Matt Blewitt
@matt.blwt.io
Pinned
Matt Blewitt
@matt.blwt.io
· Oct 22
#reintroduction
Erstwhile SRE, currently Senior Eng Manager @ Salesforce Heroku.
Powered by coffee, giant robots and Postgres.
Erstwhile SRE, currently Senior Eng Manager @ Salesforce Heroku.
Powered by coffee, giant robots and Postgres.
Reposted by Matt Blewitt
Pretty sure I have the scariest engineering costume of the day.
October 31, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Pretty sure I have the scariest engineering costume of the day.
Everytime I see an ACE exploit in a game (with www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTry... being the latest I've watched), I remind myself that if I ever need to spin up a security team, I'm hiring the speedrun glitch hunting folks.
Wind Waker Was Just Broken By A MASSIVE New Skip!
YouTube video by Abyssoft
www.youtube.com
October 16, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Everytime I see an ACE exploit in a game (with www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTry... being the latest I've watched), I remind myself that if I ever need to spin up a security team, I'm hiring the speedrun glitch hunting folks.
Standard great Filippo post.
To implement robust mitigations across Geomys, I did a survey of open source project compromises in 2024/2025.
Three root causes dominate: phishing, control handoff, and unsafe GitHub Actions triggers. All three can be systematically avoided.
words.filippo.io/compromise-s...
Three root causes dominate: phishing, control handoff, and unsafe GitHub Actions triggers. All three can be systematically avoided.
words.filippo.io/compromise-s...
A Retrospective Survey of 2024/2025 Open Source Supply Chain Compromises
Project compromises have common root causes we can mitigate: phishing, control handoff, and unsafe GitHub Actions triggers.
words.filippo.io
October 10, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Standard great Filippo post.
I really like writing RFCs, even as an engineering manager.
I don't like writing RFCs when as I'm writing it, the list of teams that need to be involved increases more and more as I write it.
I don't like writing RFCs when as I'm writing it, the list of teams that need to be involved increases more and more as I write it.
October 2, 2025 at 6:29 PM
I really like writing RFCs, even as an engineering manager.
I don't like writing RFCs when as I'm writing it, the list of teams that need to be involved increases more and more as I write it.
I don't like writing RFCs when as I'm writing it, the list of teams that need to be involved increases more and more as I write it.
You should take a break and watch some skate videos. Recommendations: Yeah Right! (Girl) and Sorry (Flip). Also all of Mullen's Round Three part is mindbending.
September 24, 2025 at 10:25 PM
You should take a break and watch some skate videos. Recommendations: Yeah Right! (Girl) and Sorry (Flip). Also all of Mullen's Round Three part is mindbending.
Bought a new NUC. Forgot I don't have any wired keyboards since the clearout. Setup will have to wait for another day.
September 15, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Bought a new NUC. Forgot I don't have any wired keyboards since the clearout. Setup will have to wait for another day.
TENN W
MEM W
TEX L
ALA BTFO
College football remains undefeated.
MEM W
TEX L
ALA BTFO
College football remains undefeated.
August 30, 2025 at 11:36 PM
TENN W
MEM W
TEX L
ALA BTFO
College football remains undefeated.
MEM W
TEX L
ALA BTFO
College football remains undefeated.
Reposted by Matt Blewitt
I'm researching what is happening in the tech jobs market.
If you're a hiring manager recruiting, or an experienced eng on the job market, would love to hear what you see. DMs open.
(Feels like a weird market. I suspect data on eg jobs doesn't reflect what's on the ground)
If you're a hiring manager recruiting, or an experienced eng on the job market, would love to hear what you see. DMs open.
(Feels like a weird market. I suspect data on eg jobs doesn't reflect what's on the ground)
August 30, 2025 at 9:25 AM
I'm researching what is happening in the tech jobs market.
If you're a hiring manager recruiting, or an experienced eng on the job market, would love to hear what you see. DMs open.
(Feels like a weird market. I suspect data on eg jobs doesn't reflect what's on the ground)
If you're a hiring manager recruiting, or an experienced eng on the job market, would love to hear what you see. DMs open.
(Feels like a weird market. I suspect data on eg jobs doesn't reflect what's on the ground)
Genuinely great paper out from Meta on Scribe from VLDB: www.vldb.org/pvldb/vol18/...
It's an excellent breakdown on how to design such systems with explicit goals around write availability.
It's an excellent breakdown on how to design such systems with explicit goals around write availability.
www.vldb.org
August 30, 2025 at 10:18 AM
Genuinely great paper out from Meta on Scribe from VLDB: www.vldb.org/pvldb/vol18/...
It's an excellent breakdown on how to design such systems with explicit goals around write availability.
