sourceBOLD has published essays and field notes since 2014. Along the way the original site was rebuilt, and that migration lost the old content — we had no surviving backup of the posts.
So we recovered what we could. The earliest pieces here were retrieved verbatim from public web archivesand restored exactly as written, at their original publication dates. For periods we know we published but couldn’t recover, we’ve reconstructed pieces in good faith — written now, in the voice and concerns of the time, to fill the gap. Those carry a short note at the top so you always know which is which, and their dates reflect the period they represent rather than a recovered original.
The early writing reflects who we were at the time — a software-outsourcing shop finding its footing — and we’ve left it unedited rather than polish it into something we weren’t yet. The throughline, then and now, is the same: how to hire well, engage developers across borders, and build teams that actually ship.
Spot something you remember from the original site that’s missing or off? Tell us— we’d love to make the record more complete.