Setting up my new Machine
I was recently setting up a new machine and these are the tools I reached for first.
tools Read MoreIf Your Tech Interview is Three Tech Interviews in a Trench Coat and I Do Five is It Additive or Exponential
This was quite the process. I had a lot of conversations and interviews. I want to be transparent about that in the hopes it will help others.
interviewscareer Read MoreNew Gatsby Course!
Announcing my brand new egghead course! Focused on all the newest features.
gatsby Read MoreDiagnosing Performance Issues
Once you've determined you need to improve your site performance, how do you do that?
performancejavascript Read MoreMigrating from eslint-loader to eslint-webpack-plugin
A brief migration guide.
webpack Read MoreWeb Vitals Explained
Google calculates webpage performance based on core web vitals? What does that mean?
performancejavascript Read MorePerformance Tools
Let's talk about site performance and the different tools that can help you measure it.
performancejavascript Read MoreCode Splitting Explained
You may have heard of it, you may not have, so what is code splitting?
performancewebpack Read MoreSymlinks and Npm
What is a symlink? How does it work? Why does it matter?
learningjavascript Read MoreThe Anatomy of package.json
Package.json does a lot more than list your project's dependencies. This is a guide to help you understand the clues and instructions it gives you.
learningjavascript Read MoreBabel: Plugins, Presets and Parsers
Babel is an incredibly powerful tool but it can be intimidating to dive into. I've spent the last few weeks in the Babel deep end, so let's talk about it!
babel Read MoreEvent Listeners Explained
Event listeners show up all over the place! Let's learn this useful construct.
javascript Read MoreRust and References
References are an important concept in Rust, let's talk about them.
rustsyntax Read MoreJavascript ||, aka Why Doesn't This Work?!
I and others constantly want this expression to work and it doesn't, why?
syntaxjavascript Read More“Subcommands” in Yargs
I worked with yargs this week to write some CLI code. Understanding the terminology went a long way in setting up the code correctly.
javascript Read MoreSenior Interviews != Three Junior Interviews in a Trench Coat
We overly rely on coding interviews for juniors and it's a mistake. However, it's just as harmful, if not more, as a measuring stick for seniors.
interviews Read MoreSibling State with React Hooks
I was working on an app the other day using React Hooks and I happened upon a pattern I wanted to write up!
reactlearning Read MoreOwnership in Rust
One of the most intriguing concepts in Rust is ownership. Rather than undertaking garbage collection...
syntaxrust Read MoreRust variables and mut
I'm learning Rust and I like writing syntax posts. This one dives into variable declaration and `mut`.
rustsyntax Read MoreDesigning a Technical Interview
We can do better than algorithms interviews for both ourselves and our candidates.
interviews Read MoreMy First Experience with Rust
I'm trying Rust for the very first time! Want to follow along?
rust Read MoreThe Challenge of Precise Language
Words matter, especially when explaining technical concepts. But in my experience it isn't that simple.
learning Read MoreTemplate literals in JavaScript
One of those pieces of syntax I can never seem to remember.
syntaxjavascript Read MoreMaking Sense of Syntax
I came across a bit of syntax I hadn't seen before. Figured I'd write a post as I explore what it means.
syntaxjavascript Read MoreUpgrading to Blog Theme 2.0
It's time to upgrade my site to use gatsby-theme-blog 2.0!
gatsby Read MoreThe Art of Learning
Decided to try something new and write down some thoughts in progress.
learning Read MoreJavaScript Map is getting upsert!
Currently in Stage 2, this up and coming JavaScript feature could make your life a lot easier!
syntaxjavascript Read MoreIs it Webpack or Node?
One of the most crucial pieces of information when debugging is what technology is affected. Over the years I've found that this distinction can be challenging.
webpackjavascript Read MoreDiscovering Theme UI
Having never worked with Theme UI before this is a retelling of my introduction to it.
gatsby Read MoreMy Screencasting Workflow
Thought it could be interesting to share my process for recording videos!
tools Read MoreWhy I Decided to Join the Themes Team
Why I'm joining the themes team at Gatsby and thoughts on my career.
gatsby Read MoreDocumenting a New Feature
For those in search of a "template" for what to include when documenting a new feature, I'll take a stab here.
learning Read MoreRemote Work Tips for Teams
Many teams may find themselves unexpectedly signed up for remote work. Here are some tips to start off prepared.
Read MoreNevertheless, she coded
Taking up space in this industry sometimes means allowing others to do so.
