Top all-time · #1464
Simple Thread
Company blog · simplethread.com · on HN as jetheredgeprogrammingcareer
Simple Thread is the company blog at simplethread.com, writing about programming and career. Since 2017, 49 different Hacker News readers have linked it 141 times, most often “Relational databases aren’t dinosaurs, they’re sharks”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-29, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (17) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Simple Thread essays on software craft and teams, such as the 10x programmer myth, agile, Redux vs hooks, and 'don't be clever'. Most links are cited as support or used as in-joke references.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 17 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Simple Thread delivers tailored software solutions for the energy and utility sectors. Our team specializes in user experience design, engineering, and automation to solve industry challenges, from grid management to renewable energy integration.
Most-linked posts?
- Relational databases aren’t dinosaurs, they’re sharks4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2021-08-08
- The 10x Programmer Myth4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2021-10-14
- Things I’ve learned in my 20 years as a software engineer4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2021-10-08
- Agile at 20: The Failed Rebellion3 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2021-07-23
- You Might Not Need Redux (But You Can’t Replace It with Hooks)3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-06-18
- Why does it take so long to build software? (2020)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-10-21
- /looks-great-lose-the-duck/2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-05-12
- Doerr's Law on Product Teams2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-08-24
- Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Wysiwyg Editors2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-03-18
- Help the Site’s Down2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-04-09
What Hacker News says?
> My top theory is just that it's convenient for management purposes. That company's are bad at assessing progress, that we're afraid of situations that aren't ultra-well scheduled & predictable, and that we treat programmers like cogs in a machine because we're too afraid to try for better. This is because the classical consecrated need for project management. Back in the day, you would have factory workers oversee…
Comment linking /agile-at-20-the-failed-rebellion/
on “Ask HN: Are most of us developers lying about how much work we do?”Submitted Things I’ve learned in my 20 years as a software engineer as a story · 1431 points
HN discussionThis is (I think) a reference to the 10x engineer, another myth of which I have always been highly dubious ( https://www.simplethread.com/the-10x-programmer-myth/ ).
Comment linking /the-10x-programmer-myth/
on “Things that helped me get out of the AI 10x engineer imposter syndrome”Submitted Ruby on Rails in a week as a story · 497 points
HN discussionIn contrast, https://www.simplethread.com/cant-replace-redux-with-hooks/ https://daveceddia.com/context-api-vs-redux/ https://medium.com/javascript-scene/do-react-hooks-replace-r... TL;DR Context can replace some but not all of Redux. Redux can figure out which components to rerender based on what's being computed. Context doesn't, so it's basically the same as refreshing your entire component tree every time someth…
Comment linking /cant-replace-redux-with-hooks/
on “React Native for Windows and Mac”Submitted Dear Client, Here’s Why That Change Took So Long as a story · 464 points
HN discussionI.e. "get rid of the duck": https://www.simplethread.com/looks-great-lose-the-duck/
Comment linking /looks-great-lose-the-duck/
on “Please don’t let anyone Americanise it (1992)”Submitted Software Complexity Is Killing Us as a story · 398 points
HN discussionI'm interpreting "creative and fun" as either synonymous with "overly clever" (which is hard to read, hard to debug, and hard to maintain [0][1]), or written a non-standard way just for the sake of being different. For example, here's a collection of FizzBuzz solutions[2]. Most of these are incredibly unreadable. [0] https://www.simplethread.com/dont-be-clever/ [1] http://www.delabs.io/clever-code-is-bad-code/ [2] h…
Comment linking /dont-be-clever/
on “JavaScript Equality Minesweeper”Submitted Agile at 20: The Failed Rebellion as a story · 343 points
HN discussionAgreed, a new favourite. I’m saving it alongside this https://www.simplethread.com/20-things-ive-learned-in-my-20-... which I really enjoyed last year.
