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Alex Ellis

Writing about tech, our minds, and how things work.

  • Things that are hard to measure, things that are easy to measure
    Feb. 26, 2023

    There are things that are hard to measure, and there are things that are easy to measure. I think about this duality a …

  • In the desert, no service, and your partner's late to the rendezvous. What now?
    Feb. 16, 2023

    Let’s say, purely hypothetically, that you’re in Joshua Tree National Park. Your partner dropped you off in the morning, …

  • Practice being a beginner
    Nov. 1, 2022

    I’m a big fan of trying new things. Part of the process that I’ve come to enjoy is facing and getting over my initial …

  • Learning by working on problems just outside of your reach
    Oct. 2, 2022

    There’s a common pattern I’ve seen when learning something new, where you can effectively move towards a larger goal by …

  • iPhones and action discoverability, or "How the hell was I supposed to know that?"
    Sep. 24, 2022

    Discoverability I spend a lot of my time thinking about UX and design, and I try to consciously think about it in the …

  • The hobby buyer's fallacy: "I'd really pursue my hobby if I just bought X"
    Sep. 24, 2022

    There’s a trap I used to fall into that has happened more times than I’d like to admit1. The typical scenario would be …

  • Stubbornness and programming
    Sep. 11, 2022

    Every now and then, there will be the type of problem to solve where I know it will require an extra cup of coffee, a …

  • Writing a toy WebSocket server from scratch
    Aug. 28, 2022

    WebSocket (WS) connections are pretty neat. I’ve gotten to play around with them before, both for personal and …

  • What happens if you point two CNAMEs at each other? Not much, really
    Aug. 14, 2022

    I dabble with DNS for work, and I’m frequently checking if CNAMEs are properly configured. CNAMEs are Canonical NAMEs, …

  • Sharpening the axe for programming
    Aug. 6, 2022

    A woodsman was once asked, “What would you do if you had just five minutes to chop down a tree?” He answered, “I would …

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