My wife and I decided to foster two kittens for the next five weeks. We didn’t make the decision lightly. But as we drove home with the kittens, it dawned on me that this would be the first time I am responsible for other lives.

Since fostering is short, it is not the same as adopting pets, or, much less, having kids. Nonetheless, I feel the pressure and responsibility. I have to feed them regularly, give them medications, and socialize them so that they will find a caring permanent home. To fulfill their needs, I had to adjust some of my routines and tolerate getting disturbed while working.

After a few days, I realize I never fully understood what working parents struggle with: new priorities, daily distractions, and energy drain. I knew it with my head but never felt it myself. This is another reminder that genuine empathy is hard without actually experiencing something similar.

Meet Jelly and Boba 🐈❤️

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Software Engineering 🌐

Announcing TypeScript 4.0 Beta – Daniel Rosenwasser

Even though the major version changed from 3 to 4, there are no significant breaking changes. There are additions to type systems like variadic tuple types and labeled tuple elements, and developer experience improvements. I especially look forward to partial editing mode since my project already takes too long to start up.

Variadic tuple types – Anders Hejlsberg

If you were intimidated by the term “variadic tuple types,” I was, too. This PR to Typescript goes deep into what variadic tuple types are, and how it will work in Typescript. In short,

A variadic element is a spread element of the form …T, where T is a generic type constrained to any array or tuple type (specifically, any type that is assignable to readonly any[]).

People ❤

Written communication is remote work super power – Snir David

We need to consider several factors when we think about asynchronous communication: first, the purpose: are we transferring knowledge or creating new? Second, the scope: are we communicating within or without our team? Third, the feasibility: can our team meet synchronously? Depending on the answers, synchronous communication will be preferable. But I agree with the article that we need to choose asynchronous communication more than we currently do.

Reflections on Being a Female Founder – Tracy Young

Before joining Netflix, I had an offer from PlanGrid, the company she founded. So I watched her TechCrunch interview from 2015, in which she disappointed with her lack of gender sensitivity. I love that she courageously, and publicly admits her faults, and shares her learnings.

Business 💸

The Global AI Talent Tracker – MacroPolo

A quantitative argument for allowing more mobility across borders with a beautiful visualization. More relevant now than ever, in the light of the US ban on working visas.

I just hit $100,000/yr on GitHub Sponsors 🎉 – Caleb Porzio

This article is a cool story of how a freelancing developer grew his Github Sponsorship. Most of the sponsorship came from private videos, which means his value proposition was more similar to a paid newsletter or a paid podcast than Patreon.

Good Questions, Real Answers: How Does Facebook Use Machine Learning to Deliver Ads? – Facebook

A short but helpful article on how Facebook’s programmatic ad bidding works.

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