
I'm embarking on a new chapter of life: **joining Murmur, a platform that will change the future of work.**

On Tuesday, October 13th, I'll be joining the team (as employee #2) at Murmur to build collaborative software to help teams decide how they're going to work together. We're doing this by guiding them through the process of making working agreements where everyone gives consent.

[Aaron Dignan](https://aarondignan.com) (author of [Brave New Work](https://www.bravenewwork.com/) and Founder of [The Ready](https://theready.com/)) reached out to me to talk about self-management a few weeks ago and he introduced me to the vision for Murmur. When he asked me "what do you think?" the first thought in my mind was "my whole adult life has led me to this moment of saying 'this was what I was made to do.'".

Thankfully, Aaron thought so too, because he asked me if building the Murmur platform was something I wanted to be a part of! As an alternative, he gave me the opportunity to simply give advice about how I would build the software. If I did decide to join, the decisions would be the ones I'd want to make anyways.

I wasn't _looking_ for something new, in fact, I was preparing to dig into my path at Webflow deeper doing this same type of work, but within teams rather than as software. Because I wasn't looking, I had mixed emotions: I knew this was a rare opportunity that I would regret not taking but I had also started to settle in to making an impact at Webflow with people I enjoy working with on a product I think will also change the future of innovation.

After a week of grappling, I told Aaron that I'm all in.

I'm excited to be a part of the inception of Murmur and excited to see what's to come in building software to help teams decide how to work together in a way that puts humans at the center of the process.

# Summary

**Where are you headed?**

A startup called [Murmur](https://murmur.com).

**What will you be doing?**

Building a platform for teams to collaborate on how they decide to work together. I'll be involved in designing and building the software and helping to create a team.

**What's interesting about it?**

- This is a stepping stone to helping teams and companies move towards self-organizing. One of my greatest passions at work is helping teams do the meta work of deciding how they work together, work on process improvement and increase clarity.
- This platform _doesn't exist_ today. I'll be involved in helping get the software topology and software systems up and running and building out a team to help it start and help it scale.
- This will be the second self-organizing structured organization I've been a part of but the first one where there's someone who knows what works and what doesn't and how to figure out what works and what doesn't in a way that makes me confident we'll do it the most authentic way.

**What's scary about it?**

As always, I'll reach for an analogy involving canoes...

Every time I've changed jobs in the past, I've brought my canoe to an existing reservoir and helped clean it up or make it better, but the hole was dug and the water was there.

With Murmur, I'm coming into a plot of land, a map, a blueprint and some shovels and the reservoir has to be dug and filled. For me, that comes with a great amount of responsibility.



I'm embarking on a new chapter of life: joining Murmur, a platform that will change the future of work.

Joining Murmur


**_The most important part of being a successful contributor on a distributed team is being equipped with the right tools and frameworks to help you transition into this new paradigm._**

# My Distributed Journey

Before working from home, I'd worked at a number of in-office jobs, the last of which was working on Software at Zappos. I had a 30 minute commute both ways to an open-office where I would sit down at my desk around 9AM, interact with peers almost all day, clock out around 5:30 or 6 and drive again for 30 minutes.

I started working from home in 2015 for Walmart Labs on a fully distributed team, building software for other teams to use. I transitioned into a job where I could wake up whenever I wanted (which didn't change), my commute was 15 seconds to a guest bedroom in our house, where no one else knew (nor did they care, it turned out) what my hours were, where no one knew if I decided to wear jammies and by the end of the day, I could be confident I didn't have to worry about sitting in traffic.

If you go into a change like this unprepared, it's easy to end up confused, feeling lost and even in a place where you think that this "remote thing" isn't for you. Despite that feeling, I challenge you to consider some tips and techniques I've found to help keep me grounded and help me do my best work and stay on task without also sacrificing my personal life.

**The tips that I've found to be most useful for my success and mental health are:**

- **Maintain your personal routines**
- **Connect virtually with co-workers as often as possible**
- **Start your week and your day with a concrete plan**
- **Create a dedicated workspace**
- **Stop Working When You Should Stop**

# Tip 1: Maintain Your Personal Routines

Most people think that their greatest temptation when working from home will be _not_ to work, however, I've found that my temptation is to _keep_ working all the time. The best way you can equip yourself for either temptation is to **create and maintain _personal_ routines and rituals that bookend when you want your day to start and end**.

Here's what my routine looks like:


- I wake up and make a coffee between 5:30-6AM.
- I write or pursue a hobby (reading or 3d printing) for an hour or two before my daughter wakes up.
- I make my daughter her breakfast.
- I walk the dogs.
- I take a shower and get dressed for work.
- I make another coffee, fill up my water bottle, give my family a kiss and head to my office.
- I take my mouse and keyboard out of their box, turn them on, turn on my monitor and...
- START WORK...and work until END WORK.
- I turn off my monitor, turn off my external mouse and keyboard and put them in a box. I always try to leave my desk "pristine".
- I go downstairs and have dinner with my family.
- I do bedtime routine with my daughter.
- I walk the dogs.

As you can see, my day is bookended with things I care about and _can't_ skip. Find the things that matter to you and bookend your day with those so that you know "it's time to start work" and "it's time to wrap up work".

**Note: You may think you don't already have rituals or routines, but things like "eating breakfast" and "showering" are good anchors for setting up rituals and routines to fill the time you may get back from no longer having a long commute. It's easy to think "I can sleep in now!" but the best thing you can do to be successful is to find ways to fill that newly acquired time. It may be spending time reading, exercising, finding a new hobby or if you have a family, spending time with them.**

# Tip 2: Connect Virtually with Co-Workers As Often As Possible

If you're a knowledge worker that's used to putting on a pair of headphones at the beginning of the day and hacking away on the computer by yourself, you may think work from home is going to give you that much more time to hack away at stuff. Now that you're work from home though, there are probably a lot of opportunities you once had in an office to collaborate or socialize that's now been stripped from you.

## Setup Pair Programming/Maker Sessions

Whatever you work on, you're probably not in a situation where you need to do it alone, so check in with a co-worker and ask them if you can schedule some time to pair on something. As a developer, I setup 4-5 sessions a week that last anywhere from 2-5 hours (it's important to be aware of when you or your pairing partner have hit a wall, this kind of work is mentally a lot more taxing than it is when you work alone). In most roles, there are opportunities to collaborate with a teammate or someone else in the organization on work that either of you are working on. This time doubles as an opportunity to interact with others outside of your neighbors/roommates/family.

## 10% Time

If your company gives you 10% time, this is a great time to try to connect with someone you may not normally cross paths with. It's also a great way to use that time to interact. 10% time is an opportunity for you to step outside of your daily role/routine/tasks and focus on things like writing, finding creative ways to use existing tools or building tools. You can also start a book club with some co-workers and use 10% time to have a weekly zoom where you talk about what you're reading. If you do this, a great way to keep it up is to make sure that you make it a ritual, by doing it the same time every week and putting it on people's calendars.

## Team Building

One of the things I've done that I've found to be a lot of fun, especially at companies where team building is encouraged, is to play boardgames online together over Zoom.

If you're not using it now, **talk to your company about investing in Zoom**.

# Tip 3: Start Your Week and Your Day with a Concrete Plan

When I worked in an office it was common for someone to catch me within the first 30 minutes of my day and ask me to help with something reactive. If you're in this boat, you'll find that Slack (or whatever tool your company uses for communication) is now the avenue people will use to "tap you on the shoulder". Working from home has a happy side effect of giving _you_ the ability to control your day.

The best way to control your day: plan at the end of the day every day.

At the end of the day every day, I write down what I _plan to do tomorrow_. I write it down with as much concrete detail as possible. If you work on a team that uses sprints or iterations or some version of long-term (weekly or bi-weekly planning), use your planned tasks to determine what you'll do tomorrow and do it in detail based on where you left off today. I usually write down one big task and 2-3 little tasks.

When you sit down at your desk (more on this coming up), _just do what you had planned_. Don't open Slack. Don't check your email. Don't open Twitter. **Open the tool you use for doing work and check off your tasks you had planned.**

Something really amazing happens when you plan your day and don't have an easy way for people to interrupt you: you find yourself done with everything you planned to do and sometimes more than you planned in half the time it would've taken you in the office.

# Tip 4: Create a Dedicated Workspace

Having a dedicated workspace has been critical in working from home. Every time my wife and I have moved, we've looked for a place that has a room that I can use as a dedicated office. As you start to work from home and find that you're using video conferencing more frequently or find that your roommates/family are now a part of your "daily office", you'll find that those little interruptions can add up in a big way.

If you have the luxury of an extra room that's not your bedroom or a main throughfair during the day, use that room as your workspace.

## Get a Good Desk

An adjustable desk and a comfy chair can go a long way.

I've had a few desks (I built my first two. It seemed cool at the time, but trust me, invest in a desk from people who specialize in this) but I've found the [Autonomous AI standing desk](https://www.autonomous.ai/standing-desks/smartdesk-2-home) or the [Husky adustable workbench](https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-52-in-Adjustable-Height-Workbench-Table-with-2-Drawers-in-White-HOLT5202BJ1/307723266?) to be two I enjoy using.

## Get a Good Chair

As for chairs, I have _only ever owned_ a [Herman Miller Sayl](https://www.hermanmiller.com/products/seating/office-chairs/sayl-chairs/). Don't be cheap on your chair. Your butt's in it most of the day and your back will thank you if you spend the time and money finding the right one for you.

## Anything is Better Than Your Bed

**Whatever you do, don't work from bed.**

If you have a family or roommates, you're probably going to be tempted to campout in your bedroom, but beware of this because of the challenge you'll face of feeling like life starts to blend together. If you absolutely have to use your bedroom, still get a desk and find a "shutdown ritual" that helps remind you that you are no longer at work, you are at life.

If you don't have the luxury of an extra room, try out getting a [screen for a desk](https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/bekant-screen-for-desk-gray-70268811/), a [room divider](https://www.amazon.com/ACME-3-Panel-Wooden-Screen-Cherry/dp/B002WGJHB8/ref=sr_1_2?qid=1583705663&refinements=p_36%3A1253524011&s=home-garden&sr=1-2) or my favorite [an IKEA Kallax bookshelf that you can mount in the middle of a room](https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/kallax-shelf-unit-white-30275861/).

# Tip 5: Stop Working When You Should Stop

As I mentioned in a previous tip: you're probably going to find that you actually get _a lot more done_ than you used to in an office. This probably means that you'll be done a lot earlier in your day than you used to. In the first weeks and months, be kind to yourself and "clock out" when you're done. I can't tell you how many days I have wasted by trying to squeeze out a little bit more in the name of "I'm supposed to be butt's in seat until 5PM" when my brain was mush and I'd already conquered the day early on.

This new way of working is _amazing_ and the dopamine hit you'll get from increased effectiveness is going to think you're actually being more efficient. Don't trick yourself into thinking that you are a robot and you have increased efficiency (humans are terrible at efficiency, our greatest strength is our ability to be effective).

# Work Well. Live Well. Don't Burn Out.

Long-term working from home (or remote...or distributed, whatever you call it) has been one of the greatest things to happen to me in terms of being an effective contributor, a balanced person and as someone who wants to enjoy the fruits of having family. I see my wife and daughter at the beginning of every day, at lunch and I have dinner and do bedtime routine with them every night. I am so grateful to have that time back to invest it in the people I care about.

If you're in a position where you're working from home, I'd encourage you, try out these tips, be "present" at work when you're at work, be present at home when you're not at work and experiment with different tips and techniques yourself to find the balance you want out of life.


Tips that I've found to help me be successful in my transition into remote work, working from home.

Tips For Being Successful at Working From Home Long-Term


In a Gartner article on [how peer feedback boosts employee performance](https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/peer-feedback-boosts-employee-performance/), Jessica Knight, research director at Gartner, said "High-quality peer input has become an essential part of effective performance feedback".

Every company I've worked for—Zappos, Walmart Labs and Webflow—in the past 8 years has incorporated peer feedback in the annual performance review (Webflow is the only one that doesn't tie compensation to this feedback).

For high performers and contributors who interact with others across an organization this can be a really great way to receive feedback, but the hidden superpower for people in these roles is that they have the ability to _give_ insightful feedback.

One of the most important changes I made to how I give feedback was **to start keeping notes for all of the peers I interact with through the year, then to reflect on and summarize those to write my peer feedback.**

# Step 1: Keep Notes Through the Year

Immediately after interacting with someone for the first time, I create a file in a folder in Dropbox called `people` with that person's name in it and use a text expander snippet to add a list item for that interaction. As an example, if I need help with a particular feature I don't know a lot about from a peer named "Jim Johns", I would created a file in Dropbox called `people/jim-johns.md` with the following:


```md
# Summary

# Notes

- **2020-02-21T13:04** I needed some help with the slider element feature and Jane said "Jim knows a lot about it". Jim was really helpful and the way he walked through the internals of the feature felt like we were exploring it together and he was letting me learn it and ask questions. I was really comfortable asking questions that felt silly because he often responded to my questions by first saying "great question!".
```

Some things to note about the above example:
- **I keep a timestamp (format: [year]-[month]-[day]T[hour]:[minute]).** I find the timestamp to be helpful because it helps me zoom out and if I have notes that are negative, I can look at my journal and see how _I_ was feeling that day. I find that including "I was having a hard day" also helps to show that sometimes "negative" feedback comes from where I was that day and give context that "maybe this was just me on that day" if I have any negative feedback.
- **I write about _what_ our interaction was about.** The what's important to me because it will help me recall the situation better when I'm summarizing and will likely help the person I'm giving feedback to recall specific situations.
- **I write how the interaction made me feel.** How I felt during/afterwards is important because it helps express what behaviors make me feel special. I generally only write about the behaviors that were positive (if I experienced behaviors that made me feel hurt or frustrated, I try to address that as soon as it happens. I've yet to have an interaction that ended negatively that repeated itself.)
- **I include the person who connected us**. I believe connectors are critical contributors at work. Whenever I include the connector, it makes it easier to search the whole directory for people's names if they request feedback. If I find Jane's name numerous times, I can add that to the summary that I keep for her.

# Step 2: Review and Summarize

Once I have 4-5 interactions, I'll try to summarize feedback into my `# Summary` section. I don't usually wait until peer feedback time to do this, but I usually do it when I can see that there are patterns of strengths, behaviors and qualities of a person that stand out. I also add a ⭐to a few of the interactions that I want to highlight to my feedback. I find specific examples as a good way to indicate I genuinely mean what I wrote in the summary.

# Step 3: Identify Opportunities for Growth

There are always opportunities for a person to grow. Sometimes they'll feel negative, but other times it'll be opportunities around skills/strengths an individual has that they want to refine/get better at. A really great way to share this feedback is to find any interactions where you caught a glimmer of something _stellar_ that you think that person has an opportunity to do more of that will also help them shine.

# Give Awesome Peer Feedback

For the past 4 years I have had to give anywhere between 12-15 peer reviews per cycle and this process of capturing over time and collating at review time has made giving feedback an enriching, stress-free experience!

This is also helpful for people who you haven't interacted with in a long time or don't interact with that frequently. This is a wonderful gift to those people because it shows you cared enough to be prepared and that you, someone they chose to request feedback from, took the time to reflect on your interactions with them.

I should also note that people have asked me for feedback outside of these cycles and when they do, it makes it a lot easier to give that feedback because I've already done the work to collect my thoughts!

[Thanks to David Hoang for inspiring me to write this post. His twitter post recommending managers keep a document on "what they've done" nudged me to write about the documents I keep to give awesome peer feedback.](https://twitter.com/davidhoang/status/1230886326561492994)


Many companies are incorporating peer feedback into performance reviews. Here's how I prepare to give awesome peer feedback.

How to Give Awesome Peer Feedback


Friction is a force that affects our ability to do things. 

If you want to add good habits, reduce friction that makes those habits hard to do.

If you want to remove bad habits, create friction that makes those habits less easy to do. 

Do you spend to much money online? Delete your saved credit cards and keep your wallet or purse far out of reach. 

Do you spend to much time surging social media? Delete your apps and only log on through an Incognito window for 10 minutes, then close the window.

Friction is a powerful force to helping us shape the way we live our lives. If it's used to intentionally design habits, it becomes a leverage point to become the person you want to be. 


How I think about friction as a property of my habits.

Friction - A Secret Tool for Successful Habits


I am _not a_ remote worker, **I am a part of a distributed team.**

The word “remote” is loaded with negative baggage: something or someone that’s far away, distant; isolated. Something or someone that’s out of touch with the reality of how things really are.

As a software engineer, when I think about the term “remote”, I think about accessing a machine that’s out of sight, but one in which I can control. It’s uni-directional, communication is often flaky at best and creates frustration in the ability to be effective.

The term “remote” focuses on _where the team member is_ . It doesn’t address _what_ needs to be done or _how_ to do it. The _where_ is **totally irrelevant to the work.**

The term “distributed,” however, naturally lends itself to thinking about **what needs to be done and how we go about doing it together.**

Communication on a distributed team isn’t uni-directional, it’s not even bi-directional, it’s **n-directional** , as each individual now decides how they collectively work towards a common purpose.

An organization shifting from having remote workers to **the** **distributed model helps teams transcend the “remote vs in-office” mentality**. In a remote model, it’s common for those who are in an office (which may very well be remote from the home office) to ask, “why does that person get to work from home (or co-working space) and I have to be in the office?” It’s also common that a remote worker feels they’re left out of the loop because communication is done in person.

Shifting from thinking about people as “remote” to teams being distributed teams allows us to streamline communication, create stronger connections, expand the candidates we hire so we find the best fit for our teams, not just “local” talent.

**The distributed team paradigm focuses on...**

- _how_ we work being the driving force to our success (not _where_ we work)
- goals being concrete and achievable
- communication being clear and focused
- individual self-management equally contributing to the team’s success

  **The distributed team paradigm is _not..._**

- an opportunity to shirk responsibility
- a way to get out of being a part of a group
- the chance to get out of meetings or being around people

  **The distributed model** allows us to do our best work when our bodies and minds are most optimal, rather than feeling the need to be “butts in seats from 9–5 to be noticed.” As our technologies become more distributed (as they already have), our _teams_ becoming distributed facilitates our abilities to think of how our software works (and can be better) and how our software works helps us shape the way our teams effectively move our products towards their ultimate purpose.

So this is a call to join us in our journey to eliminate the idea of remote workers and **embrace the idea of distributed teams** . Over the next few months we’ll be posting retrospectives of what we’ve done and how it worked for our teams. We invite you to join us in doing the same and using the tag #distributedteams and sharing what you’ve tried, what worked and what didn’t go so well.

We are not remote. We are not in-office. **We are Distributed.**


The term 'remote' focuses on where the team member is. It doesn’t address what needs to be done or how to do it. The where is totally irrelevant to the work. The term 'distributed', however, naturally lends itself to thinking about what needs to be done and how we go about doing it together. I am not a remote worker, I am a part of a distributed team.

Remote is Dead, Long Live Distributed


**I want to be the best person I ever manage.**

This is a systematic approach at discovering and documenting who I am. Many of the high-level concepts in this document are heavily borrowed from Peter F. Drucker's _Managing Oneself_.

# Introduction

I believe I can be systematically discoverable.

When I left Zappos.com 4 months ago to work with Walmart Labs, there were many aspects of my professional life that changed and these changes catalyzed a movement in me to systematically discover who I was.

- I transitioned from being "required" to be in an office to being fully distributed & outside of an office
- I transitioned from being on a team with a project manager and sprints to a team that was fully autonomous and self-driven, and for a lack of a better term, was continuously delivering
- I transitioned from a reactive sense of responsibility to a proactive thoughtfulness
- I transitioned from the customer being my customer to engineers who served the customer's needs as being my customer

As is true of any new venture, I felt ill-equipped to successfully make these transitions with the toolset I had. By some strange twist of Amazon recommendations, I stumbled onto _Managing Oneself_ by Peter F. Drucker. **This is [one of three books that I recommend to anyone wanting to chart a path for being an impactful and effective person](/essential-books).**

One of the excerpts that stood out most to me was:

> "Successful careers are not planned. They develop when people are prepared for opportunities because they know their strengths, their method of work, and their values."

The key to success isn't planning, it's knowing _yourself_.

This documentation is the outflow of me attempting to know myself, in a pragmatic, systematic way, based on insights from _Managing Oneself_.

# Desired Outcomes

There are a few desired outcomes I have for doing this, in descending order of importance:

- **Capturing & Understanding Myself.** Ultimately, this guide is for me. I want to have an understanding of myself so I can make better, more prudent decisions based on what I've discovered. Whether it's "should I take this professional opportunity" or "should I engage in this in my freetime", this document and systematic discovery should guide me. If no one else ever looked at it, it would still be worthwhile.

- **Sharing Myself with Peers & Future Peers.** I know that if I work with (or for) someone directly, I want them to be the kind of person who wants to know these topics about me. I want to provide as much information as I can about myself so that I'm (1) a respected and impactful peer, (2) effective in the work where I collaborate and (3) available to be used for the clearly defined strengths, in the method that I do it best, while fully aligned with my values.

