On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys never recorded episode 162. So in case you were wondering, it just doesn’t exist. Joke’s on you.
• Unexpected surprise: this episode includes a cameo by Matt Damon, soundtracked by Europe.
• Chris can’t clone a repo. There’s no commentary on that… it’s so-sad-it’s-funny enough on its own.
• The guys talk beers, lizards, real customers, and interpersonal conflict.
• FAANG is discussed: what “special” skills do you actually need?
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys are going to start a vibe-code-cleanup consultancy. Lot of money to be made…
• Yet Another Debate about whether LLM are going to but technologists out of business.
• Chris explains why lack of understanding creates false confidence in LLM capability.
• The guys spend some time chatting about the malware industry.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris has a war story about PosgtreSQL upgrades changing default permissions. TLDR: stuff breaked then Chris fix.
• Frank drops some trivia: MySQL, MariaDB, and MaxDB are named after Monty Widenius’ kids.
• DeepSeek [non-]update: they just stole and lied. More at 11 after sports, weather, and traffic.
• TikTok: Stealing data from your phone? Frank believes it, Chris doesn’t.
• The guys debate religiosity of tech stack choices within companies.
• Frank decries cutls of personality, and also ColdFusion. Like… duh. Honestly, which is worse?
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank asks, “Like, uh, what… IS… Web3?” and Chris answers, “Most of it is just the web with extra steps.”
• Chris explains why derivatives are so exciting for finance bros, and so risky for pension funds.
• The guys fight about CC swiping vs inserting vs tapping vs phone tapping.
• Cursive: a dead art? Yeah. Yeah… it really is. Like who even still cares?
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys talk skin tone and color palettes. Celts just have fewer options #SadTrombone
• Frank claims the DeepSeek hype is nuaght but lies and theft and vapor. Aaaaaaand he’s right.
• Chris gets tired of talking; advocates simple living documents and point-in-time artifacts to move teams forward.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris bought a 3D Printer! They’re really fun hammers just begging for nails.
• The guys unpack letting the team learn, vs stepping in and getting business done quickly.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys agree: buying a round (or meal) from time to time can pay dividends.
• The guys grapple with the reality of maintaining regulatory software (read: software only required for compliance reasons (read: soul crushing work)).
• Comment Block
  • How to proceed with a dissolved team?
  • How do you plan complex features before you start implementing them?
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris is tired of being disrupted.
• The guys talk about RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) and how it can be used to improve the experience with LLMs.
• Prompt engineering - Frank has a hot take on what’s to come.
• Comment Block
  • My manager wants me to pair up with the worst guy on the team for the next six months. How do I get out of this? Please help me talk to my manager about this. This guy is really incompetent. I thought he would be on a PIP, but I guess they are keeping him around. He’s senior too, which is higher than me, but can’t figure out the most basic compliation errors or problems with Git. He keeps making the same mistakes over and over. I wrote documentation for him and he forgets the same things. I keep responding with links to the doc to unblock him. He can’t pattern match. If I ask him to fix a certain type of issue one time in a code review and explain why, he’ll have the same problem again later in another section. I don’t care what happens to him, I just want to avoid him as much as possible; I’m gouing to lose my mind if I have to work closely with him for the next six months. How can I ask my manager to get assigned to a different feature?
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• What’s the deal with airline peanuts WordPress vs WP Engine?
• Agile vs Sprints vs Scrum vs sanity. The guys debate at length.
• The guys fight (lightly) about PHP.
• Comment block
  • Yo… why do you guys fight all the time?
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Hill Rejection Assist: Chris complains about Honda
• The guys decrypt the firewall to open a socket to the kernel.
• Comment Block
  • How do you not beat yourself up over causing an outage? Recently caused a SEV-1 outage that impacted a few hundred users. It was able to be corrected in a few hours but the app was not usable during the event. My manager was cool about it and is focused on the process; putting guardrails in place so that it doesn’t happen again. I find myself ruminating on it quite a bit and feeling embarassed about it, as over my 13 years as a dev this has only happened one other time. I am also somewhat newish to this company so I’m hoping this doesn’t ruin my reptuation.
  • Why do we even need architects? Question/observation: maybe it’s just me, but in my 19-year career as a software developer, I’ve worked on many different systems. In the projects where we had architects on the team the solutions have tended to be over-engineered with large complex tech stacks making them difficult maintain and challenging to find engineers familiar with the technologies. Over time I’ve started losing respect and appreciation for architects. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve also worked with some great architects, but most of them have been underwhelming. What has your experience been?
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys discuss DOGE:
  • Memelordship ascendent or super cereal?
  • I beg your finest pardon: remote work is a “COVID-era privilege?”
  • The duo explore the iron of high performers being the first to pack their bags when RTO mandates come down.
• Comment Block
  • I work in a remote company now (just a team member, not a manager). And the culture obviously feels very different. Before I could “chat at the watercooler” and/or go out to lunch or dinner. My team and I, we all talk on calls of course, but it’s always more formal - everyone has those mental meeting barriers up. How can I build strong interpersonal relationships when in-person options aren’t available?
  • We’re launching an MVP but the team is divided between speed and quality. Is there a practical way to get something to market fast but still have it be “right” and not full of bugs?
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris is in love with ClickUp on TikTok. Straight unhinged. But he’s not in love with ClickUp itself. The guys debate.
• All-in-one vs specialized tools? The classic debate.
• Chris tells a story about the wrong people being put in charge of the wrong “hard” things.
• Frank sees opportunity for SQLite in prod. Chris is skeptical af bruh.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Comment Block
  • “With the explosion of AI tools I’m becoming more paranoid than ususal. How can I trust that any of these AI powered platforms are secure when I know how often we skip actual security reviews, and should I be worred that we’re prioritizing cool features over actual security?”
    • The guys try to figure out what ‘security’ actually means here.
• LLMs: Not So Smart (PDF warning) after all. Shocking, I know.
• React Server Components: What’s old is new again. Can’t make this crap up.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys debate risk and business context of “tech debt” and whether that term is even valid. Good luck getting management to care!
• Frank says microservices are just trendy, while Chris just complains about the operational complexity. Either way, maybe we can just… not?… for a while?
• Can you speak “business?” Sadly it’s a gate to efficacy, and not just for the ladder climbers. Quantifying risk, time-efficiency, and top-line numbers are all part of the game.
• The pick of the week is Donut — no it’s not a SoLoMo app changing the world for busy cops, but it can help engender a stronger sense of community through Slack.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris has been demoted! He explains how he fell from supreme executive to mere sea urchin.
• Chris rants about AWS. Those unreliable, gaslighting sons of… well, he has a bit of a strong reaction to some recent challenges.
• Frank corroborates: Digial Ocean (as a proxy for one of a dozen different great services) offer what 98% of businesses actually need at a fraction of the headache.
• Apple: steadily declining in a super reliable way. So that’s… good? lmao
• Dude, do you know where salutes and handshakes came from? Frank does.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• NIST SP 800-63B-4 is out, and Chris couldn’t be happier. They have now officially barred password rotations (along with some other super great updates)! Seriously, Chris is like, too excited by this.
• Frank brings the story about the (now legal and very public) battle between WordPress and WP Engine. The guys debate some of the business and technical implications. Will there be A Forkening?
• Frank predicts more nuanced, “open,” licenses in the future for business. Chris is skeptical.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys discuss the evolution of DevOps
  • Still a philosophy.
  • Still not a job title.
  • But also, now definitely a job title.
  • Danger zone: Did we just create a new silo? That would be… not great.
• Why do people elect .NET for web dev? The guys are baffled.
• Comment: “Serverless sounds cool in theory, but now we’ve got a thousand different functions running everywhere, and I have no clue how to monitor or debug half of them. Did we just trade one set of problems for another?”
• Comment: “I’ve been managing a dev team for a while, but now everyone wants to use AI tools to ‘help code faster.’ How do I keep productivity up without turning my team into a bunch of over-reliant AI button-pushers?”
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris becomes a camera snob while Frank warns against combination appliances.
• Nothing CEO Carl Pei issues Return-To-Office mandate; publishes on LinkedIn.
  • It’s impassioned
  • It sounds logical
  • It’s unsubstantiated
  • TLDR: GTFO
• Are smartphones commoditized? Are “Pro” consoles worth it? The guys debate.
• The guys wonder what “innovation” will come next to steal the limelight from LLMs.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris has a new GPT power use case. It’s not new, and it’s not his, but he pretends like it is.
• The guys avoid a longer-form discussion about popular game dev algos, like Perlin Noise and Voronoi Diagrams.
• Frank brings up Pandora (yeah, it’s still a thing) and the guys talk ML “filter bubbles” and job security.
• The guys debate inconsistent messages coming out after a recent Columbus, Ohio data breach [1] [2].
  • TLDR: City officials lied. Then they retaliated against the whistleblower. Then they sued him. Then they lied some more.
  • …….. jerks
  • Maybe sometime the guys will share what they really think. ;)
• Streaming may revive a new wave of interactive fiction - Frank unpacks an example while Chris gets eaten by a giant spider.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris grouses about his Logitech BRIO. Decent camera, until the autofocus goes haywire.
• The guys talk M&A: Elgato, Corsiar, and Origin PC.
• AI hype: Chris brings a stupid story about “AI” being shoved into toothbrushes.
• “Move fast and break things”: A debate.
  • Also: do you actually build down-migrations?
• Frank talks streaming, WoW, and Roblox.
• The guys debate how different “generations” (levels of experience) approach software development.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank just can’t seem to win with his new streaming setup. It’s 2024, should 4K really be this hard?
• The guys admire VoiceMeeter, the kitchen sink of audio (for windows). Robin Williams approved!
• Chris explains how fickle users are with new systems - even when they are Provably better™ than the alternative.
• The guys discuss a possible Ritual Calling of the Engineer for software developers. There’s uh… there’s something to this, y’all.
• The pick of the week is the Elgato Marketplace audio store.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys kick off with (probably the final) update on the CrowdStrike debacle.
  • Spoiler: the proximal issue is code coverage, but the real villain is the lack of staged rollouts.
  • External Technical Root Cause Analysis - PDF warning
  • Is this a story of swiss cheese failure, or systemic risk?
• ADT “silently” files with the SEC about a breach. Frank is not having it.
• Do you even conspiracy, bro?
• Frank makes a call for greater transparency and sharing within infosec.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Surveillance capitalism: Is your phone listening to you? No. It’s not. But it doesn’t need to. Chris goes ona mini-rant about misdirected paranoia.
• The guys debate possible legal culpability for ClownStrike following their epic foible. Frank takes a more measured stance (see their Post Incident Review) while Chris thinks maybe they should burn.
• Software “Engineer” certification and licensure. The guys debate.
  • Is it theoretically advisable?
  • Is it practically feasible?
  • Is it financially viable?
  • is it politically possible?
  • More research required. This conversation will return. Major cliffhangr vibes!
• Yusuf Dikec enters the chat in the most badass way possible… though maybe the story is a bit too epic to be true.
• The pick of the week is Biscoff Cookie Butter Spread. This stuff is like, legit, dude.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Azure goes down, but no one seems to care after CrowdStrike breaks the world.
• The guys talk at length about the dangers of monoculture.
• Frank reminisces about the Winchester Mystery House, drawing a parallel to Google’s cobbled-together cloud services.
• Frank’s fishing analogy steals the show: when you get a hit, reel in the other lines to avoid tangles. Focus, people!
• The guys debate the delicate balance of focus vs innovation in startups.
• The pick of the week is DigitalOcean: cheap and simple cloud hosting.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank has a new streaming setup in anticipation of the upcoming WoW expansion.
• The guys talk about the accessibility of streaming and how kids are responding/adapting.
• Ghost Jobs: the next scourge we have to combat? Seriously? Like we don’t have enough nonsense in the market already?
• Chris is skeptical that pay transparency laws but the guys are both willing to try anything that reduces the salary negotiation dance.
