Bytes and Bikes

This is Steve Oxley’s website. Welcome!

I’m currently working on Nudgsicle.

Go to About to learn more about me. The latest posts from my microblog are listed below.

Microblog feed

When is the last time you thought about how you make decisions or evaluated your decision success rate? I’m trying to be more intentional about my decision-making: https://www.stevenoxley.com/blog/2026/01/23/make-better-decisions/

The Left Exit 12 meme which shows a car drifting onto an exit ramp from a freeway with a large signpost overhead showing a representation of a freeway exit.
Jan 23, 2026 1:34 pm

I am a big fan of Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere (POSSE), and I have been doing it for a while (this post is POSSEed, for example). Anyone else doing it? If so, what tools are you using? I’ve created a babashka script that currently meets my main requirements, but I’m looking for what other options are out there.

Jan 16, 2026 3:57 pm

I was listening to the My First Million podcast, and Shaan Puri shared a decision-making framework he uses to help him make better decisions (and record decisions for later analysis). I thought it could be useful to record decisions in this way, and I created a Google Form template based on his list of questions in case you want to try it, too: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1xijYpldR9Ynzxvcz80S7wlV6vq44DZJGeL20Il03TEk/template/preview.

Jan 7, 2026 8:56 am

Large pull requests make me sleepy. If you’re going to ask me to review more than 400 lines of code or so, then I expect some entertaining comments at least.

// You're doing great, Steve, keep it up! only a couple files left!

// I bet you didn't see this coming!

LinearB software engineering benchmarks report that the top 10% of organizations’ PRs have < 100 code changes while the bottom 40% of orgs’ PRs average > 228 code changes. https://linearb.io/resources/engineering-benchmarks

Dec 30, 2025 3:35 pm

If you’re a software engineer, which would you rather work on - a greenfield project or a software system migration? If you’re looking to further career, you may want to consider the software system migration. I explore some reasons why in my latest article.

Oct 29, 2025 4:12 pm

I wrote an article about how to influence software architecture (and decision-making more generally). Check out “How to Influence Architecture.” See if you agree or if you have better ideas.

Oct 9, 2025 12:28 pm

I finished reading Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman. Here is my three sentence summary:

Use the Entrepreneurial Operating System to effectively run your business. Get everyone at your company aligned towards a common vision. Use regular meeting cadences and metrics to keep everyone accountable and aligned.

Sep 30, 2025 8:04 am

I’ve been learning next.js via the official tutorial. About halfway through, and I’m very impressed. The tutorial itself is very polished. Next.js + vercel seems to have solved a lot of crosscutting problems, as well, which I look forward to taking advantage of.

Sep 15, 2025 9:53 pm

This article is a friendly reminder that if you actually want to be good and continuously improve, it pays to spend time to truly understand what you’re working on: https://www.stevenoxley.com/blog/2025/09/09/trial-and-error-driven-development/

Sep 9, 2025 9:31 pm

A few weeks ago I finally captured a POV of a run down the Return to Sender trail on Canfield mountain. I just got to where I could clear every jump on this trail last summer, and in this video I linked them all together in a single run!

Aug 28, 2025 11:09 am

I finished reading Release It! by Michael Nygard recently. It was a great read - highly recommended - and triggered a number of thoughts which I explore in Robust Software, Clear Thinking, and Production Excellence in Release It!.

Aug 26, 2025 8:00 am

I included some reader comments in my latest article about how to apply the principle of production purpose. See what other people think in Speed? Stability? or Making 💰? How to clarify software priorities

Aug 8, 2025 2:24 pm

I finished listening to the book Buy Then Build this morning. I felt like the author was trying to make acquisition entrepreneurship sound easy while saying stuff like, You only need $100k down! and describing a process that sounds an awful lot like buying a house on steroids… and then you have a company that you have to run. Not for the faint of heart, but I admit I’m intrigued.

Aug 6, 2025 8:10 pm

How do you resolve distractions so that you can focus on what I like to call your main quest? I explore the options in this article.

Jul 30, 2025 11:13 am

I wrote a blog post about a (fairly obvious, but easy to overlook at times) principle I discovered as part of my work the past few years at Seeq. Read about it here.

Jul 18, 2025 8:03 am

I have fully collected and analyzed the results of my polls about how long people are waiting for code review. I wrote up my report here: https://nudgsicle.com/articles/code-review-wait-survey-results.html

Jun 6, 2025 11:54 am

Does expired bear spray put the bear at risk of food poisoning?

May 29, 2025 1:18 pm

I recently purchased some foam dart blasters for myself kids. They are as fun as I hoped they would be. I’ll share more details on the experience, but I can highly recommend the following blasters:

And strongly warn against this piece of crap (at least all three that I bought were duds):

The dart blasters haul from Walmart
May 22, 2025 8:03 am

New discussion questions for Release It! are live on Kook Book Nook. It’s a good book; you should come read it with us ;)

#ReleaseItBookClub

May 22, 2025 7:58 am

Is this the future?

“Siri, I’d like to watch a 10 episode, hour-per-episode show. Use the books I’ve been reading recently for inspiration (I especially like the sci-fi one you generated for me last week), but try to surprise me. Make sure not to end the 10 episodes on a cliffhanger, but leave it open for a future multi-episode installment if I feel like continuing.”

Siri generates the first episode, my wife and I sit down to watch.

May 13, 2025 9:05 pm