- **Sharing The Framework with Others Like Myself.** When I realized this project was a priority, I had no idea where to start...even before I realized it was a priority, I put off making it a priority for that very reason. I want to provide not only what I find about _myself_ by using this framework, but the framework itself. It would be exciting for me to have peers who say, "I took a systematic approach at documenting myself too!" If this document can help one other person, that is a huge win for me.

# Framework

The framework is simple, and as I said before, is heavily borrowed from _Managing Oneself_. As the book itself is really more of a long-form essay (you can find a free [pdf copy here](https://www.usb.ac.za/Common/Pdfs/usb-career-center/articles/HBR%20Managing%20Oneself.pdf)), this is an abstraction of what Drucker suggests any thought-worker should know about themselves and what process I went through to actually figure these things out.

## Strengths, Method of Performing & Values

The first task Drucker recommends is to answer the following questions:

- What are my Strengths?
- How Do I Perform?
- What Are My Values?

###  What Are My Strengths?

This one can be _really_ hard to figure out on your own, fortunately, there's a framework that exists to help you do that already!

I used [StrengthsFinder 2.0](https://strengths.gallup.com/110440/About-StrengthsFinder-20.aspx). If you buy the book, there's a code to take the StrengthsFinder assessment in the back and IMO, the introduction is worth the price of the book and the rest of the book makes a great reference after you've taken the assessment.

You can see the answer to ["What are My Strengths?" here.](/strengths)

###  How Do I Perform?

There are two questions here:

- Am I a Reader or Listener?
- How Do I Learn?

The first one is an easier question to answer: think about the times you've solved a problem or created a mental model of something. Did you do it by reading from texts and documentation or did you do it by having a conversation with yourself and others?

How Do I Learn was a little trickier, so I deferred to the experts and found a questionnaire on [vark-learn.com](https://vark-learn.com/the-vark-questionnaire/). It's a free test and the feedback is given to you on a scale for four categories (VARK):

- Visual
- Aural
- Reading/Writing
- Kinisthetic

Once you've taken the questionnaire and get your feedback, there's lots of great information on:

1. how to intake information
2. how to successfully take notes and
3. how to successfully perform in any test, assignment or examination.

I think 3 could also be general output, as I don't / haven't done any of those 3 tasks in a long time, but I believe how to best output would be great for preparing for meetings, deep-dives & presentations.

Taking this assessment was really helpful in giving me the information I need to know how I consume information to best perform at work and explained a lot about why I do my best work when I interact with people.

## What Are My Values?

This was probably the _trickiest_ one of all because there's no "discovery" framework that I could find that made it really easy to answer questions and get a response with answers about who you are, so I decided to do a self-inventory over time of what really mattered to me in the moment.

For 3 weeks every time I felt excited about something or really frustrated about something, I'd write it down. Whether that was at work or at home, I'd think about the "event" and write down some abstraction about what it exemplified.

As an example let's take "Do. Document. Distribute. Automate": Whenever I was able to automate a process that I used to do by hand, it'd put me on top of the world, so I wrote down "automate". Automation, however, was not the whole picture, it was the ability to start with something and work through the process of documenting it, having others help with it and eventually automating it so we could do _other things_ that were _more important_.

I did this for around 30 different phrases and then sat with those, removed many and prioritized the others as "inside out", meaning the values that impacted other values were at the top. "God foremost, Family first" is the lens through which everything els is filtered. After that "Glow In The Dark" because if I wasn't pursuing a life where I was glowing in the dark, the rest didn't matter.

# Final Thoughts

Using this framework to discover who I am has empowered me with one of the most important tools I could ever have: **To know myself.**

Knowing myself and having it documented allows me to revisit it so that I can grow in my strengths, challenge my values and use how I perform to be better in all areas of life. It allows me to give my current and future peers a look into who I am so they can decide if I'm a good fit for their team or organization and **give others a recipe for discovering who they are so they can _glow in the dark_.**


This is a systematic approach at applying 'Managing Oneself' to my life. Many of the high-level concepts in this document are heavily borrowed from Peter F. Drucker's Managing Oneself.

A Systematic Approach to Managing Oneself


[As I'm leaving Zappos to go to Walmart Labs](/2015/07/walmart-labs), I've been reflecting on some of the great qualities I appreciated over the years. One of the qualities that comes to mind over and over is the value people put on celebrating employees for their time, effort and work.

In this post, I'm going to highlight 6 ways that have resonated with me most. The crazy thing is, they have nothing to do with compensation and everything to do with **letting people know they're valued**.

![[1333490B-2B2B-48E7-B95E-69CFD8C242D9.jpeg]]
# Welcome Them During New Hire Graduation

When you join Zappos, _generally_ you go straight into New Hire Training: a month long endeavour to learn about the company history and get a better grasp on _our_ customer. On the last day of New Hire Training, we have a graduation where Zapponians pack the room, bring noise makers and hoot and holler for the new team members that will join their teams on the following Monday.

When I joined Zappos, I was on a team called "FEZ" (Frontend @ Zappos) and it's customary to give every new FEZZER a FEZ hat. I still have mine and plan on keeping it even though my time with Zappos is over.

I'm not advocating for a month long training course for all new employees, but having a big batch of employees start on the same day of the week/month and welcoming them with a big group of people is a really great first experience.

# Celebrate their anniversary

During New Hire Training, you get a temporary license plate to hang over your desk and Zappos honors your first year by replacing your temporary license plate with a real license plate with your name on it. Most teams will go to lunch to celebrate an anniversary and every anniversary generally comes with some sort of swag. Also...cake. Every anniversary comes with cake and a big shout across the floor: "Hey everybody, it's [fill in the blank]'s 5 year anniversary today!"

# Celebrate their hard work

This may seem like a no brainer, but it's really easy to glaze over celebrating hard work. In my opinion (and in my experience), this isn't done very well at a high level at Zappos, but leadership within my department has always done a great job of celebrating the work we've done.

It makes it a lot easier to get through the muck when you know that the people asking you to do it care.

**Note: Even if the work doesn't result in the high level desired outcome, it doesn't mean the people didn't do the best they could with the tools you gave them, so don't use "they didn't meet the results" as an excuse.**

# Co-worker Bonuses

...because your peers are the people who know who's working hard.

This one is probably my favorite: At Zappos everyone has a \$50 co-worker bonus to award to someone (per month) who's "Wowed" them. You may think to yourself, "that seems gameable!" but I think it's the most under-utilized tool we have. One of my favorite things to do is to give co-worker bonuses to somebody who's pushed hard to wow their team. When I receive them, it's one of the best ways for me to feel validated in the work that I've done.

# Ask them what problems they're facing...and do something about it

I'm getting on a high horse with this one: I've had some really amazing conversations with leadership for my teams and Tech and seen some great changes.

If a leader says, "what's holding you back?" or "what problems are you facing with xyz?" and an employee says, "abc is a problem." **do something about abc.**

# Sprint Awards

My team does two week sprints (which is a "regular, repeatable work cycle") and at the end of every sprint, someone's given the sprint award based on team nominations followed by a vote. We usually get a plush character (in the past we've had Luigi and Bowser, currently we have Stuart the Minion) and the winner gets to keep it on their desk for the sprint.

It might sound kind of silly (and it is because my team is awesome like that) but it's a great reminder that the team appreciates that individual. If you're on a team but you don't have a regular "cycle" for work, you could still have a 2 week celebration where a team member is awarded with a "we love you, you're awesome." award.

![[6D04DBD9-3736-4B84-9E88-574E61B68834.jpeg]]
# A Final Thought on The Weight of Leadership

One major takeaway here is that if you're a leader, your "title" matters for how people are going to receive a lot of these examples. For instance, if you are a CEO and you email an employee to say, "hey, I really appreciate the work you've done" (and mean it), it's probably going to carry a lot more weight than if I (as a peer) did it.

**Even if you're organization is "flat", the more recognized you are as a leader in the organization, the more weight your actions carry.**

_What are some ways you appreciate about how your organization celebrates employees?_


Celebrating your employees can easily one of the best morale boosters for your organization. Here are 5 of the ways Zappos has done that for me.

Celebrate Your Employees


It was 4:30 AM. I knew I had goals for the morning, but I thought to myself, "checking my work email won't hurt. Surely no one has emailed me between 9 PM last night and this morning." The next thing I knew it was 6:30 AM and I'd spent most of my morning reactively responding to work emails.

_Work_ emails.

That morning I knew it was time to declare a separation of work and life...but I had no idea where to even start.

Fortunately, my buddy Thai, a guy who I've looked to for honing my personal operational rigor, had been dealing with the same problem. That same morning we sat and had coffee on the bistro patio at Zappos and had a conversation about how to create that separation. These solutions are directly or indirectly inspired by my conversation with Thai ([He has an awesome blog about learning ruby](https://thaiwood.io/) and is working on a book about [system adminstration with ruby](https://thaiwood.io/books/ruby-for-system-administrators/)).

# Create A Work Uniform

The first key that almost seemed obvious to creating the separation between work and life was **"create a uniform"**. It didn't have to be a "true" uniform just a token that represented that I was "on", I was at work.

Thai worked as an EMT for a while, and one of the things he had to do was to wear a standard uniform. I could see there was a definite case for having some kind of consistent thing that when you put it on, you're at work and when you take it off, you're in your life.

The funny thing is that Zappos practically hires people because they hate uniforms or rules, which might point to why many of my peers either burn out or work so hard that they're just spinning their wheels.

For me, creating a uniform actually turned out to be pretty simple. I found a [silicone wristband](https://www.reminderband.com/) that I keep in the car and as soon as I get to my parking spot at work, I shoot Jackie a text to let her know I'm in the office and done my silicone wristband. I try to take it off as soon as I get back to my car and at the latest when I get to my driveway.

![usb wristbands](https://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31SJyHRxumL.jpg) If you're in an industry where you use a USB, there are also some cool [USB wristbands](https://www.amazon.com/Wristband-Flash-Memory-Drive-White/dp/B00HSW85V4/ref=pd_sim_147_6?ie=UTF8&refRID=1D1M8X1193AR8Z33V0JH) that could double as a uniform aid and storage solution. I might try this out, because I'm all about minimalist solutions.

An interesting anecdote after practicing "wearing a uniform" for a few weeks: I forgot to take it off one day and I was "tempted" to check my email...and only then did I realize I still had it on! I immediately took it off and forgot to check my email.

# Create A Work Routine

![working from the patio](/img/patio.jpg)

When I get into the office, I have a routine that involves taking the stairs to the second floor to grab a cup of coffee and two bottles of perrier, heading out to the Zappos Cafe patio and writing documentation or working on an internal project and finally making my way up to the 5th floor. I used to do this before team standup (which was at 10 AM), but now that we have a virtual standup (which is going _really_ well), I just try to get to my desk around 10AM instead of just before.

I try really hard not to check my email before 10 AM, so that I can be proactive about the first hour of my day. I find that email is almost always a great way to derail you from the tasks _you've_ decided are important to satisfy someone else's tensions...which keeps you from getting the important stuff done.

At the end of the day, I make some notes about how I spent my day in and how I could have spent it better in [DayOne Journal for Mac](https://dayoneapp.com/). I then shut down all the applications on my work laptop and shut my computer off. I don't turn it on until the next morning when I start my routine over again.

# Timeblocks & Tasklists

I have a set amount of time that I'm willing to work, with buffers on both start and finish and a _reasonable_ list of things I know I need to get done that day. Blocking your time and having a hard limit to how long you'll stay at the office is probably the most important component of all. Being able to create limits is a difficult discipline, but it's one worth doing.

Do I stay late sometimes? Absolutely. A few weeks ago I had to stay well past my normal hard limit four nights a week, but I knew it was coming because of the gravity of the project I was working on. I let Jackie know at the beginning of the week that I was going to be late getting home every night and she was totally fine with it. I'd like to think that it's because I've been better about guarding my time lately.

One last thought on hard limits and breaking them: If you stick to your hard limits, when you do break them, make it count. Choose to stay late for _good_ reasons, otherwise people are going to (both inadvertenly and intentionally) take advantage of that.

# Liberate Your Life From Work

If you've been in the workforce for any period of time, I don't think I need to tell you how hard it can be to separate work and life. It's even harder when you work at a place like Zappos where it's almost expected that they co-exist (happy hours, unofficial events outside of work that may or may not impact how others view your performance, working on "passion" projects on nights and weekends).

If you haven't burnt out already but you're working non-stop, I imagine burn out is close. You don't have to work all the time to be a machine of productivity.

You might be thinking to yourself, "this guy is an idiot, he has no idea what he's talking about." I, myself, have been there. That's okay. I think there are seasons when we just go full-throttle and we can handle burning the candle at both ends (and those are the seasons we should be chasing the hustle). But I'd like to encourage you, that when you do hit your wall, that you come back and revisit these keys for work-life balance and try and implement at least one of them.

_So what about you? Do you have triggers for how to separate your work/life balance? Do you think work/life balance is bunk in the first place? I'd love to hear your thoughts!_


If you haven't burnt out already but you're working non-stop, I imagine burn out is close. These are the steps I took to get my life back.

Separation of Work & Life


This is a representation of how I structure my [[Obsidian]] notes. 

I will do my best to keep it as accurate as possible, but since it's imperatively generated / kept up to date, please be aware that it may not always exactly match my _actual_ structure.

# 📁 00 - Meta
This is where all of my [[Obsidian]] templates and meta-documentation about Obsidian lives.

I also keep any related media (images and videos) in this directory.

# 📁 05 - Maps of Content

A **Map of Content** is a subject note that composes other notes. It evolves from a collection of similar ideas to a long form post. It often acts as springboard into the idea and all of the ideas that relate to it.

# 📁 10 - Periodic

This is where I keep my journal files. The journal files I keep are:

- [[Template - Daily|Daily]]
- [[Template - Weekly|Weekly]]
- [[Template - Weekly Exercise|Weekly Exercise]]

# 📁 20 - Notes
This is where I keep a bulk of my notes. This could be thoughts, ideas, questions or event notes (meetings or things I do that I need to write notes for).

# 📁 30 - Collections
This is where I keep "entity" and "object" notes.

The litmus test for what notes go here is "Did I _create_ this?"

Some existing examples:
- Books
- Music
- People
- Places
- Quotes
- Software
- Things
- Videos

# 📁 40 - Projects
These are projects that _I_ am creating. There is an **Archived** directory inside of it for things that I've made and don't need to keep in the root.

Things in the root of this directory are active projects.

# 📁 42 - Dotfiles
My [[Literate Programming]] source files. I write my configuration for my computer as markdown files with embedded code blocks and tangle the embedded code blocks into code. I do this by [[Tangling Markdown (Literate Programming)]].

# 📁 50 - Self
This is where I keep notes about _me_. These are usually notes that represent some reflected moment about myself.

As an example, I keep my [[User Guide]] and [[Philosophies]] here. I also keep a note about my [[Plant-based Lifestyle]] and one about my [[Exercise Plan]].

# 📁 60 - Views
This is where I keep notes that are _strictly_ DataView files. This lets me keep task lists, refined journals and other dataview queries that have no information in them, they're just code blocks for `dataviewjs`.

# 📄 👋 Welcome
[[👋 Start Here]] is a note _solely_ for my [[Obsidian Publish]] site. It's meant to welcome new readers and give them a quick "about me" and orientation.

# 📄 Insights
This is a file for me to add on the fly ideas to when I don't know where I want to put them or if they don't make sense as their own file.

It makes it easy for me to capture ideas on the fly and revisit them on my weekly review day.

# 📄 Note Refresher
This is a file for me to review daily. It has a DataviewJS script that gets _any notes_ that were created on _this day_.

I've found that one of my favorite rituals has been to review notes and pictures that were "on this day" in the past.

# 📄 Insights
Similar to the **Insights** note, this is a file for me to add on the fly questions to when I don't know where I want to put them or if they don't make sense as their own file.

# Meta Notes
- I use numbers in front of my folders so I can order them in a way that makes sense to me (since file structures are based on alphabetical order).
- I use an increment of 10 for folders so I can always add folders in between.


The representation of how I structure my Obsidian notes.

!Obsidian Structure


I've started doing calisthenics as a part of my exercise routine. 

I've found that progressive body weight exercises allow me to grow stronger over time without needing to go to a gym. 

I have a few calisthenics educators that I like to learn from:

- Hybrid Calisthenics 
- Roger Frampton
- Strength Side

# Hybrid Routine 2.0
[Link](https://www.hybridcalisthenics.com/programs)

Repetition Speed:
-   2 Seconds Down, 1 Second Pause, 2 Seconds Up, 1 Second Pause

Rest Times:
-   90 Seconds between sets.
-   2-3 Minutes between separate exercises

[[Exercise Plan]]


Calisthenics


Climbing is my primary activity for exercise. I climb 2-3 times a week for 1.5-2 hours each session. 

Currently I climb top rope and auto belay at around a 5.11+ grade. 

# Terminology 
- **beta** - tips or additional information about a route or problem that you didn't figure out on your own. 
- **volume** - a big, often triangular,  structure that's bolted onto an indoor wall. They're often used to create bump outs from the wall to increase the challenge of a route or problem

# Climbing Styles 

There are four ways to successfully finish a climb that I hear used:

- Onsight
- Flash
- Red Point
- Go

## Onsight

**Onsight** is a successful first ascent without any beta. You can only onsight a route or problem once. 

## Flash

**Flashing** a route or problem is a successful first attempt with some beta. You can only flash a route or problem once. 

## Red Point 

A **Red Point** climb is a successful ascent after one or more attempts without falling or resting. You can red point a route or problem multiple times. 

## Go

A **Go** is when the climber climbs to the top with one or more rests or falls. You can go a route or problem multiple times. 

# Resources
- [How to write your own training plan](https://youtu.be/OQFvG00h6p4)
- [Hooper's Beta](https://www.hoopersbeta.com/library/simple-tweaks-will-completely-transform-your-climbing-anatomy-of-the-climb)
- [Remote Assessment for v4+](https://latticetraining.com/assessments/remote-assessment/)


Climbing


I use JavaScript everyday as a part of my work at [[Murmur]] and when I'm hacking.

# Relevant Notes

- [[Install NPM Dependency From GitHub URL]]
- [[Inspect a Collection of Objects in Javascript with console.table]]
- [[Highlight Navigation Element Using Javascript]]
- [[3 Resources For Sharing Code Snippets]]
- [[Cleanup Unused Imports with "Organize Imports" in VS Code]]

## JavaScript Tools
- [[Husky (JavaScript)]]
- [[Grunt]]

## JavaScript Libraries
- [[MomentJS]]
- [[date-fns]]
- [[React (JavaScript)|React]]


JavaScript


# Common Query Patterns

This is a collection built up over time of queries I use and find helpful.

- [[update or add a property to subdocuments of all found documents (MongoDB)]]

# Document Arrays

Find any documents where key `smartEvents` exist and has an array length that's greater than 0:

```
{smartEvents: { $exists: true, $not: { $size: 0 } } }
```

Find any subdocuments of `governs` and an array key for `groups` where `groups` contains an `ObjectID` of `622b8fe0968213000946ee1e`

```
{"governs.groups":{ $in: [ObjectId('622b8fe0968213000946ee1e')]}}
```

## $elemMatch
`$elemMatch` is a useful operator for when you want to search an array of subdocuments where a field contains a value. In this example, `responses` is an array with a document that has a field of `content`:

```
{responses: {$elemMatch: {"content": {$regex:"Maybe tolerances could"}}}}
```

Also note `$regex` in the query above. This operator lets you search for a regular expression (or a plain string) within a value. This is useful when you don't want to search the whole value of a property in a document.


# MongoDB Compass

I use Compass pretty heavily for querying data in MongoDB.


MongoDB


**[Obsidian Publish](https://obsidian.md/publish)** is a service that the [[Obsidian]] team provides for users who want to publish their notes directly to the internet.

It's a neat service that I used for a brief period of time but found it didn't meet my needs for writing and publishing, so I decided to [[How I Publish Obsidian Files to the Web|publish my Obsidian notes my own way]].

Despite no longer using the service, I still contribute to solution-ing in the [[Obsidian]] Discord and keep my solutions as notes to share later.

Some notes I've published about making modifications to **Obsidian Publish**:
- [[JS solution for hiding an Obsidian Publish Sidebar]]
- [[Hide "Powered by Obsidian Publish" in Obsidian Published Site]]
- [[Using Fly.io and NGINX for Proxying Obsidian Publish]]
- [[Publishing my website from Obsidian files with Dropbox]]


Obsidian Publish


> [!info] 
> _This is a round up of all the plugins, hotkey overrides, tips, tricks and settings I use for Obsidian and Obsidian Plugins._

You can read about how I [[!Obsidian Structure| structure my obsidian vault here]].

I have also experimented with [[How I Publish Obsidian Files to the Web|different ways to publish my notes to the web]] so that others can benefit from being able to see them and for a brief period of time used [[Obsidian Publish]].