• Job boards: just social media sites, with all the same cycles. Agree?
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank built a patio and now his back hurts. The American Dream! Happy Independence Day!
• The guys banter about the often-overlooked intelligence and skill required in blue-collar work. Frank channels his inner Mike Rowe, but both champion the trades.
• Frank rants about Dell’s Kingergarten “flag system.” It’s some weapons-grade BS. The guys lament the lack of trust in the workplace. Oh, and if you’re remote, it’s a dead-end job.
• Frank predicts a collapse within higher education in the next decade or two.
• Chris goes on a whole thing about VC’s… again.
• The picks of the week are:
  • ChatGPT’s voice mode: at least on the iOS app, you can have a spoken dialogue with the LLM. It’s neat when you’re driving.
  • mikeroweWORKS: Mike Rowe’s foundation that champions the trades.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Bitcoin. Why in the fundamentals is it hovering right around $69,420? (nice)
• Agile is dead! Everything is a lie! Agiles projects fail almost 3x more!
  • The guys demolish this BS article.
  • Frank emphasizes that Agile principles are often misinterpreted, leading to unnecessary complication.
  • Chris suggests that while it may have an Agile mask on, the final boss is really Scrum.
• Y’all hear about the massive Google leak, exposing all sorts of bias and shenanigans. Frank doubts is matters much in the long term.
• The guys debate the ins and outs of context switching.
• The pick of the week is Perplexity, a kind of LLM-sprinkled meta search engine.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys dive into the hilarity that is r/LinkedInLunatics. For example: someone complaining about applicatns using AI to complete mindless tasks.
• Frank suggests a quick sanity check on potential employers, but Chris says anything over five minutes is (likely) excessive.
• Chris warns against companies that are too self-centered in their job posts.
• In a new segment we might call “stupid hills to die on,” Chris goes full on gatekeeper (like, hard) for the term “podcasting.” It’s like he doesn’t actually have a real life to live, that this is something he’s choosing to fight over.
• The pick of the week is r/LinkedInLunatics. Bring your flame-retardant pants.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris reveals his long-standing “ball curiosity” and finally takes the plunge into the world of trackballs. Frank, however, maintains his dignity and sticks with a traditional mouse.
• Frank introduces the latest buzzwords in the remote work lexicon: “quiet quitting,” “coffee badging,” and “shadow policy.” Chris’s eyes roll so hard they almost get stuck.
• Frank suggests a new business idea: workplace achievement badges. Unlocked!
• Uber’s CEO blames remote work for the company’s losses. Chris isn’t buying it and thinks it’s a convenient scapegoat for deeper issues.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris gets entangled in a suburban standoff where HOAs and ISPs play hot potato with his Internet dreams.
• Logitech, once a name synonymous with quality peripherals, now hocking an “AI” mouse. For real.
• Ansible and Pulumi pick up steam. No one loves Chef anymore. Terraform is still a thing.
• The pick of the week is Pulumi - IaC that sucks a lot less.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• American Kennel Club makes a mockery of their trademark. Frank explains.
• Chris explains why he’s ruined his life. Again.
  • Yet Another Email Migration. Gonna hashtag #YAEM for next time.
  • Moves back to QWERTY because he loves the pain.
• The guys have a good debate over standards vs technological innovation.
• Does every product pitch need AI? Yes, and no.
• The pick of the week is UserVoice, because God gave you two ears and one mouth.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Devin was a lie. Can’t make this stuff up. The guys eat humble pie, admitting their miscall on AI’s immediate threat to software engineering jobs.
• Helldivers 2 storms gaming, leaving Chris ever FOMOd.
• The pick of the week is the Makalu Max from Mountain.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris’ newest billion dollar idea: empowering despots with AI. Frank doesn’t even like GPS-monitoring.
• Frank’s WoW team achieves a milestone! He and his raiding group are among the top 0.19% on the new content.
• The guys virtually drool over Helldivers 2 while Chris admits he’s too lazy for Minecraft.
• Chris adds color to last week’s Palumi talk.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The XZ Utils library was compromised. Guys, this could have been very bad.
• The guys talk supply chain security — the weak[est?] point in your infrastructure?
• Frank makes a bold cliam; apparently “too many” is more than “some.” Breaking mathematical discoveries like this, you’ll only find on Refactored.
• The guys debate open source funding models.
  • Chris stumbles his way into one possible idea: the Open Source Endowment Fund. Crypto scheme or the future?
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank introduces a concept he is calling “Jesus 2.0 Projects”
  • Projects that will solve everything™… once (if?) they ship.
  • Projects that take real testicular fortitude to launch.
  • Projects that also take real courage to terminate if they languish.
  • Are executive sponsors to blame?
• Chris rumages around in his Pokeballs and chooses…. Palumi!
• The guys discuss how to choose between legacy and novel tooling.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• MongoDB. The wrong choice for your website, but thankfully at least it’s “Web Scale”.
  • Chris rants. Hard.
  • Postgres has “inexact” numerics. Today Chris learned.
  • NewSQL lets you pretend to break the CAP Theorem for your ACID RDBMS.
• Frank has a bone to pick with Blizzards implementation of Private Auras.
  • Good intentions with poor implementations, still suck.
• The guys fight about balancing Waterfall and Agile. (I know, the W-word, ick, amirite?)
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• It was Pi Day! The guys… well, the guys basically just complain.
• Devin exists now. The guys debate whether “he” (is that misgendering?) will replace you.
  • Chris claims peak mania, and Primeagen has some great commentary.
• Frank points towards the… uh… bold? stupid? boring? prediction that There will be no programmers in 5 years.
• Chris reveals that he invented The Jetsons. Please send cash, check, or money order for your royalties.
• Frank and Chris fight a little on the value of the infamous Backlog.
  • Should you declare backlog bankruptcy?
  • If not, is it a shield or a sword?
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys debate compenastion transparency, but not the way you think.
  • Should managers hold comp info? Um, duh. What are we even doing here?
  • Should companies be fully comp-transparent? That’s more complex.
• “At will” employment is the only will, per the guys.
• Chris has an exposed nerve about the word “resources.”
• The guys debate COLA (Cost Of Living Adjustment) strategy.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris struggles with self-promotion. Frank says “just have confidence.” They fight.
• “Get me somebody! And get me somebody while I’m waiting!”
• Interesting analogy - how often do you turn into the Hulk?
• Wyze breach. People… don’t put cameras in your bedroom.
  • Chris doesn’t buy the stated root cause analysis.
  • Frank anticipates a baseless class suit.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris has a gripe with the Apple Magic Mouse - the USB-C charging port is still on the bottom?
• The guys talk about removable batteries and the Right to Repair.
• Ubiquiti is… ubiquitous.
• Frank wonders to what degree “AI” will terk ’em jerbs in the gaming industry.
• The guys debate whether Value4Value can/will kill certain kinds of media advertising.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris discovers another Biz Dev Dark Pattern: service cancellation requiring a conversation with a human rep, only to be greeted by a chatbot. Thanks, Sirius XM.
• Who wants to pay to create and maintain proper Personas, anyway? The guys debate.
• Features vs benefits - what are you selling? Frank has thoughts.
• Nerdular nerdance: is Vue.js better than React.js? Fight!
• The pick of the week is, use Google private drives by default. Hot tip!
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank demonstrates Harvard Business Review has their heads so far up their isn’t unequivically perspicacious.
  • The guys clown on their article, Research: The Growing Inequality of Who Gets to Work from Home.
  • Dum da-da-dum dum DUH! TLDR; the whole article is insipid pablum.
• Chris took a break between gigs. 10/10 he recommends.
• “That’s not my job” - a rant, by Chris.
• The guys debate (then agree) on whether “leaving a dent” is a worthwhile first-order goal.
• The pick of the week is the Hans Gruber Advent Calendar. Christmas can now be offical!
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• StarTech.com isn’t so bad after all, turns out. Chris really likes their 12U Open Rack.
• Mitchell Hashimoto leaves Hashicorp. The guys agree - this is not a coincidence.
• HCL. Love it or hate it. Hate it but gotta use it, says Github’s state of open source report.
• Russ Hanneman lost his B, Richard.
• Chris wants you to take a beat and self-reflect. Are you really satisfied with your job?
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• StarTech.com exists (little did Chris know). Also, don’t buy their USB-C KVMs.
• Charlie Munger asserted three rules for career satisfaction:
  1. Don’t sell anything you wouldn’t buy yourself.
  2. Don’t work for anyone you don’t respect and admire.
  3. Work only with people you enjoy.
• Crypto is fake. Doesn’t exist. Figment of your imagination. Or is it?
• According to Chris, Electron sucks and Teams sucks. (obligatory).
• The guys muse, are we on the threshold of another browser wars? Chrome’s gettin awfully popular out there…
• Google has yet MOAR AI-related egg on their face.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris buys too many new servers. His advice: avoid eBay.
• Everyone rants. Frank about YouTube, Chris about cable. Enshittification is real, friends.
• Chris mints “Biz Dev Dark Patterns” and rampant capitalism ensues.
• Odyssey of the Mind - pretty cool. Destination Imagination thought so, too.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys talk about variable naming. Great content!
• Frank recounts his recent talk: Avoiding Cyber Bikeshedding (see below)
• Chris has a spicy take on “shift left” everywhere.
• Frank thinks testing - get this - is actually helpful. You believe this guy?
• “Yes and [go f*** yourself]” is the right attitude to have!
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys serve up a fresh and timely takedown of… EA? And Comcast? From like, a decade+ ago? Lit.
• What’s in your home network? Plex is… not The Way anymore. (check out Jellyfin)
• Chris explains (poorly, I might add) about yak shaving - seemingly useless prerequisite tasks.
  • Obligatory
• The guys agree: buy your own modem and AP - stop renting gear from your ISP!
• “Life is hard and then you die.” Cheery way to end a show, huh?
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris won’t stop talking about garlic-stuffed olives? wtf is that about anyway?
• Michael Gerber enters the chat as the The E-Myth: Revisited is brought up yet again.
• RFC for “SHOULD,” “MAY,” “MUST,” etc. discussed.
• You’re a grown-ass adult. Act like it!
  • Great advice to live by. Thanks, Frank!
• The guys fight about entrepreneurs vs hard workers vs clock punchers vs NPCs.
• New term, coined BY CHRIS AND CHRIS ONLY: “data care.” Got a good ring to it, huh? It’s a great idea, Chris is glad he had it. /s
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Slack dies the “UI Refresh” death. A rant by Frank while Chris goes off an Apple Music.
• Scope Creep Abstinence 101: “Just Say No”
• Chris doesn’t like Big™ things. They become self-centered.
• Old men yell at clouds!
• Chris fails the Password Game realtime.
• The pick of the week is The Changelog 558 - a great (and more intelligent) follow up about licensure in the wake of Hashicorp’s rugpull.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Have you heard of our Lord and Savior, Titanium? (I’m not even going to link to the clowns in Cupertino.)
• Cisco buys Splunk. For Billions. With a B. Twenty-eight of them, in fa8ct. Twenty-eight billion dollars. That’s 28,000,000,000 United States greenback monies.
• The guys debate ignorance vs negligence.
• Frank is gaga for Strada.
• Chris argues that internalizing the idioms of new platforms is harder than learning the tech itself.
• The pick of the week is Kamal - it’s like Capistrano, but without the knobby knees and pimples.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Can/should everyone learn from how GitLab handles their handbook]?
• Chris admires “project bootstrap” moments (GitLab hosting GitLab, GCC compiling GCC, etc.)
• IDEs… are they all they’re cracked up to be? Chris and Frank debate.
• Cursor looks pretty cool. It’s VS Code, but now with 100% more LLM!
• Could ChatGPT build an entire Facebook app? The guys debate.
