Matthew Lang

Autographed ebooks? Matt Gemmell continues to push the limits of content creation with an iPad.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my US friends!

As David Heinemeier Hansson leaves Instagram for the second time, the question of reality on social media rears it’s head again.

That’s the stereotype, right. Instagram isn’t the place for reality. It’s for the curated highlight reel. And I thought I understood that bargain. Surely people wouldn’t take this to be the whole picture. Surely they’d understand that it’s not all race cars and champagne and glorious sunsets. Surely I would understand that. Surely?

Regret-stergram by David Heinemeier Hansson

It’s a given that most people only post the good things on social media and this is especially the case on Instagram.

My own timeline comprises of different accounts. I follow accounts for family and friends, NFL, golf, a handful of celebs, and a mixed bag of other stuff. The point of my timeline though is that it’s mostly the good stuff. It’s the good times and experiences that people are having. And I like that. It feels good to scroll through.

I know that these photos in my timeline are not a true reflection on life. Behind every great photo, whether it’s a Malibu sunset or a steaming hot cup of coffee, is a lifetime leading up to the moment in time that the photo was taken.

I know there’s more to that person posting that particular photo. I know that person has lived a life leading up to that point and that it hasn’t been plain sailing, and that makes me appreciate that picture more and more.

I know social media isn’t a view of the real world, and that makes it easy for me to hop on and thumb through my timeline and then leave it for a while.

David also mentions Facebook recent bad press and ownership of Instagram as being another reason why he wanted to leave.

It wasn’t until the latest barrage of Facebook sludge washed over me that I gave serious thought to getting off again. To make another clean cut.

Regret-stergram by David Heinemeier Hansson

I think this is a bigger concern for users of Instagram. With the original owners of Instagram having now left, there’s little to stop Facebook putting their stamp on the platform.

I’ll keep posting to Instagram in the meantime.

Bloody typical.

I just spent a couple of hours adding a new field to a Rails application, built up the logic to use the new application, did a refactoring to clean it up and now realise that I don’t need the new field. I just need a small change in the application with an already existing field.

I don’t know whether to be happy that I don’t need the new field or annoyed in that I didn’t see how I could have done this without having to add the new field.

Either way, it’s a win, right?

I wish I had people like Michael Wade teaching me at school. A proper education in life.

We don’t do Thanksgiving in the Lang household on account of being in the UK, but if we did, we would definitely adhere to Michael Wade’s 10 rules for Thanksgiving.

NB’s simple productivity boosters continues.

Honoured to once again find myself in amongst a wonderful collection of bloggers.

Many thanks Kurt.

Curtis McHale shares his process for routines using Things for iOS.

Bracing myself for a week of Brexit drama.

Jonathon Snook has been sharing a few thoughts on imposter syndrome and what he’s doing to overcome it.

It seems that every once in a while I go through this same phase of self-doubt, but it’s never been as bad as it was a couple of months ago. Giving up on freelancing and returning to a full-time job required a series of significant changes that added to this phase.

I was no longer working for myself. I would be working for an employer and therefore also working with and for other people. When you’re freelancing, there’s an element of being a lone wolf. It’s not entirely isolating, but you don’t need to worry so much about other people. You deliver what the client wants. Working for an employer is different. You have to align yourself with the companies goals and those that you are working with.

Working from home for some years means that I was fortunate enough to find my own routine that worked for me. From the comfort of my house, I could play the music I wanted, take breaks when I wanted, plan my day how I wanted. Working for an employer means being in the office at certain times, aligning your work day with others, making yourself available when others require your time.

Adding to these were some routine changes at home and facing the possibility of a frequent commute. The whole experience led me to question whether I could do the job I was applying for. Not only that, but I was examining the worth of some side-projects I was working on as well as a career change that I am considering for the future. It’s was similar to Jonathon’s stage where at the point of execution, you freeze up.

Every time I get to the point of execution on anything, I start to freeze up. I hit a wall every time I want to put myself out there.

— Uneasy by Jonathon Snook

After a few months in full-time work, however, I’m starting to find that I can do the job although given it’s a new role, there are a few weeks of finding your feet.

