Benji Weber
@benjiweber.com
Tech Leader & Software Engineer • Tech and Teams, Extreme Programming, Java • CTO & Co-founder @ Geordie.ai • Previously Snyk, Unruly • Writes things at http://benjiweber.com/blog
Pinned
Benji Weber
@benjiweber.com
· Jan 1
Overcoming Resistance to Extreme Programming - Benji's Blog
Developers discount XP based on misconceptions. Managers say they support collaborative working while simultaneously reinforcing incentives that demonstrate the opposite. Let's explore sources of resi...
benjiweber.co.uk
New year's blog post on sources of resistance to XP, and helping teams overcome it without coercion.
benjiweber.co.uk/blog/2025/01...
benjiweber.co.uk/blog/2025/01...
Microsoft: Operation failed, X is unlicensed, good luck figuring out what licence you need, (won't be called X).
Google: Operation failed, you've hit a hard quota, good luck contacting a human to fix.
Amazon: Everything worked, but good luck figuring out why you're paying 10x what you expected.
Google: Operation failed, you've hit a hard quota, good luck contacting a human to fix.
Amazon: Everything worked, but good luck figuring out why you're paying 10x what you expected.
October 31, 2025 at 8:53 AM
Microsoft: Operation failed, X is unlicensed, good luck figuring out what licence you need, (won't be called X).
Google: Operation failed, you've hit a hard quota, good luck contacting a human to fix.
Amazon: Everything worked, but good luck figuring out why you're paying 10x what you expected.
Google: Operation failed, you've hit a hard quota, good luck contacting a human to fix.
Amazon: Everything worked, but good luck figuring out why you're paying 10x what you expected.
Wish people would stop trying to use their user-agent based guess as to which OS I want a download link for, to remove all other options from the page and/or show a "not supported" page.
It's tiresome having to keep changing user agent to get the right downloads.
It's tiresome having to keep changing user agent to get the right downloads.
October 25, 2025 at 7:47 AM
Wish people would stop trying to use their user-agent based guess as to which OS I want a download link for, to remove all other options from the page and/or show a "not supported" page.
It's tiresome having to keep changing user agent to get the right downloads.
It's tiresome having to keep changing user agent to get the right downloads.
"we didn't actually have a good idea, we had the freedom to actually spend time and go and work on it, and even more importantly, we didn't have any pressure that was coming down from management, No pressure to work on any particular project, publish a number of papers to push a certain metric up."
Llion Jones, co-author of the 2017 paper that launched the transformer era, says he’s ‘absolutely sick’ of transformers — and believes the field’s over-fixation on one architecture may be stifling the next breakthrough. venturebeat.com/ai/sakana-ai...
venturebeat.com
October 24, 2025 at 6:23 PM
"we didn't actually have a good idea, we had the freedom to actually spend time and go and work on it, and even more importantly, we didn't have any pressure that was coming down from management, No pressure to work on any particular project, publish a number of papers to push a certain metric up."
Reposted by Benji Weber
It turns out techniques used by top software engineering teams help accelerate coding agents as well:
Version control, documentation, careful planning, automated tests, linters, strong code review culture, really thorough QA
Sophisticated processes for professional engineers
Version control, documentation, careful planning, automated tests, linters, strong code review culture, really thorough QA
Sophisticated processes for professional engineers
October 7, 2025 at 2:36 PM
It turns out techniques used by top software engineering teams help accelerate coding agents as well:
Version control, documentation, careful planning, automated tests, linters, strong code review culture, really thorough QA
Sophisticated processes for professional engineers
Version control, documentation, careful planning, automated tests, linters, strong code review culture, really thorough QA
Sophisticated processes for professional engineers
The trouble with these electronic wing mirrors on buses now is one can't see if the bus driver is paying attention when #cycling. Why wouldn't the bus driver be paying attention you ask?
October 6, 2025 at 7:14 PM
The trouble with these electronic wing mirrors on buses now is one can't see if the bus driver is paying attention when #cycling. Why wouldn't the bus driver be paying attention you ask?
I'm not sure this email marketing was targeted at engineers.
October 4, 2025 at 2:52 PM
I'm not sure this email marketing was targeted at engineers.
Reposted by Benji Weber
Very cool and good to see that Discord have leaked a bunch of people’s IDs that they were forced to send in when automated age verification failed.
It’s a shame nobody predicted this extremely obvious outcome of the OSA.
ID fraudsters will have a field day!
It’s a shame nobody predicted this extremely obvious outcome of the OSA.
ID fraudsters will have a field day!
October 4, 2025 at 10:44 AM
Very cool and good to see that Discord have leaked a bunch of people’s IDs that they were forced to send in when automated age verification failed.
It’s a shame nobody predicted this extremely obvious outcome of the OSA.
ID fraudsters will have a field day!
It’s a shame nobody predicted this extremely obvious outcome of the OSA.
ID fraudsters will have a field day!
`if(true) throw new RuntimeException();`
Probably my most typed line of Java.
Probably my most typed line of Java.