• Who even knows what the hell the term “cyber” means, anyway…
• A very special Refactored shout-out to NIST SP 800-63B §5.1.1.2 courtesy of Chris’ unending spite:
  • “Verifiers SHOULD NOT require memorized secrets to be changed arbitrarily (e.g., periodically).”
• Frank posits that all of infosec just comes down to logs. Plain old logs.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Hashicorp rugpulls the MPL for BSL Pikachu shocked face
  • Same script as Elastic Co.
  • Stay away from AGPL
  • WTFPL is pretty cool
• OpenTF is a new fork, predictably.
• The guys wrestle with the age-old topic… is software fundamentally difficult to monetize?
• Chris wants hot tubs full of naked people wearing 24K gold glitter. I mean it’s not awful but don’t kink shame.
• The pick of the week is an Open Source IaC tool called Pulumi. (see what we did there?)
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank points out that Amazon relies on “serendipity” for office return. Yeah… it’s that dumb. And then they doubled down!
• Chris slices his tin foil pretty thick, thinks Private Equity is the evil mustache behind the RTO push.
• The argument against remote work has collapsed. Why? Frank & Chris argue it’s because you can’t disprove a negative, but then lockdowns forced the issue.
• The guys banter about Factorio and Zelda. My god the Internet is an amazing place!
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys absolutely fawn over the GitLab Handbook. Have you seen this?
• Pull/Merge Requests (Perg Mullquests?) are discussed.
• Ryan used me as an object.
• “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris is still addicted to Factorio, and Frank to Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
• Are room temperature superconductors (LK-99) now a reality? No. No they’re not. But a girl can dream.
• What is your, or your Ken’s, job? Chris and Frank’s jobs are computer.
• The pick of the week is bar shampoo (yes, really) which is less wierd than it sounds at first.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank brings a new kind of return-to-office discussion: “bring in the nuance”
  • different people think differntly *gasp*
  • not everyone has the same preferences *audible confusion*
  • inexperienced employees have unique needs. Well… ok… maybe that’s actually a good point.
• This just in: Chris is a tyrannical jerk.
• Teams sucks, Microsoft sucks, Javascript sucks, Yankees suck.
• The guys explore new hire ortientation programs — the good,the bad, and the off-the-top-of-their-head.
• … and much more!

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00

On this episode of Refactored…

• Nerds are very excited about the recently announced detection of background gravitational waves, showing evidence for much lower frequency waves than are possible with LIGO. Frank doesn’t care because his car still doesn’t fly.
• Reddit does stupid things, claim users, moderators, and app developers. Drama results. Google winds up with egg-face.
• Chris has a bone to pick with PE/VC money and how it (further) perverts business incentives, and this is why we can’t have nice things.
• Check out The Federation, which is a great compilation of open source and decentralized technology platforms.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank is giving a con talk (Cyber Bikeshedding: The industry has lost the ball, how you can get it back) in Maryland on October 19th!
• The guys talk about interviews - as a candidate, what are “good” (for some definition of the term) questions to ask?
  • compensation
  • turnover
  • culture
  • how similar the company is to Entertainment 720
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Ring gets slammed by the FTC.
• The guys discuss VC motives. Chris has a hot take (surprise, surprise).
• The guys discuss information security, society, and the public interest. Who is responsible for security, anyway?
• Frank brings an article including intern advice from a CEO.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank gets rejected by his safety school, goes on to study basket weaving. Or at least that’s what Chris heard… we’ll never know for sure.
• Chris isn’t scared of AI. Should he be?
• Simulated AI-piloted drone decides to target it’s hanlder in predictable and hilarious foible. USAF lies about it.
• The guys discuss Fermi’s Paradox and the Great Filter. Will we nuke our virtual selves into oblivion?
• Quote of the week: “We have neolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology.”
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris - visionary thought leader that he is - complains about his smartphone while insulting modern chemists.
• The guys recommend use of a password manager: Bitwarden, 1Password, etc., doesn’t matter, just use one ya bum.
• Should you build or buy your next solution? Glad you asked! The guys debate.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris really is reporting live from the brink of sanity this week. Should we order a wellness call or just take away his vim?
• Frank makes some good points about BS-o-meter calibration.
• The guys complain about finding the delicate balance of under- vs over-reacting as a leader.
• Is your org chart upside down? The guys debate the usefulness of inverting the graphic.
• Layoffs.fyi is great. Also, it’s not the whole story. (some extra context)
• Is Apple actually a bank now? Not really - but Silicon Valley has been financialized possibly beyond the point of salvation, according to Chris.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Correction: Copilot uses Codex, not GPT.
• Did you know Chris uses vim?
• Focus & simplicity go hand in hand. The guys break it down.
  • It’s about understanding the assignment.
• Chris really contrives an analogy of team dynamics in OOP terms. It’s… a bit painful.
• Hey - Chris still uses vim.
• Frank explains his concept of “flailing” - failing fast, early, often, and loud: “flagrantly failing”
• Dude. Chris seems to really want you to hear that he uses vim. Did you know Chris uses vim?
• Frank drops a bomb about some ridiculous Splunk/Datadog spending. It’s mind boggling.
• Ok, we get it Chris. Shut tf up about vim already. Gosh.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank argues that Microsoft is the best… because they’re consistenly poor. The logic kinda hurts Chris’ brain, but also works, oddly. It’s a strange world we live in.
• The guys talk about microservices. Do you want to build them? Probably not. But! They are web scale (NSFW)… so… ya got that going for you.
  • For a lot of businesses, the guys argue it’s an antipattern. Distracts from getting the jerb done.
  • Microservices may just be worse than NoSQL. Maybe.
• The guys debate innovation - how much “new” you should bite off with each project.
• SIMPLICITY is a first class feature. Don’t forget it, schlub!
• The pick of the week is ChatGPT Plus, Chris’ new junior developer. Now you too can become a prompt engineer!
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys celebrate 100 episodes!
  • Chris learned that saying something out loud over and over again really can trick your brain into doing it. Aren’t humans dumb?
  • Frank gained confidence providing advice and feedback in different situations.
  • The guys are both filthy with verbal tics.
• The guys marvel at the power of silence. You know how they say it’s golden? It really can make you money!
• Be a more attentive listener and active conversation partner - for fun and profit!
• The guys announce that Refactored is going viral! Well… at least going video. We will be hip young kids, dammit.
• Are you focused on the wrong details? Probably… but it happens. But you should stay frosty.
• The guys discuss the security of “security” cameras.
• Frank invokes The Queen’s Duck. Read the story if you’re unfamiliar (it’s #5 on the list).
• Wanna hate life, yourself, and everything by knowing how all your medical data is handled? Chris has the solution: FHIR.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris teases episode 100 news - what could it be? Why would he upgrade to an M2 Max?
• Chris has a puppy now. He’s elated. /s
• “Excel is one of the most successful development platforms ever created” is almost inarguably a true statement.
• Frank makes a good point about defining Good Enough™.
• The guys talk about scope creep and requirements.
• Ask The Internet: “How much emphasis is placed on code quality?” from r/AskProgramming.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris starts off with a PSA: self-care is no joke.
• Perfect: Enemy of Good (AlwaysHasBeen.jpg)
• What really is Good Enough™ though? The guys explore.
• Chris starts talking about the Interstate Highway System for some reason? And then repeats an urban myth about some emergency airstrip bullspit which is summarily false.
• Frank predicts that Twitter will totes Gloria Gaynor (that means it will survive, for you younger jerks).
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank wants you to TONE IT THE HELL DOWN when someone comes at you with a problem, jeeze.
• The guys agree: It’s not you vs me, it’s us vs the problem.
• The guys debate the “three” most important skills for a developer:
  1. Writing documentation
  2. Organizing projects
  3. Talking to humans
  4. Using git
• Chris reps for the C4 Model of software architecture visualization again. It really is superior. Trust me, bro.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Return to the Office: FIGHT!!
  • What is the motivation, philosophy, economics, ergonomics, and effects?
  • What should it look like? What is the spectrum of “reasonableness?”
  • Is it all bulls***? (spoiler: probably yes, yes it is)
• Ask The Internet: “Do formal engineering practices have any application in the companies you’ve worked at?” from r/AskProgrammers.
• Chris argues that no one actually needs a Bachelor’s degree. Most of the time.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris lubed up his Cherry MX Browns and likes the result. What are the primary benefits? In order:
  1. Bragging rights
  2. Feel
  3. Sound
• Frank asks, why can’t developers seem to say “no?”
  • Are programmers and biz/dev prone to forming an abusive codependency?
  • Technical communication — and this is a novel revelation you’ll only find on Refactored — is hard.
• Frank thinks “cars are great.” We’re vying hard for ad money from GM.
• Business is finally starting to understand at least invest in, infosec. Is there something to learn apropos to other “hidden complexities?”
• Ask the Internet: “What books should every programmer read?” from r/AskProgramming.
• Rob Fitzpatrick, Kent Beck, Leo Babauta, and Jim Collins all enter the chat at the same time, kinda awkwardly crowding the doorway as the guys recommend The Mom Test, Extreme Programming Explained, The Power of Less (which Chris erranly called “Less is More”), and Good to Great, respectively.
• The picks of the week are the G-Lube and Brush by Glorious, to give your mechanical keeb switches that smooth and silky thock.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris really doesn’t like when people touch displays. Jeff Atwood agrees.
• Chris — a mere decade and a half late to the trend — is a fan of the Amazon Kindle.
• Libraries… are actually pretty cool. Go check one out.
• Frank gives a LastPass update. Turns out… probably time to leave, as expected.
• Ask The Internet: “Need opinions from people with experience in the industry” from r/AskProgramming.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• LastPass - Danger Will Robinson! Even WIRED agrees.
  • Frank is most aggravated that they didn’t full roll creds after their first incident.
  • Chris is most aggravated at the amount of unenctrypted data stored in the vault.
  • Neither of the guys are using it anymore, to be clear.
• Chris wants to know if anyone is still using zxcvbn anymore, or something simliar.
• Frank bought his kid a phone — the Bark Phone.
  • The guys agree, “socials” are no bueno.
  • Frank calls it a “less-toxic use for AI”
• The pick of the week is Bitwarden.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• No end of year programming here, no sir. Maybe publication troubles… but not content production lazinss :)
• The guys close the conversation on Line Goes Up.
  • What’s the point of an NFT? [Tom Haverford voice] “To have one, which he does.”
  • Most crypto Grifto™ is nothing more than a ponzi.
  • Regarding FTX & SBF - crypto didn’t fail, tradfi did. Fight us.
• Frank goes up out there and gets ‘imself a new jerb. Congrats, Frank!
• Reporting engines suck… but do you know what sucks more? Custom reporting engines.
• Frank makes it clear: define your use case and acceptance criteria completely independently of your tech & infra.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris doesn’t know how cereal works, apparently.
• Chris also doesn’t know how TV works, apparently.
• Chris doesn’t even know how his own job works (apparently) so he’s been outsourcing everything to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
• Frank introduces the story of a French guy who politely declined hookers and blow at company parties. Gets fired. Sues. Wins. The guys discuss at some length.
  • Are extracurriculars valuable?
  • Do you have to go?
  • should you go?
  • It all depends.
• The pick of the week is ChatGPT. Because of course it is, this thing is wild!
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris really has a bee in his bonnett about FTX, so-called “exchanges,” and crypto custody.
• Frank doesn’t think the term “desktop software” is going anywhere, but the guys avoid a longer discussion about convergence devices like the PinePhone and Librem.
• Chris narrates while Frank takes control of his crypto fortune. NOT YOUR KEYS, NOT YOUR CRYPTO
• Line Goes Up is a tremendous assault on the financial motivations behind and current state of the NFT ecosystem. But is its grim perspective on possible future universes fair?
• Feedback: Repeat offender Scott — unoffical IT support for Refactored — points out yet another broken TLS certificate.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Your homework: watch Office Space. Your other homework: never be anyone from Office Space.
• Frank asks, when resigning, should you talk to your boss first, or send the email? Discussion ensues.