# Settings
## Appearance
Setting | Value
---|---
Theme | Minimalist
Interface Font | JetBrains Mono, Menlo
Text Font | JetBrains Mono, Menlo
Monospace Font | JetBrains Mono, Menlo

# Core Plugins
Plugin | Installed | Why
--- | --- | ---
Sync | 2022-01-01 | To sync my Obsidian notes between my Macbook & iPhone
Publish | 2022-09-20 | To publish my notes to the web

# Community Plugins
Plugin | Installed | Enabled | Why
--- | --- | --- | ---
DataView | 2022-08-15 | ✅ | Supercharge data from notes.
[[Templater]] | 2022-08-15 | ✅ | Enhanced templating engine.
Sliding Panes | 2022-08-19 | ❌ | Better navigation. Thanks to [[Nick Milo]].
Periodic Notes| 2022-08-19 | ✅ | Easily create weekly notes
Note Refactor | 2022-08-19 | ✅ | Easily refactor notes
Tag Wrangler | 2022-08-19 | ✅ | Tag renaming
[[Quick Add]] | 2022-09-08 | ✅ | Easy creation of new files

# Hotkey Overrides
I like to keep my hotkeys in Obsidian close to my hotkeys in VS Code.

Command | Hotkey
--- | ---
Command Palette: Open command palette | ⌘ + shift + P 
Quick Switcher: Open quick switcher | ⌘ + P 
Note Refactor: Extract selection to new note - first name as filename | ⌘ + shift + R
Close all other panes | ⌘ + shift + W
Open link under cursor in new pane | ⌘ + .
Navigate back | ^ + _
Navigate forward | ^ + shift + _ 


- If you want to give an image an alt, you can do it by typing `[[Image.png|My Image Alt]]`. `Image.png` will be displayed and have "My Image Alt" as the alt. (**[[Obsidian Publish]]**)

# Core Plugins

## Command Palette

![[Pasted image 20220925163358.png]]

# Plugins 
- [[Dataview (Obsidian)]]
- [[Quick Add]]
# Relevant Notes

- [[Adding iFrame to Obsidian Note]]
- [[Obsidian Publish]]
- [[How I Publish Obsidian Files to the Web]]
- [[Hide "Powered by Obsidian Publish" in Obsidian Published Site]]
- [[JS solution for hiding an Obsidian Publish Sidebar]]


Obsidian


# Docker

I used [[Docker]] heavily at [[Webflow]] and now use it for serving MongoDB locally for the [[Murmur]] app. I also use it for one off runs of services I need for various projects. I usually do this by running something with `Make` or `docker-compose`.

# JavaScript

[[JavaScript]] is the language I've used for the majority of my career in technology.

## TypeScript

I wrote the first line for the Murmur app with [[TypeScript]] in September 2020. 

# CSS

I mostly use CSS as "CSS-in-JS" in [[JavaScript]] by styling components now, preferring a framework like [[Stitches (styling)|Stitches]] (personal projects such as [[curiouslychase.com]]) or [[Styled Components (styling)|Styled Components]] ([[Murmur]]) instead of css, sass or less. 

# Golang

I wrote [[Go (programming language)|Go]] at Walmart for the reverse proxy and CDN that all of Walmart subsidiaries used from December 2016 to October 2018.

# MongoDB

I used [[MongoDB]] at [[Webflow]] and it's the database behind all of the data for [[Murmur]]. 

It's great as a document store and I've found it delightful to use as they've been adding features to their aggregation pipeline and atomic operators.   

# PHP

I haven't written PHP in a long time, but I wrote it professionally when I built my first website for my family's building material supplier, [[Cofer Adams Building Center]], from December 2009 to May of 2011. 

After [[Cofer Adams Building Center]], I wrote PHP at [[Rock, Paper, Scissors Marketing]] for a little under a year.



The software and programming languages I've used over the years.

Software and Programming Languages I Use


The internet is a big place.

What's more: there are a lot of pieces, standards and concepts that make it work.

This is a collection I'm starting of all the things I think can be valuable for anyone to know about how the internet works. It will be especially valuable for anyone who's dabbling with web development who wants a good resource for all things internet.

One of the most common things everyone will experience in someway or another is [[HTTP Status Codes]]. If you've ever seen a "not found" page (404 status code) or visited a website when it was down (5xx status codes), you've probably seen numbers on the page that meant nothing to you. Those are [[HTTP Status Codes]].


My growing collection of stuff that's interesting to know about the internet.

The Internet

# Ukulele Tabs
- [Sweet Child - Guns & Roses](https://ukutabs.com/g/guns-n-roses/sweet-child-o-mine/)


Ukulele


If you're tired of sharing code snippets for other people to look at or collaborate on via [github.com](https://www.github.com), [gist.com](https://www.gist.github.com) or worse, dropbox or email, check out these three great code collaboration tools.

Collaborating on code is one of the most vital tools a developer can leverage.

We solve problems best by having a fresh set of eyes join in and talking through our solutions. Our code matures faster through having stronger developers give input. We learn more clearly by having tangible examples both in the code itself and in it's execution.

If you are like me, at one point in time the best option you thought you had was to email it. Eventually you probably learned about github.com and gist, where you could share code people could pull down locally. Unfortunately, all of these solutions are expensive to the person on the other side in both time and work.

Now frontend development is getting major contributions from both the community and companies like Google and Mozilla to help speed up our workflow. From the community, we have 3 great tools for sharing code snippets that show the code and it's execution:

- **Codepen.io** for mocking presentational ideas with HTML &amp; CSS
- **JSFiddle.net** for [[JavaScript]] interaction with the presentation layer
- **JSBin.com** for [[JavaScript]] interaction and the data/event layer

# codepen.io

[codepen.io (link)](https://www.codepen.io)

![Codepen.io](https://www.realchaseadams.com/imgs/2014/01/codepenio-1024x633.png) [Codepen Example](https://codepen.io/realchaseadams/pen/wLcse)

## What I use it for: Mocking Presentational Ideas with HTML and CSS

Codepen.io is yet another great idea from [Chris Coyier](https://chriscoyier.net/). Three of the main benefits of using it that really stand out to me are:

- It's easy to browse other people's pens for inspiration
- Forking other people's pens
- The options for HTML, CSS &amp; JS are incredibly robust

I generally use it when I've got **HTML** and/or **CSS** ideas I want to quickly share and I think someone else that I want to collaborate with will want to edit it in their own fork to share back with me.

The language options are awesome. For HTML, you get the option of using HTML, markdown, slim or jade and adding classes to the html or adding meta data to the head. For CSS, you get sass (both .sass and .scss), less and stylus. **These features alone, in my opinion, make this code collaboration tool king for presentational concepts.**

# jsfiddle.net

[jsfiddle.net (link)](https://www.jsfiddle.net)

![jsfiddle.net](https://www.realchaseadams.com/imgs/2014/01/jsfiddle-1024x633.png) [JSFiddle Example](https://jsfiddle.net/rfwEP/)

## What I use it for: Javascript Interaction with the Presentation Layer

At the office when we're talking about abstract concepts in javascript, fiddles get passed around a lot. We used JSFiddle for training our intern and it was a great way for him to do work and show us his progress.

You can save versions of your fiddle to share, which was great for us to give him a problem set and then have solutions in a different version for him to go to when he completed his solutions.

It also has a collaboration feature (which is in beta), so if you want to have multiple people in a fiddle working on it, it's the ideal feature!

# jsbin.com

[jsbin.com (link)](https://www.jsbin.com)

![jsbin.com](https://www.realchaseadams.com/imgs/2014/01/jsbin-1024x633.png) [JSBin Example](https://jsbin.com/UWuwiyi/1/edit)

![jsbin.com](https://www.realchaseadams.com/imgs/2014/01/jsbin2-1024x633.png) [JSBin Date Example](https://jsbin.com/UWuwiyi/2/edit)

## What I use it for: Javascript that focuses on data

Sometimes you need to be able to see what's under the hood when you're working with javascript. JSBin allows you to have a console (that's not your browser console), that can be run and viewed easily.

If you're working on any javascript that isn't modifying the interaction layer, you need to make sure that it's functioning as you expect and JSBin is a great tool for doing that.

**Do you know of any good sources for collaboration that other developers should know about? If so, share them!**


3 Resources For Sharing Code Snippets


> [!info]
> We sold my 3d printer when we relocated from Nevada to Colorado, so I haven't done much with it. That said, our library has 3d printers, so I may get back into it!

Today (2020-02-28) I started my journey into 3d printing! This post will be a rolling update (hopefully) of what I learn and what I'm making.

# Day 1 (2020-02-28 Fri)

- received a Monoprice Voxel
- setup Monoprice Voxel, connected it to the wifi
- connected to Monoprice Voxel through FlashPrintMP
- didn't realize I missed the instructions on loading the filament, almost ran a print without filament
- printed my first Benchy. Used auto-supports...turned out to be a lot of support (😅), but the print turned out really good for my first print!
- first print took somewhere around 2.5 hours, used around 3m of filament


3D Printing Journey


Grunt has become the build tool/task manager standard for [[JavaScript]] developers and empowered us to take control of our workflows. Better workflows mean better productivity, and Grunt has some great plugins for maximizing that productivity.

I wanted to write a [Javascript cookie manager utility](https://github.com/chaseadamsio/cookiejar), knowing full well that I was reinventing the wheel, so that I could learn how to write better Javascript as well as play with grunt.

I found that when writing any kind of javascript utility or framework, there are a few tasks that I consider standard for my projects: Watching files for changes and running tasks, checking my javascript for code consistency, running functional tests, minifying javascript and a way for the system to alert me when something goes wrong.

_A quick note: All of these tasks leverage minimatch, a 'minimal matching' utility that I highly recommend reading up on if you haven't already:_ [minimatch on GitHub](https://github.com/isaacs/minimatch)

# Grunt Watch: So you can just work

[grunt-contrib-watch on GitHub](https://github.com/gruntjs/grunt-contrib-watch)

I rarely, if ever, create a Grunt file without including watch. Being able to run `grunt watch` and know that I don't need to run my tasks over and over again allows me to shave of huge amounts of time having to context switch between the terminal and my editor.

For my cookie manager utility, this is what my watch task looks like:

Watch is pretty straight forward:

- Give it parameters for files you want to watch.
- Tell it what tasks you want to run.

Your watch task can get pretty complex with options, but I keep mine basic by just enabling livereload (which will refresh my browser automatically).

# JSHint: For Writing Consistent Javascript

[grunt-contrib-jshint on GitHub](https://github.com/gruntjs/grunt-contrib-jshint)

JSHint allows you to write cleaner, more consistent javascript. You can define your project's code standards by creating a `.jshintrc`. As most everything javascript, it's an object with key/value pairs of what standards you want to follow.

Like watch, the jshint task can be pretty simple, just pass it a minimatch array of files you want it to check and you're on your way. One extra option that I didn't show in the example above is the `beforeconcat` and `afterconcat` options. This allows you to run jshint on your source files before and your concatenated files after.

# Mocha: Automated Unit Testing

[grunt-mocha on GitHub](https://github.com/kmiyashiro/grunt-mocha)

Unit testing (or any formal testing for that matter), seems to me to be the most under-utilized tool most front-end developers have. As developers, we could save a lot of time simply by leveraging unit tests to make sure we don't break or regress code we've already written. Thankfully, there are a lot of great testing frameworks out there, and Mocha is the one that I like to use, because it allows you to run client-side unit tests in a headless browser.

_If all of that sounded like white noise, I'd check out Smashing Magazine's [Introdution to Javascript Testing](https://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2012/06/27/introduction-to-javascript-unit-testing/)._

This task is simple (starting to see a pattern here?), you tell it where your test file[s] lives and tell it to use PhantomJS. Badabing, you are now unit testing your javascript!

([Installation instructions for PhantomJS](https://phantomjs.org/download.html))

# Notify:

[grunt-notify on GitHub](https://github.com/dylang/grunt-notify)

I like to tie all of these tasks together with the Notify task. Notify will use whatever system notification application you use (Growl, notify-send, Snarl or OSX Notification Center) to alert you when something is complete or fails.

If you're running jshint or mocha, this is a great tool because it allows you to write your javascript, save your file and continue on without having to confirm everything passed in your terminal.

When something fails, grunt-notify will alert you with a notification that looks like this:

![Growl example of grunt-notify](https://f.cloud.github.com/assets/51505/982676/43c372da-0814-11e3-89e5-0cb0f45f50e1.png)

# Uglify

[grunt-contrib-uglify on GitHub](https://github.com/gruntjs/grunt-contrib-uglify)

The last task I always have in any project I create is the Uglify task. This task allows you to minify and obfuscate your javascript, which basically just means less code to do the same stuff.

I also like to add a banner with the package name, the package version, where the package lives and a timestamp.

# Your Unique Workflow

Not all workflows are created equal, and it's likely that there are far superior workflows to this one out there. This is an example of me learning by doing and finding what works for me.

**What are you doing to be more productive in creating your development projects? Do you have anything you'd add to make this one better?**


Learn about 5 Grunt build tool plugins to optimize your workflow.

5 Useful Grunt Plugins


There are 6 simple machines (they make work easier by changing the direction of magnitude or force):

- Wedge
- Pulley
- Lever
- Wheel and Axel
- Incline Plane
- Screw

At one point in history (Renaissance), these were considered the ultimate building blocks of mechanics. 

"Modern machine theory analyzes machines as kinematic chains composed of elementary linkages known as kinematic pairs." - [Ref](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_machine)

[Ref](https://www.generationgenius.com/simple-machines-reading-material/)


6 Simple Machines


If you're a voracious reader, it's worth creating a framework for choosing a format for reading books. Here's the framework I use, feel free to copy/pasta and change as much as you'd like!

# Format Options

There are 3 formats:

- Paperback/Hardcover (physical/visual)
- eBook (digital/visual)
- Audio Book (digital/auditory)

I've found that it's best to pick each format based on three criteria:

- the genre of the book
- planned level of focus
- likelihood of taking notes/highlighting

# Paperback/Hardcover Books (Physical)

- **Genre:** technical (specifically w/ code samples/diagrams) in nature, "evergreen" personal growth, "essentials list" books
- **Planned Focus:** Deep
- **Likelihood of Taking Notes/Highlighting:** Strong
- **Pros:** easy highlighting, easy bookmarking, consistent formatting, easy sharing
- **Cons:** physical nature makes it harder to carry more than a few and requires physical storage space

# eBook

- **Genre:** personal growth, business, fiction
- **Planned Focus:** Deep to Shallow
- **Likelihood of Taking Notes/Highlighting:** Strong
- **Pros:** portable, scalable, highlighting saved online, instant gratification on purchase
- **Cons:** dependency on device battery life, limited consistent formatting, harder to search than paperback

**Note:** It's important to address why I don't like to read technical books as eBooks:

**code samples and diagrams are often crafted with the physical copy of a book in mind, not eBooks.** 

If you've ever read a technical book on an eBook, you've likely found that diagrams don't scale properly (often even bleeding off the page or being so incredibly small you need a reading loop to make sense of it) and that code samples don't fit on the page properly or worse extend off the page and can't be read.

# Audio Books

- **Genre:** fiction, non-fiction requiring no action
- **Planned Focus:** Shallow
- **Likelihood of Taking Notes/Highlighting:** Unlikely
- **Pros:** portable, scalable, passive, multi-taskable
- **Cons:** dependency on device battery life, highlighting non-existent or kludgy, hard to focus, impossible to "search" for keywords or quotes

Almost exclusively fiction. The only time I generally listen to audio books is when I'm doing something else that requires attention but isn't deep work. For example:

- driving long distances (anything more than 20 minutes)
- walking the dogs
- doing yard work
- grocery shopping

I can listen to a fiction and pay attention while also "fully" tending to the other task I'm doing without feeling the need to concentrate or worse, hearing something I want to highlight or write down because it resonated with me.

**I hope that this approach has at the very least given you a sense of how to pick formats of books yourself and at best given you a framework to figure your out your own approach. Happy reading!**


A Pragmatic Approach To Choosing A Format For Reading


I need to add embeds to my [[Obsidian]] notes a specific way so that they render on my website ([[curiouslychase.com]]) _and_ so that they render properly in my notes.

When adding an embed, the `iFrame` needs to be added with a `div` with `class="iframe-wrapper"`.

As an example, a Loom would look like this:

```html
<div class="iframe-wrapper">
	<iframe 
	src="https://www.loom.com/embed/5ccaf045fe15410fb9369a70c3dc7210" 
	webkitAllowfullScreen mozAllowFullScreen allowFullSscreen>
	</iframe>
</div>
```

It would render like this in [[Obsidian]]:

![[Pasted image 20221021114454.png]]

and like this in my website:

![[Pasted image 20221021114629.png]]

The CSS that makes this work:

```css
.iframe-wrapper {
  position: relative;
  width: 100%;
  padding-bottom: 56.25%;
  margin: 2rem 0;
  height: 0;
}

iframe {
  border: none;
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  left: 0;
}
```

This allows the `.iframe-wrapper` to control the display of the iframe.


Adding iFrame to Obsidian Note


> [!attention]
> I replaced Alfred with [[Raycast]] as my [[MacOS]] launcher.


AlfredApp is one of the best productivity apps you can install on your Mac. I use it multiple times a day every day, so it stands to reason that it is my favorite, so I decided to theme it.

My friend [Nate Wienert](https://natewienert.com/) shared the [Flatland theme for SublimeText 2](https://github.com/natew/flatland) (which is an awesome theme), and it quickly became my favorite color scheme for everything, SublimeText and now AlfredApp.

If you're using AlfredApp, you can install my custom [Flatland Theme](alfred://theme/searchForegroundColor=rgba(205,212,213,1.00)&amp;resultSubtextFontSize=0&amp;searchSelectionForegroundColor=rgba(255,255,255,1.00)&amp;separatorColor=rgba(51,51,51,1.00)&amp;resultSelectedBackgroundColor=rgba(39,100,147,1.00)&amp;shortcutColor=rgba(56,139,246,1.00)&amp;scrollbarColor=rgba(51,51,51,1.00)&amp;imageStyle=7&amp;resultSubtextFont=Monaco&amp;background=rgba(29,31,33,1.00)&amp;shortcutFontSize=2&amp;searchFontSize=4&amp;resultSubtextColor=rgba(115,115,115,1.00)&amp;searchBackgroundColor=rgba(46,50,53,1.00)&amp;name=Flatland&amp;resultTextFontSize=2&amp;resultSelectedSubtextColor=rgba(204,213,210,1.00)&amp;shortcutSelectedColor=rgba(197,212,212,1.00)&amp;widthSize=3&amp;border=rgba(48,52,55,0.77)&amp;resultTextFont=Helvetica&amp;resultTextColor=rgba(151,155,147,1.00)&amp;cornerRoundness=3&amp;searchFont=Lucida%20Grande&amp;searchPaddingSize=3&amp;credits=Chase%20Adams&amp;searchSelectionBackgroundColor=rgba(56,139,246,1.00)&amp;resultSelectedTextColor=rgba(253,254,254,1.00)&amp;resultPaddingSize=3&amp;shortcutFont=Geneva).


Alfred Theme - Flatland


Have you ever opened a file in VS Code that doesn't have a standard language extension or filename and noticed that the syntax highlighting and other language mode features is missing?

As a trivial example, you might have a `Brewfile` and want it to have syntax highlighting. Despite being Ruby, without a `.rb` extension syntax highlighting won't be applied because VS Code doesn't have a way to determine the `Brewfile` is Ruby. Another example is an AlfredApp Theme file, it has the naming convention of `*.alfredappearance` but is JSON, so syntax highligthing won't be applied to this file either.

VS Code makes it easy to associate a file with a language mode by adding `files.associations` to your `settings.json`. To demonstrate, here's what a configuration for the above examples would look like:

```json
{
  "files.associations": {
    "Brewfile": "ruby",
    "*.alfredappearance": "json"
  }
}
```

`files.associations` is an object where each key is a filename or a pattern (glob) of the filename with the value set to the language mode that it represents.

Now whenever you open a `Brewfile` or an Alfred theme that ends in `.alfredappearance`, the file will get the correct syntax highlighting and all the features that are available to the language mode!

In the examples I've given for `files.associations`, syntax highlighting was the only feature highlighted, but setting a file to a language mode gives it access to any functionality that's associated with that language.

![Gif of adding Syntax Highlighting to Files Without Extensions in VS Code](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1024544/52688212-4f697300-2f0a-11e9-8621-5763dd263082.gif)


Learn how to setup syntax highlighting and other language modes with file associations

Apply Language Modes to Files With Non-Standard Filenames in VS Code through File Associations


If you're using Prettier and want to have backticks be the character that wraps strings, you need to do the following:

Install the following ESLint npm packages:

- `eslint-config-prettier`
- `eslint-plugin-prettier`

Update your eslintrc.js with this rule:

```js
module.exports = {
  rules: {
    quotes: ["error", "backtick"],
  },
}
```


and your `.prettierrc.js` with this config:

```js
module.exports = {
  singleQuote: false,
}
```

Add this to `settings.json` in VS Code:

```json
{
  "editor.codeActionsOnSave": {
    "source.fixAll.eslint": true
  },
}
```


Learn how to autofix backticks in JavasScript with ESLint and Prettier in VS Code.

Autofix Backticks with ESLint and Prettier in VS Code


> [!caution]
> I no longer write content in Dropbox, instead I write in [[Obsidian]] and copy content over into my git repo for publishing.

