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Atomic Spin

Atomic Object’s blog on everything we find fascinating.

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Why Using Software Is Like Eating at a Brazilian...

Atomic Spin ·

2025/09/07

Imagine walking into a high-end Brazilian steakhouse. You sit down, ready for a mouthwatering parade of grilled meats, expertly carved at your table. But something’s… off. The servers are hesitant. They don’t seem to know the difference between flank steak and filet mignon. The chef recommends the vegan house dressing for your ribeye. And when […] The post Why Using Software Is Like Eating at a Brazilian Steakhouse Run by Vegans appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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Two Years Designing with AI: How My Process...

Atomic Spin ·

2025/09/06

Over the past two years, I’ve been building tools with AI and for AI (agents, automation, machine learning, computer vision, data labeling for model training)—sometimes for companies, sometimes for internal products, sometimes for experiments that are never meant to see the light of day. And somewhere along the way, my entire approach to product design […] The post Two Years Designing with AI: How My Process Completely Changed appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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The Entity Framework: WHERE IN vs. OPENJSON Problem

Atomic Spin ·

2025/09/05

I’ve been investigating a performance issue with a slow query that is generated by Entity Framework (9.x) running on a v15 SQL Server database. The query is pretty simple. It’s just selecting rows based on one or more values that are in an indexed string column. But when executed, it doesn’t appear that the index […] The post The Entity Framework: WHERE IN vs. OPENJSON Problem appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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Why Programmers Should Do Their Own Taxes

Atomic Spin ·

2025/08/31

Every year, millions of programmers hand over their tax documents to accountants, paying hundreds of dollars for something they could easily do themselves. While the complexity of tax law might seem daunting, programmers possess exactly the skills needed to navigate tax preparation software and understand the logic behind tax calculations. Use the skills you already […]The post Why Programmers Should Do Their Own Taxes appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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Make Remote Work Human: Building Culture from a Distance

Atomic Spin ·

2025/08/30

One of the fundamental differences Atomic Object brings to the table is our appetite and preference for working collaboratively, in person. It’s core to our business model and a defining part of our brand. But daily in-person collaboration isn’t always an option. Many projects today are predominantly remote or hybrid, and that reality calls for […] The post Make Remote Work Human: Building Culture from a Distance appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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3 Reasons Celebrating Wins is More Than Just Fun

Atomic Spin ·

2025/08/29

Last quarter, our team reached a major milestone we’ve been working on all year. This will save our client time, reduce repetitive work, and improve accuracy. It was also the quarter I joined this team — along with two other new developers. Part of my early work was getting myself oriented while helping the others […] The post 3 Reasons Celebrating Wins is More Than Just Fun appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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Disposable vs. Durable Code: You Can’t Build Rome...

Atomic Spin ·

2025/08/28

There’s a time for trash-bin code—quick, dirty, utterly disposable. And then there’s the “write once, cry never” durable code you build when you know it’s sticking around. This post is your cheat sheet for deciding which is which, how to avoid gold-plating prototypes, why KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) is still your best friend, and […] The post Disposable vs. Durable Code: You Can’t Build Rome with Sticky Notes appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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Switch Statement Guide for C#

Atomic Spin ·

2025/08/27

You can use a variety of syntaxes in C#. You might assume you can use them interchangeably, but this is not the case. There are two main types of switch logic that can be used and two major types of matching. Switch Statement or Switch Expression: Statement The type of switch that is commonly found […] The post Switch Statement Guide for C# appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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Building an AI Agent with LangGraph

Atomic Spin ·

2025/08/26

Recently, Atomic has been running an AI Stay Conference — a three-day, Grand Rapids–based event where Atoms come together to learn, build, and connect. It’s part workshop, team jam, and part local adventure, allowing us to step out of the office and focus on honing our skills to build LLM-powered applications. The conference is designed […] The post Building an AI Agent with LangGraph appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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Globally Manage Toast Notifications with Tanstack Query

Atomic Spin ·

2025/08/25

There’s little doubt that Tanstack Query is the modern go-to library for handling async data fetching and state management. Formerly known as React Query, Tanstack Query has seen significant adoption in modern web development, particularly within the React ecosystem, but also expanding to other frameworks like Vue, Solid, and Svelte. It abstracts away much of […] The post Globally Manage Toast Notifications with Tanstack Query appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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Embrace Uncertainty: Tips for New Atoms

Atomic Spin ·

2025/08/24

Speaking from first-hand experience, the process of interviewing with Atomic to receiving an offer letter is an exciting journey. It requires you to be fully present and engaged the entire time. It is only fitting that onboarding as a new Atom would include its own level of excitement, but also uncertainty. Uncertainty comes because you […]The post Embrace Uncertainty: Tips for New Atoms appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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Novelty is the Secret Ingredient to Product Success,...

