Matthew Lang

Amazing that Tolkien's work is still being found.

via Cycle EXIF

... with a difference. No to do lists here.

I try to write in this style for longer posts. People have commented on this in the past but I never figured it to be a big thing.

It seems to be hard for most people to write in spoken language. So perhaps the best solution is to write your first draft the way you usually would, then afterward look at each sentence and ask “Is this the way I’d say this if I were talking to a friend?” If it isn’t, imagine what you would say, and use that instead. After a while this filter will start to operate as you write. When you write something you wouldn’t say, you’ll hear the clank as it hits the page.

— Write Like You Talk by Paul Graham

Kurt Harden has some simple but effective advice for your career.

Show up - Showing up plays a stunningly important role in success. Think of it this way: If you aren’t there, how will you take advantage of the opportunities? Showing up means being there mentally and physically. Being ready when the time comes. As the great James Brown said, “If you stay ready, you ain’t gotta get ready.” Show up.

— Show up. Show up early. Show up often. by Kurt Harden

Four reasons in fact. Here's an excerpt from the first reason, validate your expertise:

Someone once said to me that most of the value created in the new economy is through writing. I’m not sure that I entirely believe this but I believe the sentiment that in a knowledge-based business the outcomes of writing are product and value.

— Four Reasons to Write by Win Without Pitching

I've quietly relaunched my software development blog and plan on writing a couple of articles a month. I'm doing it not only because I like writing but to also test my knowledge and experience with my others in the software development industry.

Steven Pressfield offers a top tip for making a lasting impression.

Say thank you

As in, on a card.

No cold, white, computer paper.

In your own handwriting.

With a pen that isn’t running out of ink.

Sharpies are nice. I like thin and medium tipped.

It’s a good way to connect. They’ll remember you.

— The Most Important Tool In Your Arsenal by Steven Pressfield

Nice to see the AllFixedGear crowd have a Langster in their group.

via AllFixedGear

My favourite RSS reader has a great new feature, image previews.

People often ask me what I’m doing now.

Each time I would type out a reply, describing where I’m at, what I’m focused on, and what I’m not.

So earlier this year I added a /now page to my site: sivers.org/now

A simple link. Easy to remember. Easy to type.

It’s a nice reminder for myself, when I’m feeling unfocused. A public declaration of priorities.

— The /now page movement by Derek Siver

Love this idea. A public declaration of your intentions and a bit of accountability too.

As a kid, I remember my father at the dining room table in the morning jotting down his to-do list for the day on his mini legal pad as he sipped coffee and took in the busy goings on in our household. I remember his orange or brown or red Paper Mate felt tip pens scratching out instructions to himself in perfect architect block script. My father could make a grocery list look like a precise set of life specifications. But he made lists or, as he told me more than once, it was gone.

— Lists by Kurt Harden

I hope one day my kids make the same observation when they're older, especially that last sentence. Lists are better at remembering to do things than we are.

Tickets booked. Can't wait!

... with Nicholas Bate.

Yip, definitely time to do things differently.

Inspired by this post by Leo Babauta, I've started to compile a list of articles that I frequently return to for inspiration and motivation.

Breathing Space by Steve Hodgson

A little reminder that we all need breathing space to reconnect.

One of my favourite words has always been ‘desultory’ as coupled with the idea of pottering about and doing things for pleasure. My aim is to allow some breathing space every day by cultivating some or all of these activities every day:

• Reading for pleasure. Mindfully, as if each book were to be discussed with a fellow-reader or a book group
• Listening to music
• Write something (by hand) for pleasure. Perhaps notes or thoughts on a book, one of those rare letters to a friend or an outline for a blog post (as I’m writing this by hand now)
• Take walks, but with a purpose, even if only to see things in familiar locations.
• Play with and listen to family members.
• Regularly enjoy a small glass of something, but slowly and with pleasure.

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Consulting by Matt Gemmell

Matt's 15 minute guide to consulting is required reading for anyone who wants to consult or like me, needs a refresher of what consulting should be.

Being a consultant is about diplomacy. It’s about being a fact-finder for the client’s issues, and an interpreter for their wishes and business goals, and a translator between the domain of a difficulty, and the necessary steps to solve it. It’s also always about being an ambassador for the real stakeholders, which are usually the customers.

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A Time for Things by Patrick Rhone

The nudge needed to get those things off the list.

That list of things is a wish list, a someday-maybe list, but it is not a task list until you commit a time for those things getting done. Those are things you hope to do — not things you are going to do. Know how I know you are not “going” to do them? Going is an action verb. It means you are in the act of committing a forward movement. Anything staying motionless on a list is not forward movement. Putting a time on something to be done in the future, then moving towards that time, means going to do something. And you are not going to do any of those things unless you do.

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Being Introverted by D. Keith Robinson

I'm glad to see that after Susan Cain's TED talk there is more of an acceptance of introverted individuals.

I’ve always thought it was kind of strange, my desire to be alone, but as the years went by as I learned more and encountered people even more introverted than I am, I began to realize that it’s not all that strange, and that there is great benefit in this time.

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Create Something Every Day by Stef Lewandowski

Stef had a near-death experience before his eyes were opened. Don't let that be you.

I won’t couch this as some kind of structured process. I decided on a very simple rule. Roughly, every day I’d have created something, and being one of those people who’s okay at lots of things but not amazing at anything I’d go for variety. There’s a simple measure – when you go to sleep at night, ask yourself what you’ve made that day.