It's been a while since I've posted a new thought/article here.

Some things that held me back:

- My process had too much friction
  - I was using `git`, a tool that's great for versioning but terrible for moving fast
  - using `git` meant I was limited to the devices I could publish on easily
- I waited for something to be perfect before publishing
- I was wanting to using Notion's API (it's been "coming soon" for almost a month now) to write and visualize my post statuses

What got me moving:

- I rethought my process
  - I decided to move everything to Dropbox
  - Moving to Dropbox means I can use a computer, phone or tablet to write
  - I don't have to think about committing changes, they're just there when I write them
- I just write stuff down
- I accepted that maybe every idea is better fledgling and shared instead of almost perfect and invisible

I plan on making a better signal for the status for an article/blog post (what do I even call these?) so that others know how well-thought out a piece of content is, but for now, the goal is just to write and let the world see it.


The reason I've decided to write content in Dropbox instead of keeping it in version control.

Back to Writing Content in Dropbox


**Update:** I've decided to switch to a [[Rustic Industrial Minimalist Task Desk|minimalist rustic industrial sitting task desk]], be sure to check it out (it's less expensive, more sturdy and took only 30 minutes to put together).

![Full Front View of Desk](/img/minimal-task-desk/full-front-desk.jpg)

This weekend I decided to build a standing desk. It was a lot of work, but with a little time, a little intuition, a few trips to Home Depot and a couple of setbacks, I am now writing this post from my rustic industrial standing desk!

Hopefully this detailed summary and retrospective will be enough inspiration and documentation for you to go and build your own.

![Rustic standing desk](/img/rustic-standing-desk/final-desk.jpg)

# A Good Desk Is Hard To Find

If you've ever done research online to find a desk, you've probably been exactly where my wife, Jackie, and I have been: lost.

There are a lot of desks out there, but finding one both parties can agree on is hard, and finding one that's in a store for you to look at makes it nearly impossible. Throw into the mix that I have started standing to do work, which means I'd like a standing desk, and you have yourself a Herculean task.

After hours (spanned over the course of 2 weeks) of doing research and finding no good solutions for under $1500, on a whim, Jackie and I decided Saturday morning to just build our own standing desk.

What follows is the process of going from a mere idea to a tangible desk, a retrospective of what I learned (and some gotchas) and some thoughts on what I would have done differently.

# The Idea

This project started as all good weekend warrior projects start: **A trip through Google Image Results and Pinterest.**

Jackie has been into the rustic industrial look lately, and as I'm a huge fan of wood and metal, rustic industrial was the easy decision.

The desk we found that we liked best as a starting reference was the [Postobello Industrial Metal And Rustic Wood Desk](https://www.custommade.com/postobello-industrial-metal-and-rustic-wood-desk/by/mortise-and-tenon-custom-furniture/): a _sitting_ desk ($945). What stood out was the minimalist look (no drawers or frills), the dark metal on the bottom and the rustic wood. The major modification we had to the idea itself was to use pipes.

I looked around the internet for a little bit longer and stumbled [onto a DIY tutorial on rustic pipe workbench](https://diyready.com/rustic-furniture-tutorial-workbench-plans-diy-pipe-leg-table/). This was exactly what I needed to get an idea of where to start.

# The Sketch

The first thing I did was figure out what the height needed to be so the desk would be at a 90 degree angle to my elbows while standing. For me, it was around 44".

After sketching it out, I figured out that I'd need certain pieces, and I was adding up the lengths of all the pipes to make sure I had the _exact_ right lengths.

**I'd suggest not doing it this way.** Once you've figured out the types of pieces you need, just go down to the building supply (Home Depot in my case), and start piecing stuff together to make sure that, with an extra 3.5" (taking into account the height of your runner boards and top boards), the pipes will give you a good 90 degree angle at your elbow.

I ended up having to redo my math while I was in Home Depot anyways, so it would've saved me a lot of time to just go down there and physically put together a single leg for testing.

# The Pre-Build

I made a material list in Excel based on the sketch and a cursory look at [homedepot.com](https://www.homedepot.com). This helped me come up with a good estimate for about how much it would cost. The Raw Materials list below is the _final_ material list, and this list came in about $50 under my original estimate, mostly because I ended up getting black iron pipe where I'd originally estimated galvanized steel pipe.

## Raw Materials

| Count | Material | Length |
|:---------:|---------|---------:|
| 3   | 2 x 6 #2 & Better Douglas Fir Lumber (cut to 66")                        | 8'    |
| 1   | 2 x 4 Premium Kiln-Dried Whitewood Stud (cut to 3 30" pieces)                      | 96"   |
| 1   | #8 x 2-1/2 in. Phillips Bugle-Head Coarse Thread Sharp Point Drywall Screws | 1 lb. Pack |
| 1   | MinWax 8 oz. Oil-Based Espresso Wood Finish Interior Stain    | -     |
| 1   | Varathane 1-qt. Matte Soft Touch Polyurethane                 | -     |
| 2   | PRO GRADE PRECISION 2-1/2 in. x 4 in. x 1 in. 120 Grit Fine Block Sanding Sponge | -   |
| 8   | 1 / 2" Black Iron Floor Flange                                  | —     |
| 8   | 3 / 4" Black Malleable Iron Threaded Tee                        | —     |
| 8   | 3 / 4" x 1 / 2" Black Malleable Iron FPT x FPT Reducing Coupling  | —     |
| 8   | 1 / 2" Close Black Steel Nipple                                 | —     |
| 4   | 3 / 4" Black Steel Nipple                                       |  2"   |
| 4   | 3 / 4" Black Steel Nipple                                       |  6"   |
| 4   | 3 / 4" Black Steel Nipple                                       |  12"  |
| 4   | 3 / 4" Black Steel Nipple                                       |  24"  |

I suggest going to your [local building material supplier (yes, I'm promoting my family's building supply company)](https://www.coferadams.com) if they carry all of this stuff, but I ended up at Home Depot because it was the closest supplier I could find.

# The Build

I decided to start with the processes that could be done synchronously with the lumber to make sure I minimized the build time, so the first step was to **sand the 6 pieces of lumber to a really smooth finish.**

## Sanding the Lumber

Sanding is an important part of the process for a few reasons. It will create a smooth surface, but more importantly, it opens the pores of the lumber and removes a surface glaze left by the mill's saw blades. A good sanding session made the lumber more receptive to the stain and left a richer finish.

## Staining the Lumber

![Rustic standing desk](/img/rustic-standing-desk/planks-1.jpg")

After sanding, I wiped the boards with a cloth just to make sure all the sawdust particles were removed and laid my first coat of stain. I started with my 30" pieces, since they were going to be under the desk and less visible, just to make sure I liked the color.

I let the stain rest for about 15 minutes and then wiped it off with two dry clothes, making sure to remove any residual stain that hadn't soaked. If I'd let it sit without wiping, it would've left dark droplets and pools of stain, which can make the wood look super janky.

I was really impressed with the color, so I followed the same process for the 2 x 6 boards, making sure to stain the top, the ends and the sides. I followed the same time (15 minutes) before wiping. These boards came out looking even better than the 2 x 4 pieces had.

**Note:** I only stained the exposed parts of the wood, so the center piece didn't get stain on the sides and the bottom runners didn't get stain on the side that was drilled down to the 2 x 6 pieces.

## Assembling the Legs

While I let the stain soak and dry, I started on the pipe assembly. On my first trip (there were _so many_ trips to Home Depot over the weekend), I picked up Galvanized pipes, primer and black Rustoleum paint for metal.

**DO NOT DO THIS.** There are a few good reasons I should've just gotten black pipes since I wanted them to be black in the end anyways:

- The process of preparing galvanized pipes for painting is a nightmare (based on what I've read online). Essentially the process of galvanizing adds a coat of zinc, which paint will just roll right off of.
- The whole point of galvanized metal is to help it standup to the elements. My officespace at home has never, and hopefully will never, have the problem of needing to stand up to elements.
- **Black pipe is cheaper anyways.** I ended up saving around $50-$60 exchanging my galvanized pipe for black pipe, so it was worth it in price alone.

###  Cleaning

![Rustic standing desk](/img/rustic-standing-desk/legs-1.jpg)

Once I'd gotten my black pipes, it was time to clean them. Getting stickers off of metal is kind of tricky. We had a hard time getting the tape that was wrapped around the pipe off, so I put my pipes in the back of the car (in Vegas it was kind of hot, so in the car it was really hot) for about an hour. When I pulled them out and peeled the tape, it came right off. Lesson learned: **Just heat tape and stickers for easier removal.**

I used [Goo Gone](https://www.homedepot.com/p/Goo-Gone-24-oz-Pro-Power-Spray-Gel-5011484/202329108) to remove any of the residual sticker, which made short work of cleaning the 12 pipes that had something on them.

###  Assembly

![Rustic standing desk legs](/img/rustic-standing-desk/legs-2.jpg)

After drying my pipes, it was time for assembly of the legs. I couldn't find any 3 / 4" floor flanges in black at my local Home Depot, so I modified my configuration a little bit and bought 1 / 2" (I would've gone with 1" if they'd had those) floor flanges, a 1 / 2" close to connect to the flange and a reducing coupling to connect the 3 / 4" pipe to the 1 / 2" close.

That seemed like it would've cost more than a 3 / 4" floor flange itself, but the price pretty much evened out, and it gave it a unique look instead of just going straight from the pipe to the floor flange.

Next, I assembled the feet and the "heads" of the legs with the metal Tees. I tightened everything down with a monkey wrench because I wanted to make sure if there was going to be any instability or rocking, it didn't happen because I didn't do my due diligence to tighten everything down.

I then connected the horizontal bar between the feet, but didn't tighten it down all the way. I added the 24" vertical bars and attached the heads via the Tees to the 24" bars and my legs were one step away from being complete.

**This is where I hit my first assembly snag.**

I wanted everything to be connected tightly, but because of the way the threads work, I couldn't tighten the top horizontal bar all the way. If I tightened it all the way on one side of the Tee, it would, by nature of physics, loosen it from the other side.

So I tightened it down as best as I could by hand to one Tee, placed the pipe's end in the receiving end of the other Tee where I knew it would thread right away, and _loosened_ the pipe from the Tee I'd tightened it into. The end result was a _mostly_ tightened horizontal bar, which was the best I could've asked for under the circumstances.

## Re-Staining

![Standing desk planks](/img/rustic-standing-desk/planks-3.jpg)

Once my legs were complete, it was time for another coat of stain. I followed the same process of staining I followed for the first run. I didn't stain the sides of the middle board that sat on the top of the desk because I knew I was going to use wood filler.

After two coats of stain, it was time to add the varnish. I varnished all sides of each piece 2 times, with a 3-4 hour dry time between each run.

Once my second coat of varnish had dried, it was time to assemble the desk.

## Assembling the Entire Desk

I started by pre-drilling holes into the 2 x 4 runners on top of the 2 x 6 pieces. Pre-drilling holes helps to minimize the possibility of the wood splitting when screwing the pieces together.

I used a drill bit that was a little wider than the thread of my screws. The outside 2 x 4 runners were 2-3 / 4" away from the short edge of the desk and 1" away from the frontand back of the desk. The center 2 x 4 runner was fastened with it's center at 33" (the center of the desk on the long edge).

I used drywall screws instead of wood screws because they're less likely to split your lumber, they don't need to standup to the elements and they're black (which blends really well with the espresso stain).8

Once the desktop was fastened together, I added the legs. Jackie helped hold the legs while I made marks for where to pre-drill the hole. I did this by drilling into the board just enough to make a mark. In hindsight, I probably would've used a sharpie to make these marks, because the drill didn't go straight down (it bumped against the legs of the table), which caused a screw or two to fasten a little off kilter.

After making marks, I pre-drilled the holes without the legs on the table, to ensure straight holes for the screws. We put the legs back on the table and fastened them with the 2-1 / 2" drywall screws. We flipped the desk over to stand on its legs after we'd completed fastening the legs to the desktop, and it was looking good. There was a little rock if you tried to jostle it on the long edge, but not anymore than I'd expected.

Now that the table was assembled, it was time for the wood filler and one more coat of varnish.

## One step too far

I'm just going to say it right now: **Don't use wood filler for filling gaps between boards if you're not a professional.**

Personally, I feel like I messed up my desk adding the wood filler, mostly because I wasn't good at it at first. It was really messy and, I'm of the belief, that it's a skill you have to practice before you use it in the real world.

I added a coat of varnish after the wood filler (that's 3 coats total for the desk), which helped a little to make the wood filler look better, but didn't help totally.

**Note:** I went back and sanded down the final coat of varnish and wood filler, and revarnished it, which looked much better. Here's the final wood filled result:

# Final Thoughts on the Build and the Buy

The total cost of parts was around $250, which was a huge savings. Generally, in these kinds of projects I like to take into account my "labor" but since it was a project for fun, I didn't really consider it worthwhile to keep up with my time.

As of this writing (2014 / 10 / 08), the desk is "stable" but a little rocky. depending on how my usage goes this week, I might add a stabilizing pipe to the back long edge to make it really stable.

The next step is to build a laptop stand. When working at a standing desk, it's good to have a separate keyboard at your elbow level and your laptop/monitor at or around eye-level. Personally, I think this part is crucial to the long-term health of your neck.

# My Retrospective

I've added bits and pieces of my retrospective through my build walkthrough, but I wanted to add some thoughts about what I felt went well, what I felt I could've gone better and what I wish I'd known before hand.

## What Went Well

- Sanding, staining & varnishing were the easiest/most successful tasks of the whole project.
- Once I figured out how to get the legs totally assembled, they turned out as good as I'd hoped for.

## What I Felt Could've Gone Better

- In hindsight, I didn't think about cable management, but I think over the next weekend I'm going to give it some thought and find a solution. [Thanks to @o2dazone (brandon murry) for the protip.](https://twitter.com/o2dazone/status/519858277048676353)
- I would've liked to have thought about having a pipe to stabilize the long edge that ran along the back. Based on my current configuration, I could probably still hack it to get it the way I want it.
- Wood filling. Wood filling. Wood filling. That's how badly that went. I should've practiced on something (the bottom) just to make sure I knew what I was doing.

## What I Wish I'd Known

- Don't get galvanized pipes to paint, if they're going to be black eventually anyways.
- Adding a second set of horizontal pipes, on the short edge, to a set of legs is significantly more complex/difficult than just having one horizontal pipe on the legs.

I'll continue to add my retrospective thoughts if anymore come to me, so be sure to check back every now and again for updates.

I hope this helps inspire you to build your own standing desk and gives you the beginning resoures you need to go your own way!

One final photo:

![Rustic standing desk](/img/rustic-standing-desk/final-desk.jpg)

If you feel like I missed anything in the build process or have questions unanswered, feel free to add a comment below!



Notes on the process I used to build an rustic industrial standing desk

Building a Rustic Industrial Standing Desk

With [[MomentJS]] ([[JavaScript]]), you can check if two times are the same with the `isSame` method.

First, instantiate `moment` with the date you want to check:

```js
const someDate = "2021-07-14";
const currMoment = moment(someDate);
```

Then use the `isSame` method: 

```js
const someDate = "2021-07-14";
const currMoment = moment(someDate);

const anotherDate = "2021-07-13";

const isSameDay = currMoment.isSame(anotherDate, "day") // false
const isSameMonth = currMoment.isSame(anotherDate, "month") // true
```

I use this heavily in my [[Dataview (Obsidian)]] queries for [[Obsidian]].

[reference](https://momentjscom.readthedocs.io/en/latest/moment/05-query/02-is-same/)

#javascript #programming #obsidian/programming

Created:: 2021-07-14 12:42:36


Checking if two dates match with MomentJS


I find that a lot of times I show up at work as a "scared kid". I'm afraid of what will go wrong. What I won't like. What people may think of me. Afraid of what I'll lose. Afraid of what I'll have to take on.

So often, it's showing up with fear. 

I don't want to show up with fear, I want to show up with wonder.     I want to have wonder for the infinite possibilities. I want to show up with wonder of an unexplored terrain. I want the challenge of something new that changes the way the world works. Something that changes the way I see the world. The way I see myself. The way I invite others into wonder.

I want to experience wonder.


Child like wonder. Child like fear.


Whenever I start a new project, I try to make sure I decide on a good font stack for web safe fonts. I'll usually start at [CSS Font Stack](https://www.cssfontstack.com/).

I like to decide on my font stack based on availability to users and CSS Font Stack has good statistics on what fonts are available at what percentages to windows and mac users.

After I've picked my web safe fonts, I go to [Google Fonts](https://www.google.com/fonts). There's a huge selection of fonts and one of the best features is seeing the size of the assets requested and about how long it will take to request them.

If you can't find what you want there and you know your traffic is going to be low, [Webtype.com](https://www.webtype.com/) has free trials for fonts for 30 days, and a \$20/year plan for sites with less than 10k visits a month.

If you can get away with it, use web safe fonts. Not only will this ensure your users get consistent experiences, but it also minimizes the amount of requests your site is making for extra assets, which means lower pageload times.

Choosing the right fonts for a project for the web may seem easy, but it's always good to make sure you go through the right process of picking fonts that provide consistent experiences.


Whenever I start a new project, I try to make sure I decide on a good font stack for web safe fonts. This is my process.

Choosing Fonts For Web Projects


When working on [[JavaScript]] projects, I often find I'll remove a bunch of code but have left over imports.

In [[30 - Collections/Software/VS Code]], there's a command palette option for **Organize Imports** that will sort your imports _and_ remove any unused imports.

To access it, open your **Command Palette** and run **Organize Imports**. 

See it in action: 

![[Oct-21-2022 05-41-04 1.gif]]

# Automatically Organize Imports

If you feel confident you won't be creating a lot of work for yourself adding imports _back_, you can also setup your [[30 - Collections/Software/VS Code]] configuration to automatically **Organize Imports** on save.

- Open your settings (**Preferences: Open Default Settings (JSON)** in the **Command Palette**)
- If you don't have `"editor.codeActionsOnSave"` already, add the snippet below
- If you do have it, add `"source:organizeImports"` to `"editor.codeActionsOnSave"`

```json
"editor.codeActionsOnSave": {
    "source.organizeImports": true
},
```


Cleanup Unused Imports with "Organize Imports" in VS Code


Dirty bean water. The nectar of life. Bringer of energy. 

I love the taste of a good plain black coffee. 

I don't put sweetener or any form of milk in it. If I can't drink it black, I don't want to drink it. 

We use a [[Breville Barista Express]] for making Espressos/Ameircanos at home but I prefer a  pour over most. 

## Beans
- 🌟 🌟 🌟 Papau New Guinea - Waghi Valley (molasses, orange, cinnamon, coffee cherry), Americano, [R&R Coffee Roasters](https://rnrcoffeecafe.com/webstore.html)**Very flavorful and smooth.**
- ⭐️ Sumatra - Aceh - Mansur Bener Meriah (sage, red bell peppers, smoky oak, bittersweet cocoa), Americano, [R&R Coffee Roasters](https://rnrcoffeecafe.com/webstore.html). **It's not bitter but not much taste, definitely not my favorite.** 
- 🌟 🌟 Forest Mist Blend - Signature Blend (earthy, leathery and rich with a bright sweetness at the end of the sip)
- 🌟 🌟 🌟 Ethiopia - Guji - Sidamo Region (orange zest, pomegranate, bing cherry)


Coffee


Configuration as Code is a term that describes a process for managing software. Instead of configuring software in a Graphic User Interface (for example, changing how your software works in a web browser), you configure your software by running a executable that uses _your code_ to define how the software should look.

Configuration is usually managed as a versioned artifact, so it's easy to understand how your software will be different if you make a change, easy to share the configuration before it's applied and easy to historically see how your software has changed.

Some examples of configuration as code:
- Setting the value for `workbench.preferredDarkColorTheme` in [[30 - Collections/Software/VS Code]]'s `settings.json` to a theme value

Some tools that can be used for configuring web technologies as code (note that these are primarily tools for Infrastructure as Code)
- Terraform
- Ansible
- Salt


Configuration as Code


Often times I find myself wanting to spin up an ephemeral Docker container. This is the structure of the command I'll use:

```shell
docker container run --rm --interactive --tty <IMAGE> <COMMAND>
```

An example if I want to spin up an [Alpine Linux](https://alpinelinux.org/) container:

```shell
docker container run --rm --interactive --tty alpine sh
```

Running this command will open a new shell inside of my existing terminal window with the ability to interact with the container.

This command can be run more tersely with the shorthand flags for `interactive` and `tty` as well:

```shell
docker container run --rm -it alpine sh
```

The composition of the command:

- `container run`: Runs a command in a new container
- `--rm`: Automatically removes the container when it exits (when I'm done, this is really nice so that Docker doesn't end up with a bunch of dangling Docker processes [you can experiment with removing this flag, running this command a few time and exiting and running `docker ps -a` to see what that means])
- `-interactive`: Keep STDIN open even if not attached
- `-tty`: Allocate a pseudo-TTY


Learn how to create an ad hoc interactive Docker container.

