Tag: writing.

I’ve been thinking about starting a newsletter.

Over the weekend, I helped my wife get her new website set up for her wellness coaching business. She is graduating with her Associate of Science in Integrative Health next month, and the group events she’s been running have been missing an online presence that she can direct people to...

Happy Sunday, friends!

A few years back, I picked up an AlphaSmart 3000 to try and do some writing without the distraction of an entire computer.

Alright, so… I missed my Sunday Reboot again.

I’ve long been fascinated by the concept of weekly roundups. They’ve always felt like a great distillation of thoughts and intentions for the coming (or closing) week, and while I’ve enjoyed reading them from other writers, I’ve been hesitant to start my own through some irrational avoidance of “copying” someone...

I’ve done some writing before on sustainability as it pertains to technology, and some of my efforts to keep my own tech (and some salvaged tech) alive and useful for as long as possible. The amount of e-waste we generate is staggering, and as technology becomes obsolete, the throwing-away of...

I started listening to Andy Weir’s “Project Hail Mary” audiobook today, and I have to say that Ray Porter is the single-best audiobook narrator in the business. The guy brings so much personality to his work that there is a marked difference between reading a book yourself and listening to...

I’ve been experimenting with offline-first technology lately. Typewriters, cassette decks, Game Boys… I like single-purpose tools that can’t distract, divert, or otherwise take my attention away from what I am doing – seriously, why the hell does a fridge need an internet connection?

There’s been a lot of buzz lately about GitHub Copilot mostly as it pertains to code quality and copyright law. For the most part, I appreciate Copilot’s suggestions, but just like with Stack Overflow before it, I know better than to blindly accept code without reviewing it. That said, it’s...

A few years ago, I picked up this 1941 Royal Arrow typewriter at the local antique store. Originally, the plan for this beautiful piece of machinery was to use it to decorate my home office, but then 2020 happened. A few months into this godawful year, I picked my typewriter...

Always write as if your reader is lazy, stupid, and mean… My 9th grade English teacher gave me that piece of advice nearly twenty years ago, and it has shaped the way I’ve thought about writing ever since.

Prioritizing documentation can be a struggle at any organization but, in my personal experience, a well-crafted documentation strategy can make that struggle seem far less real. Included below is a template I have personally used to propose and promote good documentation standards in the past. While it is far from...

Raise your hand if you’ve ever read a README file. Now, keep that hand raised if you’ve ever written a README file. I’m going to take a shot in the dark and assume that your hand is still raised; at least, it’s raised in spirit, since you probably refuse to...

As developers, we like to think of source code as a recipe. All the steps are written out, so understanding code is as simple as reading those steps. But that’s not the way it really works, is it? Programming is an art form, and programmers each have their own unique...

Last week, I had an interesting chat with a peer about the difficulty of finding a balance between using established standards and building proprietary solutions within development projects. Personally, I’m an advocate for utilizing established third-party solutions whenever possible as a way to reduce new developer onboarding time and increase...

For the better part of the last decade, being a software developer has been more than just my chosen career path. It’s been my identity. Honestly, if you had asked me before today what I do for a living (or what my favorite hobby is, or what I want to...

What exactly makes a “good” API? That is a question a lot of developers ask when designing their first API. While there are hundreds of resources online, all with differing opinions about what defines “good,” the majority of them share some similar themes. Logical endpoint naming conventions, clear error messaging,...