.NET
The [Transactional Outbox] Pattern You MUST Learn in .NET (via Nick Chapsas)
- Scenario: There is one operation that triggers other operations. For example, creating a new user updates the database, sends a welcome email, calls some other API, etc.
- Putting all that logic in the service means the service is doing too much. One solution is to queue up an event. (The implementation discussed in the video was MassTransit via Amazon SQS.)
- The hard problem here is that you can’t have atomic operations between the database you’re saving to and the message queue you’re publishing to. A solution is to also have as part of the transaction a write operation to an “outbox” table. There’s something that consumes from the outbox and then publishes to the message queue.
- MassTransit natively supports the outbox pattern. (Note: It implements this via EF Core.)
Why Developers Already Hate .NET 9 (via Nick Chapsas)
- Note: LTS (long term support) is 36 months, STS (standard term support) is 18 months. .NET 9 is STS.
- The Microsoft blog post is, shocker, about making it easier to use Microsoft products including Azure.
- There’s also a plug for ML.NET, however most of the market is using Python.
Interviews
5 Ways to Prepare for Situational Interview Questions (via HBR)
- Start with a proven format. (The article suggests CARL — context, action, results, learning, and I’ve seen that as STAR — situation, task, action, result.)
- Focus on how your experience aligns with the job description.
- Tailor your stories to your audience.
- Follow the two-minute rule (i.e., answers you provide shouldn’t take more than two minutes).
- Ask for feedback.
Managing Yourself
Are You Being Emotionally Manipulated at Work? (via HBR)
This post has several useful tables of what emotional manipulation looks like in terms of emotional displays, disguised true feelings, and the motivations behind the behavior. To counteract manipulation, trust your gut, seek external perspectives, rely on facts, practice emotional detachment, and set boundaries.
Mental Health
Stop Basing Your Self-Worth on Other People’s Opinions (via HBR)
“Self-worth is our set of core beliefs about our value as a human being. It’s how we see ourselves and who we perceive ourselves to be. People differ in what they believe they must be or do to have worth or value. When we externalize our self-worth, we get emotionally and chemically rewarded when we succeed. This inevitably turns into a never-ending loop in pursuit of instant gratification. To undo this, we need to develop an awareness of where our self-worth is internally anchored.”