Create an Ad Hoc Interactive Docker Container


The first time I saw this error in [[Sentry]], my heart dropped to my feet. It wasn't clear that this was a client error and my initial thought was: how is someone attempting to delete a database?!

```
Database deleted by request of the user
```

As I looked through the stack trace, I realized it was an error for [[IndexedDB]], which is the storage mechanism we use for [[Murmur]] to store proposal edits in the client before sending them to the server. 



Database deleted by request of the user (indexeddb)


**Dataview** is an [[Obsidian]] that I use heavily for fetching data from all of my files and rendering them as lists to make it easier to reflect on topics, interstitial journal or roll up tasks by project.

- [Javascript Code Reference](https://blacksmithgu.github.io/obsidian-dataview/api/code-reference/)
- [[Get all links to the current file with Obsidian and Dataview]]
- [[Get list items containing a tag with Obsidian and Dataview]]

###  Get all pages containing a tag

```javascript
//```dataviewjs
dv.list(dv.pages("#places").file.link)
//```
```
This will get all pages that contain the tag `#people`

###  Notes that were created on the current day

```javascript
// ```dataviewjs
dv.header(2, `Notes made on the ${moment(new Date()).format("DD")} day`)
dv.list(dv.pages()
	.filter(page => 
		 moment(page.file.cday.ts).format("DD") === moment(new Date()).format("DD")).file.link)
// ```
```
This allows me to see all notes that were ever created in the same day's date (28th of any month, for example) so that I always see all of my notes in a month's time.


Dataview (Obsidian)


> [!info]
> I wrote this early on and if I could, I'd reframe the title to look less like click bait.


Otherwise known as, better etiquette for answering questions on stackoverflow.com and conversation in general.

I know..._you're awesome_. You know all the latest tricks for writing hip javascript and how to build an compile like a boss. You pretty much **wrote** the standard for when you should make a method public, private or protected...blah blah blah.

All sass (and not the compilable kind) aside, I'd like to share what I think makes a good developer a _great_ developer: **humility**.

# Geoff Berger: The Most Humble Guy I Know

I used to work with this guy, Geoff Berger. He is one of the smartest guys I know. And not the "I'm a few steps ahead of you" types, but the kind that you think may have been composing music and writing theories of physics when he was waddling around in diapers kind of guys.

The thing is: He'd never admit it to you. **He is the most humble person I've ever met.**

If someone went to him with a question, he'd sit down and somehow in his gentlest way start by asking if you're familiar with some concept about your question, and in a way that made you feel on equal footing with him, not in a belittling way. Then he'd step through and explain how everything was working together, all the time doing it with _passion_ and _excitement_.

Whenever anyone described Geoff the two words that always surfaced were **humble** and **smartest**. He was always the smartest guy in the room, and he was always humble about it.

**These qualities seem like no brainers, but they're the ones that make for great developers:**

- **Remember other people, just like you, are human.** If you went to a medical specialist about a health problem, and you weren't an expert, you would want them to treat you like a human, not like some moron off the street who didn't know what squamous cells were and how your late night red bull runs and hackathons are creating them. You'd want them to be kind, and treat you with the respect that you deserve, because you're a human being.
- **Answer the question, and just the question.** A lot of times, developers, because we're opinionated, like to shove said opinions into a conversation that has nothing to do with it. Keep it as short as it needs to be to answer the question fully. _Note: Brief can be gentle. They're not mutually exclusive._
- **Be excited about it!** Don't be excited about the fact that someone is listening to you. People will respect (and most likely catch) your excitement for the topic you've got answer to, but don't just talk to have words come out of your mouth.
- **Be humble.** I can't stress this one enough. I'm not the best at anything. I'm not even close to the best. But I might have answers. Any person's willingness to admit: "I'm not perfect, I'm not always right, and I do make mistakes." is a great springboard for being heard. At the end of the day what I think the answer might be is just _one_ possible solution, and most likely not even the best one for the requirements. I'm not just okay with that, [I'm excited that I get to learn how other people solve problems and grow from it](/2013/10/01/emulate-what-you-wish-to-replicate/).

At the end of the day, we all go home to something, we've all had experiences, we all have baggage. We also all start from somewhere right? I am not the developer I was last year and I'm not the developer I will hopefully be next year. So I want to try, like Geoff did, to treat people that way. To find where they are and work from there. Not treat them as inferiors because they're not where I am.

**The technology field is hot, and it's a great time to be a developer from a "doing great work" standpoint, but it doesn't release us from the responsibilities of remembering that our peers are human beings. They exist after the experiences they have with us, and those experiences _shape_ their journey as much as it shapes ours.**

**P.S. If you read this entire post and at this point felt like you were being belittled, take that feeling and tuck it away for next time you're on my side of the discussion.**


Dear Developer - Use tools, don't be one


This is a handy trick for pushing your code and deploying it with the same command via [[git]].

In your git repo on your remote server there's a directory called *`hooks`*. Create a new file in hooks called *`post-receive`* and set it as an executable by running **`chmod +x post-receive`**.

Now open post-receive and insert the following code:

```shell
#!/bin/sh

LOGFILE=./post-receive.log

DEPLOYDIR=$DEPLOYDIR # The place to deploy to.

echo -e "[log] Received push request at $( date +%F)" >> $LOGFILE
echo "[log] - Old SHA: $oldrev New SHA: $newrev Branch Name: $refname" >> $LOGFILE
echo "[log] Starting Deploy..." >> $LOGFILE

echo "[log] - Starting code update"
GIT_WORK_TREE="$DEPLOYDIR" git checkout -f
echo "[log] - Finished code update"

echo "[log] - Starting npm install..."
cd "$DEPLOYDIR"; npm install; cd -
echo "[log] - Finished npm install."

echo "[log] - Starting gulp build..."
cd "$DEPLOYDIR"; gulp build; cd -
echo "[log] - Finished gulp build."

echo "[log] - Building Hugo blog..."
cd "$DEPLOYDIR" && hugo
echo "[log] - Finished building hugo blog"

echo "[log] Finished Deploy" >> $LOGFILE
```

A few things to note:


- **`$RCA_THEME_PATH`** is an environment variable set to the absolute path to where I want my repo to checkout the code.
- **The file has to be modified to be executable.** If you don't do this, you're going to be banging your head against your keyboard until you realize you need to.

Now, once you've added your updated code and committed it, when you run **`git push origin master`** (replace *origin* with your remote name), you'll see your code change on your remote server.

# Issues with this technique

For the most part, this technique is a pretty good solution for pushing code and deploying it at the same time. One major drawback is that you have to version control your distribution directory (the compiled code for your js, css and templates), which is not generally considered a good practice.


Learn how to deploy code to a server by using git with post-receive hooks.

Deploy Code with Git Push and a Post Receive Hook


# For Effectiveness...
- Spotify - Music.
- [[Obsidian]] - Capturing and connecting my thoughts and ideas.
- [[Raycast]] - An OS launcher.

# For Work Execution...
- Chrome - An internet tool for Googling Stack Overflow and previewing web apps I built.
- [[VS Code]] - Building software.
- [[MongoDB#MongoDB Compass|MongoDB Compass]] - A tool for querying Mongo databases.

# For Work Adminstrivia...
- [[Cron]] (calendar) - A more intuitive, refined calendar.
- [[Slack]] - A place to talk to my team, people in open source projects and my friends.
- Discord - A place to talk to friends.
- Spark (email) - A way to check my email.
- [[Loom]] - A tool for communicating what I'm noticing and thinking about via video.


Desktop Apps I Always Have Open


Learn all the ways to disable ESLint ([[JavaScript]] lint library) rules with the comment syntax.

# Ignore ESLint rules for file

In general, using file level `eslint-disable` is an indicator that the code needs to be fixed rather than ignored, but there are definitely times when using `eslint-disable` at the file level is necessary.

## Ignore all rules for a file

Syntax: `/* eslint-disable */`

Example:

```js
/* eslint-disable */
var myObj = {};
```

## Ignore single rule for a file

Syntax: `/* eslint-disable <rule> */`

Example (using `no-unused-vars`):

```js
/* eslint-disable no-unused-vars */
var myObj = {};
```

## Ignore multiple ESLint rules for a file

Syntax: `/* eslint-disable <rule>, <rule>, <etc> */`

Example (using `no-unused-vars` and `no-shadow`):

```js
/* eslint-disable no-unused-vars, no-shadow */
var myObj = { old: "thing" };

function myFunc() {
  var myObj = { new: "thing" };
}
```

# Ignore ESLint rules in a block of code

Sometimes you may want to ignore a rule inside of a block of code and re-enable outside of it.

## Ignore all rules in a block of code

Syntax: 
```
/* eslint-disable */ 
	/* ...block of code... */ 
/* eslint-enable */
```

Example:

```js
var myObj = { old: "thing" };

/* eslint-disable */
function myFunc() {
  var myObj = { new: "thing" };
}

function myFunc2() {
  var myObj = { new: "thing" };
}
/* eslint-enable */
```

## Ignore single rule in a block of code

Syntax: `/* eslint-disable <rule> */ /* ...block of code... */ /* eslint-enable <rule> */`

Example (using `no-shadow`):

```js
var myObj = { old: "thing" };

/* eslint-disable no-shadow */
function myFunc() {
  var myObj = { new: "thing" };
}

function myFunc2() {
  var myObj = { new: "thing" };
}
/* eslint-enable no-shadow */
```

## Ignore multiple rules in a block of code

Syntax: `/* eslint-disable <rule>, <rule>, <etc> */ /* ...block of code... */ /* eslint-enable <rule>, <rule>, <etc> */`

Example (using `no-shadow` and `no-unused-vars`):

```js
var myObj = { old: "thing" };

/* eslint-disable no-shadow, no-unused-vars */
function myFunc() {
  var myObj = { new: "thing" };
}

function myFunc2() {
  var myObj = { new: "thing" };
}
/* eslint-enable no-shadow, no-unused-vars */
```

# Ignore ESLint rules for current line

This is useful for ignoring rules for a single line. I find it useful because if code gets moved around, it guarantees that the `eslint-disable` comment is preserved with the code it's meant for.

## Ignore all rules for current line

Syntax: `// eslint-disable-line`

Example:

```js
var myObj = {}; // eslint-disable-line
```

## Ignore single rule for current line

Syntax: `// eslint-disable-line <rule>`

Example (using `no-var`):

```js
var myObj = {}; // eslint-disable-line no-var
```

## Ignore multiple rules for current line

Syntax: `// eslint-disable-line <rule>, <rule>, <etc>`

Example (using `no-var` and `no-unused-vars`):

```js
var myObj = {}; //eslint-disable-line no-var, no-unused-vars
```

# Ignore ESLint rules for next line

This is useful for when you have a declaration/definition that spans multiple lines. Some examples of this may be multi-line imports or destructuring, multi-line function definitions or multi-line object definitions.

## Ignore all rules for next line

Syntax: `// eslint-disable-next-line`

Example:

```js
// eslint-disable-next-line
module.exports = () => {
  /* lots of code here, all covered under the eslint-disable comment */
};
```

## Ignore single rule for next line

Syntax: `// eslint-disable-next-line <rule>`

Example (using `no-unused-vars`):

```js
// eslint-disable-next-line no-unused-vars
module.exports = () => {
  /* lots of code here, all covered under the eslint-disable comment */
};
```

## Ignore multiple rules for next line

Syntax: `// eslint-disable-next-line <rule>, <rule>, <etc>`

Example (using `no-var` and `no-unused-vars`):

```js
// eslint-disable-next-line no-var, no-unused-vars
module.exports = () => {
  var myObj = {};
  /* lots of code here, all covered under the eslint-disable comment */
};
```


Learn how to disable ESLint rules with the comment syntax

Disable ESLint Rules with Comment Syntax


> [!info]
> This didn't meet my exact need, but it's still a step in the right direction.


A new feature came to [[Slack]] recently [for adding a formatting keyboard to the input box](https://slack.com/help/articles/202288908-format-your-messages).

You can disable this by clicking the "Aa" button in the right corner of the input box.

![disable-slack-keyboard](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1024544/69355925-7e4e0b80-0c37-11ea-9bc4-d11662fd5271.gif)

Unfortunately, this doesn't disable the inline formatting (WYSIWIG).


Disable Slack Keyboard Flyup


I've been working with Flow a lot since joining [[Webflow]] and one of the things that I constantly miss is the `// $FlowFixMe` comments. I decided to highlight `// $FlowFixMe` comments in red so they stood out.

Emacs makes it trivial to add configuration to highlight specific lines based on certain criteria. In `init.el` or any file that you load configuration through, you can add the following:

```lisp
  (defface flow-fix-me-comment '((t (:foreground "#ff0000"))) "Red")

  (font-lock-add-keywords
   'js-mode '(("// $FlowFixMe" 0 'flow-fix-me-comment t)))
```

Breaking it down:

- `defface` allows us to declare a customizable `FACE` (you can think of `FACE` as a style). We're naming it `flow-fix-me-comment`
- `font-lock-add-keywords` allows us to highlight a mode based on a specific keyword.
- `'js-mode` is the mode we want to highlight on.
- `"// $FlowFixMe"` is the term we want to use as the criteria for highlighting.
- If the term matches the line, apply the `flow-fix-me-comment` `FACE`.

Make sure to `eval-buffer` on the snippet, reload your config or restart Emacs to see the changes take place.

The end result will look like this:

![Use Emacs to highlight $FlowFixMe in Javascript](/img/flowfixme.png)

If you're using Emacs to develop for JavaScript and using Flow in your projects, this is a great way to make sure you don't get burnt by any `$FlowFixMe` comments during development!


Learn how to setup conditional highlighting for Emacs by writing emacs-lisp to highlight $FlowFixMe

Emacs - Highlight $FlowFixMe comments in JavaScript


**Emacs** is an extensible text editor. I used Emacs for a few years when I was at [[Walmart Labs]]

# Relevant Notes
- [[Getting Started with Emacs]]
- [[Emacs - Highlight $FlowFixMe comments in JavaScript]]


Emacs


**Knowing what you want your life to look like is 90% of the battle...the 90% most of us never stop to figure out.**

_"Let's open Chrome's dev tools and set a breakpoint."_ I don't know why that day still stands out to me as one of the most clear memories I have of being at Zappos, but I remember everything about the conversation that followed.

Brian was helping me debug a third party javascript I was having issues with. Watching him step through the file's execution, while also explaining to me exactly what was going on was mind blowing. At that moment I had an epiphany: **I need to soak up everything I can from him.**

I started writing down everything I heard him say in our weekly team gatherings, made mental notes of technologies he mentioned and later researched them, watched him interact with other developers, watched the commits he'd put up in GitHub.

I started to learn things much quicker and my abilities and skills were sharpened faster because I had found a model of what I wanted that part of my life to look like and emulated it.

This is just one example of one "realm of responsibility" of my life. In my spiritual life, I chose to model my life after men like my college professor, Dr. R, or my Young Life area director, Allen Miller. In my family life my small group leader, Bryson Davis and my dad. In my problem solving realm, teammates like [Brian Egan](https://www.twitter.com/brianegan), [Nate Weinert](https://www.twitter.com/natebirdman) or Mark Walker. In my creativity, [my mom](https://thecharmhouse.blogspot.com/) has been an incredible inspiration. In all of these realms, these folks have been models I've followed because they **were (and still are) where I want to be.**

We all have something we want to strive towards _being_. Some ideal _person_ that we see in a foggy mirror that through time we hope to see clearly.

The most important thing you can do to grow in your life is to [start by beginning with the end in mind](/2013/10/my-eulogy/), how you want to be remembered, and find the people who most closely model that end. Learn from them. Spend time with them. Watch how they handle their interactions. **Be intentional** about how you engage with your models. Give them back great amounts of gratitude because they are doing you a great service by figuring out the things you would have to figure out on your own.

**Who do you model your life after? How do you decide who and what areas of life to work on?**


Emulate What You Want To Replicate


While working on a frontmatter [[Markdown]] snippet in [[30 - Collections/Software/VS Code]] I couldn't understand why tab completion wasn't working. It turns out that [some extensions (including Markdown) don't have snippet tab completion enabled by default](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/1617) (you can however type `ctrl+Space` to show available snippets with what you've typed).

VS Code has a setting for `editor.tabCompletion` that has 3 options: `"on"`, `"off"` (default), `"onlySnippets"`. Let's go through how to enable snippet completion for all files first and how to enable it only for a specific file type.

# Enable snippet tab completion for all extensions

Open the **Command Pallete** (`⌘+shift+p` in MacOS, `ctrl+shift+p` in Windows)[^cmd-p], type **"Open Settings (JSON)"** and press return. This will open the file **settings.json**.

At the bottom of the file, add the following (don't forget to add a comma to the item before! Otherwise you'll get a syntax error):

```json
    "editor.tabCompletion": "onlySnippets"
```

Save your **User Setttings** configuration, open a Markdown file and type FM

![Markdown Snippet Tab Completion](/img/markdown-expand.gif)

[^cmd-p]: If you have your settings to default to **Open Settings (JSON)**, you can use `⌘+,` in MacOS, `ctrl+,` in Windows.


A quick guide to enabling tab completion for Markdown Snippets in VS Code.

Enable tab completion for Markdown Snippets in VS Code



![Essential books that changed how I live and work](/img/essential-books.jpg)

Every so often you come across a piece of writing that was such a critical component to changing the way you live your life or pursue work, that it's worth revisiting.

Not only are they worth revisiting, **they're worth evangelizing so that they help other people.**

For myself, I have 3 such books that I re-read multiple times a year and own in multiple formats for consumption:

- [The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People](#the-seven-habits-of-highly-effective-people)
- [Managing Oneself](#managing-oneself)
- [Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less](#essentialism-the-disciplined-pursuit-of-less)

# The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

**_by Stephen Covey_**

This book has been with me since I was a teen and I've read it at least once every year (often before a new year begins).

Stephen Covey was the master of being _effective_. The title of the book clears any ambiguity: it holds the seven habits that drive highly effective people.

Choosing to intentionally practice these principles has helped me to grow tremendously and every time I read it, I walk away from some new insight because of new experiences that I didn't have the year prior.

Link: [The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People on Amazon](https://amzn.com/1451639619)

# Managing Oneself

**_by Peter Drucker_**

Managing Oneself was one of the first books I read after taking a remote position at Walmart Labs.

I believe the key to being successful at being an impactful remote contributor is having the ability to manage oneself, and who better to guide me in that growth than the master himself?

The principles he lays out in this tiny, essay-esque book were critical for my success as a remote engineer and has continued to be a critical guide for my professional growth.

It was so critical to my success as a remote engineer, I started a [small systematic framework based on Managing Oneself](/systematic/intro).

The conversational flow of Drucker's writing and the short nature of the book itself make it easy to consume every other month in a single sitting.

Link: [Managing Oneself by Peter Drucker on Amazon](https://amzn.com/142212312X)

# Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

**_by Gregory McKeown_**

Essentialism came to me at a time when I craved direction in my career and was drowning in a million choices.

Essentialism is about _living life by *design* not by default._ It's about distinguishing the vital few from the trivial many. It is a systematic approach to determining _what is my highest point of contribution_ and _how do I execute on it?_

Essentialism helped me to decide to hone in on what was important and eliminate everything else. Every time I read it, it helps me realign and recalibrate, making me more focused on my essential intent.

Link: [Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (Amazon)](https://amzn.com/0804137382)

**These books have shaped the man I am today, both in my personal and professional life** and without them, I believe I'd be less intentional and less effective. They have become the canonical guides that help me navigate the waters of life and for that I am eternally grateful.


The canonical writings that I revisit multiple times a year because they have (and continue to) impacted my life deeply.

Essential Books That Changed How I Live & Work


Culture is a word shrouded in mystery. Lately I've asked a lot of people, "How would you define culture?"

The responses are almost always examples of how we express ourselves through our culture, but not culture itself.

Next week I'm going to share what my definition of culture is and what it looks like, but I want to know from you, my peers and my readers: "How would you define culture?"


Exploring "What is Culture?"

I think fear is generally a result of mismatched expectations with reality or a perception of the future a present reality could take us and an individual need not being met.


Fear


A .gitignore file is an important part of any project that is being version controlled via [[git]].

This post is intended to give you a general idea of the things that I add to my .gitignore, particuarly for [[JavaScript]] projects. Want to just see [my standard node + mac .gitignore to copy](https://gist.github.com/chaseadamsio/88d5deae496317fb4546)? Check it out along with all my other [github gists for chaseadamsio](https://gist.github.com/chaseadamsio).

**Update:** While talking with Thai Wood about this problem today, we looked around and found a [generator that will create your .gitignore based on IDEs, Operating Systems and Programming Languages](https://gitignore.io/), which is awesome!

# .DS_Store

If you've ever worked on a project with someone who uses their finder to navigate their filesystem, odds are you've seen this ugly file rear it's head.

`.DS_Store` is a _hidden_ file that gets generated whenever someone opens a directory in the finder. It holds metadata about the folder, such as "where the icons should be positioned in the finder" when in the directory. This is useless to anyone other than you, so it's a good file to add to your `.gitignore`.

