I got paid minimum wage to solve an impossible problem

I got paid minimum wage to solve an impossible problem
8 minutes by Ties Petersen

Ties turned a simple floor sweeping job at Albert Heijn into an optimization problem. He mapped the store as a grid graph and used simulated annealing to find the shortest path. The algorithm worked perfectly but created a path with many sharp turns that would be impossible to follow in real life. He then added penalties for turns to create more practical routes.

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Performance hints
about 1 hour by Jeff Dean, Sanjay Ghemawat

Google engineers Jeffrey and Sanjay share performance tuning principles and techniques they've used throughout Google's history. The document covers general approaches like estimation and measurement alongside specific techniques for memory optimization, reducing allocations, and algorithmic improvements.

The production bug that made me care about undefined behavior
12 minutes by Philippe Gaultier

Philippe discovered a bug where both "error" and "succeeded" fields were true in a response struct, which should be impossible. The issue was caused by C++ initialization rules. When declaring a struct without explicit initialization, C++ calls a default constructor that may leave primitive fields like booleans uninitialized with random values. The fix was to either add explicit field initialization or use brace initialization syntax to zero-initialize all fields.

Don't fall into the anti-AI hype
6 minutes by Salvatore Sanfilippo

Modern language models can now complete large coding tasks almost unassisted, making manual coding less necessary for most projects. Antirez completed four complex programming tasks in hours using AI that would have taken weeks before. He suggests that programmers should embrace these tools rather than resist the inevitable change.

The next two years of software engineering
17 minutes by Addy Osmani

The software industry is at a turning point as AI automates coding tasks. Junior hiring may drop, skills may shift, and developer roles could change from builders to overseers or orchestrators. Addy thinks that success will favor adaptable, T-shaped engineers who combine AI fluency with core expertise. Education paths are diversifying beyond traditional degrees. Continuous learning, versatility, and strategic thinking will define which developers thrive in this AI-augmented future.

Software engineering job market outlook for 2026
13 minutes by Kaustubh Saini

Software engineering jobs faced major layoffs after a hiring boom in 2021-2022. The real cause was over-hiring during digital transformation, not AI replacement as companies claimed. Many companies also shifted to cheaper remote workers overseas. The job market is stabilizing for 2026, but entry-level positions remain scarce. AI is changing the role rather than eliminating it, creating new opportunities in AI engineering and data infrastructure.

And the most popular article from the last issue was:

• The garbage collection handbook