These are articles that I’ve kept around and reread over the years. I love me a readable deep dive, and this list if full of them,

An epic treatise on scheduling, bug tracking, and triage by Apenwarr

After nearly 20 years in this business, I’ve become convinced that everything you need to know about scheduling and project planning is contained in Scott Berkum’s Making Things Happen and this article.

The world in which IPv6 was a good design by Apenwarr

Apenwarr is the only person who appears on this list twice. This is a deep historical and technical dive into IPv6, based on his long experience and technical know-how.

The Lisp Curse by Rudolf Winestock

This article joins Richard Gabriel’s Lisp: Good News, Bad News, How to Win Big as not just a great article on Lisp, but a model on how to think about the evolution and social stresses on programming languages.

Low-Contrast Text Is Not the Answer by Katie Sherwin

Low-constrast text has been a pox on the internet since the Netscape defaulted to a gray background for all websites. I’m tired of it. I keep this article handy to help me argue my point for people who need something written and official instead of looking at the evidence in front of their eyes.

Don’t Mix threads and forks by Rachel

Rachel (whose last name I don’t know) is a veteran of the silicon valley darlings, and groks systems more than anyone else I’ve ever read. Her blog posts are succinctly written deep dives into the obscure causes of common bugs. This post on threads and forks is one of the best.

A Bridge To Nowhere by Qi

A koan. Why construction metaphors fail for software, and why computer architecture is not building architecture.

Static v. dynamic languages literature review by Dan Luu

A literature review on an argument that appears in every job I’ve ever had. The fact that every job is now a Java+Javascript combined operation means this argument will never end.

How to spy on a Ruby program by Julia Evans

Julia Evans’ blog is one of the best programming blogs out there.

Most blogs make confident statements of absolute truth. Julia Evans is different, she shows the journey and the questions that guide her. The result is years of slowly watching a novice programmer become a master.

This post is one of her best, and resulted in a open source project of her own.

The Rise and Demise of RSS by Sinclair Target

Any of Two Bit history could have been chosen, but this one is a particular sore point. I miss RSS.

Jepsen: MongoDB by Kyle Kingsbury

Kyle Kingsbury went on a journey to test the limits and truth of all the various databases, and his result was a series of posts that combine wit, memes, and rock-solid tests. In each readable post he breaks a database over his leg like Bane. His teardown of Mongo is one of his best.

(I feel bad including this here. This article is out of date since the team at Mongo went on to work with Kyle to fix up their problems.)