Daily Reading List – May 30, 2025 (#563)
This might be my best reading list of the year. I came across some terrific content and I hope you enjoy it. Next week I’m on vacation, so no reading lists. I’m in Stockholm the following week for our Nordics Summit, and a bunch of customer meetings. Reading list will resume then!
[blog] TDD: The Missing Protocol for Effective AI Assisted Software Development. Does a test-driven development approach ensure a higher quality of AI generated code? Here’s one proposed workflow.
[blog] 10 Years of Engineering Ladders. Job ladders still matter, and I’m glad Camille is still offering advice for those defining expectations of skills at various levels.
[blog] Forget “Too Cool to Care” — Aim to be Great. I love this. Don’t go through the motions. Pursue excellence and greatness.
[article] Being Bored Could Actually Be Good For Your Brain, Scientists Reveal. Being “great” doesn’t mean relentless hustle culture. Slow down to speed up. Keep your phone at home while taking a walk or running errands. Be bored sometimes!
[article] Setting targets for developer productivity metrics. Good stuff here from Abi and Laura from DX. Review these principles before defining the goals for your dev teams.
[blog] Create shareable generative AI apps in less than 60 seconds with Vertex AI and Cloud Run. This is such a useful way to deploy a prompt as an app that you can share with others to iterate on.
[blog] Database Coupling: How to FIX a Spaghetti Code System. Spaghetti is great, but not in your architectures. Derek explores a few ways to clean up tricky couplings.
[article] Say Your Writing. Fantastic advice from Martin. Read your writing out loud. Does it sound off? Is that phrasing weird? I do this all the time and it helps me (a) refine my writing and (b) ensure it’s in my normal voice.
[blog] Unlock Elite Agents: The Art of Evolving LLM Prompts into System Masterpieces. I like how Casey is thinking about meta-prompting and using AI as a thinking partner.
[youtube-video] Build your first Java agent with Google ADK. Here’s a sixteen-minute masterclass from Guillaume that no Java dev should miss.
[article] MCP: What It Is and Why It Matters—Part 2. Addy further explains what MCP is, and why it’s a big deal for developers.
[article] How To Negotiate Like An Expert: 7 Secrets From Research. Fantastic stuff from Eric. If you don’t know what negotiation looks like, you might be frustrated when people use these tactics.
[blog] Boost your Search and RAG agents with Vertex AI’s new state-of-the-art Ranking API. This looks like very powerful technology, but I’m somehow more fired up about demos embedded within our docs.
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