentation in dnlgrv/stimulus

dhh github · 2023-05-29

A modest JavaScript framework for the HTML you already have - Comparing 200a75edb6...d7bb6480bb · dnlgrv/stimulus

dhh commented on pull request hotwired/stimulus#665

dhh github · 2023-05-29

This commit adds functionality to accept modifiers for click events, e.g., ctrl+click->link#open.

dhh merged a pull request in hotwired/stimulus

dhh github · 2023-05-29

This commit adds functionality to accept modifiers for click events, e.g., ctrl+click->link#open.

dhh pushed to main in hotwired/stimulus

dhh github · 2023-05-29

A modest JavaScript framework for the HTML you already have - Comparing f7953b6324...7593959aeb · hotwired/stimulus

dhh merged a pull request in hotwired/stimulus

dhh github · 2023-05-29

Info is taken from #675 (comment)

dhh pushed to main in hotwired/stimulus

dhh github · 2023-05-29

A modest JavaScript framework for the HTML you already have - Comparing 9cc36fd16c...f7953b6324 · hotwired/stimulus

Nothing can substitute for spending time together in person as a way to build bonds, create connections, and foster trust with your colleagues. There's just a special kind of magic that comes from being together, which Zoom will never match or catch. But what's enabled the remote-work revolution to be effective is that these moments don't need to happen every day, week, or even month. At 37signals, we've been doing company-wide meetups twice a year for over fifteen years. Through these meetups, we've secured the lion's share of the social in-person benefits afforded by an office, while allowing nearly eighty people from twenty countries to collaborate happily and effectively. It's remarkable how nourishing it can be simply to see your coworkers every six months, and then rely on those fully-charged trust batteries to carry you through the interim. Being unable to do this during the pandemic really underscored how critical meetups are to make the whole remote-work arrangement successful. We were deprived meetups for a good two and a half years, and we felt it. But at least we had the recollection of what remote work could be like from the time before the pandemic. Many people got their first experience with remote work during the pandemic, and were deprived of these recharging opportunities, so it's no wonder a fair number of them didn't like it. But how do you actually pull off a successful meetup for a remote company? That's something we've been trying to perfect at 37signals, and, dare I say it, something we've gotten pretty damn good at over the many years. So we thought we'd share our process. In this video, Andrea and Bethany will walk you through how they organized our latest company meetup in New Orleans, using Basecamp of course. There are a million details to keep track of, and it can seem pretty daunting at first, but if you have a solid tool to help, it becomes way easier. However you decide to do it, I can't recommend enough committing to doing meetups as part of the deal for making remote work work. They might seem expensive at first glance, but you're likely to pay far more for neglecting the value of direct, human connection without them.

dhh twitter · 2023-05-26

Nothing can substitute for spending time together in person as a way to build bonds, create connections, and foster trust with your colleagu

Recharging trust batteries with meetups in a remote company

dhh blog · 2023-05-26

Nothing can substitute for spending time together in person as a way to build bonds, create connections, and foster trust with your colleagu

R to @devtails: Occasionally, but not religiously. When we do, I've used @r00k's Tuple in the past, and it's great. https://tuple.app

dhh twitter · 2023-05-26

Occasionally, but not religiously. When we do, I've used @r00k's Tuple in the past, and it's great. https://tuple.app

It's been a pleasure to work with Deft on our cloud exit. A pallet of servers arrive from @dell, and Deft will have them racked and powered in absolutely no time. This is what people don't get about cloud exit. We don't touch any hw, we just own it, and have Deft white-glove it.

dhh twitter · 2023-05-26

It's been a pleasure to work with Deft on our cloud exit. A pallet of servers arrive from @dell, and Deft will have them racked and powered

R to @pploug: Still happens. Just not something you do every damn Wednesday.

dhh twitter · 2023-05-25

Still happens. Just not something you do every damn Wednesday.