Read MoreContinuous Deployment with Gatsby Cloud and Firebase
It's time to change the way I build and deploy my site.
gatsby Read MoreGatsby Theme Shadowing
Setting up and shadowing the Gatsby blog theme for my site.
gatsby Read MoreHuman-Readable JavaScript: A Tale of Two Experts
Everyone wants to be an expert. But what does that even mean?
javascriptcareer Read MoreCodemods with Babel Plugins
A tutorial and walkthrough for building a codemod with Babel, recast and jscodeshift
babel Read MoreThe ECMAScript Ecosystem
What determines support for new JavaScript syntax?
learningjavascript Read More2019 Year in Review
I'm going to use this time to look back on this past year and hopefully share some insight into how I got some of my opportunities.
careerspeaking Read MoreOptional Chaining Has Arrived!
Sick of constant checks for existence? Optional chaining is here to help.
javascriptsyntax Read MoreNullish Coalescing - Let Falsy Fool You No More
One of the latest and greatest additions to JavaScript has arrived!
javascriptsyntax Read MoreConfessions of a Conference Speaker
I've learned so much from being a speaker and I wanted a place to write it down.
speaking Read MoreglobalThis is coming to JavaScript
The ECMAScript standard is constantly changing. Next up, globalThis!
javascriptsyntax Read MoreConfessions of a Conference Attendee
These are some reflective tips on attending conferences.
speaking Read More5 Things I Learned in My First Week as a Maintainer
Working in open-source is new to me, so I thought I'd share some of my early takeaways.
learning Read MoreA Wrong Answer is Worse than No Answer
Solving problems is our job, yet the process of doing so is never simple. And if we go about it the wrong way, we're likely to make things worse.
learning Read MoreComponent Lifecycle Methods Explained
There are a number of front end frameworks, and they have a lot in common! One of those things is the concept of components, and the ability to interact with them during different stages of their lifecycle.
reactvue Read MoreCreating an Authentication Navigation Guard in Vue
Being able to navigate to pages is a crucial part of any application. But sometimes your users will try and access a page they don't belong on. In Vue you can check for this using a navigation guard!
vue Read MoreHow I Make Sense of RxJS
Reactive Programming is a pattern with some complexities, but incredible power. Many explanations of it exist, but this is how it makes sense to me.
javascript Read MoreHow Architecture Improved My Coding Skills
We all our skills in different ways. The path to becoming a senior engineer is never the same. This is an example of how mine involved writing less code than most.
learning Read MoreHuman Readable JavaScript
There are plenty of optional characters when defining functions. When used in functional methods these options increase. What are they? And how do they affect readability?
javascript Read MoreA Re-Introduction To Destructuring Assignment
Smashing Magazine Post on Destructuring Assignment.
javascriptsyntax Read MoreNuxt, Next, Nest?! My Head Hurts.
I clearly know what all of these things are. Their names are not at all similar. But let's review, just to make sure we know...
javascript Read MoreFocus vs Focus-Within
Choose the right pseudo-class for your needs. In this post, we'll examine the difference between focus and focus-within.
css Read MoreAn Introduction to the Hover Pseudo-class
Dynamic behavior on the web isn't limited to JavaScript anymore. Come learn about CSS syntax that can respond to state!
css Read MoreAdding an Emoji Status to Terminal (ZSH)
It requires some bash, but if you follow these instructions you can add emoji statuses to your zsh terminal setup!
Read MoreUnderstanding Rest Parameter Syntax
You finally understand spread syntax, but what's this other thing? It looks the same but is somehow different. You're probably looking at an example of rest syntax, come learn about it.
javascriptsyntax Read MoreAll the New ES2019 Tips and Tricks
CSS Tricks post on the new additions in ES2019.
javascriptsyntax Read MoreUnderstanding ...mapGetters in Vuex
I was recently working with vuex and came across a piece of code I wanted to learn more about.
vue Read MoreHow to Turn an Existing Gatsby Site Into a Theme
Jason Lengstorf and I had a really great time on Learn With Jason porting a portion of my site into a theme! I wanted to write up that process so that others can do it too.
gatsby Read MoreSplice! Slice! Shoot, I meant Shift!
Figuring out what array manipulation function to use in JavaScript is such a common joke at this point. There are a lot of them, and most of them seem to start with an 's'! Let's dive into a handful of these functions.
javascriptsyntax Read MoreDeep vs Shallow Copy - with Examples
The spread operator is a great piece of syntax, but it produces shallow copies. What exactly does that mean? And when does it matter?
javascript Read MoreLet's loop - for...in vs for...of
These two alternatives to for loops are wonderful, but they do different things. Let's understand them better!
javascriptsyntax Read More5 Uses for the Spread Operator
JavaScript has a bunch of syntax that aims to make your life easier as a developer. The spread operator is a particularly popular option, so let's see what you can do with it!
javascriptsyntax Read MoreIntroducing Object.fromEntries
We're learning about ES2019 and this entry is all about understanding the Object.fromEntries function.
