Friday Links 26-01

First round of links for 2026. Everything is bad, so have some links to cheer you up.

 

I really liked the article about visibility, the one about Friday deploys, and sitting alone in a café … which I can relate to.  

I am a big fan of Bill Nighy's podcast, that certainly will improve your mood. 

 

For some reason, the random section is full of cassette tape related links.  

Leadership

Team's “Wrapped 2025” to Increase Velocity - nice idea I clearly didn't implement

The Product Operating Model at Google – A Critical View - possibly a bit outdated. 

Why Federated Design Systems Keep Failing - design systems need leadership, not democracy, as so many decisions 

You Can’t Debug a System by Blaming a Person - people need to feel safe to make good decisions and do good work 

Visibility is Velocity - this is so true, on every level of organisations 

Engineering 

The cardinal sin of software architecture - "The worst kind of accidental complexity in software is the unnecessary distribution, replication, or restructuring of state, both in space and time." 

On Friday Deploys: Sometimes that Puppy Needs Murdering (xpost) - I like this: "Deploy freezes are a hack, not a virtue" 

LLM-powered coding mass-produces technical debt - especially if you go anywhere near vibe-coding

Tackling tech debt | Meri Williams | LeadDev New York 2025  [YouTube] - another perspective on tech debt, going into the problems and some nice metrics to track them.

What is a PC compatible? - apparently nothing 

How AI is transforming work at Anthropic - some interesting data 

Environment 

Wind power slashed 4.6 billion euros off electricity bills in Spain last year claim - good for the environment, good for the wallet 

Urbanism 

Geometry, Empire &Control - the massive influence of military engineers on the history of urbanism  [YouTube] - long video about how history influences how we live 

Why Europe’s night-train renaissance derailed - it's expensive and will take time, nobody has the patience 

Car Brain - opening roads in San Francisco 

Random Cassettes

*PREMIERE*: Tanith Tape Archiv 01: Cybertape II (1989) [German, YouTube] - Tanith is releasing some of his old mixes on cassette tapes. 

Why I Quit Streaming And Got Back Into Cassettes [$$$] - "tapes remind us what we’re missing when we stop taking risks." 

Streaming Music To Cassette - because we love the sound … apparently. 

Stuttgart 21: In der Bahnsteighalle werden die Gleise gefräst  [German YouTube] - I love specialised train machines!    

The Amiga's filesystem is now on Linux and Mac, thanks to an emulated driver - good old Amiga. 

The Unbearable Joy of Sitting Alone in A Café - bonus points for not using your phone or a laptop. 

Why Didn’t AI “Join the Workforce” in 2025? - because nobody wants it and it isn't ready

ill-advised by Bill Nighy [Podcast] - When I grow up, I want to be as cool and well-dressed as Bill. 

Friday Links Disclaimer

Inclusion of links does not imply that I agree with the content of linked articles or podcasts. I am just interested in all kinds of perspectives. If you follow the link posts over time, you might notice common themes, though.

More about the links in a separate post: About Friday Links.