I cannot believe it’s already March and we are one-sixth into the year. How are your plans for the year going?

Software Engineering ⚙️

Don’t Call It A Platform

When a user cannot opt out of a tool, a tool will deprioritize the user experience. So I am 100% behind what the author says.

However, what happens when we have already adopted a tool and the switching cost is too high? How can we then prevent this perverse incentive from creeping in?

Writing our 3-year technical vision

I enjoyed this 2021 article from Eventbrite because it sets the stage for its vision well. It goes from business goals (5x revenue) to supporting features (supporting super creators) to technical vision (team autonomy and reliability) to concrete actions planned and taken (microservice architecture, etc.). I will bookmark and come back to this from time to time.

People ❤️

Companies Can’t Ask You to Shut up to Receive Severance, NLRB Rules

Since severance is not a right in the United States, employers sometimes choose to insert a non-disparagement clause with the severance agreement in layoffs (Twitter did in its recent layoff). That choice between severance and freedom to speak surely made it more difficult to right the wrong, and I welcome this change.

But I also wonder how many percentages of severance came with a non-disparagement clause and what incentives the companies will now have to provide severance.

Big Transitions in the Tech Industry

Hired.com, a job search website, published a 2023 state of software engineers report based on its data. My key takeaways are:

“Salaries for local roles showed more volatility, while remote salaries have remained flat since layoffs began.”
“Even though it’s been a volatile year for cryptocurrency, demand for skilled blockchain engineers held steady in 2022 compared to 2021.”
“By December 2022, 72% of interview requests (IVRs) went to candidates with six or more years of experience, up from 64% in January 2022.”

Business 💰

Inflationary Psychology Has Set In. Dislodging It Won’t Be Easy.

I learned this concept called inflationary psychology this week. It’s a phenomenon where consumers readily pay higher prices because they believe that the prices will go higher and their wages will increase too. Well, that’s certainly how I’ve thought about my recent purchases.

EU narrows antitrust case against Apple over rules for music services like Spotify

The European Commission originally had two charges against Apple:

“imposing its own in-app purchase payment technology on music streaming app developers (‘IAP obligation’)”
“restricting app developers’ ability to inform iPhone and iPad users of alternative music subscription services (‘anti-steering obligations’)”

They decided to drop the first charge. But since the second charge has clear consumer harm (higher prices through in-app purchases), the Commission will continue to pursue it.