October 4, 2025 at 7:31 AM
`if(true) throw new RuntimeException();`
Probably my most typed line of Java.
Probably my most typed line of Java.
Reposted by Benji Weber
Unit tests are one of the fastest and cheapest ways to not only validate your work, but to stop regressions (and hallucinations!)
If it doesn't compile or if the tests don't pass: it's *definitely* broken!
If it doesn't compile or if the tests don't pass: it's *definitely* broken!
September 30, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Unit tests are one of the fastest and cheapest ways to not only validate your work, but to stop regressions (and hallucinations!)
If it doesn't compile or if the tests don't pass: it's *definitely* broken!
If it doesn't compile or if the tests don't pass: it's *definitely* broken!
Oh good, It has infected the devtools now.
September 26, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Oh good, It has infected the devtools now.
Reposted by Benji Weber
New blog post on the trade-offs of fine-grained progressive rollouts
surfingcomplexity.blog/2025/09/13/t...
surfingcomplexity.blog/2025/09/13/t...
The hidden trade-offs of fine-grained progressive rollouts
A progressive rollout refers to the act of rolling out some new functionality gradually rather than all at once. This means that, when you initially deploy it, the change only impacts a fraction of…
surfingcomplexity.blog
September 14, 2025 at 1:38 AM
New blog post on the trade-offs of fine-grained progressive rollouts
surfingcomplexity.blog/2025/09/13/t...
surfingcomplexity.blog/2025/09/13/t...
oh: oh good, you're back, I don't need to ask Claude this
September 9, 2025 at 2:41 PM
oh: oh good, you're back, I don't need to ask Claude this
Reposted by Benji Weber
Top trolling by YouTube.
August 24, 2025 at 8:23 AM
Top trolling by YouTube.
Reposted by Benji Weber
ChatGPT, create a new Holmes-type mystery with an adversary capable of defeating Data.
August 8, 2025 at 4:59 AM
ChatGPT, create a new Holmes-type mystery with an adversary capable of defeating Data.
Reposted by Benji Weber
Oh wow, Rust 1.89 finally allows
let f = format_args!("hello {name}!");
Such a simple-looking thing, but a long time coming. github.com/rust-lang/ru...
let f = format_args!("hello {name}!");
Such a simple-looking thing, but a long time coming. github.com/rust-lang/ru...
Allow storing `format_args!()` in a variable by m-ou-se · Pull Request #140748 · rust-lang/rust
Fixes #92698
Tracking issue for super let: #139076
Tracking issue for format_args: #99012
This change allows:
let name = "world";
let f = format_args!("hello {name}!"); // New: ...
github.com
August 7, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Oh wow, Rust 1.89 finally allows
let f = format_args!("hello {name}!");
Such a simple-looking thing, but a long time coming. github.com/rust-lang/ru...
let f = format_args!("hello {name}!");
Such a simple-looking thing, but a long time coming. github.com/rust-lang/ru...
Tired: Flying cars
Wired: Flying bicycles
Wired: Flying bicycles
August 1, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Tired: Flying cars
Wired: Flying bicycles
Wired: Flying bicycles
Predictable results with the new Tulip cycle lanes.
July 27, 2025 at 9:09 AM
Predictable results with the new Tulip cycle lanes.
Reposted by Benji Weber
- Tried to use this to stop teams rejecting suggestions “because this is not well specified”
A PM at this company told me this story. Asked him if this LLM helped break the deadlock? His response:
“No. We’re still stuck. But it was good excuse to play around with vector databases!”
Ha.
A PM at this company told me this story. Asked him if this LLM helped break the deadlock? His response:
“No. We’re still stuck. But it was good excuse to play around with vector databases!”
Ha.
July 27, 2025 at 6:08 AM
- Tried to use this to stop teams rejecting suggestions “because this is not well specified”
A PM at this company told me this story. Asked him if this LLM helped break the deadlock? His response:
“No. We’re still stuck. But it was good excuse to play around with vector databases!”
Ha.
A PM at this company told me this story. Asked him if this LLM helped break the deadlock? His response:
“No. We’re still stuck. But it was good excuse to play around with vector databases!”
Ha.
Building with Agents reminds me of the Greg Lemond quote
"it never gets easier, you just go faster"
"it never gets easier, you just go faster"
July 25, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Building with Agents reminds me of the Greg Lemond quote
"it never gets easier, you just go faster"
"it never gets easier, you just go faster"
Reposted by Benji Weber
This thread is incredible.
Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk)
.@Replit goes rogue during a code freeze and shutdown and deletes our entire database
xcancel.com
July 20, 2025 at 3:01 PM
This thread is incredible.
Intellij referencing Star Trek.
July 19, 2025 at 8:04 AM
Intellij referencing Star Trek.
Reposted by Benji Weber
At its heart, Star Trek is a utopian fantasy about a society so advanced that they are capable of holding productive meetings that last no longer than three minutes
December 3, 2024 at 4:58 PM
At its heart, Star Trek is a utopian fantasy about a society so advanced that they are capable of holding productive meetings that last no longer than three minutes