Are you good at getting things done without outside accountability? I’m terrible at it. I end up procrastinating until the last minute and then crunching to get it done on time. While I get the job done, often times it’s to the detriment of family time, sleep, healthy eating, or exercise.
Of course, working from home with a staff of me, it’s easy for things to get pushed back constantly. A few months ago, realizing I needed some accountability, I posted a to-do list of 5 things that I needed to prioritize to a small group of friends in Discord. I asked for them to push me on them. (Boy, did they deliver. 😁) But honestly, it was super helpful. Because I knew someone was going to ask what progress I was making, I was able to focus and get things done.
Since then, I’ve done the same thing a few times, but even better, I’ve seen people in Discord start to use the same tactic. We’ve got a solid group of folks taking charge of their health, from bike rides, eating healthier, daily walks, to insane push-up challenges, we’re all holding each other accountable and being vulnerable enough to share that we need help. Holy frijole! It’s amazing what we can accomplish together.
If you’re missing something like that in your life, I really want to encourage you to find it. I’m certainly biased, the Build with Me Discord is a great place to start. Come on in, encourage others, and when you’re ready, ask others to help hold you accountable to your goals, whatever they are.
As always, hope your week is great and if I can help with anything, hit me up on the socials.
Until next time! Michael
permalinkInteresting Finds
- TypeChat: Hopefully, you’ve had time to play with LLM’s like ChatGPT. But playing asking them questions for fun and building an application on top of them are two different things. That’s where TypeChat steps in. In simplest terms, it allows TypeScript developers to get well-typed responses from LLMs that can be used programmatically.
- Flutter 3.13: I was talking to a friend who runs a custom software shop this past week. They used to be focused on Angular/Vue front-ends powered by .NET API backends, but now they’ve moved 90% of their work to Flutter & Dart. I may give it a try just to get a feel for it, but they are loving the experience. Turns out there’s a new release this week that makes several improvements to their graphics renderer.
- Using the .NET MAUI Extension for VS Code: I mentioned this extension a few weeks ago and actually tried it out on stream, but the folks at Telerik put together a great “Beyond the Basics” post to help you try it out faster. I could have really used this before I installed it.
- Sailhouse Pub/Sub: Build a system with significant integrations or scale and you’ll find yourself needing some type of pub/sub, service bus, etc. infrastructure. Sailhouse is a new beta product that aims to make pub/sub much easier. No more worries about infra, clusters, regions, and so on.
- How Google Measures Developer Productivity: An interview with Google Engineering Productivity Researchers Ciera Jaspan and Collin Green on how their team defines and measures developer productivity at Google. While they have a lot more resources than most development teams, there are some quality insights to take and apply on a smaller scale everywhere.
- Node.js 20 is now available: A couple new features include a new permission model that feels inspired by Deno and a built-in test runner which will make testing Node.js applications easier. The test runner may remove the need for 3rd party packages. There’s other features and movement around performance, Web Crypto API, and WASI, but I’m looking forward to testing the test runner more than anything else.
- Nuxt Studio: I’ve been playing with Nuxt Studio for a few weeks and it’s a fantastic tool for learning Nuxt. You’ll need to give it access to your GitHub account, but it sets up a Nuxt site for you using pre-built templates and allows you to manage the site from a nice web-based GUI.
- Defeating Procrastination via Walking: I admit that I can procrastinate with the best of them. I read this Saturday and I’m looking forward to giving it a try next week. I’ve actually been thinking if weight training would have a similar effect. I have some dumbbells in my office that I could grab. Let me know if you’ve tried this or how it works for you if you do.
- 15 Terrible Pieces of Advice for Web Developers: This blog post reminded me of nightmares of years past. Of course, all these pieces of advice are terrible, and you should actually do the opposite, but I bet we’ve all met someone who did one or more of these. If you don’t know that person… well, you probably are that person. 😁
- Hacking a Teddy Ruxpin: I remember Teddy Ruxpin bears when I was a kid, but I didn’t realize they’re still around. Honestly, I never cared for them. I was already too old for them when they were released. But this project… I may have to consider for my kids.
permalinkBuild with Me Weekly
This week in the Build with Me Community:
permalinkCommunity Content
- Zelcion shared Meta-System, a project he’s been working on for 3 years. An extensible & modular no-code engine.
- Ted released a video on how Microsoft Orleans can save .NET developers from microservices.
permalinkThankful Thursday Highlights
I’m thankful for having the opportunity to work and provide for my family.
— Zelcion
I’m thankful for a relaxing workation. Happy to be back home with new exciting projects about to start.
— FullStackLive
I’m thankful that I’ve learned enough to be able to say no to borrowing drama that really doesn’t even relate to me.
— Veretax