javascriptsyntax Read MoreUnderstanding Array.prototype.flatMap
ES2019 added a new function called flatMap for manipulating arrays. In this post we're going to learn all about it.
javascriptsyntax Read MoreDemystifying Array.prototype.flat
I'm an ECMAScript junky and I wanted to dive into the latest features! In this post we'll look at Array.prototype.flat.
javascriptsyntax Read More3 Powerful Examples of Destructuring Assignment
ES2015+ introduced so many wonderful features, but destructuring assignment may be one of the most powerful and versatile of them all.
javascriptsyntax Read MoreA Primer on SEO
Ever wondered what a canonical_url was? Or how sites show up early in your search results?
Read MoreStaring Down a Stack Trace
Stack traces are a map to help you solve your bug, but how do you navigate it?
learning Read MoreThe Tech Career Guide
The tech industry is so large there are any number of paths to take your career. This is a roll-up of a handful of them.
career Read MoreWhat it Means to be a Technology Consultant
If you've ever been curious about what it means to be a consultant, this post is for you!
career Read MoreHoney, I Type Checked the Children
The cli added this line of code, it says something about isRequired. So I guess I'll just leave it there?
javascript Read MoreWhat's With All the Props Anyway?
Another day, another piece of boilerplate code that we should explore!
react Read MoreExports and Imports and Defaults, Oh My!
Too often we see throwaway lines of code inside frameworks and projects that we don't take the time to understand. Let's explore export default App in React projects!
javascriptsyntax Read MoreVocabulary Is Not Job Security
The fact that only one person can understand what is going on in a given project is hurting your team and your company!
learning Read MoreResponsive Design and Mobile First
How do I make my site look good on my phone? What even are media queries? Why does this have a JavaScript tag?
css Read MoreThe Layers of JS...Styles Remix
Confused by what layer of the stack is currently in charge of that weird misalignment issue? Come join me!
cssjavascript Read MoreThe Layers of CSS
You thought the link text would be purple, but it's actually blue! CSS is making tough decisions about which style to use every time it renders your page.
css Read MoreDon't Get Fooled By Errors
When you trigger an error it's easy to give up, or change your code just to get around it. Here are some ways to walk through the error and try to solve it.
learning Read MoreThe Layers of Javascript
Javascript, ES6, JSX...what does this all mean?!
javascript Read MoreOnline Learning Tips and Tricks
There are so many wonderful resources out there, but how can you make the most use of them?
learning Read MoreRewriting A Static Website Using Gatsby and GraphQL - Part 3
This post is all about Gatsby image! I decided to update my personal site away from Jekyll. In the process I learned about GatsbyJS, GraphQL and all of the errors! Check out this series for a granular walkthrough.
gatsby Read MoreRewriting A Static Website Using Gatsby and GraphQL - Part 2
I decided to update my personal site away from Jekyll. In the process I learned about GatsbyJS, GraphQL and all of the errors! Check out this series for a granular walkthrough. In this post I tackle the syntax to replace Liquid templating in my html files.
gatsby Read MoreRewriting A Static Website Using Gatsby and GraphQL
I decided to update my personal site away from Jekyll. In the process I learned about GatsbyJS, GraphQL and all of the errors! Check out this series for a granular walkthrough.
gatsby Read MoreOptimistic UI does not Guarantee an Intuitive UX
A Pessimistic Viewpoint on Optimistic UI In a typical design that follows REST call patterns, the UI makes a call to the backend and updates based on the success or failure of that call. In an optimistic UI, however, the design assumes a successful call, makes the visual and...
Read MoreTechnology for the Non-Technical
In a perfect world, no one needs help using the technology that’s critical to getting their job done. Far too often, however, the technology team is needed to maintain and update another team’s tools. This leads to increased costs, delays, and frustrations when what you need is not what...
Read MoreAtom as an Alternative Development Environment
In years past the best development environment was almost always expensive, both to acquire and maintain. When these tools moved to a subscription model based on specific tech stacks and languages, cost and complexity for developers only increased. Even widely-adopted alternatives such as Eclipse, while open source, suffers from...
Read MoreThe Tablecloth Trick - How to Modernize Legacy Software
Change is constant. Your business priorities shift, personnel come and go, and the technology you built your product with evolves over time. You’ve built a great product and your customers love it. They love it so much, they may not want to see it change. The longer you put...
Read MoreAngular 1 or 2 - Which is the Best for Your Project?
With Angular 2 coming out of beta, it is now available as a front end framework for your new project. Yet, some developers are still choosing to code new applications with Angular 1. My colleague wrote back when Angular 1 was relatively new about why you should care, but...
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