About the author

Thijs Broerse

Frontend architect, engineering leader and interim frontend lead with 20+ years of experience building and scaling complex frontend applications and teams.

Experience

2002 — 2008

The foundation

Started building for the web before "frontend developer" was a job title — including a social platform with chat and photo sharing, built before Facebook existed. Graduated from the HKU and fell in love with interactive work.

2008 — 2023

15 years at Media.Monks

Joined the world’s most-awarded digital production company and grew from Senior Developer to Global Frontend Director. Led frontend teams across multiple countries, authored the open-source Frontend Coding Standards, founded MonkAcademy to train new developers, and contributed to numerous FWA award-winning projects.

2023 — today

Freelance & interim leadership

Now I bring that experience to organisations that need it most: as interim frontend lead on complex projects — from high-security government platforms to production-critical e-commerce configurators. And as founder of Glaciavis I scale that same quality beyond myself, with Dutch-led international development teams.

Articles

Delft blue tile reading "Prepare Your Code For The Unexpected" — Developers Tiles of Wisdom

Software Development

34. Prepare Your Code For The Unexpected

Defensive programming is not paranoia, it is craftsmanship. Why your code needs guardrails, strict types and layered checks for the day production finds the path you forgot.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#defensive-programming#typescript

5 min read

Delft blue tile reading "Adding People To A Late Project Makes It Later… Unless The People Already Know How To Work Together" — Developers Tiles of Wisdom

Engineering Leadership

33. Adding People To A Late Project Makes It Later…

Brooks's Law says adding manpower to a late project makes it later. True—unless the people you add already share standards and know how to work together.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#leadership#process

2 min read

Delft blue tile reading "Don't Assume It Prove It!" — Developers Tiles of Wisdom

Software Development

32. Don't Assume It. Prove It!

When debugging, an assumption is not enough—you need evidence. Why understanding the why behind a bug is what separates a real fix from a lucky coincidence.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#debugging#software-craftsmanship

4 min read

Delft blue tile reading "Be Proud Of Your Work" — Developers Tiles of Wisdom

Career & Growth

31. Be Proud Of Your Work

Many developers do great work and then almost hide it. Take ownership, show what you built, ask for feedback, and keep a portfolio you can stand behind.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#software-craftsmanship#code-quality

4 min read

Delft blue tile reading "Crash Early" — Developers Tiles of Wisdom

Software Development

30. Crash Early

If a value in your application is invalid, let it fail immediately—not later, not silently. Crash early to make bugs cheap to find and fix.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#clean-code#code-quality

2 min read

Delft blue tile reading "You Can't Fix a Bad UX With Great Code" — Developers Tiles of Wisdom

Frontend Architecture

29. You Can't Fix a Bad UX With Great Code

Many 'technical' problems are really UX problems in disguise. Great code can't save bad UX—it can only reduce the pain. Solve the right problem instead.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#frontend#web-development

4 min read

Delft blue tile reading "Review Your Code" — Developers Tiles of Wisdom

Software Development

28. Review Your Code

Most developers see code review as something that happens to their code. Great developers know they're the first reviewer—and study their own diff before the PR.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#clean-code#process

3 min read

Delft blue tile reading "Do Not Lower Your Estimations Just To Please The Client" — Developers Tiles of Wisdom

Engineering Leadership

27. Do Not Lower Your Estimations Just To Please The Client

An unrealistic estimate isn't a service, it's a time bomb. Why lowering your estimates to please a client backfires—and how to estimate honestly instead.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#leadership#process

5 min read

Delft blue tile reading "Commit Often" — Developers Tiles of Wisdom

Software Development

26. Commit Often

Small, focused commits are one of the most powerful developer habits—and even more important with AI. Commit before AI touches your code, and thank yourself later.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#clean-code#process

5 min read

Delft blue tile reading "One Job!" — Developers Tiles of Wisdom

Software Development

25. One Job!

Every class and function should do one thing. How to spot God Classes and overly long files—and split them along natural boundaries until each has One Job.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#clean-code#refactoring

3 min read

Delft blue tile reading "Everything You Do Not Test Is Broken!" — Developers Tiles of Wisdom

Software Development

24. Everything You Do Not Test Is Broken!

Assume everything you didn't test is broken until you prove otherwise. Test the edge cases, not just the happy flow—and always check your own app yourself.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#testing#code-quality

2 min read

Delft blue tile reading "Leave It Cleaner" — Developers Tiles of Wisdom

Software Development

23. Leave It Cleaner

See something messy in the code—even if you didn't write it? Leave it cleaner than you found it. Small, safe improvements compound into durable quality.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#clean-code#refactoring

2 min read

Delft blue tile reading "Do Not Use Prototype Code In Production" — Developers Tiles of Wisdom

Software Development

22. Do Not Use Prototype Code In Production

A prototype is meant to explore ideas, not to ship them. Why prototype code doesn't belong in production—and why rebuilding properly is often faster.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#clean-code#architecture

1 min read

Delft blue tile reading "Isolate The Problem" — Developers Tiles of Wisdom

Software Development

21. Isolate the Problem

Debugging is a core developer skill. The RISE framework—Reproduce, Isolate, Simplify, Explain—plus practical tactics to find and fix bugs fast.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#debugging#testing

2 min read

Delft-blue tile reading "Use Names You Would Use In Real Life"

Software Development

20. Use Names You Would Use In Real Life

Clear, natural names make code faster to read and reviews kinder. A practical guide to naming things — nouns vs verbs, singular vs plural, and when to rename.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#naming#clean-code

