# EveryDeveloper

> I help toolmakers earn the developer default

Adam DuVander. Solo consultancy. The site is a static export.

## Pages

- [Home](https://everydeveloper.com/)
- [Services](https://everydeveloper.com/services/)
- [Shortlisted](https://everydeveloper.com/memo/) — 246 weekly notes. RSS: https://everydeveloper.com/memo/feed.xml
- [Blog](https://everydeveloper.com/blog/) — 84 posts. RSS: https://everydeveloper.com/blog/feed.xml
- [Books](https://everydeveloper.com/books/)
- [About](https://everydeveloper.com/about/)
- [LLM Reach](https://everydeveloper.com/llm-reach/)
- [Privacy](https://everydeveloper.com/privacy/)
- [Terms of use](https://everydeveloper.com/terms-of-use/)

## Recent memos

- [Did you get purple first?](https://everydeveloper.com/memo/nytimes-connections/): Have you seen Connections, the word game from The New York Times? Every day, the game posts 16 new words. The challenge is to group them into four categories. It looks something like this: (That’s one that I made myself—I’ll show the answer below, in case you want to pause and solve it ) Some…
- [My sons Donatello and Michelangelo](https://everydeveloper.com/memo/donatello-michelangelo/): Did you know people named Dennis are more likely to become dentists? I first heard about this in a Malcolm Gladwell or Stephen Dubner book. One of those PopSci titles that I probably didn’t finish. There was a real study that looked at the names of dentists. Its data seemed to suggest that, because of…
- [Why I balk at soccer](https://everydeveloper.com/memo/balk-offsides/): Like many people, I watched a lot of World Cup games during the recent tournament. Unlike many people, I'm not really a soccer fan, which had me frequently confused. They'd pass the ball from player to player, never really gaining any ground... it's a whole lot of activity for not much payoff. Most of the…
- [Swedish army knives?](https://everydeveloper.com/memo/swedish-army/): My dad whipped out a pocket knife to cut his pasta. Our host gasped. We were traveling to Sweden for the Nordic APIs conference. I brought my dad because we have Swedish heritage and he’d never been. Plus, who doesn’t want to see their son talk about APIs? Ok, so maybe the talk wasn’t the…
- [Turn around… every now and then](https://everydeveloper.com/memo/total-eclipse/): Whenever my yoga teacher says “turn around,” instructing us to face the bar attached to the wall, I think of the song. You know the one: Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart is iconic. Though we’ve lost the singer, we’ll still have the refrain: (Turn around, bright eyes) Every now and then, I fall apart (Turn around,…
- [Impressions that last 100+ years](https://everydeveloper.com/memo/sidewalk-names/): I’ve never met Elwood Wiles, but his name is all over my neighborhood. His work is undeniably good, because I can still see it after more than a century. In fact, I can walk on it. As Portland expanded in the early 1900s, settlers built the area I now stroll through when I need a…
- [IT IS YOUR BIRTHDAY](https://everydeveloper.com/memo/it-is-your-birthday/): When there’s a cake in the break room fridge, you know it’s time for the office birthday party! It’s time to decorate the conference room. Put up a sign on the wall, and bring in the balloons and streamers. But what about The Office birthday party? The U.S. television series had one of the worst onscreen parties.…
- [My weird collection of email hooks](https://everydeveloper.com/memo/email-hooks/): There’s a small pile of things on my desk that probably wouldn’t mean much to most people. A pen. A decoder badge. A pencil. A stack of narrow notepads. Knowing something exists doesn’t mean I have to own it. And yet there I am, trolling eBay at odd hours for a small object that means…
- [Real-life pixel art](https://everydeveloper.com/memo/pixel-art/): Sometimes you see somebody do something and you think: I have to try that. But that was not how I felt the first time I saw a Rubik’s Cube. I figured you either had the knack for it or you didn’t. Magic fingers, spatial reasoning I didn’t have, something like that. I kept that belief…
