Month: May 2026

After My Own Heart

After My Own Heart

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Went back in my draft backlog and found this gem from 2020: Unit Testing is Overrated.

In the age of AI-generated code, it feels even more applicable. When a model writes unit tests (especially when it does it in view of the code it’s testing) they’re at risk of being overfitted to the functions under test. They may indeed prove software executes as it’s written, but that has little to do with proving the software meets requirements (for example, Kiro had created hundreds of perfectly passing tests for this project).

The key takeaways from the article are all worth sticking in your coding agent instructions, because without explicit directives, LLMs are probably biased to do the opposite of these recommendations given the weight of training data pushing so-called “best practices.”

In particular, I can see value in using a separate (perhaps even adversarial) agent/model to write the tests. It’ll be less biased on the context used to write the code, and it can be instructed to “aim at the highest level of integration while maintaining reasonable speed and cost.”

Maintenance Matters

Maintenance Matters

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In case I haven’t said it explicitly enough, I’ll do so again here.

I wrote these definitions a couple years ago in an effort to bring some formality to what would be covered under a maintenance contract. They served well enough to pass along here.

Major Issue: Problems that impede core functionality, such as:

  • application fails to load
  • users cannot log in
  • workflows are inaccessible or fail

Minor Issue: Problems that do not impede core functionality, such as:

  • slow, but functional, responses to user interactions
  • workflows succeed but are sub-optimal
  • typos and visual glitches

Feature Enhancement: Updates that meet all of the following criteria:

  • do not fundamentally alter an existing capability
  • do not create a new user workflow
  • do not require new integrations with or data from external systems

New Feature: Updates that meet one or more of the following criteria:

  • add a capability that did not previously exist in the system
  • create a new user workflow
  • require integration with an external system

Environments

  • Dev: where software engineers do their daily development work
  • QA: where vendor work is tested before going to customer for acceptance
  • UAT: where customer performs final test and acceptance of features
  • Production: where users access the system
All’s Well That Ends Well

All’s Well That Ends Well

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I reposted the broader announcement on LinkedIn, but thought it’d also be worth capturing here, that the final proposals for the Technical Executive Leadership Initiative class I took earlier this year have been published. I was part of a great collaborative team; while I had some contributions across the board, my focus was primarily the mockup website and accompanying demonstration.

Digitizing the JobsNOW! Intake Process for Medi-Cal Clients in San Francisco

If you’re a technologist working in the public sector and want to get better at working with government, I highly recommend this program. You’ll also get a nifty public profile out of the deal (as if I needed more to add to the collection).

Judson Neer

I’m now reminded that it’s been a few years since I’ve had a professional headshot taken, something I should probably rectify.

Not All Rainbows and Unicorns

Not All Rainbows and Unicorns

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As much as I love being a generalist and believe it’s the better end of the breadth/depth spectrum in the current tech environment, it doesn’t always feel like a great way to operate, for several reasons:

First, it’s often difficult for a generalist to describe their job, not just to folks like friends and family who are unfamiliar with their domain, but also to managers in 1-on-1s, performance reviews, and promotion documents (I’ve had firsthand experience with the latter). A term related to generalist, factotum, can even have negative connotations in certain settings, despite a “glue person” being an essential role within pretty much any organization. Specialists, on the other hand, are easier to understand, as their work is often simply “what it says on the tin” (i.e. their job title).

Second, while a generalist has proximate knowledge of many things, when they spend time with legitimate experts in a topic (which is often, because they’re so curious), they are quick to realize how much they don’t know. And since this happens so much, the experience of “I don’t know as much as that other person” compounds into a malaise of “eh, I don’t know much about anything.” Inferiority complex ensues.

When interests and aptitudes are varied, it’s also tough to determine where to focus, paradox of choice and all that. Similarly, while there’s value in doing extra at times, it’s easy to get distracted and fail to deliver the most important thing, losing the proper balance between work work and non-work work. This leads to a feeling that one is “mildly disappointing everyone all the time.” When I have that feeling, burnout lurks not far behind.

I don’t have a tidy conclusion to give here, it’s just stuff I’ve been sitting with.