2 min read

Delft-blue tile reading "Always Affirmative"

Software Development

19. Always Affirmative

Negations burn brain cycles — every "not" forces the reader to flip the logic. Prefer affirmative names and conditions to make code faster to read and safer to change.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#clean-code#naming

2 min read

Delft-blue tile reading "Talent Is Just 10.000 Hours Of Deliberate Practice"

Career & Growth

18. Talent Is Just 10,000 Hours of Deliberate Practice

Nobody is born a talented programmer. What we call talent is years of deliberate practice — clear goals, feedback, and reflection. Here's how to make your hours count.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#career#software-craftsmanship

2 min read

Delft-blue tile reading "Refactor Early, Refactor Often"

Software Development

17. Refactor Early, Refactor Often

Refactoring isn't a luxury — it's maintenance. Small, frequent improvements prevent technical debt, and tests give you the freedom to improve without fear.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#refactoring#clean-code

3 min read

Delft-blue tile reading "Write Tests For The Code You Want, Not The Code You Have"

Software Development

16. Write Tests For The Code You Want, Not The Code You Have

AI writes tests around how your code works today — baking in existing bugs. Test for the behavior you want instead, and let TDD safeguard your code's future.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#testing#ai

2 min read

Delft-blue tile reading "Do Personal Projects!"

Career & Growth

15. Do Personal Projects

School assignments rarely impress me; personal projects do. They're the perfect playground to grow as a developer — and they can give your career a massive head start.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#career#best-practices

3 min read

Delft-blue tile reading "Learn how to Debug"

Career & Growth

14. Learn How To Debug

Debugging may be the most important skill a developer can have — and AI isn't great at it. Here's how a year as a maintenance engineer taught me the craft.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#debugging#code-quality

3 min read

Delft-blue tile reading "Keep it Simple"

Software Development

13. Keep It Simple

Creativity tempts developers into overengineering. Build just enough, avoid clever code, and keep it simple — because simplicity is power.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#clean-code#code-quality

2 min read

Delft-blue tile reading "Don't Use Comments"

Software Development

12. Don't Use Comments

Comments are often unnecessary or misleading, and wrong comments are worse than none. Write self-explanatory code — and reserve comments for the rare cases that truly need them.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#clean-code#code-quality

3 min read

Delft-blue tile reading "Do Not Repeat Yourself"

Software Development

11. Do Not Repeat Yourself

Code duplication grows like weeds and breeds bugs. Extract shared logic into one configurable place — but don't abstract too early or in the wrong way.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#clean-code#code-quality

2 min read

Delft-blue tile reading "Use One Name For One Thing"

Software Development

10. Use One Name For One Thing

Reusing a name for different things breeds bugs and confusion. Agree on a project glossary, give each concept one clear name, and refactor when it isn't.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#naming#clean-code

3 min read

Delft-blue tile reading "Be As Strict As Possible"

Software Development

9. Be As Strict As Possible

Strict TypeScript and ESLint feel restrictive at first, but they catch bugs before they ever reach your code — and that saves time in the long run.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#clean-code#code-quality

2 min read

Software Development

8. DNtUA (Do Not Use Abbreviations)

The deliberately unreadable, abbreviation-stuffed short version of "Do Not Use Abbreviations" — proving its own point one cryptic acronym at a time.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#clean-code#naming

1 min read

Delft-blue tile reading "Do Not Use Abbreviations"

Software Development

8. Do Not Use Abbreviations

Abbreviations made sense when storage was scarce. Today they mostly cause confusion — here's why descriptive names beat clever shorthand.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#clean-code#naming

2 min read

Delft-blue tile reading: Use a Single Source of Truth

Frontend Architecture

7. Use a Single Source of Truth

Storing the same data in multiple places breeds bugs. Why one source of truth — often the URL — keeps your app clean, predictable and shareable.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#architecture#clean-code

3 min read

Delft-blue tile reading: Don't Use Code You Don't Understand

AI-Assisted Development

6. Don't Use Code You Don't Understand

AI makes copy-pasting code easier than ever. Why pasting code you don't understand into production is a risk — and how to use AI wisely instead.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#ai#clean-code

2 min read

Delft-blue tile with a floral border reading: Names Matter

Software Development

5. Names Matter

Naming is one of the hardest parts of software development. The questions I ask to choose names that stay clear — and the pitfalls that ruin them.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#naming#clean-code

4 min read

Delft-blue tile with a floral border reading: The best coding standard is the one your whole team follows

Engineering Leadership

4. The Best Coding Standard Is the One Your Whole Team Follows

How a shared coding standard transformed a team of skilled-but-scattered developers — and the hard lesson about what happens when one team skips it.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#process#leadership

3 min read

Delft-blue tile with an ornate floral border reading: Think First!

Frontend Architecture

3. Think First!

Eager to dive into a new project? The questions an architect asks before writing a line of code — so a fast start doesn't become a slow recovery.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#architecture#leadership

3 min read

Delft-blue tile reading: The time you spend writing clean code is time you save debugging later

Software Development

2. The Time You Spend Writing Clean Code Is Time You Save Debugging Later

Clean code feels like extra work until you count the debugging hours it saves. Here's why quality always pays off — and how I build it in.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#clean-code#code-quality

2 min read

Delft-blue tile reading: Great code isn't defined by the number of features, but by the absence of bugs

Software Development

1. Great Code Isn't Defined by the Number of Features, but by the Absence of Bugs

Why solid, clean, bug-free code beats feature count — and the questions a lead developer asks before adding anything new.

#developers-tiles-of-wisdom#clean-code#code-quality

3 min read