Comment linking /20-things-ive-learned-in-my-20-years-as-a-software-engineer/
on “Software Engineering: The Soft Parts”Submitted Was MongoDB Ever the Right Choice? as a story · 305 points
HN discussionNote that context and useReducer do _not_ completely replace Redux. See the following resources for more details: - Mark Erikson - Reactathon 2019: The State of Redux ( https://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/2019/03/presentation-state... ) - Mark Erikson: Redux - Not Dead Yet! ( https://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/2018/03/redux-not-dead-yet... ) - Dave Ceddia: React Context API vs Redux ( https://daveceddia.com/context-api…
Comment linking /cant-replace-redux-with-hooks/
on “Frustrations with React Hooks”Submitted Why does it take so long to build software? (2020) as a story · 221 points
HN discussionContext is a useful tool, but its only purpose is to make value accessible to deeply nested components. It's not even a state management tool - you have to manage whatever state you want to put into that context, by yourself. The useState and useReducer hooks start to resemble Redux a bit more when used together with context, but they definitely do not replace Redux. For more details, see these posts : - https://dav…
Comment linking /cant-replace-redux-with-hooks/
on “Reasons to Learn Redux as a JavaScript Developer”Submitted Websites should not use dithered images as a story · 216 points
HN discussionConcerning the "Certified extra scrum master" quote from the video, I really like [1]: > [..] if your organization is struggling with an Agile transformation, drowning in chaos, you’re going to leap when someone offers you a lifeboat in the form of certifications and processes and tools. Executives understand processes and tools much more than they grok self-organizing teams. [1] https://www.simplethread.com/agile-a…
Comment linking /agile-at-20-the-failed-rebellion/
on “What's wrong with how we train, hire, and motivate programmers [video]”Submitted Use Spreadsheets Everywhere as a story · 169 points
HN discussionI particularly liked this article [1]. Certification is IMHO people selling just about anything as a silver bullet/snake oil. There is no such magical solution, because one needs to adapt the Agile template to their organization's needs and that is where real skill is necessary. [1] https://www.simplethread.com/agile-at-20-the-failed-rebellio...
Comment linking /agile-at-20-the-failed-rebellion/
on “What SRE Could Be”Submitted Relational databases aren’t dinosaurs, they’re sharks as a story · 168 points
HN discussionIn recent years CSS has become closer to a full programming language through experimental features, for example in 2025 they added if statements and some math functions like modulo https://www.simplethread.com/new-and-upcoming-css-features-i...
Comment linking /new-and-upcoming-css-features-i-m-excited-about/
on “CSS is DOOMed”Submitted Avoiding the Distributed Monolith as a story · 132 points
HN discussionOf course not, and the company whose blog we're reading isn't doing anything similar either https://www.simplethread.com/case-studies/ Rather funny IMO
Comment linking /case-studies/
on “I Love You, Redis, but I'm Leaving You for SolidQueue”Submitted Serverless: I'm a Big Kid Now as a story · 69 points
HN discussionThe meteors explode into tiny particles. The cows should explode into tiny burgers! This sounds like a "get rid of the duck"[1] comment... [1] https://www.simplethread.com/looks-great-lose-the-duck/
Comment linking /looks-great-lose-the-duck/
on “Show HN: Not My Cows – Save your cows. Blast the meteors. Giddy up”Submitted Was MongoDB Ever the Right Choice? as a story · 12 points
HN discussionI have a hunch. https://www.simplethread.com/looks-great-lose-the-duck/
Comment linking /looks-great-lose-the-duck/
on “DOJ finally posted that “embarrassing” court doc Google wanted to hide”Submitted Learning to Learn: A Critical Skill for Every Software Engineer as a story · 10 points
HN discussionI feel Scrum has evolved into something contradicting the original Agile practices. These were more of a template on how to develop, not a concrete recipe. Scrum then established a process where there was need for a family of processes, continuously evolving, ever changing. The very fact that "you absolutely have to have a specific ceremony (i.e.: Retro when no topics)" is a red flag which imho puts the cart before…
Comment linking /agile-at-20-the-failed-rebellion/
on “Department of Defense: Software Is Never Done (2019) [pdf]”Submitted PSA: CORS allow origin * considered harmful in development as a story · 10 points
HN discussion
