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The Toptal Blog is the top hub for developers, designers, management consultants, executives, and entrepreneurs, featuring key technology updates, tutorials, freelancer resources, and management insights.

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Toptal core team members share their experience, expertise, and perspectives on the Toptal Edge Blog

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Brutalist Web Design, Minimalist Web Design, and the Future of Web UX

Web design is changing. Minimalist web design has been the reigning approach for years, but brutalist design is gaining in popularity. Despite its inelegant clutter and raw functionality, brutalist design may be taking over the web.

10-minute readContinue Reading
Pascal Potvin

Pascal Potvin

With 12 years in UI/UX and creative direction, Pascal has delivered immersive experiences, led design teams for Sony, Fox, Disney, and more.

Create Data From Random Noise With Generative Adversarial Networks

Generative adversarial networks, among the most important machine learning breakthroughs of recent times, allow you to generate useful data from random noise. Instead of training one neural network with millions of data points, you let two neural networks contest with each other to figure things out.

In this article, Toptal Freelance Software Engineer Cody Nash gives us an overview of how GANs work and how this class of machine learning algorithms can be used to generate data in data-limited situations.

13-minute readContinue Reading
Cody Nash

Cody Nash

As a data scientist, Cody has used tools including Python and R to explore and deploy analyses on genetic, healthcare and other data sets.

Is Agile Talent the Answer for Embedded Systems Design?

Embedded systems are everywhere we look. As these systems continue to permeate life for consumers and entire industries, businesses are increasingly finding themselves up against a severe talent shortage. This article explores the benefits of using agile talent in building embedded systems expertise, as well as how some of the commonly touted challenges in doing so can be overcome.

10-minute readContinue Reading
Jennifer Johnson

Jennifer Johnson

Previous Enterprise Sales Executive at Toptal

A Guide to Performance Testing and Optimization With Python and Django

Donald Knuth said that “premature optimization is the root of all evil.” But there comes a time, usually in mature projects with high loads, when the need to optimize presents itself. In this article, Toptal Freelance Software Engineer Iulian Gulea talks about five common methods to optimize a web project’s code using principles that can be used in Django, as well as in other frameworks and languages. Using these principles, he demonstrates how to reduce the response time of a query from 77 to 3.7 seconds.

12-minute readContinue Reading
Iulian Gulea

Iulian Gulea

Iulian is a software engineer with experience developing web projects of all sizes, from simple sites to complex SaaS products. Previously a full-stack developer for PepsiCo, Iulian has worked both individually and in teams for companies large and small.

Intro to Magento: Navigating the Top E-commerce Ecosystem

In this article, Toptal Freelance Magento Developer Daniel Cuevas Zamora gives a broad overview of one of the most popular eCommerce platforms and how to get started with it.

5-minute readContinue Reading
Daniel Cuevas Zamora

Daniel Cuevas Zamora

Daniel is a senior certified Magento developer with experience working with Laravel and Zend frameworks and various JavaScript frameworks.

Dashboard Design: Considerations and Best Practices

Dashboards are a unique and powerful way to present data-based intelligence using data visualization techniques. This post looks at the fundamental dashboard design principles that lie at the heart of every successful dashboard.

9-minute readContinue Reading
Stelian Subotin

Stelian Subotin

Stelian is a UI designer with over seven years of experience in designing and building projects of different scales from the ground up.

Get Started With IoT Development: An ESP8266 Arduino Tutorial

In this tutorial, Toptal Freelance Software Engineer John R. Kosinski will demonstrate a simple Amazon Alexa hack using quintessential Arduino skills and basic hardware.

17-minute readContinue Reading
John R. Kosinski

John R. Kosinski

As a full-stack dev for nearly two decades, John’s worked with IoT, Blockchain, web, and mobile projects using C/C++, .NET, SQL, and JS.

Brand Illustration 101: Visualizing the Narrative

A brand is a promise. This article outlines how illustrations are being used to express brand value and how businesses are investing substantial time and resources into extensive brand illustration systems.

8-minute readContinue Reading
Micah Bowers

Micah Bowers

Micah helps businesses craft meaningful engagement through branding, illustration, and design.

Exploring the Bear Case of the Cryptocurrency Bubble

The arguments for a cryptocurrency revolution can tend to sway toward appearing more like get-rich-quick schemes than balanced debates. The regulatory risk overhang, constant scams, and technological immaturity of the movement mean that long-term success is far from certain.

In this article, Jonathan Sterling addresses the other side of the argument: the bear case for a crypto future. He shines a light on the problems blighting cryptocurrencies and some remedies for them, drawing upon comparisons with historic bubbles, some centuries old.

16-minute readContinue Reading
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