Stretching yourself - 123dev #83

A little pressure, the right way

Sometimes we get stretched in multiple directions at once. When this happens we end up flat and shapeless. But when we’re pushed to go deeper in a single direction we can stretch a lot further than we ever expected.

This probably means you need to say no to a lot of cool opportunities. But if keep disciplined in applying pressure in the same direction not only will you go a lot further, but it’ll serve you better in your career. The world has lots of people with shallow, shapeless experience. Being formed into a tool can be much more useful and valuable to the companies who need your experience.

The first ship of grain set sail in Ukraine after the recent agreement to allow exports. The president said a million jobs depend on the shipments continuing. This made me think how difficult it must be to go to work when your country is at war. Going back to some form of “normal” because that is what makes the economy function.

I sometimes have a hard time doing my job from the comfort of my house when my kids are slightly sick. The thought of doing manual labor while the cities where my friends and family live are being bombed is a level of commitment and purpose I’ve never been required to have. I wonder if I would be brave enough to do it.

It’s easy to think other companies are doing better than yours. Better infrastructure, cleaner code, tests, documentation—it’s good to have a reality check once and a while. The replies to this tweet will hopefully make you feel better about the state of your technical debt and processes.

I need to remember to use ugit instead of Googling my problem every time. Really helpful for undoing git commands

I was in a Twitter space last week and shared some of my experience creating videos and talks. I always recommend you create learning material the way you would like to learn. It won’t resonate with everyone, but the people who learn the same way will love it.