Atomic Spin ·

2025/08/23

Recently, I’ve been thinking about novelty — not in the “shiny object” sense, but as a powerful ingredient for growth. When things feel new, we tend to pay more attention to them. Our curiosity is piqued, and we engage more deeply. It turns out novelty isn’t just exciting, it’s also quite beneficial. In product development, […] The post Novelty is the Secret Ingredient to Product Success, Thriving Teams, and Personal Happiness appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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Simplicity in Design Thinking, Part 4: Your...

Atomic Spin ·

2025/08/22

So far in this series, we’ve talked about how simplicity helps teams stay focused, how to make design thinking more approachable, and how to map out who you’re designing for. Now, in this final post, we’re turning our focus toward your market. This activity helps your team answer one big question: Where does your brand […] The post Simplicity in Design Thinking, Part 4: Your Competitive Landscape appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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Distributed AI Agents: A Thought Experiment in...

Atomic Spin ·

2025/08/21

A Thought Experiment: What happens when business software stops being a tool and starts being a team of specialists that actually learn? Part I: The Problem (Why Current AI is Like Digital Concrete) The Wild Idea: Software That Fixes Itself Imagine your business software notices it’s been making mistakes that cost you customers. Instead of […] The post Distributed AI Agents: A Thought Experiment in Self-Evolving Business Systems appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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A Pragmatic Look at Web Scraping, Open Source, and...

Atomic Spin ·

2025/08/20

This is a tour of a education-purposed project to version control metadata forked from the models.dev project. It’s a different flavor of the original project, serving as an example for this post to cover some of the ethical topics related to creators, AI labs, and LLM-assisted development. Building Project MERLN MERLN is short for Metadata Enriched […] The post A Pragmatic Look at Web Scraping, Open Source, and LLM-Assisted Development appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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Onboarding Newbie Testers: Turn Interns into App...

Atomic Spin ·

2025/08/19

When you’re building a new product, there’s nothing quite like seeing it through fresh eyes. But what if, instead of seasoned professionals, you have newbie testers? What if they’re college interns, new hires, or even friends and family? That’s exactly the situation I found myself in recently, and it turned out to be a huge […] The post Onboarding Newbie Testers: Turn Interns into App Quality Champions appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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Keep a Developer Log (Your Future Self Will Thank You)

Atomic Spin ·

2025/08/18

A few months ago, I started something that seemed almost trivial at first: keeping a daily developer log. What began as a simple attempt to stay organized has become one of the most valuable habits in my development workflow. The idea isn’t revolutionary. It’s just a structured way to document what you’re working on, what […] The post Keep a Developer Log (Your Future Self Will Thank You) appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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What Are You Looking At? The Power of Awareness

Atomic Spin ·

2025/08/17

Over twenty species of birds visit my backyard bird feeder regularly. If you had asked me about that before the covid-19 pandemic, I would have guessed maybe five or six species. Why was my perception so far off from reality? Why am I writing about this in a blog for a company that writes custom […]The post What Are You Looking At? The Power of Awareness appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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Returning to Work as a Pumping Mother: Pump, Work,...

Atomic Spin ·

2025/08/16

Returning from parental leave meant adding three daily “meetings” with my trusty breast pump to an already busy calenda. But, spoiler alert: those meetings are non-negotiable. Over the past few months, I’ve learned that a comfy chair, a locked door, and a mini fridge can feel downright luxurious when you’re juggling work and milk supply. […] The post Returning to Work as a Pumping Mother: Pump, Work, Repeat appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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How I Used AI Tools to Create a Software Project...

Atomic Spin ·

2025/08/15

Recently, my software development team inherited a project that had been in flight for over a year. With it came a mountain of documentation, including more than 40 hours of recorded video calls with valuable information about complex, required system functionality. We were faced with a challenge: as we onboard into the project and build […] The post How I Used AI Tools to Create a Software Project Knowledge Base appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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