Regular Communication #030
From Jason Rodriguez
… now where did we leave off?
It's been a few months since I last emailed you. Work and life has been busy, what can I say? But, it's a new year and a good time to get back into the habit. Since the last newsletter, I've been mostly heads down at GitHub and spending time learning a few things more deeply, like SQL, some more Python, and working with data. I also picked up the mandolin, which I'm loving even though progress is slow.
On the writing side, I published a few articles. Nothing revolutionary, just a few notes on coding defensively in Eloqua, being amazed by technology (which seems rare these days), leaving Twitter, and one of the better books I read last year.
What have you been up to over the last few months? Hit reply and let me know, I'd love to hear about it.
Interesting Things
The Twitter debacle has been hilarious, infuriating, and sad to watch play out. I've been swimming in schadenfreude from Musk flailing about and failing so miserably, but feel very, very sorry for all of the employees caught up in his bullshit. The Verge has a great article on the garbage they've dealt with so far.
Jim Nielson has some good, quick thoughts on knowing when to quit. And especially rephrasing it as being done with something, which should probably happen a lot more often than not.
The above post links out to something by Manuel Moreale. I started following his blog (gotta love a good rabbit hole) and really liked his unsolicited blogging advice.
Justin Etheredge shared 20 lessons he's learned over a 20 year programming career. LOTS of good stuff to keep in mind, but I particularly like this bit:
—
Old technologies that have stuck around are sharks, not dinosaurs. They solve problems so well that they have survived the rapid changes that occur constantly in the technology world. Don’t bet against these technologies, and replace them only if you have a very good reason. These tools won’t be flashy, and they won’t be exciting, but they will get the job done without a lot of sleepless nights.
—
On Repeat
I mentioned up top that I just started learning mandolin. Naturally, that means listening to lots of music that features mandolin. And, before you ask... yes, the first song I learned was R.E.M.'s Losing My Religion. But Chris Thile and Nickel Creek have been on repeat for the past week or so. I think my favorite (shareable) performance of theirs might be this one of their song Helena.
Cheers,
Jason
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