- [“That’s an expensive pencil!”](https://everydeveloper.com/memo/expensive-pencil/): Just under eight inches long and shaped to a sharp point, the Blackwing 602 might be the most heralded pencil in the world. Incense cedar surrounds a firm graphite center. A flat metal cap clamps down over a thin pink eraser. It was a favorite of animators until it was discontinued. In 1998! That’s when…
- [The 387th time I saw the Golden Gate Bridge](https://everydeveloper.com/memo/golden-gate/): I took a quick trip to San Francisco for Stripe’s conference. It was just one night. All I really needed was a bed, a shower, and electricity for all my devices. I booked a hotel at Lombard and Van Ness, surrounded by the characteristic hills that make The City feel like nowhere else. When I…
- [French toast in France](https://everydeveloper.com/memo/french-toast/): Sweaty and breathless, I often find myself cursing Romania. And sometimes Bulgaria. Frequently, they’ll stay on my naughty list for several days, until the soreness has subsided. Yes, Romanian deadlifts and Bulgarian squats are some of the toughest exercises for my legs. Throw in Russian twists and Turkish get-ups, and my core will join to…
- [Are they made from real Girl Scouts?](https://everydeveloper.com/memo/girl-scouts/): Christina Ricci has nearly 100 credits to her name. Yet, one of her first roles crowns the “known for” section of her IMDB page. Ricci played Wednesday Addams (no relation) in the 1991 Addams Family movie. She was given the best line, delivered beautifully, when she clapped back at the sassy Girl Scout. While my…
- [A crummy commercial](https://everydeveloper.com/memo/ovaltine/): My grandma was way too nice. I’d pal around with her to the grocery store, then beg for some sugary box of cereal. She’d give in, buy the Fruity Pebbles, but that wouldn’t be the end of it. When we get back to her house, she’d help me pour the entire contents into her largest…
- [Why developers hate open source](https://everydeveloper.com/memo/april-fools/): Almost 25 years ago, Steve Ballmer called Linux a cancer. Then CEO of Microsoft, the guy was ahead of his time. Two and a half decades later, we know how developers feel about open source: It’s a pain to install, maintain, and run. Closed source is safer and more scalable. They’d much rather have no…
- [IKEA is a dev tool](https://everydeveloper.com/memo/ikea-dev-tool/): This is not about how IKEA packs their boxes or how they’ve made balls of meat synonymous with an entire country. No, it’s about the big blue and yellow buildings where you visit the company’s many products. You are greeted with an escalator straight to the showroom when you walk in the doors. It’s like…
- [Thomas Jefferson, picker and chooser](https://everydeveloper.com/memo/thomas-jefferson/): Just got back from Washington, DC. My first time, and I took my 13-year-old son. Everywhere you look, there’s a well-known monolith, monument, or memorial. Though not towering above the city, the Jefferson Memorial is nevertheless spectacular: It was inspired by the University of Virginia’s rotunda, which Jefferson himself designed. Of course, the third president…
- [Snail mail from my childhood hero](https://everydeveloper.com/memo/hero-mail/): I’d never heard of “TTM” until a few years ago. But I spent many precious postage stamps on it as a child. Before I tell you what TTM means, here’s one more acronym you’re more likely to recognize: ICYMI (In Case You Missed It): You can have EveryDeveloper analyze how AI helps devs find and…
- [Table-side sizzle](https://everydeveloper.com/memo/sizzle/): You know that moment when restaurants march the fajitas to a table, past all the other diners? I swear they take the long way, so everyone hears the loud sizzle of meat and veggies against cast iron. Amidst the crackles and pops, if you pay close attention, you can hear something else: Regret. It emanates…
- [When good accidents happen](https://everydeveloper.com/memo/good-accidents/): Growing up in the country, a purebred Miniature Schnauzer was a strange choice for a dog. The classic fur pattern includes a bushy beard and fluffy leg hair. (That’s not my dog, but ​Kenji Joy on Instagram​ is worth a follow for other Schnauzer lovers) Going for walks, my pup would run through the brambles…

