About this site

The Service Works is an independent blog launched in July 2025 by Roger Booth of The Service Works Ltd.

"The Service Works" challenges the tech industry's obsession with "move fast and break things" culture that celebrates quick fixes and rapid shipping while punishing thoughtful development practices. Despite having better tools than ever, modern software feels increasingly fragile—apps crash unexpectedly, services timeout randomly, and deployments break unforeseen components.

This blog advocates for deliberate software development that prioritizes long-term reliability without sacrificing innovation. The focus is on Elixir, a language designed for fault-tolerant systems through the Erlang VM's decades of wisdom about building systems that stay running. Elixir's "let it crash" philosophy enables graceful failure recovery rather than catastrophic cascades.

The blog explores how AI can enhance deliberate development—generating code and tests, building MCP servers, handling data pipelines, and integrating with Python's AI ecosystem. Topics will cover Elixir fundamentals, testing strategies, production readiness, and AI integration.

The goal: optimise for sustained velocity over initial speed, building software that works reliably month after month, year after year.