It's an excellent breakdown on how to design such systems with explicit goals around write availability.
Sad to be missing @vldb.bsky.social in London next week, but my conflict is being in beautiful Amsterdam w/ @heroku.com for Rails World!
If you are attending, come talk to me about databases-as-a-service, making Postgres easy for Rails developers, or anything else about the platform.
If you are attending, come talk to me about databases-as-a-service, making Postgres easy for Rails developers, or anything else about the platform.
August 29, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Sad to be missing @vldb.bsky.social in London next week, but my conflict is being in beautiful Amsterdam w/ @heroku.com for Rails World!
If you are attending, come talk to me about databases-as-a-service, making Postgres easy for Rails developers, or anything else about the platform.
If you are attending, come talk to me about databases-as-a-service, making Postgres easy for Rails developers, or anything else about the platform.
matt.blwt.io/post/overeng...
After seeing this and the complaints about the implementation, let's dig into re-implementing "sleep" for Linux-likes and BSD-likes in Zig.
After seeing this and the complaints about the implementation, let's dig into re-implementing "sleep" for Linux-likes and BSD-likes in Zig.
Over-Engineering Sleep
Why would you use a horrible bash loop of all things?
matt.blwt.io
August 24, 2025 at 8:34 PM
matt.blwt.io/post/overeng...
After seeing this and the complaints about the implementation, let's dig into re-implementing "sleep" for Linux-likes and BSD-likes in Zig.
After seeing this and the complaints about the implementation, let's dig into re-implementing "sleep" for Linux-likes and BSD-likes in Zig.
Reposted by Matt Blewitt
MORPHEUS: They're coming for you, Neo. I can guide you, but you must do exactly as I say. Take the elevator to the lobby and go to the CVS across the street. Purchase 5 Steam gift cards at $200 each. Scratch off the protective coating on the back and tell me the fifteen digit redemption codes. Hurry
August 23, 2025 at 9:57 PM
MORPHEUS: They're coming for you, Neo. I can guide you, but you must do exactly as I say. Take the elevator to the lobby and go to the CVS across the street. Purchase 5 Steam gift cards at $200 each. Scratch off the protective coating on the back and tell me the fifteen digit redemption codes. Hurry
The balkanisation will continue until your morals* improve.
August 23, 2025 at 6:13 PM
The balkanisation will continue until your morals* improve.
Finally cracked sub 59 minute 10K today. This isn't huge in the grand scheme of things, but is an achievement for me.
On to 25K, and revisiting the 10K benchmark next year I think.
On to 25K, and revisiting the 10K benchmark next year I think.
July 6, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Finally cracked sub 59 minute 10K today. This isn't huge in the grand scheme of things, but is an achievement for me.
On to 25K, and revisiting the 10K benchmark next year I think.
On to 25K, and revisiting the 10K benchmark next year I think.
Reposted by Matt Blewitt
years after working with a team that was vehemently against deleting any test, no matter how flaky, I have assembled my counter-doctrine: you should delete tests
andre.arko.net/2025/06/30/y...
andre.arko.net/2025/06/30/y...
You should delete tests
We’ve had decades of thought leadership around testing, especially coming from wholistic development philosophies like Agile, TDD, and BDD. After all that time and several supposedly superseding movem...
andre.arko.net
July 1, 2025 at 7:20 PM
years after working with a team that was vehemently against deleting any test, no matter how flaky, I have assembled my counter-doctrine: you should delete tests
andre.arko.net/2025/06/30/y...
andre.arko.net/2025/06/30/y...
BasicObject#method_missing in Ruby, and it isn't even close.
what’s your favorite unhinged programming language feature? something that seemed ok to whoever designed it but is truly the stuff of nightmares
June 15, 2025 at 6:03 PM
BasicObject#method_missing in Ruby, and it isn't even close.
Reposted by Matt Blewitt
sisyphus at daily standup: i had to roll back some changes
June 9, 2025 at 7:22 PM
sisyphus at daily standup: i had to roll back some changes
Trying to be a bit looser with blog stuff: matt.blwt.io/post/embodim...
Embodiment
Or, touching grass is good actually.
matt.blwt.io
May 17, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Trying to be a bit looser with blog stuff: matt.blwt.io/post/embodim...
Reposted by Matt Blewitt
PALPATINE HOLOGRAM: 𝑨𝑹𝑬 𝑾𝑬 𝑶𝑵 𝑻𝑹𝑨𝑪𝑲 𝑻𝑶 𝑴𝑬𝑬𝑻 𝑶𝑼𝑹 𝑸𝑼𝑨𝑹𝑻𝑬𝑹𝑳𝒀 𝑲𝑷𝑰𝑺?