• Point is — unless your boss is r/AmITheAsshole — you probably want to talk to them before making a decision.
• Do you need narrative control? Do you need to CYA? Probably not. But the guys have some tips if so.
• The pick of the week is (any one of): Positive Personality Profiles, Personality Plus, The Four Temperaments.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Jurassic Park holds up, man. Even when Xfinity flakes out for an entire week.
• You know what really grinds our gears? People who defend their actions solely on the basis of tradition.
• “The last guy” isn’t nearly the myopic troll he’s made out to be. Don’t be the new guy that throws the last guy under the bus.
• The macroeconomic environment is bad, no denying it. Some of the tech pullback is directly tied to Fed rates, but Frank extracts a key lesson about sustainable growth.
• Frank offers a $1,000 cash reward for anyone who can identify where the QWERTY keys are on Chris’ Moonlander (photo below). Was it a sincere offer? not-sure-if.jpg
• The guys want some real world feedback on anyone who has lubed their mechanical keeb.
• The pick of the week is Good to Great, by Jim Collins.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank is super hype for the new God of War, if you couldn’t tell.
• Layoffs.fyi is — unfortunately — a super interesting site right now.
• The big bois are all announcing hiring freezes and/or layoffs right now. Most recently Facebook and Apple. Rumors about Amazon next. Chris has a somber prediction.
• The guys talk resumes. Few quick tips:
  • Quantify All The Things.
  • Talk about you, not your team.
  • Speak to accomplishments, not responsibilities.
  • Highlight your role, not your company.
  • Frank wrote about this topic in more depth.
• The guys debate the value proposition of the cloud. dhh is moving HEY off the cloud (link to article and podcast).
• Is the fediverse ready for prime time as Twitter’s future is uncertain? The guys discuss Mastodon, Diaspora, PeerTube, etc.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Lachlan Patterson has some funny analysis on designing the George Foreman grill.
• Frank argues well that your product (service?) design needs to be very focused. Be cutthroat.
• Feedback: “Does DevOps mean anything now that a bunch of companies are ‘doing DevOps’ but not really doing anything differently than before?”
• The pick of the week is the George Foreman Grill. Yes… that one.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Rails’ has_one / belongs_to associations trip Chris up. What a dumb-dumb.
• Chris makes the point that most of software development is yak shaving.
• There is much dissection of why undergrad programs fail to produce people with basic skills.
• The guys fight about hustle culture. Necessarily toxic? You decide.
• There is much reconciliation when the guys agree about the behaviors of curiosity and peripheral vision.
• Hiring sucks. Seriously. One of the hardest parts of the jerb.
• The guys agree that trust & delegation are key to any team, at any point, of any size, in perpetuity and throughout the entire universe.
• Go Phils! <internal note - do not publish>: wait, do we really invoke the sportsballs here?
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Feedback: Justin asks, “Since everything is cloud now, should my IT team be shipping Chromebooks instead of beefy laptops?”
• The guys talk about streaming. How dumb is this trend?! Ok, ok, there are lots of exceptions - but that’s not what we’re talking about and you know it.
• The guys fight about Google Docs / O365. Chris has arthritis.
• Feedback: Justin asks, “Is the agile manifesto fundamentally in conflict with the fact that businesses commit to deadlines and budgets?”
• Frank says, “manage less, you dolt” in a recent post entitled Adjust Your Meddling Point.
• The guys agree - you should approach agility from the posture of rigidity.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Allen Holub turns out to be really heckin’ smart. Like, maybe he’s done this before.
• The guys debate methodology. Or, Frank tries to, and Chris keeps derailing the conversation. Over and OVER again. But is Scrum worth the certification it’s printed on? You decide.
• Frank brings up a great point about constantly reassessing the state of things, and challenging whether your assumptions still hold through.
• The Increment bundle shipped (19 issues). Chris likes it - but for one fatal flaw.
• Ruby on Rails. Still kickin’ in 2022! The guys fawn over something that was played out five years ago.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank follows up on Chris shutting down conversation in meetings. What a jerk.
• Chris revisits his gear upgrade recommendations for nerds:
  1. Ergonomics first:
     • Adjustable mesh chair
     • Monitor height
     • Mechanical keyboard
     • Mouse that fits your hand
  2. Presentation second:
     • Clean up your background (just make it look tidy - that’s all that matters)
     • Discrete microphone (a starter-level condensor mic is just fine)
     • Upgraded webcam (if you are so inclined)
     • Lighting (e.g. LED panels)
  3. QOL upgrades:
     • Monitor real estate - get yourself too much. Yes, you heard correctly, upgrade to “too much” screen real estate
     • Speakers and/or headphones
     • ACTUAL green screens? The guys debate
     • Frank puts on full display his unreasonably vitriolic hatred of ring lights.
• Should you work in the healthcare, finance, or defense industry? Or just go straight to pornography? The guys have some thoughts.
• Everyone hates laptop keyboards. Like, come on. We’re not alone here, right?
• … and much more!

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Update: Frank borked the first version of this episode’s audio. If you re-download, everything should be good now!

On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys are back in the groove and all caught up with publishing the episode backlog! I know, I know - but let them have this one, they’re awfully proud of themselves.
• In news that is about as shocking as sunrise, Google will shutter Stadia. Frank has some choice words. The day after recording, TechCrunch published an in depth article with some added nuance of cringe and hilarity.
• The guys manage to stop bashing Google long enough to talk about managing expectations thanks to a real life Office Space moment.
• The guys talk about thinking through uncomfortable conversations. Another Silicon Valley reference for the win - “Ruinous Empathy!”
• Feedback: Justin asks, “Does having a sophisticated A/V setup for your video calls make you seem less promotable to the C-suite?”
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank recommends The Legend of Vox Machina.
• Chris has been really busy slacking lately.
• Homepages suck (most of the time). You really gotta RTFM, but YouTube can help.
• Frank is really enjoying Turbo and Stimulus but still trying to detox from jQuery.
• Are you stuck? If you’re not getting stuck, you may need to think more abstractly. If you stay stuck, you aren’t phoning a friend quickly enough.
• What IS work/life balance? Chris struggles. We have it as an episode tag and can’t even define it well.
• Feedback: Anonymous asks, “How do you find the right balance between marketing/sales and engineering/product?”
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank built a library to handle fiscal calendars. It was cooler and less painful than it sounds.
• Chris has officially gone off the deep end. He thinks - and just hear him out - that everyone should use:
  1. ISO 8601 everywhere always for dates
  2. 24-hour time. No more am/pm
  3. UTC, and abolish timezones
• The only thing Frank agrees to, is that all servers MUST use UTC or you are paving the path to madness.
• Frank loves Redactor X. The guys talk editors. Quill and TinyMCE are discussed.
• Frank pushes back on NFTs. Chris agrees the current offerings suck, but doubles down on the long term bull thesis.
• The pick of the week is Wicked Cushions, aftermarket headphone accessories.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank is The Riddler. Not the new Paul Dano Riddler, the Jim Carey Riddler at the end where his head looks weird.
• Frank goes to Blackhat and DEF CON and shares all about it. Spoiler: it was a mixed bag. Chris asks about policy because he’s a dumb corporate drone now.
• Chris and Frank wrestle apart the nuance between a “single team” vs “distributed pods” for shared company expertise (like security, architecture, etc).
  • Frank is convinced it must be pushed out ot the edges. YOLO, or something.
  • Chris has concerns about effectively managing the diffuse structure but has been considering the model.
• The guys agree that rules and enforcement go hand-in-hand. One is entirely inappropriate without the other. So you can run and tell that. Home boy.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Refactored is now Podcasting 2.0-enabled! Go grab a new podcast app and become the future! Chris has had a good experience with Castamatic in particular.
• Frank is super jazzed about JS import maps. Seems like it could offer a way to [ctrl]+a, [del] at least some of your JS build pipeline insanity. Pretty cool stuff.
• Silicon Valley. Go watch it.
• Chris worries we haven’t seen peak recession.
• People are people, too. Management tip of the day: be honest.
• Feedback: Dave asks, “What are the obvious signs of teams that think they are ‘agile’ but clearly still do not understand it?”
• The pick of the week is StartAllBack, a very opinionated [ctrl]+z on some of the Win 11 UI changes.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris talks about PodcastIndex.org. He’s like, mad bullish. Like, vegan-evangelist level.
• Did you know that YouTube is the Internets second busiest search engine? Frank did.
• The guys fight about Scrum for a while. Is it Good™? Definitely, maybe. Or not.
• You can’t please everyone. The guys unanimously, vehemently agree.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank shares some satire. In response Chris offers a ham-fisted explanation of Poe’s Law and then goes on an old man rant about bad writing in the form of LinkedIn bait (as if it really matters).
• The guys agree on their… caution… toward the social cesspits with respect to kids, because the negative effects are multitude.
• Chris brings up NISTs new quantum-resistant algorithms for encryption and signatures, and then indicates some grim consequences about what practical quantum computing will actually mean for individuals and governments.
• Phrasing! Qubit - the quantum computing equivalent of a bit.
• Frank found Cloaked.app, a neat service to pool randomized data among sites and users.
• The guys talk about Frigate.video - in related news, court docs prove Amazon is sharing Ring data.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris is totally geeking out about the images released from the James Webb Space Telescope and then goes on a tangent about proving Einstein right (frame-dragging, gravitational redshift and lensing, gravitational waves, …).
• Frank claims there are people out there ignoring all the benefits frameworks provide, like…
  • Bootstrap (or a hundred other alternatives)
  • Sass
  • TypeScript (also maybe CoffeeScript)
  • Hotwire
• Chris goes on a rant about pour over coffee and how he just wants machines to do all the work. Then goes on a rant about why typing is good for the frontend but not the database.
• Key phrases/themes for this week: NIH and YAGNI.
• The guys fight (a little) about wireframing and prototyping.
• Feedback: Anon says, “I have a department which I am dependent upon that is always dealing with emergencies…” and boy, oh boy, does it sound like Anon is in a pickle. Yikes.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris likes DistroTube’s video about Vim where he argues (counterintuitively) that Vim is a better UX than a GUI editor.
• Is it worth it to learn the arcane sorceries of a terminal editor? The guys debate. Chris says yea, Frank says nay.
• Vim vs Visual Studio is a great case study to the broader Linux vs Fisher Price OS Winders debate.
• The guys like PowerShell (except the syntax) and Desired State Configuration (DSC) and SCCM Microsoft Endpoint Manger (MEM) are brought up for some reason.
• Some time is spent comparing Excel vs Google Docs vs sc.
  • Sadly, for SOME odd reason, no one thinks of or mentions LibreOffice Calc! /s
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank runs through the “Rules of the Road” (guidelines for fostering heatlhy creative discussion):
  1. Reserve judgement
  2. Raise alternatives, not protests
  3. You are not your ideas
  4. Always converse at a round table
• The guys agree - leaders should speak last.
• Feedback: Dave asks, “What are your suggestions for building a sense of “team” with everyone working remotely?
• The pick of the week is demotivational material by Despair. Some of our favorites:
  • Motivation — If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job. The kind robots will be doing soon.
  • Teamwork — Because none of us is as dumb as all of us.
  • Consulting — If you’re not part of the solution, there’s good money to be made prolonging the problem.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Wait — stop the music — developers are… NOT?… good at design?
• Chris blames the Curse of Knowledge. Frank riffs on that, but we all know he’s skating by.
• Who’s less tech savvy, teachers or seniors? FIGHT!
• Frank makes a great analogy to cars, that hide all of their complexity.
• Chris recommends personas for helping to combat the tribulations of UX/UI.
• Frank recommends getting feedback from real human people (not developers) early and often.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank buys a first-class ticket on the follicle train to vanitytown. Chris pounces on his candid vulnerability to score cheap conversation points.
• Frank steals the show with a great (stolen) idea: The Leadership README. Credit to Gary Foster and Katie Wilde, in turn.
