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The Valuable Dev
Personal blog · thevaluable.devprogrammingcareersystems
The Valuable Dev is a personal blog at thevaluable.dev about programming, career and systems. Since 2020, 34 different Hacker News readers have linked it 59 times, most often “Cognitive Biases in Software Development”. The last post was in 2024, but the archive is still widely read.
Mindset and tools to increase your value as a developer
Most-linked posts?
- Cognitive Biases in Software Development4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2020-05-28
- A Vim Guide for Intermediate Users4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2020-12-27
- The Art of Learning for Software Developers4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2020-06-29
- A Guide to Zsh Expansion with Examples3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2021-12-27
- The Expert Blind Spot in Software Development3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-03-27
- A Vim Guide for Advanced Users2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-02-27
- Vim Search, find, and replace: a detailed guide2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-08-16
- Is Inheritance That Evil?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-03-27
- A Guide to the Zsh Line Editor2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-02-27
- A Vim Guide for Veteran Users2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-06-27
What Hacker News says?
The author does mention this in an in-depth article on search: https://thevaluable.dev/vim-search-find-replace/ It's pretty comprehensive. Personally I'd just install Doom Emacs though :)
Comment linking /vim-search-find-replace/
on “A Vim Guide for Advanced Users”Submitted A Vim Guide for Advanced Users as a story · 603 points
HN discussion"Split screen" as in make a new window? Sure - `:vs` ("vertical split"), or `:vs filename.txt`. Or there's the "Windows" section on https://thevaluable.dev/vim-intermediate/ .
Comment linking /vim-intermediate/
on “A Vim Guide for Advanced Users”Submitted Type Systems Explained with Examples as a story · 114 points
HN discussionThe experts blind spot comes to mind: https://thevaluable.dev/expert-blind-spot-software-developme... https://nscblog.com/continual-learning/understanding-underst... Dropping the judgements, assuming positive intent and trying to see the situation might help.
Comment linking /expert-blind-spot-software-development/
on “Why is learning functional programming so damned hard? (2019)”Submitted The Art of Debating for Software Developers as a story · 114 points
HN discussionComplexity is relatively easy. It's basically the number of loops and conditionals in a function :) https://thevaluable.dev/complexity_metrics_application/ The testsuite overlay sounds wonderful . Or maybe "coverage multiplied by business value". Biz-important things like authorization or money = more coverage, random marketing things = less important for test coverage.
Comment linking /complexity_metrics_application/
on “Ask HN: Visualizing software designs, especially of large systems (if at all)?”Submitted Measuring Software Complexity: What Metrics to Use? as a story · 101 points
HN discussionI have a list of resources here: https://learnbyexample.github.io/curated_resources/vim.html I'd recommend this SO answer ( https://stackoverflow.com/a/1220118 ) and this series of articles "Vim from the ground up" ( https://thevaluable.dev/vim-beginner/ ) I'm also writing a reference guide ( https://learnbyexample.github.io/vim_reference/ )
Comment linking /vim-beginner/
on “Why, oh why, do those nutheads use vi? (2007)”Submitted A Guide to Zsh Expansion with Examples as a story · 8 points
HN discussionZsh is quite a bit nicer than Bash for scripting. For one, parameter expansion doesn't word-split by default, so you don't have to haphazardly quote everything. There's also some really powerful features, like the parameter expansion flags [1] and filename generation (globbing) flags [2] that can be combined to do very flexible things. [3] Zsh also bundles a ton of useful modules that can be used to do things pretty…
Comment linking /zsh-expansion-guide-example/
on “Zshell”Submitted Burnout in Software Development Demystified as a story · 7 points
HN discussionAbsolutely; the issue has to do with the "Cognitive Load" imposed on the programmer. Standardizing on a small set of languages/frameworks(ideally one) also has the advantage that developers can better communicate/interact with each other using a common language thus enabling better overall productivity. The Cognitive Load Theory in Software Development - https://thevaluable.dev/cognitive-load-theory-software-devel..…
Comment linking /cognitive-load-theory-software-developer/
on “Ask HN: Should orgs limit the number of languages/frameworks?”Submitted Is Vim Not for You? A Beginner Guide as a story · 6 points
HN discussionThat article starts with too many inaccuracies to recommend it to anybody: - Teletypes were designed about a century before the era of mainframes. - Mechanical teletype did not have an "I/O driver" in it. - OS on Mainframe computers did not have a "Kernel", and neither "I/O driver", "Line discipline" or "TTY driver". This model was introduced with UNIX, the OS that ran on minicomputers. - Was ChatGPT used to write t…
Comment linking /guide-terminal-shell-console/
on “What happens when you open a terminal and enter `ls’”Submitted A Vim Guide for Veteran Users as a story · 5 points
HN discussionThese articles are personal philosophies you might take up using the principles of CS. So while not technically rigorous, I think they are like chicken soup for the hackers soul...I found these two articles to be both interesting and inspiring: The Single Responsibility Principle Revisited - https://thevaluable.dev/single-responsibility-principle-revi... Climbing the wrong hill - http://cdixon.org/2009/09/19/climbin…
Comment linking /single-responsibility-principle-revisited/
on “Ask HN: Favorite computer science, software engineering papers and essays”Submitted A Guide to the Zsh Completion with Examples as a story · 4 points
HN discussionNot true. The basic idea behind "Inheritance" is simple and can be understood by all programmers. Its realization through various language features and their combinations is what makes it somewhat confusing. Once explained and practiced with discipline, inheritance is very powerful. See my other comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36428689 See also: https://thevaluable.dev/guide-inheritance-oop/
Comment linking /guide-inheritance-oop/
on “Object-oriented Programming with ANSI-C (1993) [pdf]”Submitted What's the Vim Runtime? A Guide with Examples as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSimilar resource for zle which is used by zsh instead of readline [1]. [1] https://thevaluable.dev/zsh-line-editor-configuration-mousel...
Comment linking /zsh-line-editor-configuration-mouseless/
on “Keyboard Shortcuts every Command Line Hacker should know about GNU Readline”Submitted A Vim Guide for Experts as a story · 4 points
HN discussionI had no idea Zsh could do that. I'm currently reading this article which explains a lot of this wizardry. https://thevaluable.dev/zsh-expansion-guide-example/
Comment linking /zsh-expansion-guide-example/
on “Nushell.sh ls | where size > 10mb | sort-by modified”Submitted A Vim Guide for Intermediate Users as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Cognitive Biases in Software Development as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Art of Learning for Software Developers as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Ridiculous Titles Held by Software Developers as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted A Vim Guide for Advanced Users as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted A Guide to the Zsh Line Editor as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted A Vim Guide for Intermediate Users as a story · 3 points
HN discussion
