Joël and Steve sit down to discuss the ins and outs of decomposition within their respective workflows and how they use it to their advantage when working on certain projects.

Together they look at working with vertical slices over other decomposition methods, when and how to break down code as efficiently as possible, and Joël lays out his three key principles that help him write code dubbed “The Triangle of Separation”.

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Learn more about Joël’s triangle of separation and working with vertical slices!

Your guest this week has been Steve Polito, and your host for this episode has been thoughtbot’s own Joël Quenneville.

You can find Steve’s work over on GitHub, or dive into more of his thought processes over on his thoughtbot’s blogs.

If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: [email protected]

This has been a thoughtbot podcast.

© 2025 thoughtbot, inc.

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