• Frank shares his responses and Chris fumbles through his own hot takes. Some of the prompts include:
  • What makes you grumpy?
  • How do you like feedback - slack, email, in person, etc?
  • How do you prefer to receive recognition? (public or private)
  • What are your goals for this year? And for the next 3 months?
  • What’s your favorite baked good?
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• A three week hiatus?!?!?! It was a team effort:
  • Chris rides the Rona and has a rough go of it for two weeks - is he stupid, weak, or both?
  • Frank successfully fails to record the first attempt at 69 (nice).
• The guys talk $1T Bitcoin, the Etherium PoS merge, fractional reserve banking, stablecoins, UST depegging, and market volatility.
• Frank buys a new PC with a RTX3070 in it a new RTX3070 with the rest of a computer wrapped around it. Chris can’t remember the name of Fractal Design, which has been his choice of case for his last several builds.
• The guys talk device/software pricing. Is a subscription for features on a discrete device fair?
• Chris complains that GitLab breaks something (again) but it’s ok because the community is awesome: point and case. Yay GiLab! Yay open source!
• The picks of the week are Origin PC custom gaming rigs, the reMarkable 2 paper tablet, and Apple’s AirPods Pro.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Holy moly y’all — Frank got a new job, and now he’s doing the cybers!
• Do you lead your personal brand with “ex-Facebook,” “ex-Google,” or similar? You maybe shouldn’t do that, the guys think.
• The guys discuss the infosec “community.” Cliquey like Mean Girls but boy oh boy can some of those folks executive.
• Speaking of executives… the topic of well-roundedness comes up. You gotta be a perfect circle? Or would, say, octacontaheptagonal be smooth enough? Mild debate ensues.
• Feedback: Joyce asks, “What are your thoughts on the best ways for handling goal setting and employee reviews?”
• The pick of the week is the Freakonomics podcast, specifically the current series on higher education (starting with episode 500) - it speaks to (much more than) the debate from Refactored #062.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank blows a bunch of money on some hoity-toity markers only to revert back to Expo.
• Chris remembers the SaltStack vs Puppet decision differently than Frank, but they both agree, they wanted the Boring™ option.
• Should Everyone Code? No. The answer is no. Not everyone should code. This is rookie marketing, and it’s bad.
• Is Excel the largest and most popular development platform in the world? The guys discuss, and you may dislike their conclusion.
• Feedback: Joe asks, “What is different about being an effective consultant vs being an effective employee for the same company?”
• The (unofficial) pick of the week is The Practice of Professional Consulting by Edward G. Verlander.
• … and much more!

Administrative note: One of the guys is quote “sick” (da hell kinda excuse is that? Is this the third grade?) and the other is “busy” with “back to back business travel” (sure bruh, sure - go ahead and lie to us, just don’t lie to yourself) but we expect the next eepisod to drop on May 10th.

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank bemoans the configuration of new peripherals (like his Shure SM7B). Why is it always such a pain?
• Chris got a free vacation from airline miles and hotel points. That stuff actually works!
• The guys discuss the logic - and implications - of the FTC’s recent order for Weight Watchers to destroy it’s data models following precedent from the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
• Simon Sinek enters the chat when the guys talk about metacognition and Start With Why comes up.
• Feedback: Dave asks, “Do you feel that micromanagement of teams impacts their productivity?”
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The Increment Collector’s Edition has been cancelled due to production challenges. But the reply-all thread is the real story. Here are a few pulled quotes:
  • This is now the “I’m sad about my increment collector’s edition order” thread.
  • Woo! Hoo! My first user therapy group!
  • This is an awesome self-selected group of people who care about product engineering!
  • This whole email chain is some combination of ridiculous and amazing.
• Frank makes a prediction that “something like Slack will always exist.”
• Chris trips over both his old man walking cane AND his tin foil hat to bash modern chat.
• Hey! Phrasing! TAM: Total Addressable Market
• Feedback: Anonymous asks, “What do you recommend when you are told that you have to release a product that you know is not yet stable or ready for release?”
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris revisits PTO policies. He found a better one… but it still doesn’t get the jerb done.
• The guys compare and contrast the Dunning-Kruger effect with Imposter syndrome.
• Rubber ducking — if you’re not doing it, you’re doing it wrong.
• Frank bought a MacBook that isn’t an M1… sooooo… why are we talking about it? Oh right, because Carbonite was acquired by OpenText and the decline has apparently already begun.
• The guys talk about giving people real ownership & accountability in their work. Turns out? Good idea.
• Chris makes a teary-eyed appeal for more feedback on the show in a rare fourth wall break. Connect with us!
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The FTC probes Amazon for “deliberately confusing” users during signup. Frank has a strong opinion on this one. UI screenshots that were discussed embedded below.
• Chris was annoyed at how Fruit Ninja kept shoving adds at his son.
• The guys fight about the meanging of the term satisfice. It’s sad.
• Steve Krug enters the chat retroactively as Frank remembers the name of the book Don’t Make Me Think.
• Frank then points us to the revelation of Project Iliad. Chris is upset-bordering-speechless, having just experienced the fruit of this particular labor of love loathing.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Coding Boot Camps. They are numerous. They are well-funded. They… promise more than they can deliver? The guys discuss. (TLDR — the phrase “jumpstart, not a shortcut” gets used)
• Chris misses a crucial opportunity to drop a “Your mom goes to college.”
• What are entry-level qualifications, anyway? Chris offers his perspective.
• But is it web scale? [NSFW]
• A tsunami of vengeful hellfire crashes ashore the lands of Academy. Laying waste the outskirts of most modern 4 year comp. sci. degrees, razing the town of “undeclared majors,” salting the lands of “general education credits,” and rending asunder the scrolls of “this is better than technical school.”
  • Graduates don’t use the degrees they get.
  • Skilled trades can yield a very comfortable standard of living.
  • Bachelor’s degrees don’t prepare you for industry.
  • Inlfation-adjusted post-secondary education costs have been SOARING.
  • People don’t have the tools they need to manage the debt.
• How does this episode NOT outtro with Alice Cooper?!
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys talk unlimited PTO. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Spoiler: unlimited PTO is not a panacea.
• Frank thinks companies that don’t pay out unused PTO are scummy. Chris thinks it encourages better utilization.
• “crunch” is a term used by the gaming industry to mask a systemtically broken corporate culture. The guys debate.
• Frank brings r/AntiWork into the discussion. The guys have different takeaways on the subject, but two things are clear:
  • There are some real hardships being expressed there.
  • The conclusions/solutions aren’t always pragmatic.
• Chris preaches about setting boundaries with respect to personal time. He also comes in kinda hot when the phrase “work life balance” comes up.
• Messrs cabbage and son of Anthony discuss American cultural work identity.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• In case you’ve been living some island-dwelling, soccer-ball-talking offline nightmare, Russia invaded Ukraine. Careful to avoid major political talk, the guys spend some time considering the circumstance and speaking about the people who have been, are, and will be harmed when governments clash.
• OKR, KPI, OGSM… omg wtf lmao. Frank has issues with how performance management frameworks are [usually] administered.
• Chris is drinking raspberry açaí seltzer and apparently he REALLY wants everyone to know it. Weird flex but ok bruh.
• Frank drops a SMART on Chris.
• The guys agree: there exist no honest, practical, quantitative, direct measures of individual performance for developers. (Except lines of code written, obviously.)
• Jerry Z. Muller enters the chat as Chris invokes The Tyranny of Metrics.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris is in the middle of one computer migration when another defecates the mattress. He’s got opinions on stuff. Spoiler: Apple and LG are, collectively, 127% to blame.
• Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD. Sony won the battle, but digital distribution won the war. The guys reminisce.
• DMCA Commercial: “You wouldn’t download a car…” The rest of the world: “Like hell I wouldn’t!” (Ackshually, the guys got this wrong - the commercial said “You wouldn’t steal a car.” Which is true… but the comparison is still dumber than a box of hammers.)
• The guys muse: in a world where DisplayPort exists… why is HDMI still a thing??
• The Flaming Cat Index v1.1 Changelog:
  • Multiply the base participants X functions X topics score by M/30, where M is the length of the meeting in minutes. So the v1.1 formula becomes: PFTM/30
  • This penalizes meetings more than 30 minutes long, and rewards those under a half hour.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys play Zoom Bingo: “I’m sorry, can you repeat that? <insert excuse here>”
• Parkinson’s Law enters the chat because “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”
• Frank makes a case for keeping meetings really tight. Tight in which dimensions? Glad you asked:
  • Number of functional areas represented by attendees
  • Number of topics for discussion
  • Number of total participants
• The guys invent the Flaming Cat Index (or FCI), which is the product of multiplying the numbers of participants, topics, and departments for a given meeting.
• Frank flexes with a timely admission that his default meeting duration setting is 30 minutes.
• The guys agree on nomenclature for team member personas:
  1. Little Jimmy — the new entry-level developer
  2. Big James — seasoned professional; lead/architect/etc.
  3. Aldrich Blankenship — WASPy mustachioed executive with an underbite
• Q: How transparent should you be about discipline and terminations? A: As much as possible, and no more.
• The (unofficial) pick of the week is the Trifecta of Christmas Glory: Die Hard, Home Alone, and Christmas Vacation.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank triples the speed limit and commits five other misdemeanors on his way to Target for a PS5! <insert FF7 victory fanfare>
• StackOverflow announced a while back a savage, malicious, bad-faith attack on the entire software development industry.
  • Who, what, when, where, why, and how? The guys unpack the details.
  • Where do technologists go from here? No one seems to have any great ideas.
• Jim Collins enters the chat when Frank mentions Good to Great: get the right people on the bus your team, and the wrong people off.
• Joel Spolsky says every developer needs four walls and a door. Frank says this is the troo troo.
• Chris has an axe to grind with using the word “engineer” willy nilly. Turns it into a whole rant.
• Would licensing (and insuring) software developers… matter? The guys discuss whether meaningful liability would change anything about our industry.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Microsoft acquires Activision for just shy of $69B.
  • nice
    • nice
      • nice
        • nice
          • …
  • Why are the Feds investigating? The guys discuss, but it’s probably just because, per the FTC, “current law requires companies to report any deal that is valued at more than $101 million to the agencies so they can be reviewed.”
  • The guys agree, there probably isn’t a lot for gamers to worry about.
• Frank pens an article on why NFTs are total crap, and he’s 100% right. Chris brings some additional elaboration, predictions, tin foil, and insults.
  • Are NFTs worth less than Beanie Babies? Probably.
  • Chris predicts that NFT technology will revolutionize entire industries “overnight” in the coming decade, and most people won’t realize it happened.
  • Will incumbent businesses reject decentralized technology due to the inherent transparency? Frank makes a compelling argument. Chris predicts ultimate failure of those business.
  • The guys fight about the “cycle time” of financial metrics, and their impact on public companies (re: quarterly earnings calls, etc.)
  • Related: YouTube removed the dislike button to increase revenue. Internet reacts. Frank opines. Chris makes unintelligible noises.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank flips out when he learns a new Zoom shortcut. His fault for not learning the software or Zoom’s for hiding stuff?
• The guys talk Zoom vs Google Meet. Then they talk Google Wave. Then they talk all the other products Google has killed.
• The guys agree - no seasoned technologist wants to be an early adopter during their 9-5.
• Shout out to a recent Coder Radio talking about the seventy three different fractured chat services Google maintains.
• Editors! Notepad++, Sublime, Atom, VSCode, Vim, and a partridge in a pear treeeeeeee.
• Modern Windows is a billboard by default, Chris contends, and surveillance capitalism creeping into core OS mechanics is morally reprehensible. Woah. Dude. Calm down.
• Totally unrelated to the above, Chris recommends you should consider taking back control of your data. He even has the audacity to drop the L-word.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris describes a (totally hypothetical - asking for a friend) failure mode of using EFCore and JsonApiDotNetCore.