"If you want to run a company light on full-time managers, you have to focus on managing processes before people. The traditional paradigm of a manager constantly following up with their reports needs replacing with an async, self-managing paradigm." https://world.hey.com/dhh/manage-process-before-people-20736695

dhh twitter · 2023-05-25

"If you want to run a company light on full-time managers, you have to focus on managing processes before people. The traditional paradigm o

Manage process before people

dhh blog · 2023-05-25

If you want to run a company that's light on full-time managers, you have to focus on managing processes before people. The traditional para

"Half the charm of making something is letting your fingers drive the direction. I've always loved the German word fingerspitzengefühl for this concept. Making decisions without needing to rationalize every call with a depth of data." https://world.hey.com/dhh/the-luxury-of-working-without-metrics-02e5dbac

dhh twitter · 2023-05-23

"Half the charm of making something is letting your fingers drive the direction. I've always loved the German word fingerspitzengefühl for

"The essence of science is falsification. If your hypothesis cannot be proven wrong, it's a faith, not a predictor of fact. And falsification requires an adversarial process. We must subject our arguments to counterarguments." https://world.hey.com/dhh/but-what-if-you-re-wrong-6de2168c

dhh twitter · 2023-05-23

"The essence of science is falsification. If your hypothesis cannot be proven wrong, it's a faith, not a predictor of fact. And falsificatio

The luxury of working without metrics

dhh blog · 2023-05-23

There are a million metrics you can use to track the health of a subscription software business like ours. Customer life-time value, cost of

dhh pushed to hooks in basecamp/mrsk

dhh github · 2023-05-22

Deploy web apps anywhere. Contribute to basecamp/mrsk development by creating an account on GitHub.

But what if you're wrong?

dhh blog · 2023-05-22

They seemed so sure. First, that the pandemic couldn't possibly have come from a lab rather than a market. Then, that masks – any masks! – w

"If you weren't there, there'd probably just be someone else to fill the slot, and it'd rarely make a big difference either way. That's part of the resilience of a big ship. That just isn't so in a small boat. If you're not rowing, everyone will notice." https://world.hey.com/dhh/sitting-on-the-bench-ba937b84

dhh twitter · 2023-05-15

"If you weren't there, there'd probably just be someone else to fill the slot, and it'd rarely make a big difference either way. That's part

Sitting on the bench

dhh blog · 2023-05-15

There are many reasons to pick working for a bigger company in tech. The benefits, the pay, and, at least until recently, the job security.

"37signals isn't technically a small business any more. We're just under 80 people. We've got over a hundred thousand customers. We have cloud bills in the millions, and revenue many times that. But we sure as hell are underdogs. Fierce and feisty ones." https://world.hey.com/dhh/that-underdog-dna-62795a00

dhh twitter · 2023-05-12

"37signals isn't technically a small business any more. We're just under 80 people. We've got over a hundred thousand customers. We have clo

That underdog DNA

dhh blog · 2023-05-12

Jason just penned a beautiful, succinct ode to the underdogs. Go read it. It's funny how finding just the right word unlocks the perfect men

Jason nails our audience here. Helping the underdogs do better has been the source of motivation for everything we've done at @37signals for over twenty years. It's what continues to motivate my work on both @basecamp and @rails 🤘

dhh twitter · 2023-05-12

Jason nails our audience here. Helping the underdogs do better has been the source of motivation for everything we've done at @37signals for

R to @RomanSndlr: The opposite.

dhh twitter · 2023-05-11

The opposite.

R to @FORSBERGtwo: Unrelated. But also like MessagePack!

dhh twitter · 2023-05-11

Unrelated. But also like MessagePack!

