Why don’t you blog more? I’ve came to the realization that the reason I’ve been slacking is because of the path of least resistance is social media. Just look at how easy making a tweet is:
Write a quick thought, hit tweet and wait for the hate to come in. Where as if you want to write a blog post I get this:
It just feels like I not only need to write, but figure out a title, probably research my argument, and then post it into the void where I get zero feedback.
I’m not saying one is better than the other and I’d imagine blogging with the extra time and effort makes for a better internet but it’s just interesting to me how just a few extra steps makes me gravitate toward the easiest option.
Lately, I’ve gotten a few spam emails from a person claiming they want to sell a domain that is related to one I own. Here is a sample email:
Hello,
We intend to unload one of our cherished assets,
{domain-name-here}
Would you be keen to discuss this? This is priced in 3 figures ($199 to $999). If interested in owning this domain, feel free to contact me.
Of course it looks and feels like spam, but I decided I’d just run a quick whois on the domain mentioned and it wasn’t even registered. I’m going to assume if I said I’d buy it then they would register it for the $12 or w/e and then sell it to me for the amount offered, or more likely they’d just keep my money.
The main reason I’m sharing this is because I thought it was a pretty interesting angle. They have zero invested and just wait for the suckers to come along.
If you have to do a lot of work with print styles it can get super annoying because the only way to preview your changes is to hit “command + p” in the browser and have it open the print pdf preview. It’s slow and cumbersome to do it that way and there is a much better solution.
Open the developer tools in Chrome or Brave, then go to options -> more tools -> rendering -> emulate css media type “Print”. Here is a screenshot showing the setting:
After this you can inspect anything you want and see how it’ll look when printed right in the normal browser window.
We recorded this a few weeks ago and to give Matt a laugh I dressed up for the interview. It worked and caught him off guard since the normal developer dress code is shorts and a hoodie.
It was a lot of fun doing this and go give it a listen.
My RSS reader of choice is Feedbin, but occasionally I like to login to Feedly and see how my feeds look using it. It’s been a long time since I’ve done this and this was the login screen:
Talk about analysis paralysis I have no idea what I originally used to login or to create my account. So now I’ll choose nothing and go back to work.
As creators we need to remember that less options is usually better. Don’t make me think especially when it’s a core tenant to actually using your app.
I think we can all use some good news in our lives right now, which is why this is number one trending thing on YouTube. Also because Steve Carell is a guest and The Office is the greatest sitcom ever.
“A boy doesn’t have to go to war to be a hero; he can say he doesn’t like pie when he sees there isn’t enough to go around.” — Edgar Watson Howe
It’s the first weekend of a mandatory “stay home” order in my state due to covid-19 and the kids are ready to go stir crazy. Luckily I got a new pack of Field Notes that allow you to customize them with your own circle image. So we had art day…
The end results turned out pretty well…
I’m a big fan of doing things away from screens and this was a perfect activity.
This is my current iPhone home screen and I’ve been using this for a while now. Basically moving all apps off the home screen and leaving it blank. This way it’s nice and minimal when I pick up the phone with only a few apps right in front of me. I can always swipe to the other pages or use the pull down search if I’m needing something, but I like having all the stuff out of sight.
It’s funny how much this has changed since 2018 and 2017.
Social distancing doesn’t have to be terrible if you can find things to pass the time. This afternoon I’m having a little fun making new captions for the newspaper comics.
A couple of years ago a friend sent me a three pack of field notes and I honestly didn’t get the point. I tried to use them but I didn’t see the benefit over a bigger notebook I kept on my desk.
I was recently doing some cleaning and came across the notebooks again and decided to give them another go. Grabbed a pen and stuck one in my pocket.
It’s been about a week now and even though I work from home having it my pocket is so useful. It’s quick to pull out and jot down a note, a reminder, a quote, or anything else.
Then when I get back to my desk I either copy to my main larger notebook or setup things in my calendar. I’m now a convert and just ordered a couple more sets. Of course, field notes is the main brand but any pocket size notebook will work. Give it a try and let me know what you think.
Every so often we do family art night. It’s fun, the kids enjoy it, and we get free drawings to decorate our house with. Winning all around!
I will say painting is hard without practice. Just like this one I created tonight that was supposed to be black panther eyes. I knew how I wanted it to end up, but couldn’t get the paint to do what I wanted. Just makes one realize how good the professionals are.
I think reading is essential, and I want to pass on the love of it to my kids. Last year I had the idea of a new program in our household, every first day of the month I would buy them a new book, and it could be 100% their choice. I didn’t care if it’s the Very Hungry Caterpillar or an autobiography of Gandhi. Any book they want, I’ll buy it for them.
It gives us something to look forward to every month, and I think it’s pretty exciting seeing their choices. Right now, one is loving illustrated books, and the other is into fiction.
This month my oldest wanted the Hunger Games, so I got her the box set. I’m pretty sure that she is attempting to beat the system, but I’m not going to complain that it’s three instead of one.
The Ride of a Lifetime by Bob Iger is about his business life. How he got his start, how he became CEO of Disney, and some of his thinking behind the purchases he made at Disney. During his tenure that was Pixar, Marvel, LucasFilm, and Fox.
The book is sort of a memoir, yet in the opening sentence he says its not. It’s a chronological narrative of his life. From early childhood and his family that is a catalyst for his beliefs all the way through being one of the most powerful CEO’s in the world. But beyond that the book is really a management and leadership book.
He covers some of the challenges he’s faced over the years, and how sticking to a few basic principles like honesty, integrity, and humbleness you can make it far.
What I find great about the book is Disney is a creative company and he gives specific differences on how to manage creative people which transitions well into software. Here is one paragraph on giving critiques that works for designers, developers, and pull requests:
“I never start out negatively, and unless we’re in the late stages of production, I never start small. I’ve found that often people will focus on little details as a way of masking a lack of any clear, coherent, big thoughts. If you start petty, you seem petty. And if the big picture is a mess, then the small things don’t matter anyway, and you shouldn’t spend time focusing on them.”
Overall, I really enjoyed this book and if you are in any management role, even if you manage open source software, it’s worth reading and seeing how you can take what works in one of the largest companies to managing a small project. No matter the size the same core values are the same.
If you’d like to get a copy it’s on Amazon for around $15 depending on what version (kindle, hardcover, paperback) you prefer.
Eric L. Barnes 
