Faux InnerSource
A contribution process is not InnerSource merely because another team can submit code. The test is whether repeated contributions build reusable engineering capability or repeatedly enter the same queue.
Read the essay
Independent essays
Human judgement still matters.
Different Shelf follows apparently sensible ideas through software, player experience and organisations until their real consequences appear.
01 · Featured
02 · The shelf in evidence
The shape of the argument.
60 essays January 2025 to August 2026
03 · Ways in
Begin with the question you already have.
-
What should the product feel like? Browse the current essays
-
How much management does the work need? Browse the current essays
-
What does the codebase know? Browse the current essays
Start with the difference between what a product measures and what a player feels.
-
What It Takes for a Web App to Feel Premium
Building a premium experience on the web is harder than it looks, but it scales everywhere once you get it right. This is what that discipline actually involves.
-
As Fast As It Feels
Real speed and perceived speed are the same thing. If it feels slow, it is slow.
-
Why Native Still Matters
The rise of PWAs and TWAs doesn’t make native redundant — it sharpens its purpose. Native still matters where the web can’t reach: the lock screen, widgets, ecosystem SDKs, and the moments that weave your app into players’ daily lives.
-
Lazy loading isn't just lazy, it's late: the web deserves faster.
A manifesto for proactive loading in Angular and other SPAs and why lazy-loading isn't just lazy: it's late. The web deserves faster.
Start with the structures that decide how much management, coordination and permission the work needs.
-
Your Managers Are Not a Distribution List
Cascading a message through management loses reach, meaning and accountability. Policy owners should publish directly, notify proportionately and put repeated rules into the workflow.
-
The Code Is No Longer the Scarce Part
Better models do not remove the need for expertise. They can make bad judgement harder to recognise and give good judgement far more reach.
-
The Product Development Team Is No Longer the Smallest Unit of Delivery
AI lets one engineer carry work that might once have required a cross-functional product development team. Delivery units can shrink, management spans can widen, and the community can still own the product.
-
The Trunk is the Team
An orchestra can rehearse in separate rooms. Each section sounds fine to itself. Strings keep time, brass hit their notes. But the first time
Start with what code, platforms and architecture make visible, reusable or dangerously implicit.
-
A Monorepo Is a Knowledge Graph
A graph-aware monorepo turns source and build relationships into infrastructure, reducing the time and tokens AI spends rediscovering them.
-
The Five Second Contract
Queueing looks harmless at first. A slow call holds a few threads, then a few more, and if left unchecked it can tip the whole system over.
-
The Integration Dilemma
Balancing integration, adoption, and the lure of best-of-breed.
-
Local Without Losing Shape
A player in São Paulo should not feel like a guest in a London lobby. Same skeleton, different clothes. The craft is to let
04 · Latest
The chronological register.
Nx Should Make Code Graphs Cacheable
6 min MonorepoThe CLI Will Outlive Your MCP Server
6 min AI and EngineeringA Monorepo Is a Knowledge Graph
9 min MonorepoSweating the Bar and Raising the Details
5 min CommunicationYour Managers Are Not a Distribution List
6 min CommunicationSmaller Delivery Units, Wider Management Spans
5 min Organisational DesignThe Code Is No Longer the Scarce Part
7 min AI and EngineeringThe Product Development Team Is No Longer the Smallest Unit of Delivery
11 min Organisational Design05 · About the shelf
What happens to good ideas in the real world.
Different Shelf follows apparently sensible ideas through software, player experience and organisations until their real consequences appear.
Evidence matters. So does deciding what it means.