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Dear Freelancer by Aaron Mahnke

A nice reminder of why I do what I do.

You bet your livelihood, and sometimes that of your family, on your ability to get things done. You talk to strangers, believe that people you’ve never met will send you real money, and abuse substances (namely sugar and caffeine). These are things we teach our kids to never do, but you’ve somehow turned them into an art that generates results.

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How To Do A Startup On The Side And Not Lose Your Family by Eric Farkas

Eric's post is a reminder that although your startup is important, there are other priorities in life that come first.

On a regular basis, leave the laptop on your desk and take your kids out for ice cream, or go for a walk around the neighborhood. Life is short, and you don't get these years back. Be flexible.

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Life Tips 101 by Nicholas Bate

I've long been of fan of NB's blog. His life tips are essential weekly reading.

No piece of technology can yet be as creative as your brain at its best. Look after it.

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Take the risk. It's enough. by David Lewis

The risk is definitely worth taking when it's a new idea for a book or a product.

You want to make something that impresses your mom, that makes your ex-girlfriends regret dumping you. Something your father shows off to his colleagues. Something that makes your wife blush with pride.

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36 Lessons on Habits by Leo Babauta

Habits have to be one of the hardest things to keep going, but I'm finding that Leo's 36 habit lessons are a great place to start for building a new habit.

I'll get in touch as soon as I can.

A nice reminder that while places like Medium allow you to share your writing easily, you're still playing by someone else's rules.

The allure of other playgrounds, that already have lots of people using their jungle gym and interacting, is great. It’s hard (and far less fun) to play with your bouncy ball all by yourself. But if you want to ensure you’ve always got access to a bouncy ball and some killer monkey bars, you’ve got to be the one who owns them.

— Whose playground are you playing in? by Paul Jarvis

For about two years now I’ve been a user of the static blogging engine Jekyll. In that time I’ve enjoyed the simplicity of it. You generate your site offline and upload it when you’re ready to publish. For developers this is straight forward to do and but it also provides lots of possibilities for tweaking the publishing workflow. Jekyll has a library of supporting plugins that provide different behaviours and tweaks and allow content to be embedded more easily.

For all that Jekyll has though in terms of features, I’m struggling with it as a publishing tool and lately I’ve found it to be more of a block in the publishing process rather than a benefit. So, what to do?

For a while now I’ve been considering switching to a less developer focused blogging platform. A static web site generator like Jekyll is great performance wise but switching to a blogging engine that included a back-end CMS would provide more in terms of benefits.

Drafting and scheduling posts are two features that immediately spring to mind. I suppose there’s also the built-in editing of live posts that platforms like Wordpress and Ghost provide.

After trying out a number of blogging platforms over the last two weeks I’ve decided to switch to Ghost. Built-in Markdown support is a big factor in my decision to switch. With all of my posts in Markdown, porting everything over to Ghost should be fairly easy to do. Also it has just enough other features to cater to my other requirements. Tagging, code injection for JavaScript, themes and the ability to export my content should I ever decide to move again.

Lastly there’s the whole argument about your presence on the internet and the breaking of urls by moving to a new blogging platform. Well the solution is simple. The old site will continue to remain up and running for the foreseeable future while I port the content I need to the new site. This also allows me to start blogging again from a new domain. This site will now be my corner of the Internet from here on in. If you’re an RSS subscriber you start subscribing from here.

The new site also gives me another benefit. The chance to review a few of my previous post types. Fixie Friday will return to its weekly slot rather than being fortnightly. Link posts will also remain and will be limited to one or two per day. I’ve decided to discontinue the Snippet posts for the moment. If you’re looking to find out what I’m doing on a day to day basis then you can follow me on Twitter. Lastly my daily posts will become a weekly post rather than a daily post. Posting on a daily schedule was a challenge but it also forced me to sometimes publish less than ideal content.

I’m looking forward to moving my content over to Ghost and blogging again. I hope you’ve updated your RSS feeds to follow me at my new digs. Should be fun.

Interested in working with me?

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I'm a freelance Web Developer from the UK.

I build high quality web application solutions using Ruby on Rails and Sinatra.

In my time I've built web applications with the following tools and libraries: Cucumber, Rspec, Minitest, jQuery, Postgres, MySQL, RabbitMQ, Heroku, Cloud66, Engine Yard and AWS.

When I'm not working I'm spending time with my family, cycling, golfing and the odd spot of gaming (yes, I've still got the skills).

If you're interested in working with me, you can send your details to me and I'll get back in touch as soon as possible.

Some of My Work

DailyMuse

DailyMuse is a daily email that you curate using your own quotes, lists, links and anything else you find interesting. One of these items is sent to you at random everyday. DailyMuse is built with Ruby on Rails and uses Stripe for payment processing.

Journalong

Journalong (retired) was a free service that takes your journal entries and saves them to your Dropbox. Journal entries are written in plain text with a preference for Markdown. It was initially built using Ruby on Rails. Since retiring this product I've put together a smaller Sinatra version that is designed to be run from your own computer.

Forest is an app that tries to help you concentrate by giving you the incentive of creating a digital forest. When the timer reaches zero without you leaving the app, a little tree grows. If you leave the app before the timer stops, the tree dies. Certainly a fun idea, but how long before the novelty wears off?

via Tools & Toys