Author: Paul Grenyer

The Foundation series has been my go to for a good, enjoyable read over the last two years, so naturally I moved on to Asimov’s Robot series afterwards. However, the short stories in I, Robot were mostly a disappointment. They feel self indulgent, with…

The Elements of Programming Style by Brian W. Kernighan and P. J. Plauger is one of those books that makes some excellent points that every software engineer should know and bear in mind every day. The central message is simple: write clearly and don’t…

Not Like That!How to build the wrong thing on purpose instead of the right thing by accidentby Adam L. CoombesI really like this book.It’s divided into seven-minute chapters, which I found particularly effective. They’re short enough that you can get t…

For research for a blog post, I’m reading Computer Programming as an Art by Donald Knuth, a transcript of a presentation he gave in 1974. This particular passage resonated with me, especially in light of the current state of software engineering:The fi…

Finishing a story is difficult. It’s even more difficult to do well. It’s practically impossible to finish a trilogy well. I think Dust finishes the Silo trilogy quite well.Dust is a surprisingly short book, given all the threads which need tying up an…

I’ve given my Beyond the Code: Designing Services That Stand the Test of Time presentation a few times now. It started as a talk I put together for the ACCU Conference – which wasn’t accepted – and has evolved quite a bit as I’ve presented it to differ…

I really like Lukasz Quilter and his little band, they get into some fantastic scrapes.A Sound Inhuman has a gloriously gory beginning and then builds really nicely. I like a sci-fi story which creates lots of questions, which gradually get answered as…

Surrounded by Idiots: Entertaining, Thought-Provoking, but Don’t Take the Colours Too LiterallyThomas Erikson’s Surrounded by Idiots is one of those books that’s easy to see why it became a bestseller. It’s funny, engaging and full of memorable example…

In June 2026, a new HTTP request method, or verb, was introduced. RFC 10008 describes Query as:A QUERY requests that the request target process the enclosed content in a safe and idempotent manner and then respond with the result of that processing. Th…

I’ve been doing a kind of tour with my Beyond the Code: Designing Services That Stand the Test of Time talk. I’ve given it in Oxford, Norwich, Cambridge, London and York*, between February and August this year. I’ve really enjoyed giving it, but what I…

The Machine Crusade is mostly another middle of the road science fiction story, like The Butlerian Jihad, however what saves it are moments of brilliance from time to time and the ending, which accelerates considerably and keeps you wanting more.There …

I don’t usually enjoy ‘art’, however I’m often in museums as my wife enjoys it.We’re on the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) mailing list – mostly because my wife wants tickets for the David Bowie exhibition – and an email about the new Bharti Kher…

There’s something about Software Crafters Cambridge – and it’s not just that I can never remember the order the words go in the name. They’re a quiet group of software professionals, but the talks and workshops are always interesting, and it quickly be…

I hadn’t written a line of C++ since 2011 before I read this book, and that was just for fun. I hadn’t written a line professionally since 2006. Introducing C++ made me want to write some C++ again, so I did.Early in the book, Frances tells us that pri…

We saw Skunk Anansie just over a year ago and I haven’t seen Garbage since the Version 2.0 tour in 90s – the best time to have seen them in my opinion. When the opportunity to see them both together came up, of course Charlotte wanted to go – despite i…

I Asked an AI to Build Me a Bank Data Platform. Here’s What Happened. Claude wrote this post for me and we reviewed and revised it together. I know this won’t be popular with at least a few of my regular readers, but it felt like the right thing to do…

I have been reviewing Fran Buontempo’s new C++ book, and somewhere between the chapters on modern idioms and the bits where she nudges you to actually do something with the language, I caught the itch. I have not written any C++ in more than twenty yea…

Sometimes, even when you’re close to your team, patterns or underlying issues emerge over time. Some of these are insights you may wish you had recognised earlier. The important thing is to talk to your team and work on a solution together. Sometimes, …

 On Tuesday this week, I was back at AWS on Holborn Viaduct learning about Apache Iceberg with a colleague. Iceberg is a table format standard for managing large-scale datasets and their metadata. The AWS-managed approach is to store the data in S…

I’ve delivered my Beyond the Code: Services Which Stand the Test of Time presentation a handful of times this year. Toward the end of the first half, I take a stronger stance and talk more directly about the design of RESTful interfaces.Most of the mat…

I really enjoyed Foundation’s Edge and I had great expectations of Foundation and Earth. I was disappointed. About 90% of the story just plods on. Then the last 10% is really good, but goes super fast. I think part of the problem is that Asimov wa…

Great Band. Great Set. Great Venue. Great Sound! Need I say more? I will…We loved the Shepherd’s Bush Empire the first time we went in December 2023 for Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride, so we were really excited to be going back. It didn’t disappoint….

