Musings for September 20, 2019

As a person in our filled-to-the-brim-with-technology world, I sometimes need to slow down. Getting words on a page/screen can be that outlet. This format is loosely based on link blogs like Daring Fireball or Dave Rupert’s Weeknotes series. But mainly, as I was catching up on the newsletter that my friend Caitlin Studley makes, her format inspired me to get back to writing!

This area contains musings about what I am thinking/learning/considering during the week.

In 2019 I have been more aware of my face staring into the little rectangle of light, my information phone. I started off quite strong in January with limited screen time and more reading of physical books. Sadly, that habit waned over the intervening month.

Reading This Week

I haven’t read a book cover to cover in a number of years, so 2019 is the year where I will finish several. This is my current array of books in rotation. Once upon a time, I was such an avid reader that I was reading at all times of the day. Since switching into that code life, I have mostly been building software instead. It’s time to make the conscious effort to hold physical books again and stare at a screen less often.

• Eloquent Javascript (3rd edition) by Marijn Haverbeke

  • A great way to learn (or review) a bunch of things about JavaScript and node

• Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth by Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi

  • Given to me by my co-worker and friend Nitin Shetty when he returned from Mumbai a while ago.

• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

  • I heard Merlin Mann mention this enough times on the Back to Work podcast. And then another friend mentioned it. I had to pick up a copy and learn how to think better.

• Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager (2nd edition) by Michael Lopp

  • Lopp — a.k.a. “Rands” on the internets — is one of my favorites. Impressive resume, excellent writing style, hilarious stories.

Learning This Week

My day job has me learning the ins and outs of React Native this week. All of the React patterns we know and love are available with the added twist of “No DOM”. Our engineering team has best practices for CI/CD and app strucutre. Our assembled cross-functional team uses Atlassian’s Confluence as a place to write up our “Project Poster” to outline the project. We are busy writing user stories, researching UI/UX of similar mobile apps, learning about submitting to the app stores, learning how to use React Native with small projects, and more.

My work at Presto Assistant has kept me busy in the early morning hours as I am converting a lot of JavaScript files to TypeScript. I hear it’s all the rage. And my business partner recently gave a talk about TypeScript at the ReactJS Dallas User Group that pushed me to give it a go in our app. We are aiming at beta-testing by early 2020 and launch by February. Still a lot left to do in Presto!

Keep leveling up!

Written by Mike Mathew who lives and works in Dallas building useful things. Sometimes he posts on Mastodon. Mike also wears many hats at Presto Assistant where he is a co-founder, owner, and product engineer.