Author: Paul Grenyer

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…

axios-http-builder is an Axios instance builder for use on client or server side with common features pre-configured:- Timeout- CancellationBy default, Axios does not configure a timeout or a cancellation timeout. However, axios-http-builder sets both …

Something I see a lot, especially in node applications, is duplicate messages logged due to an exception being caught and logged in several places as the stack unwinds. For example with the following (contrived) code:const httpCall = () => {  c…

How we use comments in code has come up a couple of times for me this week and when I looked, I realised we hadn’t captured anything in the my teams’s coding guide lines, so I added something: Uncle Bob Says: “It is well known that I prefer code t…

Orbital: Winner of the Booker Prize 2024Samantha HarveyISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1529922936This book wasn’t for me. It’s a great idea, but it’s poorly realised. This is not a novel and not a textbook. I don’t think it knows what it is. It’s a bit all over the …

Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life: Life-Changing Tools for Healthy Relationshipsby Marshall RosenbergISBN: 978-1-892005-28-1I was sitting in an Amazon Web Services workshop and, as an after lunch ice breaker, the workshop leader asked us to …

What: So you think you can lead a team?When: 27th & 28th February 2025 Where: nor(DEV):con, The Kings Centre, 63-75 King St, Norwich, NR1 1PHMore Info: https://nordevcon.com/Get tickets: https://ti.to/norfolkdevelopers/nordevcon-25Software engineer…

As I’ve said before, I completely fell in love with Winterfylleth at Bloodstock one year. They played again, on the main stage, a few years later and released that performance as a live album and it’s one of my favourites. We went to Manchester to see …

Infected Rain are one of those bands I thought I really ought to be into. A modern, European metalcore band with female vocals, what’s not to like? But I just couldn’t get on with the Ecdysis album. I persevered and when the band released a few tracks …

by James S. A. CoreyISBN: 78-0356504193In some ways Cibola Burn is a lot like Abaddon’s Gate, it’s slow to get going. It takes about half the book, however the second half of the book is really good. One way in which it is different from the stories w…

Would you travel for over 4 hours to spend less than 10 minutes with one of your favourite bands just to get their latest album signed and a photograph? I DID! Although, someone came from Germany, so it wasn’t the longest anyone travelled.I don’t think…

My wife is a massive PJ Harvery fan, but I always found her squeaky, out of tune, unable to play and talentless. And to be fair, some of her songs on some of her albums do sound like that. For one reason or another, we missed PJ Harvery at the Roundhou…

By Frank HerbertISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1473233812Here ends a journey which turned out to be more stubborn determination than enjoyment. As I’ve mentioned before, I first started reading the Dune books as a young teenager after loving the Lynch adaptation of…

When it comes to sound, the Underworld in Camden can be a bit hit and miss and tends to be more miss with heavier bands. I struggled to hear the guitars clearly for Born of Osiris last year and it was the same for both Perpetual Paradox and Phobetor, w…

By George R.R. MartinISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0007548279If this wasn’t the penultimate book written and I hadn’t enjoyed the TV series so much I would be giving up on the book series at this point. A Feast for Crows is boring and long winded. It’s full of a l…

By George R.R. MartinISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0007548279If this wasn’t the penultimate book written and I hadn’t enjoyed the TV series so much I would be giving up on the book series at this point. A Feast for Crows is boring and long winded. It’s full of a l…

Forgive me father, for it has been six months since my last gig.To be fair, my last gig was The Darkness and they played badly and we ended up next to some idiots in the crowd, so we left well before the end. A week or so before that was My Dying Bride…

I’ve used a lot of existing Representational State Transfer (REST) APIs and have created several of my own. I see a lot of inconsistency, not just between REST APIs but often within a single REST API. I think most developers understand, at a high level…

I’ve used a lot of existing Representational State Transfer (REST) APIs and have created several of my own. I see a lot of inconsistency, not just between REST APIs but often within a single REST API. I think most developers understand, at a high level…

James S. A. CoreyISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1841499932Abaddon’s Gate takes a while to get going. About half the book to get going. It’s all new character introductions and building. The second half is more exciting, but drawn out. Chrisjen Avasarala is totally …

James S. A. CoreyISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1841499932Abaddon’s Gate takes a while to get going. About half the book to get going. It’s all new character introductions and building. The second half is more exciting, but drawn out. Chrisjen Avasarala is totally …

