--- title: Best Substack posts — May 2024 | daily.dev description: The most upvoted Substack posts from May 2024, curated by the daily.dev community. canonical: https://daily.dev/sources/substack/best-of/2024/05 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:url: https://daily.dev/sources/substack/best-of/2024/05 og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Best Substack posts — May 2024 | daily.dev og:description: The most upvoted Substack posts from May 2024, curated by the daily.dev community. og:image: https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--VAY5ToZt--/f_auto/v1724209435/public/daily.dev%20-%20open%20graph --- # Best of Substack — May 2024 1. 1 [](https://daily.dev/posts/my-3-step-process-for-writing-clean-code-su8sqecon "My 3 Step Process for Writing Clean Code") Article Substack · 2y My 3 Step Process for Writing Clean Code A software engineer shares a three-step process for writing clean code, starting with making it work, then making it right with tests, and finally cleaning it up with refactoring. 423 20 2. 2 [](https://daily.dev/posts/3-critical-skills-you-need-to-grow-beyond-senior-levels-in-engineering-fsmj0vcso "3 Critical Skills You Need to Grow Beyond Senior Levels in Engineering") Article Substack · 2y 3 Critical Skills You Need to Grow Beyond Senior Levels in Engineering This post discusses the three critical skills needed to grow beyond senior levels in engineering, including learning to scale yourself, navigating ambiguity, and influencing without authority. 174 3 3. 3 [](https://daily.dev/posts/my-strategy-for-motivation-in-a-software-engineering-job-3fedyfpzp "My strategy for motivation in a software engineering job") Article Substack · 2y My strategy for motivation in a software engineering job Learn how to create your own motivation in a software engineering job by finding side-quests that align with your interests and goals. 160 3 4. 4 [](https://daily.dev/posts/timeless-skills-in-software-development-dc92cjhpm "Timeless skills in Software Development") Article Substack · 2y Timeless skills in Software Development Discover the timeless skills in software development that are highly valuable, including understanding business needs and the industry, teamwork and helping others, and being good at solving problems. Additional skills like leadership, adaptability, engineering fundamentals, and continuous learning mindset are also highlighted. 144 9 5. 5 [](https://daily.dev/posts/the-biggest-problem-in-today-s-work-culture---distractions-kwozdw2gb "The biggest problem in today's work culture - distractions") Article Substack · 2y The biggest problem in today's work culture - distractions Discover the importance of deep work in today's work culture, how it can improve productivity and work-life balance, and ways to create deep work time for employees. 130 4 6. 6 [](https://daily.dev/posts/7-tips-to-crush-your-onboarding-from-an-apple-staff-engineer-sag1nls4c "7 Tips to Crush Your Onboarding from An Apple Staff Engineer") Article Substack · 2y 7 Tips to Crush Your Onboarding from An Apple Staff Engineer Learn 7 techniques to make your onboarding smoother and improve your career growth, productivity, and relationships at a new company. 81 3 7. 7 [](https://daily.dev/posts/my-mentee-went-from-junior---senior-engineer-in-less-than-2-years-here-s-how--n1u8lbpvx "My Mentee Went From Junior -> Senior Engineer in less than 2 years. Here's how.") Article Substack · 2y My Mentee Went From Junior -> Senior Engineer in less than 2 years. Here's how. Learn how a mentee went from a junior to senior engineer in less than 2 years through a combination of hard work, good mentorship, and a clear growth plan. The article provides actionable steps for promotion, tracking accomplishments, and being a better mentor and mentee. 78 2 8. 8 [](https://daily.dev/posts/practical-learning-strategies-for-engineers-ncikqdizy "Practical Learning Strategies for Engineers") Article Substack · 2y Practical Learning Strategies for Engineers Learn practical strategies for engineers to improve their learning process, including reading, watching, collecting, and memorizing. 68 2 9. 9 [](https://daily.dev/posts/s3-is-showing-its-age-cnip6rya8 "S3 Is Showing Its Age") Article Substack · 2y S3 Is Showing Its Age S3 is falling behind its competitors in terms of features such as compare-and-swap operation, multi-region buckets, and object appends. These missing features are becoming a bigger problem as new infrastructure relies on object storage as the primary persistence layer. The decision to abandon or embrace S3 depends on the system's use cases and design goals. Preconditions on S3 and a unified S3Express One Zone API would make this decision easier. 55 1 10. 10 [](https://daily.dev/posts/a-tale-of-two-clouds-ph3ygaxr8 "A tale of two clouds") Article Substack · 2y A tale of two clouds The post discusses the differences in customer support and response between AWS and Google Cloud. AWS listens to their customers and takes immediate actions to resolve issues, while Google Cloud exhibits customer obfuscation. 37 11. 11 [](https://daily.dev/posts/tdd-5-test-smells---5-solutions-xgavbbake "TDD: 5 test smells - 5 solutions") Article Substack · 2y TDD: 5 test smells - 5 solutions Learn about common test smells in Test-Driven Development and how to fix them. 32 12. 12 [](https://daily.dev/posts/the-worst-slack-messaging-mistake-engineers-make-8ft7ssii8 "The worst Slack messaging mistake engineers make") Article Substack · 2y The worst Slack messaging mistake engineers make The article discusses the harmful Slack messaging mistakes engineers often make and provides a simple trick to avoid them. It highlights the negative impact of certain messages and the importance of concise and clear communication in asynchronous channels like Slack. 32 1 13. 