Maaike Brinkhof's blog

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Stop trying to make refactoring happen, it's not going to happen.

I went to Joy of Coding yesterday, a one-day conference in Rotterdam. Two of the talks were about refactoring. One talk called it “mending code”, and zoomed in on this rather strange phenomenon in IT: we’d rather demolish some code and write it new and fresh, than fix the

About that time I was "blessed" by the algorithm.

About that time I was "blessed" by the algorithm.

Imagine trying to say things that contain nuance on social media in the year of the lord, 2024. Yeah, that shit doesn’t fly well with the algorithms. The algorithms decide if you will win the popularity contest on the internet, by pushing out your content to more people to

Coping hard.

Coping hard.

Something happened last week that made me realize something funny about myself: I am coping hard in one aspect of life. I always pretend I don’t care about things. I make fun of things. I ridicule things. But that’s a coping mechanism because honestly, I care a lot.

My 4 favorite heavy metal singers with angel-like cleans and super sick grunts

My 4 favorite heavy metal singers with angel-like cleans and super sick grunts

Let’s do something light-hearted for a change! If you know me just a little bit, you know I like my metal as heavy as it gets. That doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate a lovely voice! I just appreciate it more when it’s offset with the

Why I struggle with working in a traditional office setting

+ learn how I cosplayed as a productive coworker 💅 I want you to answer one question when you’re done reading this article, and that is: can you relate? Please comment here, or wherever I’ve linked this article. Thank you. Now that I’m not working in a traditional office

You are not enough

You are not enough

What capitalist society ingrains in us is highly toxic This question is keeping me up at night: when am I enough? With that, I mean: As a human being, am I good enough as I am right now? Am I doing enough useful things? Am I productive enough? What is

I lost something precious (without realizing)

Did you lose it too? It’s 2009. I’m getting on the bus to travel back to my student dorm. I just visited my parents for the weekend to catch up on things. I don’t have a car, so I always use public transit to reach the village