Machine VendettaAlastair ReynoldsISBN: ‎ 978-0316462846Machine Vendetta is the final Revelation Space novel we’re getting and the final part of the Dreyfus trilogy and it could have been a lot better. Unlike the previous book in the series, there was o…

Machine VendettaAlastair ReynoldsISBN: ‎ 978-0316462846Machine Vendetta is the final Revelation Space novel we’re getting and the final part of the Dreyfus trilogy and it could have been a lot better. Unlike the previous book in the series, there was o…

A Storm of Swords, Part 2: Blood and Gold (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 3)by George R.R. MartinISBN-13: ‎ 978-0007447855At least George R. R. Martin is consistent. I didn’t really enjoy the second part of this book any more than the first. The Red Wedd…

A Storm of Swords, Part 2: Blood and Gold (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 3)by George R.R. MartinISBN-13: ‎ 978-0007447855At least George R. R. Martin is consistent. I didn’t really enjoy the second part of this book any more than the first. The Red Wedd…

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance  by  Robert PirsigISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0099786405 Zen and …

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance  by  Robert PirsigISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0099786405 Zen and …

Prelude To FoundationAsaac AsimovISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0008117481Although, as a child and teenager, I’ve heard an abridged audiobook many times and read Prelude to Foundation the first time more than two decades ago, I loved it more than I can describe and…

Prelude To FoundationAsaac AsimovISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0008117481Although, as a child and teenager, I’ve heard an abridged audiobook many times and read Prelude to Foundation the first time more than two decades ago, I loved it more than I can describe and…

Caliban’s Warby James S. A. CoreyISBN: 978-1841499918I was really keen to read this after Leviathan Wakes was so good and after enjoying the TV series so much. Of course there was the pull of the introduction of Chrisjen Avasarala as well, and she real…

Caliban’s Warby James S. A. CoreyISBN: 978-1841499918I was really keen to read this after Leviathan Wakes was so good and after enjoying the TV series so much. Of course there was the pull of the introduction of Chrisjen Avasarala as well, and she real…

By Alistair ReynoldsASIN: B0C99899GL Take two of my favourite things and my favourite author and what do you get? Formula 1 in space with cyborgs, and who doesn’t love a Sisters of Mercy Reference?From a Formula 1 perspective, there’s so much there. Re…

By Alistair ReynoldsASIN: B0C99899GL Take two of my favourite things and my favourite author and what do you get? Formula 1 in space with cyborgs, and who doesn’t love a Sisters of Mercy Reference?From a Formula 1 perspective, there’s so much there. Re…

By Frank HerbertISBN:  ‎ 978-1473233805I’ve seen lots of people rave about God Emperor of Dune, the first of the second Dune trilogy, which is set several thousand years after the events of Children of Dune. As far as I’m concerned, it’s ok.It con…

By Frank HerbertISBN:  ‎ 978-1473233805I’ve seen lots of people rave about God Emperor of Dune, the first of the second Dune trilogy, which is set several thousand years after the events of Children of Dune. As far as I’m concerned, it’s ok.It con…

Separation of Concerns is a key principle in software engineering. When we used to deploy applications to physical hardware, the two separate concerns of infrastructure and software would often become blurred as an application would often need to tailo…

Separation of Concerns is a key principle in software engineering. When we used to deploy applications to physical hardware, the two separate concerns of infrastructure and software would often become blurred as an application would often need to tailo…

Storm of Swords: Part 1 Steel and SnowGeorge R MartinISBN: 9780007447848I didn’t like the previous book, A Clash of Kings and Storm of Swords isn’t a great deal better, but it is better.  I really enjoyed the multiple threads and, of course, learn…

Storm of Swords: Part 1 Steel and SnowGeorge R MartinISBN: 9780007447848I didn’t like the previous book, A Clash of Kings and Storm of Swords isn’t a great deal better, but it is better.  I really enjoyed the multiple threads and, of course, learn…

A nonofficial, JavaScript, feature complete, client library for sending transactional emails via Bloomreach.The aim of the bloomreach-transactional-email package is to get you going with the Bloomreach Transactional Email API as quickly as possible. Th…

A nonofficial, JavaScript, feature complete, client library for sending transactional emails via Bloomreach.The aim of the bloomreach-transactional-email package is to get you going with the Bloomreach Transactional Email API as quickly as possible. Th…

by James S. A. CoreyISBN-13: 978-0316333429 I was apprehensive about reading Leviathan Wakes as a friend had suggested it was boring compared to the TV series, which I loved. It wasn’t! The Protomolecule is brown goo, rather than bright glittery s…

by James S. A. CoreyISBN-13: 978-0316333429 I was apprehensive about reading Leviathan Wakes as a friend had suggested it was boring compared to the TV series, which I loved. It wasn’t! The Protomolecule is brown goo, rather than bright glittery s…

