The Wayfarer by Gun.io. April 7th, 2023.

This past weekend, I got it in my head that I wanted to dig up a fairly substantial part of my back yard, lay a brick path, and plant about four dozen trees, bushes, and native flowers, all between the hours of 7pm on Friday and 5pm on Sunday. I can now say from experience: please do not attempt this.?

I dug a trench. I lifted bag after bag of sand off the Home Depot pallet, onto my flatbed cart, into the car, then into a wheelbarrow. I dumped and leveled the sand, then laid the path brick by brick, then dumped and swept MORE sand into the cracks. And that was just for the path!?

Four dozen holes and 25 bags of mulch later, I have what *will be* a lovely, lush garden right outside my bedroom window. I also am unsure if my knees or back will ever be the same again.

But you know that feeling when you are absolutely physically spent, like could not pick up another >5 pound item from the ground if your life depended on it? It kinda feels nice, right? I like knowing that I left it all on the court (the only opportunity I'll ever have to say that phrase since I broke my nose trying out for 7th grade basketball).?

I think the same thing applies to cognitive work, as well. There are days when I feel totally energized after work, and that's nice—you need those days. You can't full send every single day. But man, there's nothing like a day when your brain is really truly good and fried. If it's been awhile since you've really sunk your teeth into a problem and came out on the other side totally spent...give it a whirl.?

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- Faith

1. This is my favorite kind of "how it works" piece:The complex math of counterfactuals could help Spotify pick your next favorite song.?

2. A classic (albeit hefty) read for those of us leading software teams:?remember to go slow to move fast.?

3. I dunno, y'all, I just saw this on HN and had to share it with?someone. And something tells me at least one of you will read this and be just as delighted as I am:?plants emit sounds when they're under stress, and those sounds have meanings.?

4. See below.

Breathalyzers have existed, in one form or another, for almost 100 years and have helped determine safe usage levels of a legal intoxicant. This week Ken Fichtler, CEO of Gaize, talks with Faith about the growth of legalized marijuana, and how its relative difficulty to test for in safety situations led to the creation of the company's AI testing system. Audio and transcript here.?

How often would you replace your computer if the newest model wouldn't work with your monitor, keyboard, or mouse? This is the core of the issue IBM was trying to solve when they developed the 360 System, as Faith and Deividi discuss in This Week in Tech History. It was a huge risk that ultimately paid off, and introduced the idea of interchangeable computer components to the world. Audio and transcript here.?

We have 739 folks ready to interview and get to work this week. Here are three folks I'd hire if I could:?

???Michal K, a full-stack Node.js developer with experience at both enterprise companies and his own startup.?

???Bryce C, a back-end engineer with Node.js, Java, and SQL expertise.?

???Sampath D, an experienced mobile app developer with excellent communication skills.?

Hit reply if you're in need of a great developer (or want to meet one of these fine folks) and I'll get it set up.