Posts on Writing Developer

FantaSanremo system design

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 07:00:00 +0200

Last week was that week in Italy. Don’t get me wrong, not the week when the Olympics ended, but the week when the Sanremo contest went on air.

For those who don’t know, the Sanremo Festival is a famous Italian music competition where 30 artists perform new (and unknown) songs. They are then evaluated based on different criteria and by different people and audiences.

At the end of the 5 days, we have a winner. The winner will represent Italy at the Eurovision, which I’m sure many more people know and follow.

Your retrospective is useless

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 07:00:00 +0200

Of course, it’s not useless! But there are things you should avoid. But let’s take a step back.

Retrospectives are pretty standard in tech companies, and they serve a great purpose: helping teams improve over time and learn from their mistakes.

However, over the years, I’ve seen many companies run them incorrectly, and by doing so, they lose all the benefits they provide.

Following are some of the most common mistakes I’ve seen, and some very opinionated ways to avoid them.

Advent of Code 2025

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 07:00:00 +0200

Here it comes that time of the year again: Advent of Code is out!

This year, as Eric pointed out, the total number of puzzles will be only 12. He has a life, and after 10 years of doing this, he wants to dedicate less time to it; totally understandable.

I actually appreciated the new duration even more. It’s usually hard to keep up with the pace of the challenges and having less puzzles made it a more relaxing experience.

Embrace AI

Fri, 13 Jun 2025 07:00:00 +0200

I recently came across an article from New York Magazine, whose author clearly frames AI as a big problem. While I was surprised by how AI is already shaping the world and how much risk can come from that, I wondered if AI really is the problem.

Are we sure it is? Are we sure slow-adapting institutions are not the problem?

The goal of universities shouldn’t change over time: students need to complete their study path, be competent in what they study, and be ready for a job. If institutions fail in that, then they need to adapt.

How to fight the algorithm that plays with your attention

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 07:00:00 +0200

I reduced the time spent on social media from 2-3 hours a day to 1 hour a week. The result? I’ve never felt better!

This introduction might sound like one of those typical guru slogans where I end up trying to sell you a ground-breaking system to boost your productivity and become rich by working 13 minutes a day.

The truth is, I didn’t realize how cumbersome or addictive social media was until I tried to free myself from it. It all started with a book: Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport.

Advent of Code 2024

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 07:00:00 +0200

As in previous years, from December 1st to 25th, the Advent of Code took place — a coding competition in which a new puzzle is revealed daily and solved through programming. Each puzzle is divided into two parts, and each correct answer earns a gold star. With 25 puzzles, the maximum is 50 stars.

I first attempted it in 2020 but abandoned it after a few days. This year, however, I decided to be systematic and collect as many stars as possible. I set myself some personal rules:

1 Billion Row Challenge

Sat, 31 Aug 2024 07:00:00 +0200

A couple of months ago, I came across this challenge, which involves reading and processing a file with one billion rows. Each row reports a city’s temperature measurement. The expected output is a list of cities sorted alphabetically, showing the minimum, maximum, and average temperature.

The required logic isn’t rocket science, but the real challenge lies in processing the file as quickly as possible, and one billion rows, even if it doesn’t seem like it, are a lot!

Remote working is alienating, or is it?

Fri, 17 May 2024 07:00:00 +0200

The Office

It’s 7 AM, and your alarm is blaring. Groggily, you reach over to hit the snooze button, but the sound persists, dragging you out of bed. You peek outside and see it’s raining. Great, just what you needed on a Monday morning. You rush through a quick breakfast and hastily get dressed, knowing you have a long commute ahead.

The drive to the office is anything but pleasant. Traffic is horrendous, and what should be a 45-minute journey stretches to an hour. The rain doesn’t help either; it seems to slow everything down, including your patience. By the time you reach the office, you’re already exhausted.

Book Summary: Atomic Habits by James Clear

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 07:00:00 +0200

One of the initial goals of this blog was to write summaries of books I read. This way, I can reinforce the concepts I learned and have a place where I can look for topic refreshers. Also, this can be useful to other people.

Here is the first post in this regard, and I will start with Atomic Habits by James Clear.

Introduction

The main book idea is that small habits compound over time and lead to great results. You shouldn’t focus on the goal, but on the system that leads you to the goal itself.

Hello there!

Fri, 05 May 2023 11:36:31 +0200

Hey, amazing people! 👋

This is the third time in my life that I’ve attempted to start a blog, and I’m hoping this time I will be able to keep it up and running for a while.

The main purposes of this blog are:

Learn new topics by writing about them. As you might have heard, teaching is learning, so reading about something and doing so to explain gives a different result, allowing me to grow both personally and professionally.
Summarize (technical) books I study with the same goal as before, learn by writing.
Force me to stay up-to-date with recent tech news (I usually do it, but as before, I’m more motivated).
Be this a place where I can look for answers to problems I’ve already solved (I’m sure I’ll forget them).

Also, I was inspired by two great newsletter issues that I strongly recommend reading: