Tech Stack
Our goal is to build the world's best feedback platform. To do so, we must look beyond popularity and mainstream technologies. We're using Haskell, it was a bet, but not only is it a pleasure to work with, it has also helped us to stay innovative and build a better product.
We were tempted in using Elm or PureScript, but in the end picked TypeScript.
Naturally, we're pushing the limits and trying to code in a very functional style. We're heavily using FP-TS. We're also using React.
Naturally, we'll use multiple databases depending on the desired functionality. But at the moment we're mainly using PostgreSQL.
Nix and NixOS have dramatically simplified development and deployment. It allows us to, without fear, deploy many times a day. And it helps us realise our goal of keeping everything simple but not restrictive.
Polyglots With Open Hearts
We believe in using the right tool for the job. We do not think that there is such a thing as JavaScript Developer or Java Developer. For us Java is a screwdriver, JavaScript a wrench and Machine Learning a plier. We're just simple problem solvers.
An illustration of a product's life cycle. Thanks to The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) who created the picture.
Environmental Impact
If you're a software developer, you have most likely seen your fair share of inefficient solutions. Eg. a O(n2) at a hot code path that easily could be made O(n). It is often hard to argue, from a business perspective, that saving a few hundred dollars a month is worth a few days of work needed to optimize something. And it is easy to even forget that inefficient solutions take a toll on the environment. Especially if your server host uses renewable electricity.
Rest assured. We're aware of that these extra hundred dollars also correspond to more servers having to be built and much more. And that there's a whole consequence and lifecycle analysis needed to understand the true environmental impact. We do not settle with just chosing a host that uses green electricity. We try, to the best of our abilities, lower the environmental impact we have.
We think about consequences such as draining your battery (which for many means buying a whole new phone or laptop earlier than needed), unnecessarily transferring a lot of data over possibly coal-powered network infrastructure or forcing our server host to order more servers. In Swedish one often say "många bäckar små". All those small things we do have a great impact when they come together.