Top all-time · #8325
Adam Ard
Personal blog · rethinkingsoftware.substack.comprogrammingcareer
Adam Ard writes Rethinking Software, a personal blog at rethinkingsoftware.substack.com about programming and career. Since 2023, 9 different Hacker News readers have linked it 135 times, most often “In retrospect, DevOps was a bad idea”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-02-15, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (2) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Adam Ard's Substack on software projects: shipping projects at big tech companies and measuring progress, including pushback on modern scrum and agile practices.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 2 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Calling it a "Best Practice" does not make it so.
Most-linked posts?
- In retrospect, DevOps was a bad idea4 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2025-03-31
- How Agile Are You Really?3 people · 10 mentions · first linked 2024-10-11
- Programmer Collaboration Styles3 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2024-11-04
- Pair Programmers Unite3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2025-04-17
- The Scrum Survival Guide: How to Make Scrum Work (Maybe)2 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2024-09-21
- The Libertarian Coder2 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2024-11-11
- Scrum's Definition of Done Is Polishing Plates in a Burning Kitchen2 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2024-11-20
- Scrum's “Product Owner” Problem2 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2024-10-03
- Why Scrum is stressing you out2 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2024-09-11
- Code Reviews, Not Code Approvals2 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2024-11-04
What Hacker News says?
Several more items along these lines. Two books and one recent blog post... > "Ship It! A Practical Guide to Successful Software Projects", by Jared Richardson, Will Gwaltney, Jr > "The Pragmatic Programmer, 20th Anniversary Edition, your journey to mastery", by David Thomas, Andrew Hunt > "The Libertarian Coder", by Adam Ard, at https://rethinkingsoftware.substack.com/p/the-libertarian-co... Me myself, I joined a p…
Comment linking /p/the-libertarian-coder
on “How I ship projects at big tech companies”Submitted Why Scrum is stressing you out as a story · 445 points
HN discussionI've been working on my own version of a literate programming system ( https://github.com/adam-ard/organic-markdown ). It's kind of a mix of emacs org-mode, jupyter, and Zettelkasten. But, because it's based on standard pandoc-style markdown, you can use it with a much wider range of tools. Any markdown editor will do. Even though I made it as a toy/proof of concept, it's turned out to be pretty useful for small to…
Comment linking /p/literate-testing
on “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (June 2025)”Submitted Scrum's “Product Owner” Problem as a story · 92 points
HN discussionLocation: Salt Lake City, UT Remote: Yes, hybrid or onsite also OK Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: C/C++, Python, Embedded Linux, IoT, Docker, Bash, Golang, OpenGL, Qt, CMake, IaC, CI/CD, 3D Graphics/Math, Real-time Systems Résumé/CV: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-ard-03245215/ Email: adam.ard2011@gmail.com Senior system engineer with 25+ years of experience in robotics, embedded devices, and 3D applicatio…
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (June 2025)”Submitted Scrum is the Symptom, not the Problem as a story · 77 points
HN discussionNot sure if this is intended to expand on my comment or to be a rebuttal to it, but to be clear: I am in full agreement with you. My comment strictly refers to many of the articles[0] and comments[1] that push back on the modern incarnation of scrum/agile/whatever. Productivity theater in project management is net harmful to innovation and actual product development velocity, but my point is that we can't go to the…
Comment linking /p/why-scrum-is-stressing-you-out
on “How to Measure Progress in a Software Project – By Adam Ard”Submitted How to Measure Progress in a Software Project – By Adam Ard as a story · 56 points
HN discussionSubmitted The MANY Alternatives to Scrum as a story · 50 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Daily Scrum: Does It Have to Be Daily? as a story · 29 points
HN discussionSubmitted In retrospect, DevOps was a bad idea as a story · 25 points
HN discussionSubmitted I Was Wrong About Scrum, Again as a story · 24 points
HN discussionSubmitted In retrospect, DevOps was a bad idea as a story · 14 points
HN discussionSubmitted Scrum's "Product Owner" Problem as a story · 14 points
HN discussionSubmitted What Agile is Not: or at least what it was never meant to be as a story · 12 points
HN discussionSubmitted Good Docs Describe, Bad Docs Prescribe as a story · 10 points
HN discussionSubmitted In retrospect, DevOps was a bad idea as a story · 9 points
HN discussionSubmitted In retrospect, DevOps was a bad idea as a story · 8 points
HN discussionSubmitted Scrum's Definition of Done Is Polishing Plates in a Burning Kitchen as a story · 8 points
HN discussionSubmitted Code Reviews, Not Code Approvals as a story · 8 points
HN discussionSubmitted Good Docs Describe, Bad Docs Prescribe as a story · 7 points
HN discussionSubmitted In retrospect, DevOps was a bad idea as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Libertarian Coder as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted In retrospect, DevOps was a bad idea as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted How Agile Are You Really? as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Libertarian Coder as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why Scrum Is Stressing You Out as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted I Was Wrong About Scrum, Again – By Adam Ard as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why Code Authors Should Have the Final Say on Code Reviews as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted People over Process – By Adam Ard – Rethinking Software as a story · 3 points
HN discussion
