418 - I'm A Teapot - A Blog about Engineering, Digital, Ideas.

#3 - Mines, Money, Mono & More

Hey you! Stop that! Stay with me, do not switch. Yes, come follow along. Let's focus. Single-task.

This is I'm A Teapot, an newsletter about #ideas, #digital and #engineering and today I would like to share with you:

ENGINEERING - Nobody ever got fired for buying using React? Well you might be as to choose a classic JS framework might mean to go fast (first) to go slow (later): JS-heavy approaches are not compatible with long-term performance goals and to choose classic React/Next over more modern contenders might cost you dearly: Svelte vs React: I Built the Same App in Both — Here’s What I Learned

Once we got that out of the way, let's learn what worked an what did not work in infra and backend for Jack Lindamood (Antrophic, xAI, Twitch, ...): (Almost) Every infrastructure decision I endorse or regret after 4 years running infrastructure at a startup · Jack's home on the web

DIGITAL - If only you knew what your software team, that feature, that sprint, that quick change or call cost you... Well, now you can know, let's dive deep with Victor Cessan: The Economics of Software Teams: Why Most Engineering Organizations Are Flying Blind - Viktor Cessan

Now that you know, you wonder: How to make those expensive af teams faster? Well, Avery Pennarun (Tailscale) has some ideas about making them slower... to make them faster: Every layer of review makes you 10x slower - apenwarr

IDEAS - This is super tricky, what to recommend more... An amazing (and exhaustive) overview of super-great art projects: Unruly Play — Curated by Imagination of Things Like, I really friggin love this. Or do I love more this really, really good piece about the power of mono-tasking: The Secret to Success Is 'Monotasking' - The Atlantic.

Maybe you read both? One after the other!

Now: Just look at the sky. Enjoy the limitless shades of soft blue. And then - Enjoy your tea.

\[ ]]

---

I'm A What? 418 – I'm A Teapot is a weekly newsletter from and about the world wide web. It revolves broadly around engineering digital ideas, how, what and why to build for the web. Feel free to share, comment and contribute!

---

#2 - Createchity

Teapot rendered in nano-bananas with Luma AI.

Well, hello again!

This is I'm A Teapot, a weekly newsletter for techy creatives, creative techys and everybody else that enjoys some good reading and does not give an f- about categories. No tech knowledge needed, just a curious mind, pinky promise.

ENGINEERING

You know what made me fall in love with technology? The creativity. The riddles, the puzzles, the mind-benders. Which is why, this week I want to share two tech pieces that are about thinking outside the box and reinventing the rules:

Flowchart showing de-coupling of real and browser time.

Why making your browser time travel is the best way to record videos: Building a camera by lying to your browser about time and a great interactive exploration how Shazam actually works: How the heck does Shazam work?

DIGITAL

With that out of the way, let us dive into AI aigain ;)

Some really on point insights, some utter BS on the future of AI in this Stanford experts piece. Can you tell which is which? Stanford AI experts predict what will happen in 2026

Great post by Vitaly Friedman regarding AI giving better responses: Five ways of engineering context for AI Slight addendum from my side, the "thinking" anthromorphization is misleading our reading about things like this. AI "condenses" in the widest sense of the word, it is the high-pass filter of information processing tools.

What a great piece of work: The AI Atlas of Interactions, a must read imho for everyone serious about modelling human and AI-interaction beyond "I want to prompt X." level: The Atlas of AI Interaction Design

IDEAS

Golfing is not rowing - or why it is important to understand what game you are playing, in sport, business and life: Golfing Is Not Rowing

A map of happy people. Explore and feel joy little story by little story: The Pudding Happy Map

Enjoy your tea.

\\[ ]]

Travelling Again - #1

Teapot Edition #1 - Utah Teapot, Blue Back, Glowing Orange

Hi folks!

Four years ago I wrote a little internal newsletter, about #Engineering #Digital #Ideas as an experiment and to lift everyones spirits during Corona.

I kinda stopped after 52ish issues, not sure why, so, let's go again, this time in a more public setting ;) This weeks contents might be summarized under the label "exploration".

ENGINEERING

Come, take a guided tour of the (leaked) architecture of ClaudeCode: Claude Code Unpacked.

Let us learn how to scale a system, what challenges to expect, what solution to get inspired by: How to Scale a System from 0 to 10 million+ Users. Hint, at some point we encounter microservices.

And then follow Twilio going all the way back from 100s of problem children to one superstar: Goodbye Microservices.

DIGITAL

Let's meet Mario Zechner who most politely asks us to "Slow the fuck down!". Great essay around the idea that move fast and break things gets an even worse paradigm than it already is, if AI makes it free, fast and (initially) pain less: Thoughts on slowing the fuck down.

And travel round the world to Craig Mod, who for the past couple of months went "software bonkers" and is the living anti-thesis to Mario, or is he? Software Bonkers.

IDEAS

Depiction of a software mechanics workshop

We follow an (imaginary) software mechanic into the American rust-belt of the future: Warranty Void If Regenerated.

And we zone out listening to New Yorks subway trains playing Jazz: Every train, a note.

Enjoy your tea.

\\[ ]]

About 418 - I'm A Teapot!

I am a what? 418 – I am a Teapot is a weekly newsletter from and about the world wide web. It revolves broadly around engineering digital ideas, how, what and why to build for the web. Feel free to share, comment and contribute! It had a first great run as a private newsletter in 2021, it was re-born in 2026. Editions appear roughly weekly.

Subscribe (Coming soon)

About Mario Wimmer.

In 1997 I switched on a beeping and scratching 14.4k modem for the first time and discovered "the Internet". While things have changed in a great many ways, some fundamentals have stayed the same, the sense of newness, the sense of opportunity, the ever spinning wheel of hype and bust, and so has my fundamental fascination with this realm we call digital.

By now I look back at a bit of a career in IT. I have initiated, owned and succesfully led marketing and brand focused web-, app- and platform projects and programs in automotive, aviation, FMCG, loyalty, banking and other sectors. My fundamental understanding of both leadership and consulting is one of partnership, of open, constructive, eye level collaboration, fed from both rationale and empathy. I found that my sweetspot is at the intersection of strategic, technological and organizational problems, this is where I thrive, excel and enjoy the most.

This page is my digital work shed, a place to test, work and store inspirations, ideas and concepts. Reading, writing, rewriting and learning a thing or two about teams, trends and technology along the way.