Linkfest #1

A gentle break from feeds and threads: A round of handpicked reads from me (Christoph, CTO at Basilicom). Posts that surprised, annoyed, or taught me something. From terminal UI failures and heroic software maintainers, to handmade websites and the limits of knowledge hoarding - I've got tech, culture, and a few practical things in between. Let's begin.

The Text Mode Lie: Why Modern TUIs Are a Nightmare for Accessibility

https://xogium.me/the-text-mode-lie-why-modern-tuis-are-a-nightmare-for-accessibility
Many developers assume that terminal user interfaces (TUIs) are automatically accessible because they're based on text. Not true. Frameworks like Ink or Bubble Tea break accessibility in ways that make TUIs unusable for screen reader users. From cursor chaos to performance bottlenecks, these tools can be worse than GUIs.
This is a reminder that developer experience doesn't equal user experience. If accessibility isn't built in from the start, fancy terminal tools become a barrier for many. A CLI that "just works" may still fail miserably if it breaks assistive tech. This affects what kind of software is usable-and who gets left out.

Please note: Without "Reader Mode" the linked post is hard to read ...

A Metabolic Workspace

https://www.joanwestenberg.com/a-metabolic-workspace/
After years of building elaborate Second Brain setups, the author realized all that note-organizing was getting in the way of thinking itself. They now treat knowledge like food: digest what's useful, discard what's not. No inboxes, no archives-just single daily notes and occasional "nutrient" extraction. 
The analogy works because it's honest about cognitive limits. You won't recall or use most of what you store. And that's fine. Most PKM systems pretend otherwise. This one leans into the natural half-life of ideas-and might be better for creative thinking in the long run. To Get Better at Technical Writing,

Lower Your Expectations

https://www.seangoedecke.com/technical-communication/
Engineers often write expecting others to read, understand, and act on every detail. That almost never happens. Most people skim or miss the point. So: frontload your message, cut the fluff, and leave some nuance out. People are busy, not stupid. 
This doesn't mean we should write sloppily- it means we should match communication to reality. Especially in larger orgs, clarity isn't about perfect documentation. It's about making the most important thing heard at all. That's harder than it sounds.

You Can't Design Software You Don't Work On 

https://www.seangoedecke.com/you-cant-design-software-you-dont-work-on/
Good design isn't theory- it's grounded in the messy details of a real codebase. Outsiders giving "architectural" advice without context usually make things worse, not better. The best designs come from developers who are deep in the weeds. 
Many companies still expect architects to sketch blueprints from above. But that rarely translates to actual working software. Local knowledge wins. If design decisions aren't shaped by the quirks of the system, they're just handwaving.

How I, a Non-Developer, Read the Tutorial You, a Developer, Wrote for Me, a Beginner 

https://anniemueller.com/posts/how-i-a-non-developer-read-the-tutorial-you-a-developer-wrote-for-me-a-beginner
A playful and painfully accurate parody of what beginner tutorials often look like to real beginners. Buzzwords, unexplained steps, and humor that hides complexity turn learning into guesswork. 
Sometimes the best feedback on our work comes from people outside our field. This piece is a joke, sure-but also a useful flash of perspective for anyone writing docs, building devtools, or mentoring junior devs.

A Website to Destroy All Websites 

https://henry.codes/writing/a-website-to-destroy-all-websites/
Henry laments how the internet became optimized for advertising and engagement instead of curiosity or expression. He draws a line from industrialization to the collapse of creative ecosystems, and makes the case for personal websites as the antidote: slow, weird, handmade, and genuinely owned by the people who make them. 
This isn't just nostalgia-it's a clear defense of keeping tech human-scale. Personal websites aren't solutions to all problems, but they're one of the few remaining places online where people can build something without being shaped by platforms.

The Rime of the Ancient Maintainer 

https://www.joanwestenberg.com/the-rime-of-the-ancient-maintainer/
Behind every shiny product is someone up at 3AM fixing what's broken. This essay argues that maintenance work - whether in code or life - is undervalued because it's invisible. But it's the backbone of everything that keeps running. 
It's hard to get excited about upkeep, especially in tech. But glorifying the builder while ignoring the maintainer leaves systems (and people) to rot. This piece is compassionate and surprisingly personal. A good reminder to thank the "janitors" before building something new.

Static PHP 

https://static-php.dev/
Ever wanted to build a single static PHP binary with all your dependencies bundled in? This tool lets you do that, for CLI or FPM, across Linux, macOS and even Windows. Handy for deployment or container-lite setups. 
It's surprisingly practical. For developer teams working on legacy systems or embedded PHP setups, it can lower a whole class of deployment headaches. We haven't used it, yet, though!

Mago 

https://mago.carthage.software/
A shiny new PHP toolchain written in Rust: linter, static analyzer, formatter-all fast, all bundled in one binary. Promises fewer arguments about code style and safer systems by default. 
It's tempting to dismiss tools like this as "yet another linter," but it's the shape of something interesting: dev tools that are fast, batteries-included, and written with performance in mind for ecosystems like PHP. Useful for all teams that want clean code at scale.

Error 404: Life in a Secret Chinese Nuclear City That Was Never on the Map 

https://substack.com/inbox/post/182743659
A personal record of growing up in China's concealed atomic bomb base deep in the Gobi desert. The city wasn't listed on maps, families weren't allowed to move freely, and daily life unfolded in an atmosphere of secrecy and isolation. 
Stories like this are rare because the places they describe weren't supposed to exist. It reminds me how tightly political history and personal experience can intertwine-and how much of that history still remains hidden to most people.

See you in two weeks. Maybe less. Maybe more.