As a developer, if you navigate your filesystem with Finder, `.DS_Store` files will be generated and modified frequently, so ignoring these is incredibly important (I'd also suggest learning to use the Terminal...it's significantly more powerful and robust for developers).

# node_modules

If you use any language that keeps a project's dependencies inside of the project itself (such as `node_modules` for NodeJS), it's best to add the dependency directory to your .gitignore. You don't want to version control someone else's code in your code. If you're worried about keeping the same versions, you can always use [`npm shrinkwrap`](https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/shrinkwrap).

# Third-party Code

If you happen to use something like bower for things like font-awesome or jQuery or if you just copy/paste third party code into your project, it's best to not version control this stuff either. I've seen bootstrap in version control in a few projects and if you're building your production application with a sensible build tool (and using some kind of dependency manager), you shouldn't ever need to keep any of these external dependencies in version control.

I've been successfully (and happily) using node modules for all of my server and client-side dependencies, so ignoring the `node_modules` directory takes care of this for me as well.

# logs

Your logs are really only useful for _you_ and only useful for _a specific environment_ at _a specific time_, which basically means keeping them in version control is going to cause all kinds of weird merging issues and extra cruft in your project that's not useful.

# Build Directory

If I'm building frontend code using something like Webpack or Gulp, I'll always add `dist` which where I build my static assets, (some people use the `public` directory) to my .gitignore. My rule of thumb is "Is this directory a source of truth or a representation of a source of truth somewhere else in my project?"

For example, if I use sass, it doesn't make sense to version control the css files that are the result of precompiling from the sass files.

# Secret Files

You may have a file with API keys in it (for instance, AWS used to recommend keeping these files in your project and not in your home directory), you should **NEVER** version control anything that has keys or passwords because you're giving the entire world the ability to see those keys...you don't want pictures of sad kittens on your production eCommerce website, so keep these out of your project by adding them to your .gitignore.

Those are the specific files and general types of files I add to my .gitignore file. Ultimately, I think some good general rules of thumb for what to add to a .gitignore are:

- Is this a file (or directory) built from another file that I work on?
- Is this a file that's only relevant specifically to me?
- Is this a file that's possibly going to give away credentials?
- Is this file a result of a command I've run?

I'd say those 4 questions cover 99% of the use cases you'd ever need to consider.

_What things do you add to your .gitignore file that I've missed here?_


A .gitignore file is an important part of any project that is being version controlled. Adding things like node_modules to your git ignored files is essential.

Files Every NodeJS Developer Should Add to Their .gitignore


I often find myself needing to find a conversation that happened on a specific date in Slack but can't remember keywords from the conversation or who all was in the conversation.

**Here are two quick ways to find a conversation in Slack based on a known date or date range.** 

# Jump to date via UI

I can usually remember _around_ the time something happened (or use GitHub merge information) and I'll want to find a conversation that happened in Slack around it.

There's an easy way to **Jump to date** within a channel or direct message:

- Open the channel or direct message where you want to jump to date
- Find _any_ date in the channel or direct message
- Click it
- Select **Jump to a specific date**
- This will give you a date picker
- Select the date (or around the date) you want

![Jump to a specific date in Slack](/img/Pasted%20image%2020220725171217.png)


# Search all messages in all channels or direct messages by range

If you can't quite remember which channel or specific day a conversation happened but remember it happened within a range, you can use Slack's **Search feature**.

Let's say you remember you had a conversation in the first week of July of 2022.

- select the search bar in the top of the Slack UI
- type `after:2022-07-01 before:2022-07-05` and hit enter

This will return all results _after_ July 1st and _before_ July 5th.


Two quick ways to find a conversation in Slack based on a known date or date range.

Find messages in Slack based on a date or date range


When I started learning how to code in 2008, the landscape for a frontend developer was very different than it is today. In 2008, it was good to know HTML & CSS (that hasn't changed) and with a little bit of jQuery knowledge and the ability to use the WordPress API and an FTP uploader, you could get by building basic brochures sites for clients, but you couldn't _bend the web to your will_.

In the last 3-4 years, Frontend Engineering has changed from being more about simply the aesthetics and content and become a role that requires thinking about optimization, data structures and state. If your eyes just glazed over, that's okay, just read on.

I'm going to explain at a very high level the five technologies that are crucial to my day-to-day as a Frontend Engineer with the hopes that it:

- Gives you starting points for what technologies to learn if you want to pursue becoming a Frontend Engineer.
- helps **Junior Frontend Engineers** have a roadmap for what they should already know and what they need to learn.

The Five technologies (mostly languages, if you want to learn about [frontend engineering tools, check out this post](/2015/07/tools-of-the-trade)) every Frontend Engineer should know are:

- [HTML](#html)
- [CSS](#css)
- [Javascript (vanilla)](#javascript-vanilla)
  - [JSON](#json)
  - [NodeJS](#nodejs)
- [Git (Version Control)](#git-version-control)
- [Markdown](#markdown)

The _really good news_ is that nothing has replaced `html`, `css` or `javascript` as browser languages since the [first browser wars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_wars#First_browser_war) so being able to use them will be useful as long as web browsers continue to exist.

# HTML

`html` (HyperText Markup Language) is the language that defines the content of the web. A web browser will read an `html` file and render the content into the browser. If a webpage were a living being, `html` would essentially be the bones. It gives the webpage structure.

No matter what you're building for the web, if it's in the browser you'll be using HTML, either directly or through a component library or templating language.

# CSS

`css` (Cascading Style Sheets) is language that gives a website its look and feel. Where `html` was the bones, `css` is the skin. Without `css` a website would simply be text and images: a rendered bland blob of content.

The result would be that every paragraph tag would have a background of "electric blue" (using a hexidecimal color value), the font color would be white and the paragraph will have padding of 1em (which is basically the size of the font inside the paragraph):

CSS is really important for giving visual cues, adding general aesthetics and giving a website the unique qualities it needs to stand out.

# Javascript (vanilla)

**Javascript is my favorite language: It's the language of the functionality of the web.**

Whenever you submit a Facebook post, reshare a tweet on twitter, send an email in gmail, click a swatch color on Zappos.com that changes the images and buy box selection to match that color, **that's Javascript**.

Javascript has become a huge part of being a Frontend Engineer because it drives so much of what we actually do on the web that's interactive.

In the past, most websites would have full page reloads when you clicked a link, today a lot of websites are transitioning to Single Page Apps, which means every interaction on a website in the browser is fully powered by Javascript.

Within Javascript there are two subsets that I think are really important: `json` and `node`. These are _really_ useful and my guess is that if you do become a Frontend Engineer you're going to have a hard time getting away with _not_ using them.

## JSON

`json` is a subset of javascript, easily readable by humans, for defining objects with key value pairs. It's generally used for communication between a server and a web application.

Most APIs provided by companies (such as Twitter, Trello and GitHub) are in `json` format and many companies are using `json` APIs to serve their data to the Frontend, which means Frontend Engineers will be spending a lot of time using `json`. @WalmartLabs, for example, is building the entire eCommerce platform on a RESTful `json` API.

The really cool thing about `json` is that even though the language was created from how Javascript objects work, any other language can consume it, which makes it both easy to read and easy to use for _any developer_.

## NodeJS

Once you've learned the basics of Javascript in the browser, transitioning those skills (the core syntax and concepts) to the server has a huge amount of value. You can do that with NodeJS, a run-time environment for server-side and networking applications.

NodeJS is being used heavily in a lot of organizations (Netflix, Walmart, General Electric and [an ever growing list of others](https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/projects,-applications,-and-companies-using-node)) for both serving content and internal tooling, which makes it a really valuable "language" to know. There are some conceptual differences in NodeJS from Javascript in the browser but learning `javascript` for both the browser and the server will make you a huge asset wherever you're working.

# Git (Version Control)

`git` isn't a language, it is a version control system, a technology that every developer should be using. `git` allows developers to keep a history of how their files changed, easily merge other developer's change, revert a project to a specific state in the history and define stable versions of a project.

Note: a lot of new developers use the term `git` interchangeably with github.com. GitHub.com is _one place_ where a developer can keep their projects that are version controlled with `git`, but it isn't explicitly related to `git`.

# Markdown

Markdown is the easiest technology to learn in this list, but it's one of the most prolific technologies on the internet. Markdown is a really simple syntax that allows anyone to write text that can be easily converted into `html`.

Markdown is the language of documentation, so if you're working on a project that will be used by someone else, most likely you'll be (should be) writing documentation and doing it in Markdown.

Every post I write is also written in Markdown, as an example My post on [Frontend Tools of the Trade](https://github.com/chaseadamsio/chaseadams.io.hugo/blob/master/content/post/2015/07/tools-of-the-trade.md) is converted into `html`, but [this is the raw markdown](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chaseadamsio/chaseadams.io.hugo/master/content/post/2015/07/tools-of-the-trade.md) used to generate it.

An example of markdown would be:

Which would render to the following `html`:

The basics are outlined on the [Daring Fireball Markdown Basics](https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/basics) page.

# Wrap Up

These five languages are core to what I do on a daily basis and knowing these languages will make you both a powerful Frontend Engineer and a huge asset to any organization building for the web.


Frontend Engineers should have five technologies under their belt

Five Technologies Every Frontend Engineer Should Know


[Josh Comeau](https://twitter.com/JoshWComeau) has a wonderful article about using CSS variables in style attributes in React props that has changed the way I write CSS in React ([link](https://www.joshwcomeau.com/css/styled-components/)).

Unfortunately, when using TypeScript, this method leads to a build error.

# The Error

```shell
TS2326: Types of property 'style' are incompatible.
Type '{ "--color": string; }' is not assignable to type 'CSSProperties'.
Object literal may only specify known properties, and '"--color"' does not exist in type 'CSSProperties'.
```

# How to Fix it

There are two ways to fix the build error:

- cast the style object to `React.CSSProperties`
- create an interface that extends `React.CSSProperties`

## Cast the style object to `React.CSSProperties`

The part to note here is that the `style` object is followed by `as React.CSSProperties`:

```tsx
 <StyledComponent style={{ "--color": colorValue } as React.CSSProperties}>
 {/* details... */}
 </StyledComponent>
```

The downside of casting is that it will allow any key arbitrarily. If you want to be explicit about what keys are available, try the next method, **Extending CSSProperties**.

## Create an interface that extends `React.CSSProperties`

Extending `CSSProperties` has the advantage of allowing you to say which keys are acceptable:

```ts
import React, { CSSProperties } from 'react';

export interface CSSPropertiesWithVars extends CSSProperties {
  '--color': string;
  // any other vars you may use
}
```


How to define CSS variables in style attributes in react and Typescript

Fix CSS variable keys in style attributes in React and Typescript


When attempting to run a Docker container with `docker container run ...`, you may see this error:

```shell
Bind for 0.0.0.0:8000 failed: port is already allocated
```

Whenever you see this error, it means that the container is unable to bind the container's exposed port to the port on the host machine.

# Solution

This is an easy fix with two steps:

1. run `lsof -i :8000` (replace `8000` with the port that's allocated in your error).

   ```shell
   lsof -i :8000
   COMMAND    PID         USER   FD   TYPE             DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
   com.docke 1596 chaseadamsio   20u  IPv4 0x677313baaeffcfd7      0t0  TCP *:irdmi (LISTEN)
   com.docke 1596 chaseadamsio   21u  IPv6 0x677313ba9b203357      0t0  TCP localhost:irdmi (LISTEN)
   ```

   If the output has `COMMAND` of `com.docker` (as above), proceed to step 2.

   ```shell
   lsof -i :8000
   COMMAND   PID         USER   FD   TYPE             DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
   node    46205 chaseadamsio   19u  IPv4 0x677313ba9d523357      0t0  TCP localhost:irdmi (LISTEN)
   ```

   If the output has `COMMAND` that's anything else, make a note of the `PID` for the process serving on that port and proceed to step 3.

2. run `docker ps` to get a list of running containers.

   ```shell
    docker ps
    CONTAINER ID        IMAGE                  COMMAND                   CREATED             STATUS                            PORTS                    NAMES
    20c6837d446e        crccheck/hello-world   "/bin/sh -c 'trap \"e…"   4 seconds ago       Up 3 seconds (health: starting)   0.0.0.0:8000->8000/tcp   web-test
   ```

   Under `PORT` you'll see a mapping of the `HOST PORT` (0.0.0.0:8000) -> `CONTAINER PORT` (8000/tcp). The port from your failure will be on one of the containers. Make a note of the `CONTAINER ID` and run `docker stop <CONTAINER ID>`. If you no longer need the container, run `docker rm <CONTAINER ID>` to clean it up.

3. With the `PID` from step 1 in hand, run `ps <PID>` to make sure the process serving on that port is okay to kill.

   If it is, first, check any open Terminal windows to make sure the process isn't running as a part of some other script. If it is, `ctrl-c` to send a `SIGINT`. If it isn't running in a Terminal window and you're confident that it's okay to kill, run `kill <PID>`. If you're not sure what it is, restart your host machine and see if it restarts. If the process restarts on machine booting, consider running your container on a different port.

After you've gone through the steps above, when you attempt to run `docker container run...` you should make it a little further through starting up your container.


How to fix a failed Docker port allocation error.

Fix Docker Error for Failed Port Allocation


# Error

```shell
Error response from daemon: OCI runtime create failed: container_linux.go:348: starting container process caused "exec: \"/entrypoint.sh\": permission denied": unknown
```

# Solution

If you're using GitHub Actions, you'll get this when you've forgotten to set the `entrypoint.sh` as an executable. You can fix this error by running `chmod +x </path/to/>entrypoint.sh` (replacing `</path/to>` with the directory path from the process root) and committing it.

# When Have I see this?

When I'm creating a GitHub Action and I forget to set the `entrypoint.sh` as an executable, I'll see this error when the Actions container runs.


Fix Docker Error for GitHub Actions Entrypoint Executable Error


If you've ever received a [[Docker]] error for "no such file or directory", this is a possible solution.

# Error

```shell
standard_init_linux.go:207: exec user process caused "no such file or directory"
```

# Solution

Make sure all of the scripts that are being run in the container (this is especially true for `entrypoint.sh`) are using a process that exists.

If it is an `entrypoint.sh`, you probably need to make sure to do this:

```diff
- #!/bin/bash
+ #!/bin/sh
```

If you need `bash` features, use an Alpine distro with `bash` already installed or install it in the `Dockerfile`.

## When Do I See It Most?

When I'm using Docker and the `Dockerfile` is `alpine` linux, I sometimes forget that it doesn't have `bash` installed and accidentally add the sha-bang for `#!/bin/bash`. 99.9% of the time that's okay, so I change it to `#!/bin/sh`.

This is especially true when I'm making a GitHub Action.


Fix Docker Error for exec user process caused "no such file or directory"

- 💜 [these doodles on instagram](https://www.instagram.com/allen.handpoke/)


Found things...


As a Frontend Engineer, I feel tied to my work as my trade, as an artisan creating something both finely tuned in its functionality and beautiful in its aesthetics.

Every craftsman or tradesman has a collection of tools that help to make them better at executing their work. If you're beginning your journey as Frontend Engineer, these are the tools I believe you should add to your collection, both generally the types of tools you'll need and the specific tools I use.

Generally, every Frontend Engineer should know what each of these are and why they're important to use:

- Operating System
- Text Editor
- Browser[s]
- Command Line Interface
- Package Manager
- Programming Languages

# Operating System

Your operating system (referred to also as _environment_) is the most foundational tool you'll have. Everything you do stems from the operating system, navigating your file system, editing files, running servers and scripts, all of it happens in the operating system.

There are two types of operating systems you'll use as an engineer:

**Local Opreating System** This is your development environment. All of your development work happens here.

**Remote Operating System** This is any environment meant to be available to the outside world. At the very least it will be your "production environment" where your programs will be available to everyone. You could also have the following:

- **QA Environment** A place to check that your code works, but with mock data.
- **Staging Environment** A place to check that your code works with production data before it's live as production.

## Local Environment

Locally, I use [Mac OS X Yosemite (or the most recent stable OS X version)](https://www.apple.com/osx/), the obvious main reason being that I use a [MacBook Air](https://www.apple.com/macbook-air/).

Mac OS X at a low level emulates very closely the operating system I use in production, which is very advantageous, because the closer you can be between local and production, the less possible things that can go wrong.

This is becoming less and less of an issue with tooling, such as [Docker](https://www.docker.com/) giving developers the power to isolate their code to a container that will be _exactly_ like production, but I still think it's a good thing to keep your environments as close as possible in their low level systems.

## Remote Environment

When you start developing for the web, you'll need to push code to production environments. You'll also probably use `ssh` to access your production environment to make minor changes to your server. For example, I `ssh` into my production server to modify my `nginx` configurations for a/b tests and routing.

I use [Digital Ocean (referral)](https://www.digitalocean.com/?refcode=3b4e0dec66b7) to host my production server, and I use the Dokku droplet, which is an application that allows you to deploy your code using a push to `git` and a recipe of what to do once your code has been received to the `git remote`.

# Text Editor

Your text editor is where you'll spend all your time actually writing code.

I use [Sublime Text 3](https://www.sublimetext.com/3) in `vintage` mode (emulates `vim` keybindings). Sublime Text has a `package control` that allows you to install "plugins" that allow you to be more productive, and I absolutely recommend [installing `package control`](https://packagecontrol.io/installation).

My Favorite Packages:

- Advanced New Package
- BracketHighlighter
- EditorConfig
- Emmet
- Git Gutter
- Pretty JSON

Installing a package, once you've installed `package control`, type `cmd + shift + p` and type `install package`. Hit enter and type the package name you want to install and `Sublime Text` will install it for you. _Note:_ Sometimes you may need to restart `Sublime Text` for a package to work.

Getting started with `Sublime Text`? There's a great tutorial for [the perfect workflow in sublime text](https://code.tutsplus.com/articles/perfect-workflow-in-sublime-text-free-course--net-27293) on the tutsplus network.

If you're using a command line tool, you should setup the shortcut for opening [Sublime Text 3 from the Terminal](https://www.sublimetext.com/docs/2/osx_command_line.html).

# Browsers

Frontend Engineers spend a huge amount of time reconciling issues between browsers (mostly because of Internet Explorer), so it's good to have a suite of them installed.

If you're on a Mac, you should install [Google Chrome](https://www.google.com/chrome/)and [Mozilla Firefox](https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/). Safari comes preinstalled. If you're working for a company that requires Internet Explorer support, I'd suggest using a virtual machine and try out [Miccrosoft's virtual machine's for the version you need](https://dev.modern.ie/tools/vms/).

I spend my actual development time in Chrome because I am very familiar with, and find a lot of power, in their DevTools. For documentation on getting started with DevTools, checkout the [chrome developer guides for DevTools](https://developer.chrome.com/devtools) and for a more indepth look into how to use them, [check out codeschool.com's free discover devtools course](https://discover-devtools.codeschool.com/).

# Command Line Interface

A Command Line Interface can be really daunting to use, and it could be confusing as to why you should use one in the first place.

When you start working with local development, you'll find yourself running servers, creating directories and files, using `git` in your workflow, running scripts, lots of things that will make you productive, but can only really be done in a `Terminal`.

I use [iTerm2](https://www.iterm2.com/), but lots of people use `Terminal.app` which is a core application to Mac OS X.

# Package Manager

Installing new languages and new utilities can be a real pain if you have to do it different ways. Package managers allow you use a common language/syntax and convention for installing all of these.

Thankfully for Mac, there's a utility called [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/) that will allow you to install programs with the same syntax and keep those programs and utilities in a common location.

I also use [npm.js](https://www.npmjs.com/) which is a package manager built with [NodeJS](https://nodejs.org/) for all of my projects.

# Programming Languages

Programming languages are the heart and soul of your work. Without a programming language, your not programming. There are a few that are core to being a Frontend Engineer and a few that I use to make my workflow easier.

## Web Languages

**HTML.** HTML (**H**yper **T**ext **M**arkup **L**anguage) is the language of the web. It's the structure and content of how webpages are created.

**CSS.** CSS (**C**ascading **S**tyle **S**heets) is the language of defining how HTML looks and feels. Everything from font-type, colors, layout, borders and (sometimes) animation is defined using CSS.

**[[JavaScript]].** Javascript is the language of defining the functionality of a webpage (and SO much more!). Whenever you interact with a form or see content update on the page "magically", Javascript is the language behind the curtain. Javascript has also made its way into the server, so it can be used to write scripts to be run directly on your computer, run servers and even run databases.

If you're interested in learning the languages of the web, Mozilla Developer Network has great documentation for [HTML](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML), [CSS](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS) and [Javascript](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/javascript).

You can also start learning for free on sites such as [codecademy](https://codecademy.com/), or pay for subscriptions to places such as [codeschool](https://codeschool.com) or [treehouse](https://teamtreehouse.com/).

**[[git|Git]].**  is more of a system than a language, but it's one of the most important tools a developer working in a collaborative environment will use. Not to be confused with [github](https://github.com) (which is just _one of many_ places to store your git projects), `git` is a version control system that allows you to keep a history of all the changes you've made on a project over time and merge multiple user's code into a single "source of truth". When paired with a powerful system, such as Dokku, you can leverage a remote server as a way to both keep your version controlled projects and deploy those projects with a single `git push`.

## Other Languages

**[[Go (programming language)|GoLang]].** I started tinkering with Go because it's fast. It's strongly typed, compiled and has lots of support for creating web servers and for cross-platform functionality. I've built a few small utilities for personal use, but I also really like [Hugo](https://gohugo.io/)(a static site generator) and the [MongoDB Driver for Go](https://labix.org/mgo).

**[[Markdown]].** Markdown is a wonderful way to write in an easy to learn, easy to read, common plain text syntax that is converted into HTML in places like [github.com](https://www.github.com) and by static site generators (and some blog platforms). Most documentation (this blog post included!) is written in Markdown, which makes it a really useful language to learn and use. [GitHub has great documentation on learning the basics](https://help.github.com/articles/markdown-basics/).

**Bash.** Bash is the language of the terminal. A lot of utilities are written in bash, but I generally only use it for my [dotfiles](https://github.com/chaseadamsio/dotfiles), which includes aliases and mini-functions for executing certain things in the terminal.

# The Tools Of The Trade

As a Frontend Engineer, it's important to know why to use certain tools and which tools work best for you. There's no clear cut dogma saying "these are the tools everyone should use", but I believe the ones I've shared are the best tools for me to be most productive.

_Are you a Frontend Engineer? What tools do you find valuable (and why)?_


Every craftsman or tradesman has a collection of tools that help to make them better at executing their work. This is a list of my toolset.

Frontend Engineering Tools of The Trade


Taking full-length screenshots of a webpage is useful for client work, keeping historical references of a website or when you want to have a webpage round-up gallery to show sites that you've found around the web.

In the past, if you needed to do this, you likely did it incrementally and stitched it together or installed a separate extension in your browser (most had varying results).

Recently when I was doing some mobile web development and checking how my site looked for various devices with [[Chrome]] DevTools, I noticed that Chrome has a baked in way of taking a full length screenshot!

1. **Open DevTools.** In the application menu click **"View"**, then **"Develop"**, then **Developer Tools** (Alternatively you can save some clicks with cmd+option+i on a Mac). You should have a new pane that has tabs for "Elements", "Console", "Sources" and more and below that you will likely see the HTML of the page you're currently on.

![How to open Chrome DevTools](/img/chromescreencap_1.gif)

1. **Toggle Device Toolbar.** In the top left corner of the new pane, click the second icon from the left for **"Toggle Device Toolbar"**. A new toolbar should open at the top of the browser's window with options to change the page to be emulate displaying different devices.

![How to toggle device toolbar](/img/chromescreencap_2.gif)

1. **Take The Screenshot.** In the new device toolbar, click the **"More Options"** button (3 vertical dots) in the far right corner and click **"Capture Full Size screenshot"**.

![Now to take a full-screen screenshot of a website with Chrome DevTools](/img/chromescreencap_3.gif)

Now you can take full size screenshots with ease and natively in the browser!


Learn how to take full page screenshots of a webpage using Chrome DevTools

Full Page Webpage Screenshots with Chrome DevTools


**Dataview** is easily one of the most powerful plugins for [[Obsidian]].

One of my favorite ways to use **Dataview** is to get all of the files that are linked to the current file.

This lets the user embed linked mentions _in_ the document instead of having to use the "Linked Mentions" section of the Obsidian UI.

using the `dataview` tag:

```javascript
dv.list(
dv.pages(`[[${this.currentFilePath}]]`)
	.map(page => [page.file.link]))
```

The Result:

![[Pasted image 20220725165120.png]]

This is helpful if you don't need to see where the file is mentioned and instead just want to see an overview of all the files that link to it.

# Update 2022-11-25

I've started taking [[Interstitial Notes]] and leveraging a [[Dataview (Obsidian)]] query that gets all list items that match the query for the current file:

```javascript
dv.table(["Notes"],
	dv.pages().file.lists
		.where(li => li.text.includes(`[[${dv.current().file.name}]]`))
		.map(li => [li.text]))
```

This lets me easily capture my atomic thoughts, tasks and feelings in a daily note (I have a [[Quick Add]] workflow for each type that makes it fast) and then collect all of those thoughts, tasks and feelings in the note that it's relevant for. 

As an example, today I worked on updating all of my 404 links to point to their 200 equivalent notes in [[curiouslychase.com]]. I capture all of my tasks, ideas, thoughts and feelings in my [[Interstitial Notes]] and then use the query above to render something like this in the note:

![[Pasted image 20221125120807.png]]


Get all links to the current file with Obsidian and Dataview


I use [[Obsidian]] for interstitial journaling and wanted to list all of my specific list items containing the `#journal` tag. 

This DataviewJS snippet gets all items where they include[^1] a specific tag (`#journal`):

```javascript
//```dataviewjs
dv.list(dv.pages().file.lists.where(t => t.text.includes("#journal")).map((t ) => t.text))
//```
```

Being able to query individual list items is a  power boost for anyone using [[Obsidian]] for interstitial journaling and keeping their journal entries in a daily note!

[^1]: It doesn't have to be a tag, `includes` is a [[JavaScript]] string function, which means you could @ mention something, filter by some thing that could be queried with a [[Regular Expression]] or even link to another file!


Get list items containing a tag with Obsidian and Dataview


**I have been using Emacs for a month (as of this post) and it would be a Hurculean task for any other editor to pull me away from it!**

At the beginning of December 2016, I joined a new team at WalmartLabs writing Go to optimize the request/response lifecycle. I was having a conversation with one of my new teammates ([Shane Hansen, who's an awesome go developer](https://www.whitane.com/)) about which editors we used.

**I used Vim. He used Emacs.**

I'd been using Vim for over 4 years religiously and that was the moment that I realized that he was the _first emacs user I've ever met_. It led me to ask, "why have I never given Emacs a try?"

That night I googled "Emacs" and started my journey down the rabbit hole and haven't come back out of it since...in fact, I've given up on considering other editors because **Emacs is the best editor for me.**

![A Screenshot of My Emacs Editor](/img/emacs.png)

Why I'm using Emacs

I've tried a number of editors (Coda, Sublime, Atom, VSCode and clearly Vim) but have never been able to leave vim because I always felt so darn productive using it.

Even though I knew I'd be sacrificing my initial productivity, there were a few major reasons I was willing to try out Emacs:

- Emacs has been around since the mid-1970s and **still** has a group of people who are contributing to it heavily...and it does stuff none of the other editors I've used can do.
- Learning lisp is different, but Emacs lisp makes the editor itself incredibly powerful and flexible.
- It's self-documenting. If you want to know what a particular keybinding does, you can type a help command that'll prompt you to type the keybinding and then it'll show you the docs for whatever method it's bound to. How neat is that?
- **Org-mode. Org-mode. Org-mode.** This is going to get its own blog post, but org mode the most amazing feature of any editor I've ever used. It's a way to write todo lists. It's a way to keep an agenda in your editor. To capture todos. To capture notes. To capture anything your heart desires...from anywhere in your editor, quickly. It's a way to practice literate programming (rather than write code and document with comments, you write the documentation in a `*.org` file and you can run the code _from_ the file or "tangle" it into its own file, such as a shell script...it's really just amazing). **Org-mode itself has been the most valuable reason for me to learn Emacs.**

and one minor reason...

- **It's not written in Javascript.** I debated whether I should bring this up, but I don't think Javascript is the right language for an editor. I get better IO response from keystrokes (no visual lag) on Emacs in a VM than I do in Atom or VSCode on my host machine. I'll always love Javascipt, I just don't love it as the core language of my editor.

# If You're Considering Giving Emacs a Shot...

Here's some advice I'd like to give you if you're willing to try out Emacs:

- **Go into it with an open mind.** Everything new is scary. It's easy to justify not putting time into it by saying "this is scary" or "this is stupid" or "I don't have time for this". I'm not saying you _should learn emacs_, but I am saying that if you're choosing to invest time in it, give it a fair shake.
- **Go through the Emacs tutorial.** Learning the keybindings and functionality of Emacs is one of the most critical steps to success.
- **Wait to install plugins.** I know the white background is probably jarring, especially if you're using a dark theme in your current editor. There's so much out of the box that it can do and if you've gone through the tutorial, chances are you're getting a good chunk of what your current editor gives you. If you need things to write go or javascript, you can install plugins, but it's good to get a feel for the editor before installing stuff you may not need.
- **If you're coming from vim & your keybindings are a deal breaker, install evil-mode.** I use vim keybindings everywhere, so I installed evil-mode and found that it provided 100% of what I used in vim, which is a pretty awesome testament to whoever wrote `evil-mode`. Most vim keybinding extensions for other editors are missing basic features that made it hard to use for me.
- **If you use evil-mode...eventually try using Emacs without it.** I disabled `evil-mode` because I wanted to give the keybindings in Emacs a fair shake too, and they're not so bad! I've been using Emacs without `evil-mode` productively for almost two weeks now.
- **Check out [Sacha Chua's: How to Learn Emacs](https://sachachua.com/blog/2013/05/how-to-learn-emacs-a-hand-drawn-one-pager-for-beginners/) visual tutorials.** Pretty much every sub-rabbit hole I've gone down in Emacs has either started or ended with something from Sacha's blog, it's a /gold mine/ of information for learning Emacs.
- **Read the docs for org-mode.** Seriously, I can't convey how awesome org-mode is in this single post, but I'm hoping to churn out a bunch of new content explaining in a systematic way how to use org-mode to be a more effective engineer. Check out the [org-mode docs here](https://orgmode.org/)
- **Check out my emacs dotfiles.** All of my dotfiles are now org files that are either tangled or executed from my [dotfiles](https://github.com/chaseadamsio/dotfiles) directory. You can checkout my [emacs config](https://github.com/chaseadamsio/dotfiles/blob/master/emacs.org) which is loaded from my [`init.el` that's tangled from my bootstrap.org](https://github.com/chaseadamsio/dotfiles/blob/master/bootstrap.org) ]] or read through my [osx-defaults which are executed from emacs to setup a new OSX environment](https://github.com/chaseadamsio/dotfiles/blob/master/osx-defaults.org). Did I mention how much I love `org-mode`?


Curious about Emacs? Read about my journey with it.

Getting Started with Emacs




A cheatsheet for the pattern to use to match certain [paths for a GitHub CODEOWNERS file](https://help.github.com/en/articles/about-code-owners).

The cheatsheet uses `<ROOT>/.buildkite` as an example. `<ROOT>` in the "I want to match" section is the `git` root of your project.

| I want to match...                             | Pattern              |
| :--------------------------------------------- | :------------------- |
| all files in `<ROOT>/.buildkite`               | `.buildkite/**`      |
| `.buildkite` directory anywhere in the project | `**/.buildkite`      |
| everything _but_ `<ROOT>/.buildkite`           | `!.buildkite`        |
| `.buildkite` anywhere in `test`                | `test/**/.buildkite` |


A cheatsheet for GitHub CODEOWNERS pattern for matching a directory and all of its contents

GitHub CODEOWNERS Directory Pattern Match Cheatsheet


When I transitioned from writing Javascript into writing Golang, I quickly realized that there was a big difference in what it means for something to be truthy.

# Truthiness in JavaScript

If you're unfamiliar with the term truthy, it means that a non-boolean type value (for instance, string, number, null) can be evaluated to a boolean. A fairly common example of that in javascript is to evaluate a string's truthiness before doing something with it:

```js
let foo = "";

if (foo) { // "" evaluates to false, since it is empty
    console.log("the fu is strong with you");
}

foo = "foo";

if (foo) { // "foo" is true since it contains a string of length > 0
    console.log("how in the world can a string be true?!");
}
```

Another example is to check the value of an number:

```js
let isGreaterThanZero = 0;

if (isGreaterThanZero) { // 0 evaluates to false, because 0 is "empty"
    console.log("it's greater than zero.");
}

isGreaterThanZero = 1;
if (isGreaterThanZero) { // any number that's _not_ zero evalutes to true
    console.log("it's greater than zero.");
}
```

When you've written javascript for a long time, boolean evaluation not only feels normal, it becomes surprising when a string *doesn't* evaluate to a boolean.

# What is Truth in Golang

In Golang, there's only one type that has truthiness: booleans.

It makes sense right? That whole "if it quacks like a duck" analogy makes it a lot easier to know what your value is, but it also means that if you come from a language where you relied on boolean coercion, you need a major paradigm shift in how you check the truthiness of a non-boolean value.

# Strings

As far as I've seen, there are two idiomatic ways in golang to test if a string is true:

- test if a string has a length greather than 0
- test if a string is not equal to an empty string ("")

```go
package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
    s := "hello"
    if len(s) > 0 {
        fmt.Println("this string is not nil")
    }
        
    if s != "" {
        fmt.Println("this string is not empty")
    }
}
```

# Numbers

Alternatively, for numbers, check if the value is greater than 0:

```go
package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
    n := 1
    if n > 0 {
        fmt.Println("this number is greater than 0")
    }
}
```

# Wrapping Up

This was a big mental shift for me, since javascript took care of coercion for me, but once I was able to make the shift, I realized that relying on coercion made my code more likely to have bugs.

The big takeaway here is that **Golang does not have automatic type coercion for values that aren't of type `bool`** and those values have to be checked against an empty value for the type you're using.
gg


Coming to Golang from a language like Javascript comes with a lot of baggage. In this article, I'll demystify truth in Golang.

Golang - What is Truth?


- 5 things you can see
- 4 things you can hear
- 3 things you can touch
- 2 things you can smell
- 1 thing you can taste

![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EE70TsJXsAEa5QB.jpg)


Grounding Technique


Grunt is a JavaScript build tool that I used heavily between 2012-2016.

# Relevant Notes
- [[5 Useful Grunt Plugins]]
- [[How I Use Grunt And Bower for Frontend Packages]]
- [[Using Grunt For A Better Workflow]]


Grunt


I joined the show to talk about working on distributed systems (in [[Go (programming language)|Go]]) with distributed teams, giving people opportunities to learn and grow, and interesting Go projects and news.

My Intro:

> They call me chaseadamsio,
> 
> I love building software you know, 
> 
> and I'm happy to say, that there's no better way, 
> 
> than to power said software with go.

<audio data-theme="night" data-src="https://changelog.com/gotime/54/embed" src="https://cdn.changelog.com/uploads/gotime/54/go-time-54.mp3" preload="none" class="changelog-episode" controls></audio>[Changelog.com - Go Time 54: Go at Walmart (and Scale) with Chase Adams](https://changelog.com/gotime/54)<script async src="//cdn.changelog.com/embed.js"></script>


I joined GoTime to talk about working on distributed systems with distributed teams, giving people opportunities to learn and grow, and interesting Go projects and news.

Guest on GoTime - Go at Walmart (at scale)


A **HTTP status code** is how a web server, serving content, communicates the status of that content to the client[^client].

Status codes are grouped in blocks of 100 so that different types of statuses can be easily inferred. There are currently 5 blocks or categories:

- 1xx (100-199) - **informational**
- 2xx (200-299) - **successful**
- 3xx (300-399) - **redirect**
- 4xx (400-499) - **client error, bad request**
- 5xx (500-599) - **server error, okay request, server failed**

Only some numbers in a block have a industry standard meaning. This is useful for edge and content delivery networks to more accurately debug customer issues. 

# 1xx Responses

An informational response is issued provisionally to let the client know how a request is being processed and that the client needs to wait for a final response.  

I don't see these often in the wild. 

# Common 2xx Responses

A successful response is the "happy path" of the internet. For the most part you want your responses to be in the 2xx category[^happy-path-response-exception]

## 200 OK

This is the standard response for when a request is delivered successfully. The majority of status codes are going to be a **200 OK**.

# Common 3xx Responses 

This category defines how a client should redirect a request based on other information sent from the server. 

## 301 Moved Permanently

# Common 4xx Responses

This category means that a request was made from the client that was malformed or incorrect. 

This doesn't mean the _user_ did something wrong (although that's possible too), it just means that the request as the server received it was not a request the server could process on the user's behalf.

## 404 Not Found

This is a common response status code that means the client requested a page or asset that the server didn't have.

In my experience, the majority of the time that this happens is due to a typo on the content creator's part or a URL was modified by the user and it wasn't the correct URL.

## Less Common
- **418 - I'm a Teapot** - this error code was an April Fool's joke that indicates the server is a teapot and can't brew coffee. It's sometimes used to respond to automated requests. [Read more on MDN](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Status/418) (thanks Matt[^Matt])
- **451 - Unavailable For Legal Reasons** - this is a proposed error for code for when a user requests a resource that can't be served for legal reasons. (thanks Dylan![^dylan])

# Common 5xx Responses 

This category is all about an error on the server, even if the request from the client was correct. 

This could be because of a bug based on a case the developer didn't think about during development, overload on the server or a server it's making requests from or a configuration issue. 

## 502 Bad Gateway
The server is a proxy or gateway to an upstream but the service it's supposed to serve responded with an invalid response.

## 504 Gateway Timeout
The server is available but was unable to respond. 

- [ ] add more status codes in the 2xx block
- [ ] add more status codes in the 3xx block
- [ ] add more status codes in the 4xx block
- [ ] add more status codes in the 5xx block

[^happy-path-response-exception]: Generally you want 2xx responses, but 3xx responses can be useful for "healing" of a broken URL.

[^client]: client can be a browser or another web server. The internet is a collection of servers, often many, stitched together to serve content. A server will often use the status code it receives from another server to determine what status code to send to the client, sometimes modifying it slightly to differentiate between the status the server received and the status the server sent. 

[^dylan]: my good friend [Dylan Garcia](https://twitter.com/_dylanga/status/1586061309488947206)

[^matt]: [Matt Ginty](https://mobile.twitter.com/matt_ginty/status/1586088203387572224)


HTTP Status Codes


In the [[Obsidian]] Discord, I've seen a few people ask:
> How can I hid the "Powered By Obsidian Publish" banner?

You'll learn:
- **[[Obsidian Publish]]** - making change in `publish.css` and publishing

What you'll need:
- [[Chrome]] (Safari is similar, but different)
- [[30 - Collections/Software/VS Code]] (or some other editor you're comfortable with)

# Loom

<div class="iframe-wrapper"><iframe src="https://www.loom.com/embed/5ccaf045fe15410fb9369a70c3dc7210" webkitAllowfullScreen mozAllowFullScreen allowFullSscreen></iframe></div>

# Updating Obsidian Publish

Now that you know the element selector you want to use (`.site-footer`), you need to open your Obsidian vault with your editor. 

> [!info]
> The [[Obsidian]] app only supports markdown and image extensions, which is why it doesn't show up in your **File Explorer** (and can't be opened there).
> 

Once you've opened your vault, check if you have a `publish.css` in the root of the folder in the **Explorer**. If it doesn't, you'll need to create one.

Once you have `publish.css`, click to open it and scroll to the bottom of the file. 

For this example, we want to style the `.site-footer` as hidden:

```css
.site-footer {
	display: none;
}
```

Once you've added this, save the file and open your [[Obsidian]] vault. 

Click the **Publish changes** button (at time of writing it's a paper airplane). When the modal opens, you should see `publish.css` marked as **changed**.

Click **Publish** and go to your [[Obsidian Publish|Obsidian Published site]], refresh the page and the site footer should be hidden!

> [!info]
> If you don't see the change immediately, do a hard refresh in the browser so that the files are loaded from the network rather than your browser's local cache.


Hide "Powered by Obsidian Publish" in Obsidian Published Site


On Stack Overflow I found a question: How can I make my CSS menu's hover states move horizontally for UX purposes?

Unfortunately, this solution can't be purely CSS, it needs [[JavaScript]] to work.

It helps to approach this problem by thinking about the flow of the interaction:

- A user hovers over an element in a navigation bar.
  - If this is the first hover into the navigation bar, move a highlighter to the current navigation element's position and width.
  - If there was another element that has been hovered already, move the highlighter to the element's position and width.
- The user moves out of the navigation bar.
  - Move the highlighter out of sight.

## The Problem

With a pure CSS solution, one element's interaction can effect another unnested element's actions.

So what I proposed was to use CSS for the transition, and javascript to get the current position and width of the anchor that's hovered, then update the highlighter's style values to the new anchor's values:

Here's a JSFiddle of what the asker was trying to achieve: [https://jsfiddle.net/realchaseadams/Dm9Eu/4/](https://jsfiddle.net/realchaseadams/Dm9Eu/4/)

And the gist ([https://gist.github.com/chaseadamsio/7281682](https://gist.github.com/chaseadamsio/7281682)) for the code:

## A Solution

You'd inject the highlighter on the page with javascript, then have a fallback if CSS3 transitions aren't supported (most easily done using jQuery). On my personal projects, I'm not really concerned if visitors get cool flashy animations, so I would be happy for the bar to just move to the position without being a smooth transition.

**How would you have solved this problem? Create a JSFiddle or a gist and share it, I'd love to see how other people solve this problem!**

Original Question: _How can I make my CSS menu's hover states move horizontally for UX purposes?_ ([StackOverflow Question](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19722423/how-can-i-make-my-css-menus-hover-states-move-horizontally-for-ux-purposes/19726903#19726903))


Highlight Navigation Element Using Javascript


whenever I think about what's the worst thing that could happen and the answer is "we were wrong", there's another thing hiding below the surface. 