I’m currently working on a new piece of writing that I’m hoping to present next year, and I’d really value your input. To support this research, I’ve created a short survey to gather perspectives, experiences, and insights. Whether you’ve got stro…

For a book divided into small, discrete and easily absorbable chapters, there’s a lot of Clean Architecture. Its strengths are the discussion of the SOLID Principles, Compensation and insistence on abstract interfaces, encapsulated concrete interf…

When One Beyond invited me to take part in the London Tech Leaders Summit, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. What I definitely wasn’t expecting was a seven‑foot robot interrupting the opening welcome.As the doors flung open, the robot ducked to fit t…

I wrote Deep Imports Considered Harmful for two reasons. Obviously to persuade people not to use deep imports, but I also wanted to reinforce that components should have an abstract interface and an encapsulated concrete implementation.I was expecting …

Looking ahead to next year, I want to talk about Abstraction, Encapsulation, Cohesion and Loose Coupling as it seems they are missing from a lot of modern software design.Back to Basics: Why the principles that built our industry still matter todayTher…

Keep It LooseDeep down we all know it’s important to componentise software systems.  It allows different parts of the systems, the components, to change and evolve over time with minimal effect on other parts of the system. Designed and implemente…

Persepolis Rising is set thirty years later and goes off in a different and uninteresting direction. It is of course possible that the entire book is setting up the story for the final two to be brilliant, but the story arc is only referenced in the ep…

I’ve been using Claude Code without many rules for a while. It’s certainly not the most efficient or effective way to use it. With its help, I learnt how to create some persistent rules around logging. When we’d finish I had Claude produce this blog po…

I always look forward to the AWS Summit. It’s a great opportunity to learn what AWS, and the engineers who use it, are up to, and to catch up with my colleagues. This year, though, turned out to be a bit different.The first year I attended, I skipped t…

Judiciously: With good judgement. Logging is one of the simplest things a developer can do, and one of the easiest things to get wrong. A single misplaced log line can be harmless, but a pattern of careless logging turns into noise, confusion, and…

I know what you’re thinking. Didn’t I do this not long ago? It’s true, I did. Less than 18 months ago in fact. And if Winterfylleth releases another album and does an album launch in the next 18 months I’ll go and do it all again.I left work at 2pm, go…

 I loved The Forcek Assignment! I’ve read most of Ray Adam’s books and this is by far my favorite so far. It’s short, at about 110 pages, but that means it’s fast paced. There are only a few characters, so you only really get to know Roo Raker, bu…

Over the last 18 months, the support you’ve all shown for my writing, speaking, and the journey Charlotte and I have been on has meant more than I can ever say. Every message, every share, every bit of encouragement:  it’s carried us.So we’re deli…

Naked Element to reward team for taking showers.While there is a lot to be said for meeting a problem head on, research has shown that removing oneself from a difficult task, even for a few minutes, can make all the difference when it comes to finding …

Is great communication important to you, your work, and your relationships?Do you want to improve how you connect with others?What: Building Effective Communication Skills with Amy EleftheriadesWhen: Thursday, May 14 · 1.00pm to 4.00pmWhere: Maids Head…

The Imperious Horizon came out on the 13th of September 2024. 18 months (and 2 days) ago. Of course that’s not a long time between albums, especially with bands today – it’s been nearly 8 years since the last Dimmu Borgir album – but it’s also felt lik…

 A few months ago, Shaun Lowthorpe put out a call on LinkedIn for people willing to share real‑life experiences of using business analysis at work. Although I haven’t done what you’d call traditional business analysis for years, I work in a Produc…

There’s something about Dom. It’s not only his depth of knowledge of the topics he speaks about. It’s his charisma and his delivery too. This is why people flock to see him. It also helps that Dom has been obsessed (in a good way) with AI for as long a…

I’ve been to nor(DEV):con, East Anglia’s Largest Developer Conference, most years since its inception as syncConf in 2013. 2026 has been by far my favorite year, and not just because I had the opportunity to speak to a packed conference room with stand…

