Use weird tests to capture tacit knowledge

Consider a fan-out-ish model that you want to aggregate a bunch of: likes on a post, for instance. class Post(models.Model): created_at = models.DateTimeField() class Event(models.Model): post = models.ForeignKey(Post, on_delete=models.CASCADE) created_at = models.DateTimeField() Let's say we want to aggregate the number of likes on a...

Hello, 2025! (As always, Death Cab remains the soundtrack by which you should read this.) Headlining this month was my annual review; everything else is flotsam. But, speaking of flotsam: A quick development note on the order attribute in CSS Notes on Linear and Fathom Why Buttondown has an 'alternatives' page Some thoughts on a nascent new...

(Order in the CSS rule sense, not the metaphysical sense.) The time has come to begin exfiltrating some higher-traffic, higher-leverage parts of Buttondown's admin UI away from the autogenerated Django admin and into some more bespoke components. Take, for instance, this rather grisly (but useful) inline admin table: This contains useful...

I invited nickd to join our Linear instance yesterday, which reminded me that I had a slew of notes I wanted to publish on our own experience of migrating from GitHub Issues to Linear, and some reflections on it as a product now that we've been using it for a few months. One useful lens for understanding a product's positioning and strategy is to...

Some kind words from Chris Krycho on Buttondown's Alternatives page: This is how I want all my tools to be. There is a ton of room in these markets for healthy and friendly competition — and no need at all for winner-take-all or monopolist attitudes. First off — credit where it's due, I originally came across this genre of page on Memberful's...