Welcome to This Month In Tech: the NaNLABS' Newsletter
Hi there,
If you had a pulse this month, you probably noticed that?AI was suddenly everywhere. Everyone was talking about OpenAI’s new ChatGPT chatbot – and the amazing things it could do. Teachers freaked out about students?using AI to cheat on essay assignments. And Google announced their AlphaCode program could?match the performance of the average human coder?in programming contests.
Here at NaNLABS, we’ve been following developments in the AI space closely – and we’re excited about the potential of automation and AI to help dev teams generate quality code faster. If you’re interested in adding automation to your Agile workflows, check out our guide to?implementing efficient automated testing?within your development team.
? Software and Tech
Some people aren’t so excited about AI – like venture capitalist Paul Kedrosky, who’s criticized?OpenAI’s ChatGPT model as a “pocket nuclear bomb” that’s driving “the most disruptive change the US economy has seen in 100 years.” Kedrosky believes that the chatbot could have massive social consequences affecting everything from software development to the legal profession. Kedrosky argues that ChatGPT should be withdrawn immediately and only introduced with tight restrictions – if ever.
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A new Stanford University study finds that developers who use AI coding assistants are more likely to write code?with security vulnerabilities?– while also being overconfident about the quality and security of their code. Researchers suggest that developers who use AI assistants should avoid overreliance on coding assistants, be mindful of their limitations, and invest more time and effort crafting better queries that can deliver better, more secure outputs.
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Amid ongoing disarray at Elon Musk's Twitter, the once-obscure social network Mastodon is gaining over 1,000 users per hour. Mastodon, which has about eight million users, was developed in response to concerns about the top-down control exercised on Twitter’s platform.?
It allows users to create their own "instances," or home bases for friends and colleagues, with the aim of decentralizing the web and creating a federation of freely communicating instances known as the Fediverse.
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?? Stories We're Following
With the global economic outlook uncertain as we enter 2023, managers need to prepare to lead their teams through an economic downturn. Engineering leadership coach Lena Reinhard offers suggestions on how to adapt, including focusing on efficiency, preparing for times of rapid change, planning for a prolonged downturn, being adaptable, making high-impact investments, being mindful of cost, and ensuring high visibility. Reinhard highlights key areas where leaders should apply these principles to navigate the downturn successfully.
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Engineering is about solving business problems faster and better than your competitors can — and that’s all about being pragmatic. That’s the engineering leadership philosophy of Jean-Denis Grèze, Head of Engineering at Plaid. In this wide-ranging interview, Grèze shares his insights on tackling the five biggest challenges engineering leaders face, including building a culture of ownership, balancing company and employee goals, and constructing teams with high humility and low egos.
领英推荐
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The current demand for DevOps engineers drastically outstrips supply, with up to 75% of future DevOps initiatives at risk of being understaffed. But there’s a solution. DevOps automation is a viable way for dev teams to speed up their work in the face of workforce shortages. By focusing on best practices like keeping customer needs in mind and using reliable automation tools, dev teams can use automation to maximize their productivity. If your team is considering DevOps automation, getting an expert evaluation is the best way to ensure you’re using automation to its full potential.
?? Project Spotlight
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California-based startup HyreCar was growing rapidly and needed support to help their business scale. Developers from NaNLABS partnered with HyreCar to create and deploy a microservice architecture for their car rental startup, combining Domain-Driven Design and agile practices to ensure success. NaNLABS developers didn’t work in a silo – they acted as any other engineer within the company. By working as an integrated part of HyreCar, the NaNLABS team was able to develop a long-lasting partnership and offer the ability to extend the product with fault isolation, granular scaling, and continuous delivery.
? This Month At NaNLABS
If you want to develop quality code more efficiently, Test-Driven Development – or TDD – could be the way to go. TDD is an Agile practice that involves running unit tests for each deliverable and encourages refactoring for scalability. Among its advantages are a more cost-efficient development process, faster and easier debugging, and a culture of refactoring that consistently leads to quality code. With NaNLABS, you get developers who understand the value of TDD and can help you apply it in any business context – whether it’s a legacy codebase or a brand-new project.
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In TDD, developers create tests before they start coding to ensure that their code meets requirements. It’s particularly effective when you have a project with clear requirements, when you’re launching a new feature, when you’re not on a pressing deadline, or when you’re working on greenfield projects. To get the most out of TDD, consider working with experienced developers who can help you streamline your processes, reduce technical debt, and become familiar with Agile technical processes
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???? In Conclusion
That’s it for this month! From exciting advancements in the generative AI space to developments in DevOps automation, it’s been another busy month in the tech space.
We’ve highlighted some of the most interesting developments in tech – but there’s even more out there.
Have a great February!
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