Sasha's blog

Sasha's blog

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Wrong job for a tool. But a fun one.

There are many ways to get a product tested during release. The place I am working at historically has an interesting approach to this. Every release, on top of "normal" product testing, an engineer becomes a product user and tries to accomplish something with it. Our product is intended for

team-equals-product

Team equals Product

If you happen to never heard the phrase "TEAM == PRODUCT," I suggest looking at the video with Michelle and Jim McCarthy. The idea behind it is pretty simple: the product reflects the team. Simply put, a product will never be better than the team that built it. For example, Not-My-Problem

Better struggle together!

Dear friends! Have you ever struggled to figure something out while working on something? Or maybe you had a question, but it was too raw to even be asked? Or you've asked a question on Reddit or StackOverflow and being laughed at? I'm sure you have. And you are not

Hacking Ghost blog design

Finally, I've moved this blog to a domain that I own using ghost.io, also known as Ghost(Pro), as a blog engine. In this post, I wanted to share tips, tricks, and hacks I used in my Ghost customization. ❗Important disclaimer: the content below is provided by a person

Weaponize your imposter syndrome

Do you recognize the thoughts that your brain keeps generating over and over? "Next time, they will see you for what you really are," or "You won't get any good at this," or "You are a worthless idiot." Yep, that's the imposter syndrome talking, my old friend I have known

GitHub App authentication in darklang

My friend introduced me to a project named darklang, or simply Dark. It's a serverless and deployless backend builder. A unique approach that sets it apart (at least for me) is stated on its Introduction page: Darklang is an integrated language, framework, and editor for building web backends: REST API

Attention to detail

Let me tell you a funny story. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that one of my personal and professional traits is attention to detail. It's more like an obsession with detail. You can ask anyone who ever worked with me. It's just the way I have always been.

Do I need tests?

Do I need tests? People working in the industry will often say, "yes! what a dumb question!" And if you then ask "why?" you will get all kinds of answers. People will tell you that you need tests because: * it's a requirement * tests are important * you are paid to write

Using pre-compiled message templates in ILogger

I saw a Rider suggestion not long ago to use pre-compiled message templates with ILogger methods. Something like the following: Message template should be compile time constant It turns out message templates are a thing. It sounded interesting, so I got curious to check what the performance would look like

Don't be afraid (of wrong things)

The phrase "don't be afraid" sounds fake. It's natural to have fear. Moreover, not having fear is just impossible. And definitely, you can't ignore it. But it's a good question what exactly are you afraid of? Analyzing this further can unfold a lot of interesting things. How often have you

Hey there!

My name is Alexander; people who know me call me Sasha. Interestingly I haven't had a blog for my whole 20+ career as a developer. I've never considered myself to be worthy of having a blog. I am just a regular guy who enjoys crafting software with like-minded people. But