"It's surprising to me that there isn't more pressure yet to cut costs at companies paying such princely sums for their SaaS software. But I think it's coming. Someone is going to look at those margins and see an opportunity." https://world.hey.com/dhh/it-s-not-just-cloud-costs-that-are-out-of-control-efcd098c

dhh twitter · 2023-05-11

"It's surprising to me that there isn't more pressure yet to cut costs at companies paying such princely sums for their SaaS software. But I

On Feb 24, we introduced a new caching approach to @heyhey. This is the result on the main "show a full email thread" page at p95: from ~350ms to 200ms. Can't wait to share later this year, and feature it at #RailsWorld 🤘

dhh twitter · 2023-05-11

On Feb 24, we introduced a new caching approach to @heyhey. This is the result on the main "show a full email thread" page at p95: from ~350

It's not just cloud costs that are out of control

dhh blog · 2023-05-11

We're letting our yearly commitment to Datadog expire at the end of this month, a performance and monitoring tool. Not because we don't like

"Such hoarding of tech talent represented a tragic misallocation. The likes of Amazon, Meta, Google, and others added tens of thousands of positions to already bloated bureaucracies, which often just made them slower and less capable." https://world.hey.com/dhh/the-misallocation-of-tech-talent-6c3b4403

dhh twitter · 2023-05-09

"Such hoarding of tech talent represented a tragic misallocation. The likes of Amazon, Meta, Google, and others added tens of thousands of p

The misallocation of tech talent

dhh blog · 2023-05-09

Getting fired sucks. It doesn't matter how or when. It just sucks. And right now there are an awful lot of people in the tech industry feeli

"Rather than go through an extensive, artificial 12-month performance analysis process to statistically determine how someone’s doing at the end of that crucial first year, we blow all that abstract blurriness away with one simple clarifying question." https://world.hey.com/jason/on-hiring-rehiring-and-one-question-to-answer-them-all-5db97bcb

dhh twitter · 2023-05-08

"Rather than go through an extensive, artificial 12-month performance analysis process to statistically determine how someone’s doing at t

"The remote workers of the world have already won. Don't spoil that victory by becoming an entitled, totalitarian whiner who won't let some companies make different choices than the one you now happen to like the very best." https://world.hey.com/dhh/in-defense-of-the-office-450fc177

dhh twitter · 2023-05-08

"The remote workers of the world have already won. Don't spoil that victory by becoming an entitled, totalitarian whiner who won't let some

We just shipped a new accessibility-friendly date picker in Basecamp. For most people, this is just slightly nicer, making it easier to pick a different year, etc. But for our blind customers, it's a massive level up. Here's a testimonial from one such user: "This will make such a big difference to my day-to-day job because multiple times a day I have to say to people, "Can you put the date in there for me?" because I can't put it in. So, it must be about 4 or 5 times a day I have to ask somebody to input a date into Basecamp for me. And now, I won't have to, which will be a huge weight off my mind. I’m sure they will be glad, but they don't have to do it for me. It will just also mean that I can stop feeling like I'm being a burden to my colleagues. So yeah, thank you very much. That will make a huge, huge difference to what I can do on a daily basis. So, thank you very much.  Keep doing your good work. It's making a huge difference to lots of people. And I don't think you always get to hear about that as often as you should. So yeah, thank you very much." ✌️❤️ https://basecamp.com

dhh twitter · 2023-05-08

We just shipped a new accessibility-friendly date picker in Basecamp. For most people, this is just slightly nicer, making it easier to pick

dhh merged a pull request in hotwired/turbo-rails

dhh github · 2023-05-08

First, mention the assert_turbo_stream test helpers in the README.md under a new "Testing" heading. Next, add method-level documentation to

dhh pushed to main in hotwired/turbo-rails

dhh github · 2023-05-08

Use Turbo in your Ruby on Rails app. Contribute to hotwired/turbo-rails development by creating an account on GitHub.