What would happen if you're wrong? Would people die? Would people lose their job? Would you be sad?

Really consider what the worst that could happen would be and never settle for "being wrong" being the worst that could happen. ttle for "being wrong" being the worst that.


How "We were wrong" is never the worst thing that could happen

My workflow for frequently publishing content to my personal website with [[Obsidian]] relies on constantly fetching files from my Obsidian vault into my [[git]] repo and pushing it straight to GitHub, triggering a Vercel deployment.

# How It Works

I have a `yarn` script called `cpAndPush` that I run from the command line:
```shell
yarn cpAndPush
```

`cpAndPush` looks like this:

```shell
yarn prebuild:cpFiles && git add . && git commit -m 'update content' && git push origin HEAD
```

For this script to work, there are a few notes about my workflow:
- I work on `main` for my personal website, so doing this publishes to [curiouslychase.com](https://curiouslychase.com)
- I keep my local repo clean if I'm not actively working on something. If I need to run this and have development changes, I'll run `git stash save -u -k "wip"` before running `yarn cpAndPush` so that my working tree is clean

`yarn prebuild:cpFiles` runs a script I have locally that fetches files from my [[Obsidian]] vault into my `content` directory.


How I Copy my Obsidian Files into my git Repository


Previously I iterated on a few solutions to publish content and they each had downsides...

First, I [[Back to Writing Content in Dropbox|used Dropbox to publish my posts]]. The downsides were:

- Files didn't stay in sync between [[Obsidian]] sync and [[Dropbox]].
- I had to stay up to date with the [[Dropbox]] API and it changed quit a bit
- I wasn't needing to "publish on the go" the way I anticipated I needed to.

In my second iteration, I wanted to focus on publishing more of what I originally considered posts as "notes", so I was using [[Obsidian Publish]] by fetching content on request and serving a rendered version via [[NextJS]]. The downsides were:

- It was slow to render
- My URLs were hard to read
- It was brittle because I kept track of the entire path of a file. If I moved it, it broke the URL

# Goals

My goals are to...
- publish content easily (but not necessarily on the fly) 
- reduce duplication of where I write and focus in on [[Obsidian]]
- reduce creating redirects

# New Solution

I now copy my Obsidian vault on my computer into my [[`git`]] repo's `content` folder and publish on push.

## Implementation [!TODO]


How I Publish Content to curiouslychase.com


I did a few experiments to see what serves my needs best for publishing my [[Obsidian]] notes to the web.

# Current Solution: A hand rolled script to copy Obsidian notes into my git repository

I use a script to copy any Obsidian notes as raw markdown (based on the `status: published`) frontmatter property and run all of the notes through a markdown compiler (with a few custom plugins for handling Obsidian's image syntax and callout syntax).

This affords me the ability to easily move files across into my git repository based on a frontmatter property (`status: published` ), build all of my note URLs at build time (reducing latency).

**Why it's working for me:**
- I can easily update a bunch of notes in Obsidian and run my script to copy them into my git repo and push. They're deployed as a part of my existing site.
- Page loads are _significantly_ faster because the pages are rendered at build time rather than request time
- Pages are server-side rendered, so they're better optimized for search engines and opengraph sharing
- I have total control over how the page renders
- I already have a website that I can add notes to rather than having a second place to point people
- I can setup my own URL paths so that I use a flat file approach in the URL schema (ie `/notes/<NOTE-NAME>`) and display the hierarchy in the note sidebar (if a note lives 3 folders deep, it displays as 3 folders deep)

# Previous Solutions

# Publishing in Dropbox

Details: [[Publishing my website from Obsidian files with Dropbox]]

I use [[Obsidian]] sync to sync notes between my computer and phone and had my computer's vault live in Dropbox. 

**Why it didn't work for me:**
- The Dropbox sync turned out to be really buggy between Obsidian and Dropbox.
- The Dropbox API authorization changed and I had to rewrite my fetch script
- I didn't find that I needed to publish 'on the go' as much as I thought

# Obsidian Publish

Setup Details: [[Using Fly.io and NGINX for Proxying Obsidian Publish]]

I tried [[Obsidian Publish]] but I found it lacked a lot of what I'd want out of it.

**Why It didn't work for me:**
- The pages are rendered on the client rather than being rendered on the server, making them look less good when sharing on social media 
- Modification meant updating a JS and CSS file and re-publishing them. I don't mind this, but I want more control if I have that flexibility
- I had to setup a reverse proxy to host my own domain. I know how to do that, but I don't want to own another piece of infrastructure.
- If I moved a file, the old path would 404

# Obsidian Publish ++ 

With this solution, I attempted to fetch the notes from the [[Obsidian Publish]] site files. This worked great for real-time publishing, having full control over look and feel _and_ having the ability to server-side render.

**Why it didn't work for me:**
- I couldn't justify the price tag of Obsidian Publish for a cached version of markdown files that I had to render on the fly
- Latency was significant for note files
- It's not a durable solution. If Obsidian changes the way they serve their files, it could break my notes quickly. 



How I Publish Obsidian Files to the Web


Frontend (specifically [[JavaScript]]) package management has quickly become a lot more, well...manageable since the release of [Bower](https://www.bower.io) & [Grunt](https://www.gruntjs.com). Here's how I manage frontend dependencies in my projects.

Bower has made it incredibly easy to install frontend packages (such as jQuery, Underscore, Backbone, Angular, the list goes on) and manage updates without the hassle of manually copying and pasting files into your projects or adding git submodules.

To get started using bower and grunt, you'll need to have [Node](https://nodejs.org) and [npm](https://npmjs.org) already installed. Once you have them installed, from your command line, run **`npm install -g bower`**, and let npm take care of pulling it in and setting it up for you. The -g flag is making bower available globally, so you don't have to install it every time.

**For convenience, I've added a working gist that can be cloned to your local box and run: [Gist: Using Grunt and Bower for Frontend Package Management](https://gist.github.com/7369801.git).**

# Harness the Power of Bower

The first thing you'll want to do is run **`bower init`** which will generate your _`bower.json`_ file and add the name, version, authors, license and ignore properties. This is also where all of your package definitions will be so when you pull this project down on a different computer or work with someone else, they can install all of the packages with one command.

Now that Bower is installed and initialized, let's setup our project's bower configuration. I don't like the name _`bower_components`_ for the directory we're going to store it in, so create a file called _`.bowerrc`_ in the root of your project's path, and add the following options:

```json
{
  "directory": "src/_lib",
  "json": "bower.json"
}
```

We're overwriting the default directory of _`bower_components`_ and defining the name of the package manifest.

## Installing Our Packages

In the project example, we'd like to use a few frontend packages:

- font-awesome
- underscore
- jquery
- requirejs

If we want to find a package, for example font-awesome, but we don't know the name, we can run **`bower search font-awesome`**, which will return a list of results. Looks like the package we want is called 'font-awesome', so the next thing we can do is run **`bower install font-awesome --save`**. This command will pull down the font-awesome package into _`src/_lib`_ and make it ready for us to use. If you take a peek into your _`bower.json`_ file, you'll see that the command also added font-awesome to your json file, so that it is now available for anyone else who uses your project to pull all the dependencies in with **`bower install`**.

Run **`bower install underscore --save`**, for each dependency until you've installed them all.

# Workflow Using Grunt

I am a huge proponent of using [Grunt as a build tool](/2013/11/07/using-grunt-for-a-better-workflow/), especially for frontend, so it only makes sense that we'd use it here!

One of the "downsides" of package management with Bower is that it pulls in a lot of extra cruft, all the tests, configuration files, README.md files, anything that's in version control, and when we're developing, we don't need all of it, so we can use Grunt to build only the files we need into our target directory.

Once you've gone through the steps to add **uglify** &amp; **copy** grunt-contrib plugins, add options to your Gruntfile.js grunt config:

```js
var pkgjson = require('./package.json');

var config = {
  pkg: pkgjson,
  app: 'src',
  dist: 'dist'
}

module.exports = function (grunt) {

  // Configuration
  grunt.initConfig({
    config: config,
    pkg: config.pkg,
    bower: grunt.file.readJSON('./.bowerrc'),
    copy: {
      dist: {
       files: [{
         expand: true,
         cwd: '<%= config.app %>/_lib/font-awesome',
         src: 'css/font-awesome.min.css',
         dest: '<%= config.dist %>'
       },
       {
         expand: true,
         cwd: '<%= config.app %>/_lib/font-awesome',
         src: 'fonts/*',
         dest: '<%= config.dist %>'
       }]
      }
    },
    uglify: {
      options: {
        banner: '/*! <%= pkg.name %> lib - v<%= pkg.version %> -' +
          '<%= grunt.template.today("yyyy-mm-dd") %> */'
      },
      dist: {
        files: {
          '<%= config.dist %>/js/lib.min.js': [
            '<%= bower.directory %>/jquery/jquery.js',
            '<%= bower.directory %>/underscore/underscore.js',
            '<%= bower.directory %>/requirejs/require.js',
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  });

  grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-copy');
  grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-uglify');

  grunt.registerTask('default', [
    'copy',
    'uglify'
  ]);
};
```

This Gruntfile will only be running a few tasks, but they're really convenient from a frontend development workflow:

- Copy Font-Awesome's minified css file into a _/css_ directory in our target.
- Copy Font-Awesome's fonts into a _/fonts_ directory in our target.
- Create a minified _`lib.min.js`_ of all of the javascript dependencies we have with a banner and place it in a _/js_ directory in our target.

When you run **`grunt`**, your dependencies will be put where they need to go and minified, so when you build, you can rest easy you don't have to manually add packages, and as you upgrade your dependencies, grunt will still continue to upgrade your target version of them whenever you run it.

# Last Steps

In my _`.gitignore`_, I add the following directories: _`dist`_ &amp; _`src/_lib`_ (or whatever your bower directories name is). There's a lot of debate about whether or not to version control your dependencies, and I tend to fall on the side of not doing it. For me, I don't have a good reason to version control something that's already version controlled, so it keeps my projects a little lighter.

**If you decide to start using Grunt and Bower, let me know, and show me how you did it! Seeing something you think isn't so great in my workflow? I'd be interested to hear other's opinions on good practices.**
gg


Learn how to use grunt and bower for a frontend workflow

How I Use Grunt And Bower for Frontend Packages


I thought `toggle-word-wrap` would enable wrapping a line when it was at the edge of a buffer, but it turns out what I wanted was `toggle-truncate-lines`.

If you want to enable word-wrapping in Emacs, use `M-x toggle truncate-lines`.

![[emacs_toggle-truncate-lines.gif]]


A quick tip on how to enable word wrap in Emacs.

How to REALLY enable word wrapping in Emacs


I often find that I want to restore a MongoDB database locally from MongoDB (Preview database) Atlas to determine if I've made any breaking changes.

# Restoring your MongoDB database

1. Download a backup from MongoDB Atlas.
2. Unzip the backup. In this case, I unzipped it to my `Downloads` directory as `dump`.
3. run a [[Docker]] container with the following flags:
	- `-p <TO>:<FROM>` - **To** is the port that you are serving on your local machine and **From** is the container's process port for Mongo (unless specified otherwise, it's `27017`)
	- `-v <LOCAL DB DIRECTORY>:<DOCKER DB PATH>` - **Local DB Directory** is where I unzipped the backup. **Docker DB Path** is the directory Mongo will use to serve a database. Unless specified otherwise, this is `/data/db`
		```shell
		docker container run -p 27018:27017 -v $HOME/Downloads/dump:/data/db mongo:5.0.7
		```

# Accessing your MongoDB database

Now from [[Mongo Compass]] you should be able to connect to your locally running Mongo instance with this connection string:

```
mongodb://@localhost:27018?authSource=admin&readPreference=primary&directConnection=true&ssl=false
```

Notice the `27018`? In this case, because that's the port I designated for Mongo to serve from _on my computer_, this is the port I want to connect to. 


How to Restore a MongoDB Database from Compass


**Husky** is a [[JavaScript]] tool that configures [[git]] hooks.


Husky (JavaScript)


I am not a writer by nature.

Poll any of my professors, specifically those in the English departments, and I believe the general sentiment would be that I scraped by on my imagination and unquantifiable amounts of editing.

Decades later and that hasn't changed. I still have a fear of putting keystroke to editor, afraid that what I write won't be compelling or coherent to even the most intelligent readers. When I do, I _always_ write sentences that need at least two revisions. In fact, that sentence had three.

The problem is that having thoughts and ideas is a very different creature to expressing those thoughts and ideas through written word. My fear isn't that I have good ideas, it's that I just can't express them with the full power and merit that they deserve.

A friend said recently: "not everyone is a writer". True as it may be, we most likely disagree on the why: **Most people just choose not to.**

# A Call To The Writer Revolution

I always ask people who have arrived where I one day want to be: "How Did You Get There?" I'm certainly not the writer in frequency, quality or consistency that I'd like to be, but I'm to the point that enough people ask me that question, so here are some of the things I've done to get where I am today.

## Write for 10 minutes a day

Start right now. I write something for at least 10 minutes a day. I find a time to be intentional about those 10 minutes and I just write. Think of it as fuel-injection for your brain. Your body wants to maintain homeostasis (a la watch tv) and your brain is no different. However, if your brain (or body for that matter) receives stimulus, it's like jump starting a car. It's ready to go.

## Keep A Large Pool Of Ideas

I have an Evernote notebook that is a blank note with a title of something I'd like to write about. There are over 150 notes in that notebook at a time. Having a direction is 90% of the battle. Most of these notes never have yet to see the light of day, but having a pool gives me something to pick from.

## Read "On Writing Well"

Pick up a copy of "On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction" by William Zinnser. Read a chapter a day. Take that chapter and superimpose it on your personal mission to write.

## Read, Read, Read, Read Some More, Then Write A Little

It might seem counter-intuitive to read 4 times as much as I write, but reading is a huge part of my process for two reasons:

- **It helps me to define my writing style.** I read content about different topics, written by different people and cherry pick the styles that I like.
- **It stokes my creative fire.** When I read, 9 times out of 10, my mind goes on a creative rabbit trail. Reading about other people's ideas and thoughts either help me further solidify my own or give me brand new thoughts to pursue on my own.

Use tools like Guy Kawasaki's [Alltop.com](https://alltop.com) to find content written about the things you're interested in. Write down highlights that resonate with you, as well as the thoughts that they inspire, writing these summaries and memorable quotes are great springboards for when you get stuck on what to write in the future as topics to write about.

# Join Me

My _desire_ is to write such powerful, compelling messages that the first thing you want to do when you wake up in the morning is check to see if I've posted something new. Many of my peers, co-workers and friends have said, "I want to start blogging". If you're one of those people, make this your goal, try some of the things I'm doing and let me know how it's going.

**I want you to choose to write.** What should you write about? It doesn't matter, but start with what you know. Once you start, the world is your oyster.

What about you? What tips do you have for learning to be a better writer? Share in the comments below!


I don't write so good - a call to be a better writer


Someone once asked me: "If you could have any super powers, what would they be?" 

There were two that came to mind right away:

1. **Wonder**
2. **Amplification**

# **Wonder**

Wonder was inspired by a character from the [[📚 Renegades Series]] named Callum. I wish I could claim it as an original idea, but I can't. Marissa Meyer beat me to it.

> "My point is that Ace Anarchy, whatever his motives might have been, was ultimately a destructive force. He destroyed things. But we are so much stronger and better when we put our energy into creating things, not destroying them." - Callum in Archenemies, page 265

Wonder is one of those delightful words that can have multiple meanings:

- a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unfamiliar or inexplicable
- to be curious about something

I want to feel that "surprise mingled with admiration". The beauty of the super power, however, would be that by being around me, my sense of wonder would lead to _others_ feeling a sense of wonder. If being around me inspired others to feel wonder, _that_ would be the most amazing super power.

# Amplification

Keeping in theme, **amplification** is the idea that the super power itself _is_ to enhance the super powers of others. 

I think it's a neat idea, because by myself, it doesn't make me that powerful. The power is in the fact that I'm in a space with others. My super power is only powerful _because_ it's making other people's powers stronger.

# Closing Thoughts (Maybe they're not super?)

I think the best thing about **wonder** and **amplification** is that even though real super powers don't exist, in a way these are something I could strive for and still be pretty close to doing in real life. All it takes to inspire wonder is a willingness to stay curious and present and whole. All it takes to amplify others is to recognize their gifts and figure out how I can contribute to them cultivating their gifts.

It's beautiful to think about it.


If I could have any super powers...


When building software in [[JavaScript]], I often need to inspect an array of objects or object of objects.

One of my favorite methods for achieving this is to use `console.table()`. Rather than having to toggle open nested objects that are of the same "type" (in this example we'll use some weird fishes), `console.table()` presents the data in a clean, tabular format. It's available in [NodeJS as of version 10.0.0](https://nodejs.org/api/console.html#console_console_table_tabulardata_properties) and in [almost every major browser](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Console/table#Browser_compatibility).

In this tutorial, we'll learn how to use `console.table()` by creating an array of objects and calling `console.table` to inspect the data using NodeJS and Google Chrome.

# Using console.table()

`console.table(tabularData[, properties])` is a method that takes two parameters:

- `tabularData`: a collection of data with any type
- `properties`: an array of strings of the fields you want to use to display the table

# Setup code

First, let's create a file for this example code called `weirdfishes.js` and create an array of weird fishes called `weirdFishes`:

```javascript
let weirdFishes = [
  {
    common_name: "common fangtooth",
    scientific_name: "Anoplogaster cornuta",
    family: "Anoplogastridae",
    wikipedia_link: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fangtooth"
  },
  {
    common_name: "vampire squid",
    scientific_name: "Vampyroteuthis infernalis",
    family: "Vampyroteuthidae",
    wikipedia_link: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_squid"
  },
  {
    common_name: "blobfish",
    scientific_name: "Psychrolutes marcidus",
    family: "Anoplogastridae",
    wikipedia_link: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blobfish"
  },
  {
    common_name: "dumbo octopus",
    scientific_name: "Grimpoteuthis abyssicola",
    family: "Opisthoteuthidae",
    wikipedia_link: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimpoteuthis_abyssicola"
  }
];
```

# Simple call to console.table()

We're going add a call to `console.table()` with `weirdFishes` passed in as the first argument:

```javascript
console.table(weirdFishes);
```

If we call `console.table` with only the first argument, it will display all of the data inside of each object.

# Inspect array of objects in NodeJS

Open your favorite terminal emulator application (I used VS Code's Integrated Terminal for the screenshots) and run `node weirdfishes.js` within the parent directory of `weirdfishes.js`. **Note that this requires nodejs >= v10.0.0)**

When we run the command, the console will display a table like this:

![Output of running console.table on an array of objects in NodeJS](/img/nodejs-console-table.png)

# Inspect array of objects in the Browser (Chrome Example)

The easiest way to see this in action in Chrome is to add the object via the JavaScript console. To open the Javascript console, type `cmd + option + j` and a new pane should pop up at the bottom of the browser window.

Copy the JavaScript snippet from above and paste it into the JavaScript console, press enter and you'll see a table that looks similar to the screenshot below:

![Output of running console.table on an array of objects in Chrome](/img/chrome-console-table.png)

# Constructing the table based on keys

Let's revisit the second parameter mentioned earlier: `properties`—an array of strings representing the values you want to display. Continuing in the browser example in the JavaScript console, call `console.table` with a second argument of `["common_names"]`:

```js
console.table(weirdFishes, ["common_name"]);
```

Calling `console.table` with the second argumend constructs the new table with only the index and the values of the keys in the array:

![Output of running console.table on an array of objects in Chrome with only the common name key](/img/console-table-only-one-key.png)

# Using console.table on an object of objects

`console.table` also works for an object of objects (because an array is a type of object) and the index will be the key for the child objects. You can see an example of this by running `console.table(roleModelsObj)`.

```javascript
let weirdFishes2 = {
  "common fangtooth": {
    scientific_name: "Anoplogaster cornuta",
    family: "Anoplogastridae",
    wikipedia_link: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fangtooth"
  },
  "vampire squid": {
    scientific_name: "Vampyroteuthis infernalis",
    family: "Vampyroteuthidae",
    wikipedia_link: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_squid"
  },
  blobfish: {
    scientific_name: "Psychrolutes marcidus",
    family: "Anoplogastridae",
    wikipedia_link: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blobfish"
  },
  "dumbo octopus": {
    scientific_name: "Grimpoteuthis abyssicola",
    family: "Opisthoteuthidae",
    wikipedia_link: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimpoteuthis_abyssicola"
  }
};
console.table(weirdFishes2);
```

You can see that the table now has the key for each object as the index:

![Output of running console.table on an object of objects in Chrome](/img/console-table-object-of-objects.png)

Now you've got a great alternative to `console.log` for displaying objects in JavaScript in tabular form instead of nested data—an alternative that will save you time in inspection and debugging!


Learn how to inspect an array or object of objects with console.table in the browser.

Curiously Chase

I help startups navigate the complexity of building human-centric software.

What I'm Writing