Cassidy Williams
How to use GitHub Copilot Edits
GitHub Copilot Edits lets you directly edit and create files with AI assistance.
Daily Digest
Why TDD and AI coding tools exploit the same psychological flaws
Drew DeVault draws a provocative parallel between Test-Driven Development cults and GenAI adoption, arguing both exploit developers' psychological need to feel competent while potentially undermining actual code quality.
- TDD's hidden influence on architecture: While ensuring test coverage, TDD shapes codebases to be "testable" rather than well-designed, and provides no guarantee that passing tests verify the right behavior for actual user needs.
- The dopamine trap of development metrics: Both TDD's green test suites and AI's rapid output create addictive feedback loops through coverage percentages, CI badges, and productivity metrics that make developers feel competent regardless of actual code quality.
- AI coding agents as the new performance theater: GenAI tools let mediocre programmers experience the rush of 10x developer productivity, building "cathedrals" quickly that have beautiful test coverage but rotten foundations underneath.
- The psychological cost of shortcuts: Developers chase these tools despite knowing the externalities (environmental costs, job displacement) because the feeling of finally being "great" at programming overrides long-term concerns.
#tdd-psychology#ai-code-generation#developer-productivity-metrics#software-testing-culture#programming-dopamine-loops
View all daily digests →Latest Articles - Page 43
Max Böck
A year in review: 2024
2024 was challenging but significant, with most energy devoted to preparing for and welcoming the author's newborn son in November.
Cassidy Williams
Adios, 2024
Year-end recap of 2024, reflecting on the past year's events and experiences.
Cassidy Williams
The beautiful sentence that is the web
Web development's building blocks are compared to parts of a sentence, creating a metaphor for how different elements work together.
Cassidy Williams
Wrapping up Blogvent 2024
Blogvent 2024 has concluded. The author shares a recap of all posts written during the month-long blogging event.
Cassidy Williams
I really love entering raffles
The author enjoys entering raffles because they love the chance to potentially win prizes.
Cassidy Williams
How I use Obsidian Dataview
The author uses Obsidian's Dataview plugin to index and query their notes.
Cassidy Williams
How I use Obsidian Templater
Templater is a favorite Obsidian plugin that enables creating reusable note templates in your vault.
Charity Majors
On Versioning Observabilities (1.0, 2.0, 3.0…10.0?!?)
New observability startups are shifting from copying Datadog's three-pillar approach to adopting Honeycomb's model with wide events and OpenTelemetry.
Cassidy Williams
It would be cool for 2024 to just calm down
Everyone's too busy and needs to slow down in 2024.
Cassidy Williams
Browser extensions I shipped in 2024
Developer created browser extensions in 2024 that improved their productivity and reduced frustration.
Cassidy Williams
How I approach humor
Learn the author's approach to creating humor and developing comedy skills.
Charity Majors
“Founder Mode” and the Art of Mythmaking
Chesky claims credit for fixing Airbnb's issues without acknowledging his role in causing them, though the piece contains some useful insights.
Bartosz Ciechanowski
Moon
The Moon is Earth's closest celestial neighbor with a dependable presence. This article explores the Moon's orbit with interactive demonstrations.
Cassidy Williams
I have become a minor writing utensil snob
The author admits to being a bit snobbish about writing utensils, enjoying nice pens and pencils while insisting it's reasonable.
Cassidy Williams
Introduce yourself to your remote team
Remote worker shares how documentation helped introduce themselves to their new team effectively.
Cassidy Williams
How to make your RSS feed pretty
Learn how to transform your plain RSS feed from boring XML into an attractive, styled format that's more pleasant to view.
Cassidy Williams
How to switch to Astro Content Collections
Learn what you need to update your Astro website to version 5.0, including switching to Collections and understanding globs.
Cassidy Williams
Updating my blog to use Astro Collections
Blog getting updated to use Astro Collections for smoother operation.
Cassidy Williams
Choose kindness over pile-ons
Resist joining online pile-ons; choose kindness by stepping away from tempting comment sections.