• You ever had user complaints of “general slowness?” The guys commiserate, then discuss different paradigms for trying to identify issues in production.
• The guys debate the pitfalls of contracts. Do you want to crash a Mars Rover? Because that’s how you crash a Mars Rover.
• Frank… my gosh for the eleventh time this month?… lays bare his passionate adoration for Hotwired.dev. Do you remember having to manually manipulate XMLHttpRequest objects? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
• There are 2 Hard Problems(tm) in computer science: cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-one errors.
• Chris equates Jeeps and Node.js - great tools for the specific problem they solve well. Bad experience everywhere else, all the time.
• Jets suck, Yankees suck, Nicks suck.
• Krypton sucks.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Case Study: NYC-based firm burns lease agreement in 2020, then doubles their renevue in 2022. “BuT rEmOtE dOeSn’T wOrK!!!1”
• Chris cautions companies to think through a remote transition carefully (spoiler: that doesn’t mean don’t do it). The guys agree that remote work represents a fundamentally different paradigm of interaction compared to a central office.
• The guys talk about the tech talent shortage dragging on for years.
• Frank can’t stand it when leaders reject new ideas. Chris argues it basically boils down to poor communication skills and/or ego.
• The guys discuss how to sell your finance / accounting team on doing new things that “cost” money.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys both unplugged, and you should too. They played Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering, and Legos. They discuss the Lego Star Destroyer, Titanic, and Red Barn Woodshop — hope you’ve got deep pockets!
• W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne enter the chat as Frank mentions Blue Ocean Strategy.
• Frank hypothesizes on why the PS5 is still Unobtainium… Chris doesn’t think he’ll get one before he dies.
• Chris clears up a common confusion regarding semiconductors and breast implants.
• DoorDash in the spotlight - is their WeDash program unreasonable? No. Spoiler: Still no. Quite the opposite. Some whiner gets appropriately lambasted by… everyone.
• Chris drops two PSAs: First, nothing on the Internet that says “anonymous” is. Second, if you’re annoyed, do something, get over it, or leave.
• Should you storm out? Your boss hates this advice on how to rage quit! Number five will shock you! <other Buzzfeed-y titles here>.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris hasn’t seen Spider-Man: No Way Home yet and Frank can’t believe it. The ratings & reviews are very favorable. It had a $253M box office opening weekend (that’s a record).
• Jerry Z. Muller enters the chat as Chris recommends The Tyranny of Metrics.
• Has anyone figured out population, theatre, and inflation adjusted box office stats?
• Frank makes a great point about considering the reasons that things succeed and/or fail. TLDR - retconning runs rampant.
• Chris explains why you should go watch the intro video for the C4 Model, system mapping tool of the gods. It’s software architecture diagramming, made simple (which means it actually gets done).
• The picks this week are Spider-Man: No Way Home and the C4 Model.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• It’s the Official Refactored First Birthdaversary Bash! The guys celebrate by patting themselves on the back.
• You should have an accountability partner for the things you care about.
• Chris is at least 67% smarmy over the fact that Mercedes-Benz is the first automaker approved by SAE for Level 3 self-driving.
• Chris predicts within 20 years, the supermajority of miles driven will be autonomous.
• The guys unpack CVE-2021-44228, which isn’t noteworthy without a catchy name… in this case, “Log4shell.”
• Frank has a real bone to pick with SSO timeouts. Are security policies out over their skis?
• Chris loves shoving NIST SP 800-63b §5.1.1.2 down everyone’s throat, which clearly states “Verifiers SHOULD NOT require memorized secrets to be changed arbitrarily (e.g., periodically).”
• The guys make a totally novel, groundbreaking, and and never previously uttered PSA: Don’t roll your own crypto.
• The pick of the week is a water sensor for your basement - they’re a cheap insurance policy. Frank likes the one from SimpliSafe.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys discuss recent travel. Frank’s sick and tired of these masks, man, but Chris turns it into a Jira thing? What are rules without enforcement, he wonders…
• Offsite meetings are clutch, especially for distributed teams.
• Chris really hates Microsoft Teams. Like, abhors it.
• Frank comes out with two helpful tips for teams:
  1. You are allowed to say ’no.'
  2. Delegation is a thing, mmm’kay?
• Frank wastes everyone’s time belaboring the obvious.
• Chris wastes eveyrone’s time EITHER belaboring the obvious or leaving people in the dust. Why can’t he just find a happy medium? Childhood trauma? Unresolved trust issues? Too much caffiene?
• The guys agree - as a manager your job is to be the CRO for your team: the Chief Repeating Officer
• The guys want you to ask more dumb questions. Everyone will thank you, on the whole.
• Chris has an axe to grind about meeting hygiene. He draws some hard lines.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys reminisce about the days of yore after news hits of a coming announcement from WinAmp:
  • Thumb drives full of installers
  • Napster/BitTorrent in college dorms
  • How Windows has gotten better and worse over time
• Frank has a point to make about Technology teams “versus” Sales & Marketing teams.
  • Is it a job function thing?
  • A personality/temperament thing?
  • Or maybe just we’re awesome and they’re dumb? Yeah. It’s gotta be this one. :trollface:
• Chris argues you’ve really got to optimize your onboarding, training, and growth processes.
• Poor Matt Doran. This bloke flies transcontinental to interview and promote Adele’s new album, 30, only to get turned around at the proverbial door. Da hell does this have to do with software? Frank expounds.
• Being professional and being a decent human are not mutually exclusive. Full stop.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys pick apart some more detail and nuance about stocks and options.
• Which industry names things the worst? The guys debate. Healthcare? Tech? Finance?
• Frank comes in hot with a Grand Unified Theory of solving problems.
  • Are tech problems actually business problems in disguise? Chris agrees.
  • Are business problems actually people problems? Chris begrudingly agrees.
  • Are people problems actually always about authority and responsibility? The guys fight.
• Chris thinks there aren’t any grand conspiracies… but it sure does look like it. He claims Big Things™ are the culprit.
• The picks of the week are Gartic Phone and Skribbl.io - two great web-based games for remote teams. Thanks Joel!
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris is the worst, man. Like, why the holdup bro? We want our dang episodes already. Geeze.
• Frank once again launches into an entire tirade about how ALL DigitalOcean executives should be jailed.
• The guys talk equity. LOTS of ground covered at fairly high level, including:
  • Stock / shares
  • Options contracts
  • Insider trading (spoiler: just don’t, or the SEC will do unsavory things to your legal and financial posterior)
  • Vesting schedules and cliffs
  • Dividends
  • Market cap
• Investopedia is a great reference if you still have questions. That, and a PROPER FINANCIAL ADVISOR!
• The pick of the week is Increment, a digital (and physical!) software engneering magazine from the folks at Stripe.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys get some props from friend of the show and Podomatic co-founder Justin. Hi Justin! Apparently we’re pretty hardcore!
• The guys like, from their perspective, think that, maybe, like, people should pay attention to, um, how they speak. For #@!& sake!
• Frank explains a flaw in the authentication process of DigitalOcean. Remember, kids, it’s all about defense in depth!
• Did you know DigitalOcean (NYSE:DOCN) was public? We didn’t. But we bought some. Not financial advice.
• Bitcoin (BTC) - currency or store of value? What’s the difference? Chris bungles the explanation. Seriously, if you take a shot every time he misspeaks, you won’t make it to your next podcast.
• The guys bash Dogecoin. “Fundamentals? We don’t need to stinkin’ fundamentals!”
• You ever put Velveeta Cheese on Spaghettios? Chris has. He hated it. Also, Yelp sucks.
• Frank has questions about GameStop (NYSE:GME). Chris changes into his fancier tin foil hat.
• The pick of the week is DigitalOcean, great (and easy to consume) cloud hosting.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank intros a new topic, and the guys quickly agree on why healthcare apps all suck. It is Thanos inevitable.
• Conway’s Law is brought up indirectly: “Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization’s communication structure.”
• The guys debate whether compliance frameworks (HIPPA, PCI, SOX, et al.) necessarily produce “better” software.
  • Frank argues they help quality by forcibly raising certain bars.
  • Chris argues they just shuffle the risk and burden around.
  • The guys discass one the role vendors play in software system security.
• Chris claims that most software is a race to the bottom, most of the time.
• How do you manage delivery of binary artifacts? Chris haz questions.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris buys the Luxafor Switch (last week’s pick) and loves it - except for the adhesive.
• The guys discuss mobile gaming a bit. Frank has some strong words about pay-to-win (and similar business models) and Chris reminisces about Battleheart, stupidly calling it a side scroller.
• Who are the Rocks on your team? Praise be to the Rocks, for they ARE FRICKIN AWESOME. Not everyone wants to, or should want to, “hustle.”
• Frank preaches (in a “right on!” way, not like a “ugh wth is this guy even saying, I’m hungy” way) about silently letting your conversation partner finish their thought, even if their premise is erroneous or you think you foresee their conclusion/s.
  • It’s a sign of respect and decency and civility. Moar of this, please.
  • Cutting them off will niggle at their brain like an unresolved melody. Let the song finish.
  • If they’re going long, take notes to revisit points made.
  • In other words, just STFU, dolt. Silence is valuable. In some cases, even financially so.
• The guys praise the collected works of Michael Schur.
• Chris recommends wikis for proprietary/tribal terms and lingo.
• The pick of the week is the C4 Model, a highly practical software architecture diagramming methodology.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The Rona is rounding Castle Koehl, and the guys wind up discussing the different learning styles of their kids… the stubborn little adorable petri dishes that they are.
• Frank talks about some of the games he’s backed on Kickstarter (shout out to Ender Lilies), and professes his love for the Metroidvania genre. Breath of the Wild is mentioned.
• Frank learns that woodworking is a lot more common than he thought amongst techies. Chris claims it’s something to do with the tangible work product.
• Chris points out an alternate definition for “escapism” which can actually be super beneficial for work/life balance.
• “Strength and comfort cannot coexist,” said…no one, cause Frank screwed up the phrase. It’s “Growth and comfort cannot coexist.”
• Can you teach motivation? The guys debate.
• The pick of the week is a wireless availability indactor called the Luxafor Switch.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris needs sleep like a little tiny baby ever since he got a creature comfort patch into Rails.
• The guys agree that contrary to popular opinion, most attorneys are actually wonderful humans; they’re lovely colleagues who just want to do the right thing.
• The guys discuss NDAs - particularly around startup ideas - and how they prevent others from stealing all your related future profits and sexytime.
• Regarding FLOSS in the corporate environment, Frank wants to know, why would/wouldn’t a company publish more Open Source software? The guys come up with a few common excuses, and each is worse than the others:
  • ownership (e.g. IP rights)
  • liability
  • security
  • reputation
• The guys talk a bit about Coopetition - probably something your team could use a bit of.
• The pick of the week is Home Assistant, a central command and control system for smart homes that’s pretty sweet.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Audio production turns out to be kinda hard. The guys wonder aloud whether anyone makes a living specializing in this stuff.
• Donut gave Frank the opportunity to chat about geographical pay differentails. The guys unpack some longer-term market predictions.
• Chris barely avoids a longform rant about the modern consequences of Second World War wage freeze policies.
• Management is solving people problems, stupid. What the hell is wrong with you people!?
• Frank starts a discussion about the tactics of transitioning a contributor into management.
• There are - wait, is this correct? TWO picks? Chris picks both the Belkin 3-in-1 Wireless Magsafe Charger and the Ship It! podcast.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris is staring down the barrel of yet another performance issue with one of his platforms. Why can’t this guy do software better?
• Frank has some choice words for Entity Framework - but how does it stack up against Hibernate and Active Record? Chris gets nitpicky.
• Somehow the guys wind up in this whole big thing about whether the Purple Monster (PHP) is hot garbage, or charmingly quirky. Do you prefer a clean workshop, or a rusty pickup truck?
• Flon’s Axiom: “There does not now, nor will there ever, exist a programming language in which it is least bit hard to write bad programs.”
