Tech Culture
Tech Predictions That Aged Poorly (And What They Teach Us)
From "no one will want a computer in their home" to "the iPhone will fail"—why smart people get the future spectacularly wrong.
December 2024Blog
Stories from the world of technology. Origin stories, deep dives, numbers that matter, and perspectives on how software shapes our world.
Tech Culture
Technology
100 Million Lines: The Code Running Your Car
A modern car contains more code than a fighter jet. Here's what's running under the hood—and what happens when software meets two-ton machines.
November 2024
Tech Story
When AWS Goes Down: Inside Cloud Outages
AWS powers a third of the internet. When it fails, the world notices. Inside the incidents that break the modern web.
October 2024
Numbers
The Real Cost of Data Breaches: Numbers That Should Terrify You
Data breaches cost more than ever—$4.45 million on average. Here are the numbers behind the headlines.
September 2024
Development
Good API Design: What Stripe Gets Right
Stripe's API is famously developer-friendly. What makes it so good? The principles behind APIs developers actually enjoy.
August 2024
Tech Philosophy
Right to Repair Is Winning: Why You Should Care
For decades, tech companies made devices impossible to repair. That's finally changing—and here's why it matters.
July 2024
How It Works
How ChatGPT Actually Works: A Plain English Explanation
ChatGPT feels like magic, but it's built on understandable principles. Here's how large language models work—without the PhD-level math.
June 2024
Tech Story
The Day CrowdStrike Broke 8.5 Million Windows Computers
How a single content update from a cybersecurity company brought global infrastructure to its knees.
May 2024
How It Works
How Spotify Knows Your Taste Better Than You Do
Discover Weekly is uncannily good. Here's how collaborative filtering, audio analysis, and NLP combine to predict your music taste.
April 2024
Origin Stories
Python: The Christmas Project That Became AI's Favorite Language
How Guido van Rossum's holiday project became the most important language for AI and data science.
March 2024
Tech Philosophy
Open Source Won: What That Means for the Future
In 2001, Steve Ballmer called Linux "a cancer." Today, Microsoft is one of the largest open source contributors. What does victory look like?
February 2024
Scale & Architecture
A Million Requests Per Second: Inside High-Traffic Systems
What does it take to handle a million requests per second? Inside the architecture of systems like Google, Netflix, and Discord.
January 2024
Tech Story
Log4j: Ten Lines of Code That Nearly Broke the Internet
How a feature buried in a logging library became the most critical vulnerability in years.
December 2023
Startup Wisdom
Build Things That Don't Scale: The Counterintuitive Startup Advice
Paul Graham's famous advice contradicts everything engineers are taught. Here's why doing things manually first is how great products are built.
November 2023
How It Works
DNS: The Internet's Phone Book That Makes Everything Work
Every time you visit a website, DNS works behind the scenes. How this invisible system translates names to numbers.
October 2023
Technology
Beyond the Hype: What Blockchain Actually Solves
Blockchain solves exactly one problem well. Understanding this helps separate real use cases from marketing.
September 2023
Origin Stories
SQLite: The Database in Your Pocket and a Billion Other Places
How a contractor for the US Navy accidentally created the most deployed software in human history.
August 2023
Privacy & Security
End-to-End Encryption: Why It Matters and How It Works
When WhatsApp says "end-to-end encrypted," what does that actually mean? A clear explanation of the technology protecting your messages.
July 2023
Tech Philosophy
The Unix Philosophy: Do One Thing Well
The design principles from the 1970s that still guide the best software today. Why simplicity wins in the long run.
June 2023
UX Story
The $300 Million Button: A UX Story
How changing one button increased revenue by $300 million. The most profitable UX fix in e-commerce history.
May 2023
How It Works
How HTTPS Actually Keeps You Safe
The padlock in your browser does a lot of work. Here's what's actually happening when you connect to a secure website.
April 2023
Origin Stories
Git: The Tool Linus Torvalds Built in Two Weeks Out of Spite
How anger at a licensing dispute led to the most important developer tool of the century.
March 2023
Numbers
What Happens on the Internet in 60 Seconds
6 million Google searches. 500 hours of YouTube uploads. 695,000 Instagram stories. The staggering scale of one minute online.
February 2023
Tech Philosophy
Why Software Is Eating Everything (And What's Next)
Marc Andreessen's prediction keeps coming true. From banks to cars to farms, why every company becomes a software company.
January 2023