The mailing list now already have enough members to sell out the first Rails World as soon as tickets are available! If this is an event you were considering, I'd certainly advice getting on the list to at least have a shot at snapping a ticket. Can't wait!

dhh twitter · 2023-05-08

The mailing list now already have enough members to sell out the first Rails World as soon as tickets are available! If this is an event you

In defense of the office

dhh blog · 2023-05-08

You're never getting me back into an office. I credit much of my career to escaping that place in the early 2000s. It wasn't until I found t

R to @dhh: "I'm a recovering solutionist. So when I see folks cross their heart in disbelief that anyone, anywhere might fancy JavaScript over TypeScript, I smile, and I remember the days when I'd recognize their zeal in the mirror." https://world.hey.com/dhh/programming-types-and-mindsets-5b8490bc

dhh twitter · 2023-05-07

"I'm a recovering solutionist. So when I see folks cross their heart in disbelief that anyone, anywhere might fancy JavaScript over TypeScri

Programming types and mindsets

dhh blog · 2023-05-07

One of the longest running schisms in programming is that of static vs dynamic typing. I've heard a million arguments from both sides throug

R to @drochetti: Not in projects that have already been infected with TS, if you want to keep them coherent. But yes, I write all novel client-side code as JavaScript instead of TypeScript, and it’s a delight.

dhh twitter · 2023-05-07

Not in projects that have already been infected with TS, if you want to keep them coherent. But yes, I write all novel client-side code as J

TypeScript sucked out much of the joy I had writing JavaScript. I’m forever grateful that @yukihiro_matz didn’t succumb to the pressure of adding similar type hints to Ruby. May we forever enjoy this beloved language without 🙏 https://zverok.space/blog/2023-05-05-ruby-types.html

dhh twitter · 2023-05-07

TypeScript sucked out much of the joy I had writing JavaScript. I’m forever grateful that @yukihiro_matz didn’t succumb to the pressure of a

“The curse is usually broken when I'm sufficiently bored with the menial, the managerial, and the internet. That's the moment the creativity returns. When all the distractions have been drained of their doldrum.” https://world.hey.com/dhh/escaping-creative-downturns-15281997

dhh twitter · 2023-05-06

“The curse is usually broken when I'm sufficiently bored with the menial, the managerial, and the internet. That's the moment the creativi

Escaping creative downturns

dhh blog · 2023-05-06

If I'm stuck in a creative downturn, there's usually only one remedy: keep going. That is, accept the downturn, but continue to stare at the

Five cloud apps have now left AWS, and been brought home to our own hardware with MRSK. Just two to go: HEY + Highrise. HEY will be out in two weeks, then Highrise, then it's DONE. Incredible pace by the team 👏

dhh twitter · 2023-05-05

Five cloud apps have now left AWS, and been brought home to our own hardware with MRSK. Just two to go: HEY + Highrise. HEY will be out in t

"Yes, microservices, like any pattern of programming, is a tool. Yes, 'it depends' is technically correct. But we offer no guidance to those looking to design better systems by simply saying that; we need to be willing to say WHAT IT DEPENDS ON." https://world.hey.com/dhh/how-to-recover-from-microservices-ce3803cc

dhh twitter · 2023-05-05

"Yes, microservices, like any pattern of programming, is a tool. Yes, 'it depends' is technically correct. But we offer no guidance to those

How to recover from microservices

dhh blog · 2023-05-05

I won't deny there may well be cases where a microservices-first architecture makes sense, but I think they're few and far in between. The v

Rails World in Amsterdam is only going to have room for 650 attendees. Think we are going to sell that out quite quickly. Heard of people who’ve already booked flights! So if you think you might want to go, signing up to be alerted when tickets go on sale would be good.

dhh twitter · 2023-05-04

Rails World in Amsterdam is only going to have room for 650 attendees. Think we are going to sell that out quite quickly. Heard of people wh

To finally bury the scourge of microservices, all we need is a hot new thing to take its place in the hype cycle. So how about just renaming monoliths to megaservices! That sounds like a hot new term that could carry at least three years of conferences, books, and consultants!

dhh twitter · 2023-05-04

To finally bury the scourge of microservices, all we need is a hot new thing to take its place in the hype cycle. So how about just renaming

"Now the real-world results of all this theory are finally in, and it's clear that in practice, microservices pose perhaps the biggest siren song for needlessly complicating your system." https://world.hey.com/dhh/even-amazon-can-t-make-sense-of-serverless-or-microservices-59625580

dhh twitter · 2023-05-04

"Now the real-world results of all this theory are finally in, and it's clear that in practice, microservices pose perhaps the biggest siren

Even Amazon can't make sense of serverless or microservices

dhh blog · 2023-05-04

The Prime Video team at Amazon has published a rather remarkable case study on their decision to dump their serverless, microservices archit

R to @mikker: MRSK is faster than Capistrano. We deploy in less than a minute. Often less than half a minute. 7 mins is murder.

dhh twitter · 2023-05-03

MRSK is faster than Capistrano. We deploy in less than a minute. Often less than half a minute. 7 mins is murder.