I was out walking with a techie friend of mine I’d not seen for a while and he asked me if I’d written anything recently. I hadn’t, other than an article on data sharing a few months before and I realised I was missing it. Well, not the writing itself,…

I was out walking with a techie friend of mine I’d not seen for a while and he asked me if I’d written anything recently. I hadn’t, other than an article on data sharing a few months before and I realised I was missing it. Well, not the writing itself,…

SleepoverAlistair ReynoldsASIN: ‎ B0097AXWUYI often think that Alastair Reynolds must have encountered some truly unpleasant people in his life, as he creates such nasty characters so well. Sleepover starts with Gaunt awakened from a long sleep, but so…

SleepoverAlistair ReynoldsASIN: ‎ B0097AXWUYI often think that Alastair Reynolds must have encountered some truly unpleasant people in his life, as he creates such nasty characters so well. Sleepover starts with Gaunt awakened from a long sleep, but so…

The Silmarillionby J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher TolkienISBN: 978-0007523221I read the Lord of the Rings when I was about 8, having loved the BBC radio play starring Michael Hordern as Gandalf. Of course I wanted to read the Silmarillion too, but was a…

The Silmarillionby J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher TolkienISBN: 978-0007523221I read the Lord of the Rings when I was about 8, having loved the BBC radio play starring Michael Hordern as Gandalf. Of course I wanted to read the Silmarillion too, but was a…

The New One Minute Managerby Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson I rarely read a book more than once (unless it’s set in Alastair Reynolds’ Revelation Space Universe), but this is the third time I’ve read the New One Minute Manager, and It’s not…

The New One Minute Managerby Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson I rarely read a book more than once (unless it’s set in Alastair Reynolds’ Revelation Space Universe), but this is the third time I’ve read the New One Minute Manager, and It’s not…

Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Daysby Alistair ReynoldsISBN: ‎ 978-0575083134Diamond DogsI don’t get full satisfaction from stories that leave unanswered questions, unless those questions ge…

Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Daysby Alistair ReynoldsISBN: ‎ 978-0575083134Diamond DogsI don’t get full satisfaction from stories that leave unanswered questions, unless those questions ge…

The Great Dune TrilogyFrank HerbertISBN-13: 0575070706I remember distinctly reading Dune in 1992 after seeing the 1980s film. In fact I can still picture myself lying on a bed in a holiday cottage in a small French village near Carcassonne reading the …

The Great Dune TrilogyFrank HerbertISBN-13: 0575070706I remember distinctly reading Dune in 1992 after seeing the 1980s film. In fact I can still picture myself lying on a bed in a holiday cottage in a small French village near Carcassonne reading the …

So You Are Uncomfortable with Duplicate Data? If, like me, you’ve spent a reasonable amount of your career working with relational databases,  where data is rationalised to avoid duplication, the idea of duplicating data across microservices …

So You Are Uncomfortable with Duplicate Data? If, like me, you’ve spent a reasonable amount of your career working with relational databases,  where data is rationalised to avoid duplication, the idea of duplicating data across microservices …

Eversionby Alastair ReynoldsISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0575090781There’s little to no sci-fi in the first 30% of this book and you’d be forgiven for thinking Reynolds was just indulging himself in a seafaring romp. There’s only a hint of sci-fi up to about half…

Eversionby Alastair ReynoldsISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0575090781There’s little to no sci-fi in the first 30% of this book and you’d be forgiven for thinking Reynolds was just indulging himself in a seafaring romp. There’s only a hint of sci-fi up to about half…

ARDFollowing a nightmare which is parking in Manchester and getting a meal on a Saturday night without booking, we walked into the Bread Shed just as ARD were getting going, minus my vinyl and CDs for signing!. The masterpiece which is Take Up My Bones…

ARDFollowing a nightmare which is parking in Manchester and getting a meal on a Saturday night without booking, we walked into the Bread Shed just as ARD were getting going, minus my vinyl and CDs for signing!. The masterpiece which is Take Up My Bones…

Glory! Hammer! Were fantastic! They played well and were lots of fun as you’d expect.  I mean who doesn’t like a gig to start with a cardboard cutout of Tom Jones and Delilah playing on the PA. The band were all dressed up – it must have been very…