Links list - 2025-07-16
Hello, and welcome to a new issue of Links list! Here are some interesting links I’ve collected recently.
Bot or not? Link to heading
An interesting collection of techniques used to detect whether an HTTP request comes from a browser or from a bot. There’s a ton of subtle tricks used!
A Short History of Web Bots and Bot Detection Techniques · OlegWock
Did you know your favorite website can detect when you’re browsing it in public transport or when you scroll it in your bed? Moreover, this info sometimes helps them to fight bots.
Inverse triangle inequality Link to heading
Yet another interesting article from Alex Kladov’s blog, this time talking about the analogy between the mathematical triangle inequality and software engineering. I’ve used the trick of “copy, refactor, then remove original, then rename” many times - I generally start with Stuff2, slowly refactor it, then remove the original one and drop the 2 suffix. Works well for me when the refactoring is quite big and is going to take multiple hours / a few days.
Inverse Triangle Inequality
|AC| < |AB| + |BC| is one of the most hardworking inequalities in mathematics. It illustrates an obvious fact — the fastest way to go from point A to point C is to go directly, without detours.
A deep dive into a CPython 3.11 optimization Link to heading
A really nice illustration of how CPython 3.11 has optimized builtins lookup. It’s basically an inline cache, but it’s a nice trick and the explanation is great.
Why This Old Python Performance Trick Doesn’t Matter Anymore
A deep dive into Python’s name resolution, bytecode, and how CPython 3.11 quietly made a popular optimization irrelevant.
Unusual typographical layouts Link to heading
These all look interesting and pretty cursed to me, but apparently are all used in some languages/cultures.
Scripts
The “Same Sizer” script applies the principle of
10x engineers vs 10x teams Link to heading
An interesting article about how it is a lot more effective to build a well-performing team than hiring a single fantastic engineer. There is one sentence I really agree with:
It feels good to ship. It feels good to move the business forward. It feels good to sharpen your skills and improve your craft.
Writing code for its own sake can be interesting, but actually shipping is where all the fun happens. Software is only useful if someone is actually using it!
In Praise of “Normal” Engineers
This article was originally commissioned by Luca Rossi (paywalled) for refactoring.fm, on February 11th, 2025. Luca edited a version of it that emphasized the importance of building “10x engi…
The tech interview is a legible, reasonably well-designed process Link to heading
If the title already makes you want to scream, I’m with you. And yet, by the time I finished the article, I was mostly convinced that the industry’s hiring practices are not as insane as they seem.
The Tech Interview Is a Legible, Reasonably Well-Designed Process.
Basically a review of ‘Seeing Like a State’. And some other thoughts.
Enshittification and AI Link to heading
These three links are pretty long reads about enshittification and the impact of AI. While I don’t agree with all their points, there are definitely some valid arguments and there’s a lot of food for thought.
My McLuhan Lecture on Enshittification
Live from Berlin.
The Rise Of Whatever
This was originally titled “I miss when computers were fun”. But in the course of writing it, I discovered that there is a reason computers became less fun, a dark thread woven through a number of events in recent history. Let me back up a bit.
The Era of the Business Idiot
Fair warning: this is the longest thing I’ve written on this newsletter. I do apologize. Soundtrack: EL-P - $4 Vic Listen to my podcast Better Offline. We have merch. Last week, Bloomberg profiled Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, revealing that he’s either a liar or a specific kind of idiot. The