Sovereign clouds

dhh blog · 2023-05-03

I've been talking about our departure from renting computers via AWS to owning them in a colocated datacenter as our "cloud exit". But I rec

R to @webtwozero: We're way ahead of schedule. MRSK made the whole thing much easier than anticipated. Team did an awesome job executing. Hasta la vista, baby!

dhh twitter · 2023-05-02

We're way ahead of schedule. MRSK made the whole thing much easier than anticipated. Team did an awesome job executing. Hasta la vista, baby

MRSK 0.12 is out. Lots of great improvements. Fast marching towards a v1.0 when the last cloud app in the 37signals suite has left AWS later this month! https://github.com/mrsked/mrsk/releases/tag/v0.12.0

dhh twitter · 2023-05-02

MRSK 0.12 is out. Lots of great improvements. Fast marching towards a v1.0 when the last cloud app in the 37signals suite has left AWS later

Cloud exit pays off in performance too

dhh blog · 2023-05-02

Last week, we successfully pulled off our biggest cloud exit yet for Basecamp Classic. This is the original app that started it all for us f

dhh pushed to customizable-audit-broadcast in basecamp/mrsk

dhh github · 2023-05-02

Deploy web apps anywhere. Contribute to basecamp/mrsk development by creating an account on GitHub.

dhh pushed to customizable-audit-broadcast in basecamp/mrsk

dhh github · 2023-05-02

Deploy web apps anywhere. Contribute to basecamp/mrsk development by creating an account on GitHub.

dhh pushed to docker-readiness in basecamp/mrsk

dhh github · 2023-05-02

Deploy web apps anywhere. Contribute to basecamp/mrsk development by creating an account on GitHub.

dhh pushed to docker-readiness in basecamp/mrsk

dhh github · 2023-05-02

Deploy web apps anywhere. Contribute to basecamp/mrsk development by creating an account on GitHub.

dhh pushed to check-local-dependencies in Jberczel/mrsk

dhh github · 2023-05-02

Deploy web apps anywhere. Contribute to Jberczel/mrsk development by creating an account on GitHub.

dhh pushed to check-local-dependencies in Jberczel/mrsk

dhh github · 2023-05-02

Deploy web apps anywhere. Contribute to Jberczel/mrsk development by creating an account on GitHub.

dhh pushed to check-local-dependencies in Jberczel/mrsk

dhh github · 2023-05-02

Deploy web apps anywhere. Contribute to Jberczel/mrsk development by creating an account on GitHub.

dhh pushed to check-local-dependencies in Jberczel/mrsk

dhh github · 2023-05-02

Deploy web apps anywhere. Contribute to Jberczel/mrsk development by creating an account on GitHub.

dhh pushed to deploy-groups in basecamp/mrsk

dhh github · 2023-05-02

Deploy web apps anywhere. Contribute to basecamp/mrsk development by creating an account on GitHub.

The responsibility is the reward

dhh blog · 2023-05-02

One of the straightest paths to purpose in life is to take responsibility for something (or someone). Becoming a person whose presence and c

dhh pushed to check-local-dependencies in Jberczel/mrsk

dhh github · 2023-05-02

Deploy web apps anywhere. Contribute to Jberczel/mrsk development by creating an account on GitHub.

dhh pushed to customizable-audit-broadcast in basecamp/mrsk

dhh github · 2023-05-02

Deploy web apps anywhere. Contribute to basecamp/mrsk development by creating an account on GitHub.