IMPERIAL BUREAUCRAT: Y-yes my lord.
PALPATINE: 𝒀𝑶𝑼’𝑹𝑬 𝑨 𝑹𝑶𝑪𝑲𝑺𝑻𝑨𝑹. 𝑳𝑬𝑻’𝑺 𝑻𝑶𝑼𝑪𝑯 𝑩𝑨𝑺𝑬 𝑳𝑨𝑻𝑬𝑹.
IMPERIAL BUREAUCRAT: Y-yes my lord.
PALPATINE: 𝒀𝑶𝑼’𝑹𝑬 𝑨 𝑹𝑶𝑪𝑲𝑺𝑻𝑨𝑹. 𝑳𝑬𝑻’𝑺 𝑻𝑶𝑼𝑪𝑯 𝑩𝑨𝑺𝑬 𝑳𝑨𝑻𝑬𝑹.
May 16, 2025 at 7:40 PM
PALPATINE HOLOGRAM: 𝑨𝑹𝑬 𝑾𝑬 𝑶𝑵 𝑻𝑹𝑨𝑪𝑲 𝑻𝑶 𝑴𝑬𝑬𝑻 𝑶𝑼𝑹 𝑸𝑼𝑨𝑹𝑻𝑬𝑹𝑳𝒀 𝑲𝑷𝑰𝑺?
IMPERIAL BUREAUCRAT: Y-yes my lord.
PALPATINE: 𝒀𝑶𝑼’𝑹𝑬 𝑨 𝑹𝑶𝑪𝑲𝑺𝑻𝑨𝑹. 𝑳𝑬𝑻’𝑺 𝑻𝑶𝑼𝑪𝑯 𝑩𝑨𝑺𝑬 𝑳𝑨𝑻𝑬𝑹.
IMPERIAL BUREAUCRAT: Y-yes my lord.
PALPATINE: 𝒀𝑶𝑼’𝑹𝑬 𝑨 𝑹𝑶𝑪𝑲𝑺𝑻𝑨𝑹. 𝑳𝑬𝑻’𝑺 𝑻𝑶𝑼𝑪𝑯 𝑩𝑨𝑺𝑬 𝑳𝑨𝑻𝑬𝑹.
You probably have an app/service that performs operations against a Postgres database.
Do you change the transaction isolation level from the default?
Do you change the transaction isolation level from the default?
April 29, 2025 at 10:02 PM
You probably have an app/service that performs operations against a Postgres database.
Do you change the transaction isolation level from the default?
Do you change the transaction isolation level from the default?
The weather was wonderful today. Marred by being on-call, but such is life.
A vermouth and soda would be quite nice around now.
A vermouth and soda would be quite nice around now.
April 29, 2025 at 3:23 PM
The weather was wonderful today. Marred by being on-call, but such is life.
A vermouth and soda would be quite nice around now.
A vermouth and soda would be quite nice around now.
There is no requirement for endless growth. It's OK to reach a point and stop. Find comfort that there is a terminal level, and bask in it.
April 28, 2025 at 8:32 PM
There is no requirement for endless growth. It's OK to reach a point and stop. Find comfort that there is a terminal level, and bask in it.
Mild take - if you run infrastructure, you should move as many critical packages you have to your in-house build system.
January 31, 2025 at 9:23 PM
Mild take - if you run infrastructure, you should move as many critical packages you have to your in-house build system.
Reposted by Matt Blewitt
1. Impact. How much revenue does my work protect or generate?
2. Quality. Does my work meet or exceed customer expectations?
3. Efficiency. Reward making the right buy versus build decision.
4. Reusability. How do others leverage my work?
5. Supportability. How much work do I create for others?
2. Quality. Does my work meet or exceed customer expectations?
3. Efficiency. Reward making the right buy versus build decision.
4. Reusability. How do others leverage my work?
5. Supportability. How much work do I create for others?
a question for the people who write code for money:
if you could wave a magic wand and have your performance/promotability measured on any 5 metrics of your choice, what would those metrics be?
if you could wave a magic wand and have your performance/promotability measured on any 5 metrics of your choice, what would those metrics be?
January 23, 2025 at 4:45 PM
1. Impact. How much revenue does my work protect or generate?
2. Quality. Does my work meet or exceed customer expectations?
3. Efficiency. Reward making the right buy versus build decision.
4. Reusability. How do others leverage my work?
5. Supportability. How much work do I create for others?
2. Quality. Does my work meet or exceed customer expectations?
3. Efficiency. Reward making the right buy versus build decision.
4. Reusability. How do others leverage my work?
5. Supportability. How much work do I create for others?