Not only that, but I’m also reading more, writing more, coding more outside of work. I’m doing these things as they help me build myself back up out of a period of self-doubt. I’m now at the point where I am finding myself enjoying side-projects and returning to a stage where I can see myself executing again.

The only thing I like about Google these days is their homepage doodle.

I don’t use their search page that often now, but I liked their doodle today for the Arecibo message.

One of my big downfalls, when I start work on something, is wondering if I am going in the right direction with it technically.

Web development is always changing. It is getting better though. Javascript frameworks are starting to settle down, and fall in line with the regular releases of non-Javascript frameworks like Ruby on Rails and Django.

For the last few weeks, I’ve been reading about Javascript frameworks like Vue and React and what they can offer for web applications. I’ll be honest and say that I’m still not sold on the idea of creating single-page applications with these frameworks, but I can see where they become a benefit for complex web pages.

Then there are things like CSS frameworks, deployment options, containers and a whole ream of other things to consider for the right stack for the application. It’s then that I find myself in a state of “decision limbo”.

Ideally, I would use Rails and a CSS framework and start from there, however, I’m always questioning what should be considered as an alternative.

While reading Nick Janetakis' article on growing into microservices, I happened across this little nugget of wisdom.

You get better by writing a lot of code with absolute and total intent to replace almost everything you write with better code once you start experiencing real problems first hand.

Microservices Are Something You Grow Into, Not Begin With by Nick Janetakis

I needn’t worry about the implications of my technical decisions until I come across some real technical problems. When I do come across those problems, I should only look at the options available to me then.

In other words, just write damn code Matthew.

On a final note, Nick Janetakis' article is an excellent guide to those starting new development projects and looking to use microservices. In a nutshell, don’t.

I’m with Kurt on this, amen brother.

In my diet plan you can have as much coffee as you like. Because in my diet, you drink coffee because it tastes so damned good.

— Blah, blah, blah by Kurt Harden

The Simplest of Productivity Boosters, a new series by Nicholas Bate.

Can’t wait to get the mini-book for this one.

I wish I could have read this when I started high school all those years ago.

Starting High School: Advice From an Insider

I love Curtis' idea for a daily shutdown routine.

With a new full-time role, I’m in the process of getting my head around some of the technology choices I’ll be working with and the benefits and drawbacks of each option.

One of those choices is building single-page applications (SPA) with a JavaScript framework for the front-end. I can see why this choice was made, but I’m now weighing up whether it is worth considering for my own projects. With that in mind, I’ve been doing a lot of reading about single-page applications.

I liked Jim Newbury’s article on single-page applications and his point about understanding what you are building.

We ask “What framework should we use for this whole app?” for new products up front, when we don’t even understand what we’re building yet. It’s far less wasteful to ask “What technical approach best supports this user need?” on a case-by-case basis as we learn more about those user needs during incremental product design and development.

— Create your own dysfunctional single-page app in five easy steps by Jim Newbury

Sure your team might be well versed in building single-page applications, but it’s not the best fit for all types of applications. It’s all about finding the right tool for the job.

Ruby on Rails is a good starting point for most of the projects that I work on, but I know it’s not a good fit for other types of projects. For other projects I know I would need to use another set of development tools.

I understand the benefits of using single-page applications, but it’s not a style of application that will yield immediate benefits in my own, smaller projects. I’ll stick with the tried and tested multiple-page application monoliths for now.

The power-idea balancing act with Michael Wade.

Still trying to land the Rockbounce to wallride twice in one run for Alto’s Odyssey. I’ve been stuck at this for a few months now, and every few days I try again. I’m not usually one for persisting with games, but Alto’s Odyssey is too beautifully made to abandon it.

As always, Matt Gemmell provides a thorough and deep dive into his tech choices as an author. This time, it’s the new iPad Pro.

I imagine that the Twitter edit button will be limited to a number of edits and will also include a changelog so that people can refer to any version of a tweet. Good for typos and keeping people accountable for what they tweet.

Less and slow for a better quality of life says Nicholas Bate. I couldn’t agree more.

A manifesto for programmers concerned about the impact of software.

I’m definitely in the techno-pessimist camp. To the point where every day I’m questioning the merits of software eating the world.

How many companies are this transparent when it comes to making mistakes?

Fewer than I would like to say, but hats off to Basecamp for owning up and being accountable.