A bit of inspiration for building YOUR Platform.

2025

🌅 Simple stuff is boring -

👌 The simple/basic things are the most important to get right -

✅ The problem with software -

🌻 Downstream, things should be better -

🪙 Complexity and Simplicity -- two sides of the same coin -

⬆️ The business case for improvement -

⬆️ The path of improvement -

⬆️ What is improvement? -

👷 Make less work for others, part 2 -

👷 Do we make more work for others or less? -

🔄 The business model for updates -

🔄 What is the best software release frequency? -

🚀 How can Arch Linux get by without releases? -

⚖️ Truth is discovered, not invented -

🔗 Connected systems are different -

🛡️ How to get to secure and reliable -

🏭 Semi-structured part numbers -

👤 Who is our "customer"? -

⚠️ Toward a Theory of Medical Fallibility -

🛤️ Two paths with experience -

🛤️ Two paths -

👥 Your team as the customer -

🚀 Why are releases important? -

📄 Who is a changelog for? -

👥 Who is the customer in organizational hierarchy? -

👤 Confusion about when we are the customer -

🕊️ Simple -- from whose perspective? -

🕊️ Simple to maintain vs simple to implement -

🤝 Integrate early -

🕊️ Simple to use vs simple to implement -

🤏 Handling the small details -

🛠️ Selecting tools -

🛠️ Two classes of tools -

📝 Documentation is part of the process, not an afterthought -

Demos vs. Products -

The three legs of YOUR Platform -

The importance of small Git commits/pull-requests -

100 daily emails -

The importance of Git Commit/Push often -

Thinking, Designing, Developing, Engineering ... -

envsetup.sh -- a very useful automation technique -

Effective email is either a pointer or notification -

The problem with experts -

Preparation - lessons from the kitchen -

Joy -

Platform reflection -

2024

Humility -

The biggest benefit to frequent updates -

Dates in filenames -

Lifecycle management in dynamic systems -

Abstractions and Platforms -

Keeping commitments -

Personal vs. collaborative documentation -

What is your most important tool? -

Inbox zero -

Goals vs. Systems -

Easy to start vs. easy to finish -

Use a headset optimized for calls -

Are your processes proactive or reactive? -

Architecture vs. Optimization -

Creativity -

Coupling -

A platform stuck in time -

What is a good abstraction? -

Improve development efficiency, reduce technical debt -

Rituals and Culture -

Two ways to scale -

How to get the little things done? -

How can you make your commercial source code customers happy? -

Platforms vs Architecture Astronautics -

Habits -- a critical ingredient in YOUR Personal Platform -

Advanced technology and small players -

What can kids teach us about platforms? -

What are the pillars of a good platform? -

Kayaks and Platforms -

What is the purpose of technology? -

The easiest path to reliability ... -

Where do reliability/stability problems typically come from? -

Support from the top -

Doing more with less, rather than less with more -

How to ask for help -

How to keep a product maintainable? -

What happens when someone else tries to use your work? -

Where do you put stuff? -

When edge nodes grow up -

How do you partition systems? -

How do you consistently name things? -

How can we be more consistent? -

Does consistency matter? -

Isn't it risky to update your dependencies? -

Platforms are for building systems -

The cost of updating dependencies, or not -

What is the difference between YOUR Platform and other platforms? -

Good enough is not good enough -

When things go wrong ... -

Do you own your deployment? -

What will you improve today? -

What is the role of vision? -

Preparing for the future -

The Platform Test -

What is the role of AI in your platform? -

What is the first thing you should implement? -

No Golden Machines -

How to help yourself? -

Seeing patterns -

What is the best tool for private Git repos? -

Lessons from a 1-year old dog -

Solving problems or symptoms? -

Github and why does it matter? -

Tracking upstream and why does it matter? -

What makes a good Yocto BSP? -

The present or the future? -

Platform != People -

What is the simplest form of automation? -

How does your product value increase after the initial sale? -

Hack-it, ship-it, forget-it ... -

What is the #1 purpose of YOUR Platform? -

Culture -

Three levels of YOUR Platform -

What are the first steps? -

What is YOUR Platform? (v2) -

But what if ... -

You are not Google -

Owning YOUR platform is not more expensive -

False vs Real Platform Development -

Do something different -

The smaller you are, the more import YOUR Platform is -

Control is a scary thing -

What is control? -

Why do we need some level of control? -

The long game -

It's about not starting over every time -

Complex Systems, Simple Platforms -

Simplicity -

What is your Platform? -

The Beauty of Constraints -

The tragedy of no constraints -

Introduction -