Welcome to 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.

Why The Coder Cafe?

Let me introduce myself. I’m Teiva Harsanyi, and this is me giving a talk at Devoxx (with my favorite Borg1 t-shirt):

I’m a senior software engineer at Google with years of experience, including work in the safety-critical domain of air traffic control and at companies like Docker. I run a tech blog with over a million views, and I am the author of the very well-received book 100 Go Mistakes and How to Avoid Them.

One day, I had a discussion with someone on Twitter about Google, and this person told me this:

Honestly, I never ever considered myself as talented. During my studies, I was always close to giving up, constantly needing to retake exams because computer science was too difficult for me.

Yet, one day, I discovered a principle that changed my life: Kaizen (改善). This Japanese concept emphasizes that growth isn’t about how quickly you advance but about a consistent commitment to improvement. I didn’t join Google or become an author because I was talented; I did it because I applied the Kaizen philosophy for over a decade2.

That’s why I created The Coder Cafe. I wanted to build a community to help people grow week in and week out. While you might not learn everything in a day, I believe you will make steady progress over time.

Newsletter

The newsletter is composed of three sections:

• Concepts: The core section where we explore foundational, timeless concepts—the building blocks of a successful career. Designed for backend software engineers, DevOps professionals, and SREs, this section covers a range of topics:

  • Programming

  • Testing

  • Distributed systems

  • Reliability

  • Systems

  • Beyond code

• Lattes & Stories: Personal reflections and stories.

• Announcements: News and updates related to The Coder Cafe.

🔔 Notifications for each section can be configured in your settings.

So get cozy, grab a coffee, and enter The Coder Cafe.

Contact

You can reach me through these channels:

• Substack DM:

• Email: hello [at] thecoder [dot] cafe

• Bluesky: @teivah.dev

• X: @teivah