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Deep, recent reads ranked by depth and freshness.

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  1. 01Martin Fowler · architecture

    When Software Meets Hardware

    A software engineering team modernizing a large-scale retail IoT system of 800,000 battery-powered sensors faced challenges integrating software practices with embedded hardware. By building physical sensor farms, virtual emulators, and self-diagnosing firmware, the team learned to design for intermittent connectivity, power efficiency, and fleet-level observability. The project succeeded by treating the physical world, hardware constraints, and engineering environments as core parts of the system lifecycle.

    DEPTH ■■■■■12 min read10 days ago

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  2. 02Martin Fowler · performance

    Are Harnesses Worth the Cost?

    An experiment was conducted to evaluate whether behavioral harnesses improve coding agent reliability when building a complex backend-for-frontend service. While frontier models succeeded consistently with or without a harness, the harness significantly increased token usage, time, and cost without improving final output. However, for a cost-optimized model, the harness improved success rates from 30 percent to 100 percent.

    DEPTH ■■■■■17 min read12 days ago

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  3. 03Figma · tooling

    How Lufthansa Systems prototypes realistic maps for the cockpit with Figma Make

    Lufthansa Systems struggled to build realistic, dynamic map prototypes for cockpit navigation apps using traditional static design tools. The team experimented with Figma Make during an internal hackathon to integrate external data sources like Mapbox and the OpenSky Network into their designs. As a result, designers successfully tested interactive map features and complex flight traffic data with pilots prior to writing production code.

    DEPTH ■■■■■8 min read3 days ago

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  4. 04Martin Fowler · practice

    Fragments: October 21

    This post discusses commentary on AI usage in writing, the cancellation of the Grace Hopper Celebration, and reviews a detailed article by Cindy Sridharan on debugging with AI agents. The reviewed article highlights that AI agents excel at processing raw data rather than reading code first, and outlines a three-step debugging process involving controls, signals, and hypothesis validation. The lesson is that engineers must guide AI agents by setting up verification loops and providing raw data rather than human-centric abstractions.

    DEPTH ■■■■■5 min read4 days ago

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  5. 05Martin Fowler · practice

    Practitioner Voice: The Writing Category Nobody has Named Yet

    The author explores a missing category of writing called Practitioner Voice, which is grounded in earned experience and visible personal judgment rather than academic rigor, corporate polish, or AI generation. They examine how AI can be used as an extended cognitive tool for practitioners without losing human accountability. Ultimately, the piece argues that maintaining personal judgment and consequence-bearing experience is essential for authentic professional writing.

    DEPTH ■■■■■39 min read12 days ago

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  7. 07Martin Fowler · practice

    Fragments: October 4

    This post discusses the evolving role of software development and code in the era of large language models. It explores how shifting from deterministic building to inferential nurturing changes processes, why high-level representations remain critical for managing context windows, and how conceptual modeling becomes more important than the mechanical act of writing instructions.

    DEPTH ■■■■■7 min read2 weeks ago

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  8. 08Martin Fowler · practice

    Principles for effective slides

    Presenters often rely on text-heavy slide decks that distract audiences and undermine storytelling. To fix this, speakers can use minimalist slides as a complementary visual channel to control the rate of information and manage cognitive load. This approach leads to more engaging presentations where visuals reinforce the spoken narrative rather than replace it.

    DEPTH ■■■■■12 min read3 weeks ago

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  9. 09Figma · architecture

    Behind the build: Generative plugins and shaders at Figma

    Figma developed generative plugins and shaders by replacing a prototype WebGL system with an enterprise-scale WebGPU pipeline, sandbox isolation, and custom UI kits. Through rapid prototyping and cross-functional collaboration, the team shipped the feature suite in two months for Config.

    DEPTH ■■■■■8 min read7 weeks ago

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  10. 10Figma · tooling

    How do you actually measure the impact of AI on design?

    Figma conducted a multi-year research project to track the impact of AI on product design by building an AI sentiment index and running hundreds of AI-moderated interviews. To process the massive volume of qualitative data, the team engineered a custom thematic analysis tool and an internal dashboard to serve as a cross-functional source of truth. The results showed that AI's impact on workflows and collaboration nearly doubled over three years.

    DEPTH ■■■■■6 min read8 weeks ago

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  11. 11Figma · tooling

    Workflow lab: Moving between design and code with agents

    A fictional engineering team struggles with AI-generated code that frequently strays from design specifications. By integrating Figma dev tools, an MCP server, and Code Connect into the workflow, the developer provides the coding agent with accurate design context and existing components. As a result, the agent produces production-ready code that matches design intent and reduces rework.

    DEPTH ■■■■■6 min read8 weeks ago

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