I was recommended Radical Candor as a more contemporary take on Marshall B. Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication, but I think it also works as a more up‑to‑date reference for much of the material covered in What Did You Say? The Art of Giving and Recei…

 I didn’t enjoy Shift as much as the Wool. In a few places it still gripped me when parts of the overarching story were hinted at and later on explained. It was great to know where the Silos came from and why, but I didn’t care at all about Missio…

On Wednesday evening I had the pleasure of speaking to ACCU Oxford about ‘Beyond the Code: Designing Services That Stand the Test of Time’.  I haven’t been to Oxford since 2012 when the ACCU Conference was held there, before it was moved to Bristo…

 Beyond the Code: Designing Services That Stand the Test of Time Wednesday, 26th February 2026 @ 13:45 nor(DEV):conThe Kings Centre, 63-75 King St, Norwich NR1 1PH RSVP  As software engineers, it’s easy to get l…

 When: Thursday, 12th February @ 6.30pmWhere:  Dick’s Bar, 19 Bedford St, Norwich NR2 1ARRSVP: https://www.meetup.com/norfolk-developers-nordev/events/312926991/Norfolk Developers and Dick’s Bar are very kindly hosting my revised, ‘…

Having just finished The Testaments, I found the experience somewhat underwhelming. While it’s undeniably interesting to return to the world of Gilead, the novel takes a long time to gather momentum, and even once it does, it never quite reaches the de…

I didn’t dive into AI. I was a reluctant adopter. Not because I feared it would take my job, but because I assumed the learning curve would be steep, time consuming, and probably frustrating. In reality, it turned out to be none of those things.After s…

 I grew up in the 80s and 90s being told, over and over, that everyone was essentially the same. Treat everyone the same, expect the same, design for the same, that was the message. Reading Invisible Women has shifted that foundation more tha…

  Building Services That ScalePart 2 of Beyond the Code: Designing Services That Stand the Test of Time When we hear the word service, it sounds simple, almost obvious. In practice, defining what a service is can be surprisingly nuanced….

One of the most powerful things you can do as a leader is to talk to your team every day. It sounds simple, but it’s often overlooked, especially in distributed teams. Daily conversations help build and maintain relationships, foster trust, and remind …

 Beyond the Code: Designing Services That Stand the Test of Time Wednesday, 4th February 2026 St Aldates Tavern, 108 Saint Aldate’s, Oxford @ 6pm RSVP  As software engineers, it’s easy to get lost in the exciteme…

This book was recommended to me by a designer I work with and we’re still friends, so it’s not a bad recommendation!I found many of the ideas fascinating, especially the story of how Red Bull was conceived and marketed. At first glance, some of these c…

On the 5th November this year (2025) I had the pleasure of speaking about deploying Lambdas at ACCU York. They were a fantastic group of engineers. I had a fantastic time and they shot this video of me. From Zero to Deployed: Building and Shi…

Alastair Reynolds has long been my favorite author, but this latest book feels like he’s not even trying. Once again, the story revolves around a character who has lost their memory, a trope that’s starting to feel overused. What’s missing is the rich,…

A Series of Random Context Switches So You Think You Can Lead A Team? is a firsthand look into what team leadership means. Bringing real world examples into everyday workplace situations, So You Think… offers practical advice and support for those…

As software engineers, it’s easy to get lost in the excitement of crafting clever business logic: the algorithms, the workflows, the elegant domain models. However, the success or failure of a service rarely hinges on its core logic alone. What really …

The Butlerian Jihad is a middle of the road science fiction story. It lacks the gravitas of Frank Herbert’s original Dune series. The story is different in scope and style, and some of the elements, particularly the intelligent, emotionally curious rob…

When: Wednesday 3rd December 2025 @ 6pmWhere:  The Bradfield Centre, 184 Cambridge Science Park Milton Road, CB4 0GARSVP: https://www.meetup.com/accu-cambridge/events/311991390/ACCU Cambridge are making the most of me in December and letting …

This evening, I had the pleasure of speaking at ACCU York about lambdas, and what an incredible audience they were. Warm, welcoming, and fully engaged from start to finish.I was enjoying it so much that my 45-minute talk somehow turned into 75 minutes!…

Unlearning Masculinity by Cassandra Andrews, is a powerful and thought-provoking read.Full disclosure:I know the author personally. I found the book both useful and genuinely interesting. I only partially overlap with the target audience, as I haven’t …

