Reader, honestly, this week, it's been a little bit rough?

Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about technical documentation this week:

• Granted there are multiple classes of documentation - and I think they are all important? This week I've been only reflecting on where to draw the line in applications logic.
• "Self-documenting code" usually isn't. By all means we should continue writing delightful APIs, but... they aren't ever a replacement for also writing stuff down.
• Sometimes slightly simpler, less abstracted code (think, fewer layers) buys us time & space to write things down: In plain language.
• With both approaches we have a looming maintenance problem: As both domain logic & implementation evolve over time, so too must any abstractions & written documentation.
• The first thing to be suspended (and rarely resumed) in projects under increased pressure isn't tests. It's documentation.
• Abstractions tend to be adjusted in ways that quickly incur technical debt, but, perhaps the documentation debt is easier to pay back - and sooner?
• Since last year I've been increasingly valuing a well-written PRD & ERD over almost any other kind of project artefact. Something similar, closer to the code, more refined than types ... that feels like a good place to be.
• Anyway, How To Edit, On Writing Well & Docs for Developers are now at the top of my technical reading list. If you have any comments or suggestions, please send them my way! There's a better write-up in here for sure (at least after I learn how to write).

Towards the Great Apartment Furniture Fetch-Quest of '21, on Saturday my friend Laura took me shopping:

• We trekked through most of central London — at least, from Kings Cross to "Marble Arch Hill" — trying to track down an Xbox Series X.
• Good lord I had no idea that skating was: A) so popular B) so expensive??
• Marble Arch Hill? What a let-down. It isn't even really that good of a view?
• Oh yeah, and the London Transport Museum are still doing tours. We tried (and failed) to walk into one. Potentially the most exclusive activity in London right now.
• In the end we sort-of gave up and went to the Microsoft Store Experience Centre. Microsoft weren't lying: it was an experience.
• Strangely reminiscent of an Apple Store. But like, not. Because it was an experience. Honest!
• I now have an Xbox Series S: Bring on Perfect Dark!

Next week's chapter: I don't know yet. I made some other less exciting progress (most notably: getting a bed & sofa and metric-tonne of cookware). There's also some Wayfair stuff en-route. Maybe I should just go to IKEA already?

• Ellen Allien, MARRØN & Rebekah really know how to push a Funktion One set-up to its limits, as I have recently learned.
• But the Teenage Engineering OB-4 really packs a punch too: One recently arrived, and, good god am I obsessed??
• In related news I have resumed my obsession with Teenage Engineering equipment and modular synth. This may be a bad thing.
• Did I miss something? Music festivals are somehow back in full force. This weekend I gawked at the line-ups of Reading Festival, Junction 2, Field Day & Creamfields in extreme envy.
  • Bicep's performance at Field Day got posted to Instagram a lot, and really stood out: Sharp light-work + lasers & really crisp synth-work. Crikey.
  • This whole pandemic thing really kind-of sucks. It'd be nice to have been able to go to any of these guilt-free.
  • (Being double-booked didn't help.)

Oh, have you seen the Ukranian Institute of Scientific and Technological Research and Development? Gosh that building is wild. In a really good way. It's like a flying saucer landed on top of a bus station and this is honestly all of the commentary I am capable of providing because I don't really know what else to think.