What is this newsletter about?
Baldur Bjarnasson is a web developer from Iceland. He is seasoned hand, having been in the game for over 25 years. 25 in any vertical of technology, especially web technology means he has been through quite a few of the sea changes; the mental paradigm shifts and the raw tech itself used in the creation of the web apps we used daily.
His writings tend to follow two strong thematic lines; web development and the philosophy of systems design. Although he is a developer by trade, his writing is not purely about the technical aspect of web development; code, frameworks etc. but about the building of web applications, inclusive of the raw technologies needed to do so. His focus is rather largely on the overall process and the current outcomes that the world of web development is producing.
With the advent of generative AI hitting mainstream everything, he also has incorporated a new focus on this, with exhaustive research on the subject. Keeping current and up to date, his is one of the most salient voices in the world on the subject of AI in application development.
Why its worth your time
If you are working in any role related to the development of web applications for your customers, Baldur is a fantastic source to add to your knowledge streams.
Firstly he is a sober voice, in a world of unmitigated click-bait and self aggrandisements.
He styles himself a bit theatrically as a voice 'at the end of the world' (He lives in Iceland), so maybe 'cap of the world' is slightly more appropriate. His narrative stance is that of a wisened elder calling out sense from his hermitage on his rock. Like the best of those with wisdom, he is aware of what he knows but more importantly what he doesnt know, and never comes across as condescending.
His topics around the strategies and frameworks we use to produce web applications; how we define their goals and aims, how we choose to go about building them and the challenges of tradeoffs give very practical perspectives for teams out there that are in the trenches day in and day out. He himself is in those trenches, actively working on web development.
Particularly with his recent focus and research on AI, its an even higher recommendation to incorporate his writings into your newsletter stream. Generative AI is confusing, its capabilities and potential often obfuscated by the developers around it and challenging to navigate as the world tries to change the wheels on the car as we drive it. This isnt all to dissimilar from other recent technology waves in the past, but AI sits so fundamentally close to the lower levels of technology (the program logic itself) that even for professional developers its challenging to grapple with.
Particularly here, his writings on AI will give you insight that you will start to feel give you an edge on both the 'narrative' of AI, helping you to let your saner mind prevail as well as practically being able to think how best to use it in your scope of work and role to try and achieve the best outcomes you can for yourself personally and for your team within your larger organization, Whatever that may be.
His digest of other interesting reads
A particular feature of Baldurs newsletters which we love and find amazingly useful along with his own direct writing are the shared works he provides in his newsletters. Specific articles / posts from other writes in the space, tangential to himself. We usually read each and everyone. His selection and choices are really a work of fantastic curation. They are all typically within the main vein of his interest scope, but sometimes he will choose an article a bit wider than just web development which are also worth your time. For those that are using Summereeze.com as their reader, each of these links will be neatly extracted and organized for your within the content cards generated for Baldurs pieces each time they arrive to your account.
Where to dip your toes in
Sunk cost fallacy is a great starting post from Baldur. Our recommendation here is for those of you who are actively working in web application development, regardless of your specific role, as this is one of the continuous points of challenge and decision trade offs for organizations no matter their size.
Full details on Baldur
The newsletter: https://softwarecrisis.dev/
Book on software systems thinking https://softwarecrisis.baldurbjarnason.com/
Book on AI for business: https://illusion.baldurbjarnason.com/