13 [](https://daily.dev/posts/graphql-intro-101-part-1--1neonyz2c "GraphQL Intro 101 (part 1)") Article Substack · 2y GraphQL Intro 101 (part 1) GraphQL is a modern API standard that offers an efficient, powerful, and flexible alternative to traditional REST APIs. It started at Facebook as a solution for optimizing data loading for mobile applications and addressing the limitations of REST. There are pros such as efficient data loading and strong typing, but also cons like complexity and potential performance issues. Overall, GraphQL has found its place in the ecosystem and has an exciting future ahead. 27 14. 14 [](https://daily.dev/posts/why-you-need-tdd-mimyhgrl6 "Why you need TDD") Article Substack · 2y Why you need TDD TDD is the fastest and safest way to write code and it helps manage complexity, minimizes debugging, and provides 100% code and behavior coverage. It is advocated by top engineers in the industry. 27 1 15. 15 [](https://daily.dev/posts/modern-advances-in-prompt-engineering-yglcwsesn "Modern Advances in Prompt Engineering") Article Substack · 2y Modern Advances in Prompt Engineering Prompt engineering is the science of testing different prompts to optimize a language model's performance. It involves using input data, exemplars, instruction, indicators, and context to craft effective prompts. Strategies for prompt engineering include being empirical, starting simple, being specific and direct, using exemplars, and avoiding complexity if possible. 21 16. 16 [](https://daily.dev/posts/openai-gpt-4o-the-new-best-ai-model-in-the-world-like-in-the-movies-for-free-od2i8vosi "OpenAI GPT-4o: The New Best AI Model in the World. Like in the Movies. For Free") Article Substack · 2y OpenAI GPT-4o: The New Best AI Model in the World. Like in the Movies. For Free OpenAI has released GPT-4o, the new best AI model in the world, for free. It surpasses GPT-4 by 60 Elo points and has native multimodal capabilities for text, audio, voice, video, and images. 20 17. 17 [](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-create-an-engineering-os-for-your-organization--emqpi5sop "How to Create an Engineering OS for your Organization 🧑‍💻") Article Substack · 2y How to Create an Engineering OS for your Organization 🧑‍💻 Learn about EngOS, a framework for engineering teams to operate more efficiently. Discover the three dimensions of execution, how to improve collaboration, and ways to enhance decision making. 19 1 18. 18 [](https://daily.dev/posts/underrated-daily-job-software-engineering-skills-9xaywkn6b "Underrated daily-job software engineering skills") Article Substack · 2y Underrated daily-job software engineering skills Coding is important, but there are other underrated daily-job software engineering skills that are crucial for success. These include project management, continual learning and growth, helping others, knowledge sharing, communication, and effective meetings. 16 19. 19 [](https://daily.dev/posts/make-an-ai-notebook-kumgbomnz "📓 Make an AI notebook") Article Substack · 2y 📓 Make an AI notebook Discover NotebookLM, a new free service from Google that applies AI to your notes and documents. Learn how to start using it, what it can be used for, and its limitations. Explore alternative AI tools as well. 15 20. 20 [](https://daily.dev/posts/things-the-guys-who-have-my-stolen-phone-have-texted-me-to-try-to-get-me-to-unlock-it-vstdxuimw "Things the guys who have my stolen phone have texted me to try to get me to unlock it") Article Substack · 2y Things the guys who have my stolen phone have texted me to try to get me to unlock it A woman shares the text messages she received from the people who stole her iPhone in an attempt to get her to unlock it. 15 2 21. 21 [](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-build-a-data-analytics-portfolio-7fbhowhd7 "How to Build a Data Analytics Portfolio") Article Substack · 2y How to Build a Data Analytics Portfolio Learn how to build a data analytics portfolio by including projects that showcase skills like exploratory data analysis, data visualization, and business acumen. Use GitHub to organize your projects and create a comprehensive ReadMe page to highlight your accomplishments, methodology, and business recommendations. 13 22. 22 [](https://daily.dev/posts/the-anatomy-of-a-successful-team-squad-wxfcixfly "The Anatomy of a Successful Team Squad") Article Substack · 2y The Anatomy of a Successful Team Squad Learn about the Spotify Squad Model and its benefits and challenges. Discover how to work with Team Squads effectively. 13 2 23. 23 [](https://daily.dev/posts/understanding-how-vector-databases-work--jn4munqpe "Understanding How Vector Databases Work!") Article Substack · 2y Understanding How Vector Databases Work! Vector databases are used for recommender engines to find similar items using approximate nearest-neighbor search. They can be indexed using algorithms like Product Quantization, Locality-sensitive hashing, and Hierarchical Navigable Small World. Euclidean distance, dot product, and cosine similarity are common measures for comparing vectors. Vector databases also offer database operations, metadata and filtering capabilities, and scalability. 13 24. 24 [](https://daily.dev/posts/the-egg-theory-of-ai-agents-z0nvzqr8a "The "Egg Theory" of AI Agents") Article Substack · 2y The "Egg Theory" of AI Agents The 'Egg Theory' of AI Agents explores the idea that AI products shouldn't completely remove humans from the loop and should instead include moments of human involvement or the illusion of control. 12 2 25. 25 [](https://daily.dev/posts/when-privacy-expires-how-i-got-access-to-tons-of-sensitive-citizen-data-after-buying-cheap-domains-3s5mzv0aw "When privacy expires: how I got access to tons of sensitive citizen data after buying cheap domains") Article Substack · 2y When privacy expires: how I got access to tons of sensitive citizen data after buying cheap domains A large-scale privacy investigation reveals the potential risks of expired domains and their connection to sensitive citizen data stored in cloud accounts. 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