Posts tagged “software engineering”

The web stack is too vast and ever-changing for anyone to fully master. Instead of stressing about that, understand how standardization, packaging, and abstraction constantly reshape what developers actually need to know, pick your battles wisely, and embrace the fact that you'll never be bored.

I've been a die-hard PHP developer for a decade, but I can feel it dying the same death Perl died when PHP beat it. Rails seems like the obvious successor but it's too slow and ActiveRecord is a mess. The real problem: PHP's replacement simply doesn't exist yet.

PHP is dying the same death Perl did before it. Rails is the obvious successor, but after 7 months living in it daily, I can't recommend it: the performance costs are brutal, ActiveRecord is a mess, and Rails is just another framework bolted onto a language. PHP's true replacement doesn't exist yet.

Mint's $170M acquisition wasn't for their marketing or their tech stack (which was largely Yodlee's). They won because their user interface was beautiful and simple. For web companies, UI isn't a low priority. It's the only priority. You are nothing but your interface.