We took our youngest, Ed (14), to see Katy Perry last night, his first ever gig, and he absolutely loved it. Seeing his excitement made the whole evening worthwhile.Katy Perry is undeniably a talented singer and performer, but the relentless, thumping …

 I first spotted Ego Is the Enemy years ago, sticking out of someone’s bag in the kitchen of an office I rented back in the mid-teenies. The title caught my eye, so I bought the Kindle version there and then. It’s taken me until now to actually re…

 In order to gauge the potential audience for my book, So you think you can lead a team?, I conducted a small survey of my colleagues, co-workers and anyone from Linked. I read regularly, for work and pleasure, and assumed everyone else did too bu…

Having previously read two of James Kinsley’s novels, I was surprised, and impressed, by It’s Hard to Tell You This. While I’ve always associated Kinsley with science fiction, this book takes a different direction, focusing instead on intimate human em…

It’s dull, which is a shame as Nemisis Games had picked up after Cibola Burn. There’s nothing new from the characters. No new characters of interest.  What was an exciting sci-fi series in the beginning has turned into politics and war in spa…

 ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1773137735 I found Lionel Giles’ introduction very boring. In this edition, there are more of his notes than Sun Tzu’s actual text. I gave up on them early, as they didn’t add any value for me.The Art of War itself is 13 short…

I went to see Rob Newman at the Playhouse in Norwich this evening, and he was every bit as brilliant as I’d hoped. At times he came across as a little nervous, but that vulnerability only made the performance feel more genuine and engaging.The Mary Whi…

Isaac Asimov ISBN-13: 978-0007381159 Although the original Foundation trilogy (1950s) laid the groundwork for Asimov’s universe, I’ve always found it rather bland. When Asimov returned to the series in the 1980s with Foundation’s Edge, the le…

By Steve R. CoveyISBN-13: 978-1471195204 This book was recommended to me years ago when I was running my own business, but I only picked it up recently. I wish I’d read it back then, it would have been even more useful.I was expecting the habits t…

 So you think you can lead a team?I’ve been talking and writing a lot about leading a software engineering team in 2025. I started thinking about it more deeply the year before when I decided to give a colleague, who was moving into team leading, …

Liz Phair When I met my wife, nearly nineteen years ago, she was obsessed with Liz Phair and in particular with the song **** and Run. I’m not sure if she was trying to tell me something…. She said she wanted to see Liz Phair live and I assum…

In software development, responsibility and accountability are closely related but have important distinctions, especially when it comes to leadership roles like a team lead. Responsibility refers to the obligation to carry out specific tasks or duties…

by Margaret AtwoodISBN-13: 978-0099740919The Handmaid’s Tale is a haunting, powerful novel that left a deep impression on me. It’s dark and terrifying in places, not because it leans into fantasy, but because its dystopia feels disturbingly plausible. …

by Hugh HoweyISBN: 978-1804940822As I am sure many do, I read the book after watching the first two of the TV series.  They are amazing, the book is better. I like stories where there is lots of mystery, as I hate not knowing things, so Wool keeps…

So you think you can lead a team?I’ve been talking and writing a lot about leading a software engineering team in 2025. I started thinking about it more deeply the year before when I decided to give a colleague, who was moving into team leading, some a…

I had to cut down the “Pick Your Battles” chapter for my book – reviewers all felt it was too dense. That left me with some extra content, portions of which I’m sharing here, unedited, alongside excerpts I kept in the final version to provide context.W…

Sandra A. CroweISBN‑13 978‑0399525407I was recommended this book by a friend. At 260 pages, it is much bigger than the leadership and ‘self help’ type books I’ve been reading and rereading recently. However, it was an interesting title and my friend sa…

  From Zero to Deployed: Building and Shipping an AWS Lambda with TypeScript, Terraform & GitHub ActionsWhen: 1830, 5th November, 2025Where: ACCU York,  Patch, The Bonding Warehouse, Terry Ave, York, YO1 6FA RSVP: http…

Parallels is an interesting and enjoyable read. It kept me guessing about what was actually going on the whole time. A sense of  something more I am missing always keeps me engaged, and I wasn’t expecting the twist until it came, or the final twis…

