The Coder Cafe

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Working on Complex Systems
 • Teiva Harsanyi
So, I Wrote a Book
 • Teiva Harsanyi
Unit Tests As Documentation
 • Teiva Harsanyi
Functors, Applicatives, and Monads
 • Teiva Harsanyi

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The Reading Room is Open
And You're Invited
 • Teiva Harsanyi
Systems Thinking Explained
Your system isn't broken because of bad engineering. It's broken because you're reacting to events without seeing the structure that produces them.
 • Teiva Harsanyi
How an SSD Works
Your SSD doesn't just store data, it relies on quantum physics to do it.
 • Teiva Harsanyi
The Coder Cafe
The Coder Cafe
AI is getting better every day. Are you? At The Coder Cafe, we serve fundamental concepts to make you an engineer that AI won't replace. Written by a Google SWE, trusted by thousands of engineers worldwide.
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Teiva Harsanyi
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Concepts

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Systems Thinking Explained
Your system isn't broken because of bad engineering. It's broken because you're reacting to events without seeing the structure that produces them.
 • Teiva Harsanyi
How an SSD Works
Your SSD doesn't just store data, it relies on quantum physics to do it.
 • Teiva Harsanyi
Working on Complex Systems
My Talk at the Monster SCALE Summit 2026
 • Teiva Harsanyi
3 Bullets and a Call to Action
When communicating via email or chat, people prefer short and memorable messages that do not require too much cognitive effort to process.
 • Teiva Harsanyi
The Cold Start Problem Explained
The cold start problem is a chicken-and-egg trap: no users without value, no value without users.
 • Teiva Harsanyi
Linus Torvalds vs. Ambiguous Abstractions
There’s no issue with abstracting code into a helper function. If we want to optimize for cognitive load, the intent should be as clear as possible…
 • Teiva Harsanyi
Nothing Beats Kindness
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.
 • Teiva Harsanyi
Horror Coding Stories: Therac-25
In total, there were six known radiation overdoses involving the Therac-25,and at least three were fatal.
 • Teiva Harsanyi
Speed vs. Velocity
On paper, the team delivered 10 story points. That is only speed, though, not velocity. If we care about direction as well, the team only delivered a…
 • Teiva Harsanyi
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