## Recent posts

- [Win the Context, Not the Category](https://everydeveloper.com/blog/win-the-context-not-the-category/): The TV Guide used to be the most popular magazine in the United States. My uncle subscribed, and I recall flipping through back issues while he worked the current crossword. The primary purpose of that little weekly book was the listings section, organized by time slot and channel. Networks paid for prime placement, because it…
- [How LLMs Rank 781 Dev Tools (and What That Means for Yours)](https://everydeveloper.com/blog/llm-rank-dev-tools/): A developer pushes an update, only to have early adopters immediately flag that the data dashboards won’t load. Of course, it works on the developer’s machine. Frustrated, they paste a cryptic, minified production error into their AI coding agent, which recognizes the classic symptoms of an unhandled promise rejection being swallowed by the browser. The…
- [Three AI Blind Spots That Cost You Developers](https://everydeveloper.com/blog/ai-blind-spots/): AI assistants have become the first stop in the developer journey. A growing proportion of developers now use AI to find new tools, evaluate their options, and write implementation code. If your product isn’t showing up in these situations, you’re losing developers before they ever reach your website. Most developer tool companies are unknowingly making…
- [Five LLM Content Strategies Revealed from Top Dev Tool Companies](https://everydeveloper.com/blog/llm-content-strategy/): Developers increasingly use AI assistants to discover tools and learn how to implement them. They ask ChatGPT for help debugging API errors, or prompt Claude for authentication solutions, or use agents in Cursor or Replit to pair-program with AI. There was a time these questions would send developers to Google, then to blog posts and…
- [How to Target Non-Developers with Your Developer Product](https://everydeveloper.com/blog/how-to-target-non-developers-with-your-developer-product/): Most dev tool marketers know they need to reach beyond individual developers. But there’s a big difference between knowing you should target “decision-makers” and actually reaching them. The problem goes beyond expanding your audience. You must understand the complex buying journey your product creates, in which developers, product managers, engineering leaders, and executives all play…
- [How Tech Companies Undermine Their Content Marketing](https://everydeveloper.com/blog/how-tech-companies-undermine-their-content-marketing/): The days of prolific spending in the tech industry are long gone, but lately, budget pressure on marketing teams has been ratcheting up. With every dollar under scrutiny, you need content that delivers results. That’s no easy task. Developers are a discerning bunch who quickly detect and skip over content that doesn’t add value to…
- [Should You Market Your API with an MCP Server?](https://everydeveloper.com/blog/mcp-marketing/): “MCP” is quickly becoming the acronym of the year in dev-focused circles. You’ve probably heard enough about the Model Context Protocol to wonder whether it’s more than hype. Before you add it to your developer engagement strategy, take a step back. The real question isn’t whether MCP is trending—it’s whether it actually helps your users…
- [Please Don’t Write Another Event Recap Until You Read This Post](https://everydeveloper.com/blog/event-recaps/): Your latest event recap post has 12 views. And if you look closely, most of those views are from your colleagues. There’s an event next month, too, and an associated recap sits on the content calendar. You have the sinking feeling that eyeballs on that one will be just as few. It’s not just event…
- [Why Developers Don’t Trust Your “Build vs Buy” Guide](https://everydeveloper.com/blog/build-vs-buy/): Developers don’t spend their entire day writing code. There’s a lot of collaboration, planning, and research. During this time, you hope to capture their attention with your technical content. A key moment of planning is whether to develop a solution in-house or integrate a pre-packaged product. That’s led to the “build vs buy” guide, which…
- [Every Developer Deserves Great Documentation](https://everydeveloper.com/blog/every-developer-deserves-great-documentation/): Sixty minutes on the clock, a room full of cryptic clues, and no clear way out. Alex is up to the challenge. After all, they’re a developer by day, so this evening’s escape room should provide delightfully puzzling entertainment. Collecting hints from nearby objects, they’ll rearrange them into enough solutions to break out. Except Alex…
- [Innovative Developer Tutorial Interfaces](https://everydeveloper.com/blog/innovative-developer-tutorial-interfaces/): You can probably imagine yourself midway through a complex technical tutorial. You have multiple terminal windows open. Your browser has tabs aplenty. Your fingers have memorized the “Ctrl-F” pattern as you search for the next step. The best dev tool and API companies aim to provide a better developer experience with tutorial content. We’ve collected…
- [Does “Developer First” Mean What You Think It Means?](https://everydeveloper.com/blog/which-developer-first/): You may have noticed a label attached to companies with technical products. The label suggests developers are an important part of their ‘go-to-market.’ Their product is likely a dev tool or a solution that requires a degree of integration to be useful. That label — “developer first” — is applied so broadly that it often…