📝 The magic of software; or, what makes a good engineer also makes a good engineering organization (Moxie Marlinspike; via Changelog News). Nice essay about how vision is translated into engineering. Also discusses abstraction layers and how organizations are structured.
However, there are two ways of interacting with an abstraction layer: as shorthand for an understanding of what it is doing on your behalf, or as a black box. I think engineers are most capable and most effective when abstraction layers serve as shorthand rather than a black box.