TeochewThunder: Year Eleven (Part 2/2)

Things don't look that good from a viewership standpoint this year compared to last year, but then, they rarely do. I've noticed this for years now. I look at the numbers for this current year and shake my head, only to realize that these numbers tend to double after the passing of another year.

The end result is that the current year's viewership always looks inferior to the previous year's. It's not necessarily the case. Just needs time to settle into the internet.

That said, let's get into the weeds of what apparent successes there are.

Huge hits

I talked about COVID-19, didn't I? And apparently, it hit a chord. The Dark Years of COVID-19: A Software Developer's Perspective was the undisputed winner, hands down.

Do techies lean Liberal or Conservative? was the culmination of a few weeks of frustration as I watched Social Media go mad over the movie Superman and Sydney Sweeney's jeans. And also some rumination I've had over DEI.

What great genes jeans!

Full-time Pay, Part-time Job was something I wrote on the spur of the moment, after witnessing Jeremy Tan's epic speech during the eve of the Polling Day 2025. It inspired me to pen this down, and if I'm being honest, it's not one of my more thought-out works. Still, it doesn't matter; the popularity of the topic and Jeremy Tan, carried the day for this blogpost.

Replit Goes Rogue was a recent addition, but its trajectory is on the rise. Despite being posted less than a month, its numbers are really promising.

OK-ish

So many posts fell into this category. Either huge things were expected for them and they failed by just doing decently, or they punched above their weight.

Why people should (and shouldn't) hire older software developers was just more comparison between younger and older developers.

How much of the Artificial Intelligence hype is just hot air? I suspect this struck a chord with much of the anti-AI brigade, which has been gathering momentum.

What Iswaran's sentence means for those in positions of authority were some thoughts on authority and responsibility. Not so much tech, more workplace-related.

A vacation!

A Software Developer's Vacation in Malacca. A fun piece, with lots of pictures!

Not My Job, Not My Problem is more of a commentary on the workplace, rather than anything tech.

Finally, The Silencing of Charlie Kirk and what it means for Social Media, was written two days after Charlie Kirk was felled by an assassin's bullet. As to be expected, it caught fire fast and it's probably only in this category because of its late inclusion. Some readers called it "balanced". The funny thing is, in the toxic climate that is the USA's Culture Wars, this piece would be vilified by both sides.

Artificial Intelligence Experts join Meta... but it's not about the money? Really? was me responding to more tech news.

Duds

These were the ones that barely raised a whimper. Mostly technical posts which is a tragedy because, well, this is a tech blog. Sorry, not sorry. This is actually in line with the assignment, so I'm gonna keep doing these, regardless.

JavaScript now has negative indexing... sort of was just a report on a new JavaScript function I discovered. It wasn't even that new. And probably I need to work on my presentation because the views suggested that readers found it boring AF.

Is Repeating The Password Field Really Necessary? More of a UI/UX thing. Maybe not the most interesting blogpost in the world, but I think it needed to be written.

Meta Ditches the Fact-checkers - now, I really expected a hell of a lot more out of this one. Either people aren't interested in seeing me shit on Meta, or they just aren't very interested in Meta, period. On the other hand, as mentioned, Artificial Intelligence Experts join Meta... but it's not about the money? Really? did OK, so I really don't know.

Bailing from Meta.

While we're at it, it appears that at this time of writing, in a bizarre twist, A.I experts have left Meta (and all that money) to join some startup. This in no way invalidates my previously implied point that Meta is a deeply problematic company that one would join only if the financial reward was great... the fact that people are not staying in spite of the money, only further reinforces the point.

But this hardly warrants a blogpost all on its own, so... just gonna leave it here.

Thunderation!

Been a pleasure, as always. I love working on this blog, but I also look forward to the annual blogging break. It's where I can get things reset and take stock of the year ahead.

Dialling it up to eleven, yo!
T___T