 The Great Misconception of Me*I often write about books I’ve read, bands I’ve seen, sometimes films, talks I’m giving, events I’m attending or have attended, technical topics, and more recently, leadership of software teams. Occasionally, I share…

by Kenneth Blanchard, Patricia Zigarmi, Drea ZigarmiISBN-13: 978-0007103416 This one’s a slow burner. I was disappointed at first as The Entrepreneur, who replaces The Young Man from The New One Minute Manager, going around talking to people in the man…

I wasn’t meant to be seeing the Pixies (again), I was just meant to be the taxi driver. Unfortunately, someone couldn’t make it last minute so I had to accompany my wife.I haven’t been to the O2 Academy in Birmingham since Lamb of God and Dimmu Borgir …

by Dale Carnegie ISBN-13: 978-0091906818 How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie is an excellent book which, in my opinion, everyone should read at least once. I’ve read it twice and bought it four times. I was halfway through the…

by George R. R. MartinISBN-13: 978-000746606I’m glad it’s over. I loved the TV series, but the books are awful. Long winded and the amount of unnecessary detail is boring and obscures the story. If George R.R Martin ever completes the next book, I’ll r…

So you think you can lead a team?I’ve been talking and writing a lot about leading a software engineering team in 2025. I started thinking about it more deeply the year before when I decided to give a colleague, who was moving into team leading, some a…

It felt good to be back at the AWS Summit. I got a lot out of last year and this year was interesting too. I attended some sessions on interesting topics and some which reassured me I’m doing the right things.  It was good to catch up with some ol…

by James S. A. CoreyISBN-13: 978-0356504254After the slow start to Cibola Burn, Nemesis Games was straight back on form. I loved the split story lines which made it feel like a proper space opera again. The bad guys were easy to dislike, the good guys …

Ghost is one of the bands that headlined Bloodstock one year and that I was completely non-pleased about, but then I really got into. The light bulb moment for me was the album Prequelle and its follow up Impera. Tonight, in a 21 song set, which includ…

by Will LarsonISBN-13: 978-1736417911Will Larson’s staff engineer archetypes didn’t really resonate with me and neither did the use of the word “staff”, which isn’t really explained. Some of the descriptions of operating as a staff engineer were really…

Last week I was back at the ACCU Conference in Bristol, for the first time since I gave an opening keynote in 2019. In March 2020, COVID hit the UK and I got out of the habit of attending and speaking at conferences. Plus the ACCU Conference, and the o…

So you think you can lead a team?I’ve been talking and writing a lot about leading a software engineering team in 2025. I started thinking about it more deeply the year before when I decided to give a colleague, who was moving into team leading, some a…

Apparently ‘So Good’ stood in at the last minute for someone else who couldn’t make the tour. I know established bands like to help out new bands, and that’s to be applauded, but So Good’s reinvention of Shampoo with worse lyrics should probably have b…

Infectious Generosity by Chris AndersonISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0753560495I was recommended this book, out of the blue, by a colleague. I am not entirely sure why, but now that I’ve finished it I am looking forward to finding out!Infectious Generosity looks a…

 The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkeyby Ken Blanchard, Hal BurrowsISBN-13: 978-0007116980When I made the move to lead engineer from senior engineer my instinct was still to try and fix everything for my engineers rather than get them to complet…

What: So you think you can lead a team?When: 2.45pm, Thursday 3rd April 2025Where: Delta Hotels Bristol City Centre, 2 Lower Castle St, Bristol BS1 3ADMore Info: https://accuconference.org/ Get tickets: https://accuconference.org/bookingSoftw…

In February 2025 I gave a 15 minute version of my “So you think you can lead a team?” talk to my colleagues on park in Devon. You can watch it here:So you think you can lead a Team? Software engineering is hard. Leading a team, as an engineer, can be e…

Today I attended my first DataDog Summit. It was interesting, but at times, it felt like a bit of a slog. Registration began at 9am, and by 10am, we were in the main auditorium for two and a half hours straight – eight back-to-back 15 minute sessions w…

In the first half of 2025 I presented a number of times on team leading. During the talk I reference a number of books which have helped me become a better team leader:The One Minute ManagerKenneth BlanchardISBN-13: ‎978-0008128043The One Minute Manage…

Async functions are a powerful feature in JavaScript and TypeScript, offering a cleaner, more readable alternative to working directly with Promises. However, it’s easy to overuse them or add unnecessary layers of complexity.  By understanding whe…