• The guys discuss in more depth the paper mentioned last week, entitled (PDF warning) The Fatiguing Effects of Camera Use in Virtual Meetings: A Within-Person Field Experiment. Although slow and dangerous behind the wheel a bit of a dry read, there are some interesting findings.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank changes careers; on track to become renowned NASCAR driver, sponsored by CoolerMaster.
• Frank brings up Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings (no spoilers) and the guys wind up making a bevy of movie & show recommendations.
• Frank makes a big deal about being a philosophy major. Weird flex, but ok bro.
• Chris brings up Zoom Fatigue. Apparently, there is (PDF warning) some new evidence to suggest the struggle is real. Frank toggles his camera all the time, and Chris takes a lot of calls from the kitchen. The practical utility of this information is unclear. So good job, Chris.
• Chris recommends walking. Because… y’know… health? or stuff?
• The guys debate at some length the practical future of autonomous vehicles. Chris takes the bull argument, and Frank the bear. What is the power struggle here between Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Mother Nature?
• Frank has some strong words about UX (Re: CarPlay/Android Auto) while Chris is more phlegmatic.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank ages, realtime. He is so old and tired he can barely make it through the show.
• The guys talk breaking and entering - both home and cyber. Do you know how easy it is to get through most doors? How easy it is to pick a lock?
• The guys briefly discuss IDS/IPS technology, and the Thinkst Canary comes up even though Chris derps on the name.
• Honeypots are kinda cool.
• Chris rails against the query planner in MySQL, which opens a larger conversation about database and system performance. Long story short, don’t table scan, ya dolt.
• Frank balances real life with a World of Warcraft habit, somehow (someWoW?), and shares an update regarding the ongoing Sanctum of Domination lag problems. The guys try to parse the language and diagnose the root cause of the issue.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Audition automatically upgraded to “enhance” our sound experience. Yay.
• Ryan Reynolds and Tommy Lee Jones enter the chat as the guys discuss the MVNOs Mint and Ting.
• Frank complains about professionals who don’t pay for their software. Do your daily-driver tools fall off the back of virtual trucks? The guys agree yet again that software development is just a skilled trade.
• Is FLOSS (Free/Libre Open Source Software) essentially more secure than proprietary systems? The guys debate.
• The pick of the week is BitWarden, a drop-in LastPass replacement.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris spends far too much time kvetching about how Plex broke PiP on iOS. Is there a hidden lesson about reading the room? You decide.
• Frank drops this glorious truth bomb: “Don’t look for the presence of compliments, look for the absence of complaints.”
• The guys (after some argumentation) agree - don’t be a putz, learn to READ THE ROOM, pal.
• Frank is trying to talk about how cool programming can be, but Chris can’t get his mind out of the gutter.
• Chris doesn’t not agree with Frank (!) - if you’re working with other humans, you need to be okay with lack of clarity.
• Always maintain a list of your accomplishments, for your own future reference.
• Frank gets a legitimate email, which he actually wanted! But Chris has been pushed to block “people” outright.
• Frank promotes the genius behind the NewEgg Shuffle.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Franks company has built a new Parallel Track Ladder: and spoiler alert, there are NO numbers (e.g. “Developer I,” “Developer II,” etc.)
• The guys discuss skills transferrability between individual contribution and management. Are they the same? How much overlap is there?
• Chris wants to assess his employees on their ability to fashion improvised weapons.
• Frank claims that employees are NOT stupid. What an idiot, amirite?
• M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions) always cause a lot of turnover. This is documented fact.
• Transparency and intentionality are key in growing a team.
  • Frank says you should build a career ladder if your team is anything over about 20 people.
  • Chris piles on that you should publish an org chart around that threshhold also.
• Radical transparency - is this a good idea? Check out the GitLab Handbook.
• Most people agree that Stack Ranking is awful.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank regretfully rescinds his earlier recommendation of Fnatic mice from Refactored 004: Creature Comforts.
• Chris regretfully rescinds the show notes from Refactored 004: Creature Comforts because at the time, he confused Fnatic with Fantech and nobody caught the error until now. So, technically, neither is officially endorsed.
• Is your RMA program really a marketing expenditure? The guys discuss.
• Everyone agrees: customer service is a “case by case basis” business.
• Frank explains that people have different ways of gripping their mice. Chris likes his G502 Lightspeed even though the guys agree Logitech has declined from their peak.
• Chris repeats his “a little bit of overlap everywhere” matra and then Frank twists it into this whole big DevOps… thing.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys kvetch about people inadvertently making our highways worse when they think they are helping. Is this low-brow watercooler small talk, or a veiled exploration on the broader topic of unintended consequences represented through allegory using motorists with a hero complex as the contrived plot device? You decide! But also, educate yourself on the Zipper merge.
• What does “multi-cloud” mean to you? SalesForce may disagree with your definition.
• Frank hates the word “cloud” and debates its essential utility. Chris has a less visceral reaction.
• Chris learns a new term: “citizen developer” (relative to things like Excel and Low-Code solutions).
• The guys manage to avoid Philosophy Hour after agreeing: If you can’t teach it, you don’t really know it.
• The pick of the week is Digital Ocean even though the guys didn’t play the jingle.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys follow-up on the talent shortage. Turns out, there just aren’t enough people.
• Frank asserts (as a manager) you probably have good leverage to restructure your overall benefits offering, and Chris voices the corollary that (as an employee) it’s a good time to “shop it around.”
• Chris revises the “greenfield” analogy - he thinks a tree is a better metaphor than grass.
• Do older developers grow to like legacy products? Or can “damn kids these days” just not see the Matrix?
• The guys discuss capitalizable development - do you know what kind of financial engineering happens behind the scenes of your code?
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys go on vacation… or do they? Frank has the unmitigated gall to practice self-care, while Chris works during PTO to achieve maximum self-flagellation.
• Chris thinks he has a bad power supply unit in his PC, and asks Frank for advice.
• Frank rails against sales practices that waste his time.
• The current technology talent shortage is revisited. Is it “because COVID?” The guys discuss the value in reviewing attrition carefully. Like as in, ya really should.
• Saturn (the auto company, not the planet) sucked.
• The guys get into a whole Right to Repair thing - iPhones and tractors and Teslas, oh my!
• The pick of the week is the Odd Lots podcast.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris has lots to complain about on Fast Company’s recent article The ‘Great Resignation’ is here. This is how employers should prepare.
• Frank has a real bone to pick with those lazy MotherFAANGers from the Silicon Valley.
• In older other news, the guys discuss why Google wants to be evil.
• Vision, Mission, and Values - are they complete and utter bullcrap? The guys talk straight on past each other:
  • Chris argues they need to be repeated
  • Frank argues they need to be worth repeating
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys discuss software system observability at some length: infrastructure, application performance, and business transaction monitoring.
• Frank vomits in the back of his mouth when Chris says “surfacing revelant insights.”
• Chris likes dockprom as a convenient onramp to the Prometheus ecosystem. The guys also discuss Datadog, Splunk, New Relic. Frank jams Google Data Studio into the discussion.
• Chris goes full Dad: “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.”
• The guys discuss how the Dunning-Kruger effect and the imposter syndrome impact hiring and team dynamics. Chris rants about the Ship of Theseus, too.
• Shockingly, there is discussion about Marvel.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• You can’t beat the triple constraint… what’s a tech leader to do? Frank points out that Mother Nature always bats last.
• Chris shares his philosophy around avoiding bad suprises.
• Frank promises to write an article. When? About what? Will he deliver?
• Fred Brooks has entered the chat as the guys indirectly discuss the Mythical Man-Month by quoting “nine women can’t make a baby in one month.”
• Chris gets triggered by NIST Special Publication 800-63B 5.1.1.2.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys agree, your goal should be oriented towards higher-order work.
• Office Space killed the term “TPS Report.”
• Chris draws a hard line: if it’s not in Git, it doesn’t exist. It’s unclear if he would accept Mercurial or Bazaar as acceptable substitutes.
• Frank, reporting live on site from the eye of a hurricane, shares his thoughts on selling a project to your team, and your boss.
• They guys proffer that perhaps - just maybe - your boss isn’t a club-wielding troglodyte.
• The guys agree: you should probably automate some stuff.
• Chris wonders whether “this Chief of Staff thing” is a newer trend, or he’s just been blind.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Multitasking - is it actually a thing? Generally… well, no. No, it’s not. Everyone agrees.
• Does your team have to communicate up and down the Chain of Command for everything? You may have a chest-puffy boss or some lame-o teammates.
• Chris reveals the true motivation of leadership: taking credit for the work of others.
• Chris reveals his secret to professional succes: just don’t do stuff you don’t want to.
• Edward G. Verlander has entered the chat as Frank promotes the Practice of Professional Consulting.
• The guys vehemently agree, again, that the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is worthless. It’s nothing more than astrology for people who like taking tests.
• Frank explains more about the CliftonStrengths assessment.
• Frank makes a prediction: When Chris takes the CliftonStrength assessment, he and Frank will match on at least three of their top five categories.
• The pick of the week is the CliftonStrengths assessment.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys used to be super weird about their résumés; they recount their youthful mis-applications of imagination.
• Chris makes the case that you should ask more questions; no one will think less of you.
• Frank points out that no one is out to get you, so it’s okay to be 87% less paranoid. 13% paranoid is okay though; that’s the offical Refactored Recommended Paranoia Quota™ (the “RRPQ”).
• The guys explore some ways in which the brain plays tricks on you, like the actor-observer bias.
• Go do the scary thing. Overcome “the flinch.” Make it a habit.
• Max out your retirement offerings! (IRA, 401(k), etc.)
• Quasimodo Chris recommends paying attention to your office ergonomics; it really compounds over time.
• Frank makes a prediction: Loki will be shown to have been D.B. Cooper.
• The pick of the week is twofold: the You Are Not So Smart podcast and the Brain Games show.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys redesign https://refactored.work/ and it looks friggin hot.
• As an American citizen, does Tony Stark have feudal right to reinstitute Primae Noctis?
• The guys gush over Haml and Stylus. Chris almost invented a Ruby preprocessor (but didn’t — you’re welcome).
• Chris didn’t realize that Sass still supports whitespace-sensitive syntax.
• Frank makes the point that you should focus on your MVP because you don’t know what you don’t know while Chris gets repetitive.
• Running interference for your team… wise or dangerous? The guys debate several specific risks.
• Present Frank makes an observation in agreement with things Past Frank said in Refactored 013: “Silence is Golden”. Will Future Frank disagree? Subscribe to find out (maybe, someday).
• The pick of the week is Hugo the static site generator. Again. Yeah, we picked it twice - fight us.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Google is going all out on their return to office transition plan. The Times reports, Verge covers, and the guys add much commentary:
  • sit/stand desks
  • inflatable walls
  • lots of cameras
  • utter tonedeafness
• For some people, remote work is a bug, not a feature. The guys debate.
• Chris takes a stand vis-a-vis “hybrid” office environments.
• Frank drops a bomb — the open plan office is complete Cargo Cultism.
• Digital Watercoolers! They’re as awesome as they are impractical for small teams.
• There is much opination regarding the The Great Resignation. Come one and all - there’s something to insult everyone!
• The guys debate counteroffers. When does it make sense? When is it inappopriate?
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Everyone knows the only reason to get into computer science is for the chicks.
• Chris announces the creation of the Career Schema Project!
  • The CSP mission is to bring betten access and equity to the search process by developing open standards and technology to reduce the time, cost, and stress of interacting in the job market.
  • Why do I have to data-enter all my information if I just uploaded my résumé? Blame the ATS if you want - the problem is that résumés are for humans, not machines.
  • The “bio” specification (still in “oh-dot” development) is a machine-readable résumé/CV.
• Chris chides Frank’s redundant diction while Frank mocks Chris’ flub of the word résumé. What jerks.
• The pick of the week is Hugo, the static site generator.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank proffers three résumé boosters in his not-so-humble opinion. Or is it four?
  1. Experience freelancing, or bootstrapping a startup
  2. Open Source involvement - particularly creating & maintaining
  3. Writing articles, blogging, publications, documentation, patents (*gasp*), et cetera
  4. Demonstrated discipline in testing, and in particular TDD
• Frank slams Chris for being too litigious. Chris has no good comeback and resorts to a bevy of logical fallacies to defend himself.
• Michael Gerber has entered the chat as Chris invokes the The E-Myth: Revisited.
• Chris can only remember two of the Three Virtues:
  1. Laziness
  2. Impatience
  3. Hubris
• Chris gushes over his new Moonlander, but has a more equivocal review of the AirPods Max.
• Frank thinks learning a new language is no big deal, bruh. Chris agrees, but it’s more complicated than that - what about the frameworks, libriares, and idioms?
• The pick of the week is the Moonlander Mark I by ZSA Technology Labs.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The verdict is in - the job listing is different from your job description.
• The guys are far more humble than you. And each other.
• Don’t use “ninja,” “rockstar,” “wizard,” et. al. in your job listing. Chris thinks it’s hyperbolic, disrespectful cancer; Frank thinks it’s a cheap, lazy cop-out.
• Chris is highly emphatic that a job listing is an advertisement and should be treated as such.
• Frank posits you should air some dirty laundry in your job listing. Chris agrees, but doesn’t want to go to Hawaii.
• Chris refuses to negotiate, which spurs the guys to agree that most agency recruiters are terrible.
• Frank wrote an entire article on why and how you should [Build Your Résumé for Speed]. Same core concepts apply to your job listings.
• Frank and Chris agree, you should enumerate offered benefits in the job listing. This is elementary.
• Where can you go to find talent? StackOverflow, Indeed, Monster, LinkedIn, Dice, and others. Yes, Dice is still around.
• Your term of the day is ATS: Applicant Tracking System. Frank likes and uses Lever.
• You should probably be transparent about your Joel Test score in the job listing.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank and Chris explain their old funnel-shaped hiring process that was reductive… until it wasn’t.
  1. Resume Screen
  2. Automated Code Test
  3. HR Screen
  4. Resume & Documentation Review
  5. Human Call
  6. Nerd Call
• The guys elaborate on their “two to say yes; maybe means no” policy.
• Frank would rather BS an answer to the question “what is your greatest weakness,” than slit his wrists for Gavin Belson.
• Chris really pushes to make technical interviews conversational, rather than straight Q & A.
• Frank’s team is now doing pair programming in their interviews… and it sounds hella cool.
• The guys have GREAT bars in their marketing collateral.
• Chris’ team has added a final panel interview wherein the hiring manager leaves before it’s over - genius or crazy? You decide.
• The guys agree - again - that Javascript is awful. Especially on the server.
• Frank makes his second promise in as many weeks and Chris objects emphatically.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys explore copyright vs copyleft, and it turns out Chris is Duke Silver.
• Do you need to be worried about GPL code? In the datacenter, probably not. In your frontend, much worry, very yes.
• LGPL is probably fine just about anywhere but AGPL is too disco for Chris… and probably any corporate environment.
• Frank asserts it’s (MIT || GTFO) for him. Chris thinks BSD is fine, too.
• The guys also discuss Apache, Mozilla, SimPL (which is stupid), WTFPL, Public Domain, SSPL, and Do No Harm.
• Chris thinks “RMS” refers to Richard M. Stallman, but Frank thinks it refers to Risk Management Solutions. This probably says a lot about the both of them.
• Software Composition Analysis (“SCA”), is useful. Check out Snyk, FOSSA, and Xray among a million others.
• The guys make it clear that they are not attorneys, and this content is not legal advice.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys discuss the merits of having a decent microphone, particularly for remote work.
• Chris argues video backgrounds are terrible.
• Frank wonders “what’s the deal” with Zoom Fatigue?
• Everyone hates their own voice (at first). The guys recommend recording and listening to yourself anyway.
• Don’t try to hide your entire life while you’re on a video call… unless you have bloody walls or naked roommates.
• Regarding COVID-19, Frank shares he’s got his first jab and the guys debate whether they’ve jumped their place in line.
• A link to Frank’s Tinder profile is promised.
• Chris hints, subtly and mysteriously, at a future topic of discussion. (Licenses. It’s software licenses. The possible future topic is software licenses.)
• The pick of the week is the Blue Yeti USB Microphone, a great value for the price.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Freeeeeedoooom! … it’s too much for some people. Not everyone is an Entrepreneur.
• Frank draws a compelling parallel[ogram] between a business team and a soccer team.
• Chris wants his team to screw up constantly (read: he gives them a mandate to make new mistakes in good faith).
• The guys agree that if you’re in leadership, repetition is part of the job. Be the “Chief Repeating Officer”
• Is inspiring indepedence as much work as micromanaging?
• The guys agree that the Myers-Briggs test is complete, utter bullcrap. Frank touts the CliftonStrengths assessment.
• Frank wants a Ban Hammer like Mark Spagnuolo’s. Chris misremembers it, and falsely asserts it’s made of maple.
• Tim Ewald enters the chat as Chris remembers he was supposed to link to the Clojure Con talk, Programming with Hand Tools.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys totally nailed a prediction about Nvidia, but with a crazy twist.
• Frank is bullish on the “javascriptless” Hotwire framework, but Chris has questions.
• Chris invokes Hanlon’s Razor: “never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”
• Frank laments a common gap in strong opinions, loosely held.
• The pick of the week is in fact, Hotwire.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The little voice inside Chris’ head has him worried he’s being fired.
• The guys discuss the value in being silent as a leader.
• What are you hiring for? Culture? Attitude? Like-mindedness? The guys debate.
• Someone makes the insane accusation that HR exists for a reason.
• Hundreds of thousands of organizations get pwned by a constellation of Exchange vulnerabilities.
• The pick of the week is the Apple Watch… at least for cycling.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank and Chris discuss the ongoing silicon shortage that is bottlenecking multiple industries.
• Nvidia announces a line of cryptocurrency mining-specific GPUs which Chris thinks is probably fine but which Frank argues is antagonistic to their customer base. Either way, the guys agree the firmware limitations won’t last.
• Chris doesn’t get the appeal of rack-mount equipment for homelab installations, but quickly sees the light as Frank explains.
• The guys successfully avoid a longform discussion on the relative pros and cons of home media management systems Plex, Emby, and Jellyfin.
• Chris botches an overview of what dRAID is and how it works.
• Frank explains a little about the HR service (“HRaaS”?) company TriNet.
• The guys go in-depth on SLAs; what they’re good for (and not) as a customer, and how to use them to budget downtime as an engineering/reliability team.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Frank argues that not everything has to be automated with Terraform while Chris plays devil’s advocate.
• The Pareto Principle is discussed, which is the observation that about 80% of your results come from about 20% of your effort.
• The guys talk briefly about GCP and AWS, and then discuss at some length why Azure is even a thing.
• Chris explains how he thinks & talks about technical debt arguing the “debt” analogy is fairly extensible, but Frank wants something more concrete.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris builds some trust with his team, and feels good about it.
• Frank likes to focus on the facts and the situation, and eschew individual emotion.
• Simon Sinek has entered the chat as the guys discuss his book Start with Why.
• Chris is in love with his UPS-analogy for why things don’t always seem to make sense at the small scale.
• Frank has some good insight on the trade-off between perspective and resolution.
• The guys fight about the difference (or not) between Waterfall and Agile.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Is “security” a dedicated person/team/pursuit? Frank draws a hard line about what ought while Chris remains cranky about what is.
• The guys discuss the OWASP Top 10 and Chris gets brownie points for knowing what OWASP actually stands for.
• The guys agree you should 100% go talk to your security team.
• Gated builds are probably a good idea.
• Frank is open-minded about IDE integrations while Chris couldn’t care less.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Technology does not (necessarily) progress monotonically, and Chris provides several examples complains a lot.
• Between the two of them, the guys manage to stumble through a brief history of HipChat, Stride, Slack, and Atlassian.
• Frank takes a bold stand: Microsoft is incapable of original thought.
• Chris explains the history of Atom and Electron, and surmises why MS Teams isn’t a great UX.
• The guys wage mighty battle over the modern-day merits and demerits of GUI vs TUI (or is it CLI?)
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys agree that you don’t need to digitize All The Things.
• Frank asserts that backups should be simple while Chris asserts they should be automated. These may not be mutually exclusive.
• Digital Transformation… do you put the emphasis on the “digital” or on the “transformation?”
• No one knows what Cloud Journey means, but it’s one of the few buzzwords this week Chris likes.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull have entered the chat as the guys discuss The Peter Principle.
• Frank touts himself as the Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson of his organization.
• Chris can’t figure out how to get real feedback from his direct reports. Frank opines on skip-level meetings.
• Chris admires the subset of truly solutions-oriented people.
• Frank argues commit signing is worth the hassle.
• Chris still uses RSS and Frank compares Twitter to ham radio.
• The pick of the week is the SANS Internet Storm Center Daily.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• While the physiology of “screen time” is universally bad, there ARE very meaningful variations, cognitively.
• Frank and Chris tease apart why they think the technology sector seems disproportionately led by non-technologists.
• SolarWinds (and many of their customers) were victimized by a supply-chain attack. That’s… not great.
• Frank introduces the D.I.E. model - Distributed, Immutable, Ephemeral - after explaining that servers are like cattle, not pets.
• Chris purports to be working on a new project with a bunch of stupid buzzwords like NewSQL and YugabyteDB.
• Salesforce to buy Slack. Frank is sad. Chris doesn’t care.
• Jim Collins has entered the chat because his book Good to Great is required reading.
• The pick of the week is the Coder Radio podcast.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• The guys talk a lot about office ergonomics, and especially keyboards (like the Fantech and Moonlander), mice (like the MX Master).
• Frank declares himself Ron Swanson.
• The guys explain why they like to let developers choose their own equipment, and how they approach that.
• Everyone agrees that training availability (like PluralSight, Udemy, and MSDN) are worth more than the cost of admission.
• Frank lays down a great framework for evaluating your attrition on an annual basis - are your departures largely voluntary and regrettable?
• The pick of the week is the Logitech MX Master with it’s sweet MagSpeed scroll wheel.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Top lessons learned from working with a 10x developer by Jeffrey Bakker
• The guys debate the definition of “Legacy” code. Frank says it boils down to age & depedencies, while Chris thinks it has more to do with a [lack of] control.
• The guys agree that code reviews MUST be dispassionate analysis. No names. No emotions. “You are not your code.”
• Chris has a bone to pick with BDD. Frank agrees it’s bunk.
• Kent Beck, of Extreme Programming fame, doesn’t advocate 100% test coverage.
• Frank and Chris agree that documentation, tests, and all the other “meta” are non-negotiable parts of writing software.
• The pick of the week is the Das Keyboard 5Q.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Chris shares that everything he does is always in beta, just like the Gmail of yore.
• Frank has questions about the “Continuous Reflection” process Chris implemented to replace boring & useless HR annual reviews.
• The guys agree that career goals are a good thing to think about.
• It’s no secret that you can’t do everything you used to do, the way you used to do it, through Zoom.
• John Maxwell has entered the chat when Failing Forward gets referenced.
• The guys untangle the differences between objectives and KPIs.
• The pick of the week is Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History podcast.
• … and much more!

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On this episode of Refactored…

• Co-hosts Frank Koehl and Chris Tonkinson introduce themselevs, and the show.
• The entire mantra for the show is: All you have to do to succeed is suck a little less every day.
• The guys talk about hiring and firing, as being the single most important leadership functions.
• The guys discuss résumés, interviews, and negotiations.
• The guys compare and contrast the benefits of experience coming from startups vs enterprises.
• Frank does a better job at explaining the difference between sympathy and empathy. Chris sounds like a jerk.
• … and much more!

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