buenas tardes
• circa 1997
• Etsy, Editorially, Joyent
• community organizer
• technical author
• conference speaker
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please allow me to
pick up where i left off
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“I
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but today tho
• writing better code
• ignoring nonsense
• not believing the hype
• doing a good job
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participate in
your own
exploitation
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meritocracy is
a hell of a drug
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“we’ve been trying different things for a while, and these seem to
be the common threads among ourselves, and the most successful
and trustworthy people we’ve lived with before”
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falling off the
level playing
field
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self reinforcing
• you didn’t learn the latest framework
• you didn’t put enough time into open source
• you didn’t stay late and let your outside interests atrophy
• you weren’t “passionate” enough
JS templates
• jTemplates: uses JS to produce HTML
• jQuery Templates plugin: uses JS to produce HTML
• Mustache: uses JS to produce HTML
• Angular / React / etc: uses JS to produce HTML
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it’s all bike-
shedding
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all that matters or
will ever matter is
the user’s experience
performance
• eliminate bad performance in code
• don’t make a bunch of requests
• get whatever you can from cache
• don’t block loading
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performance
• eliminate bad performance in code: good judgement
• don’t make a bunch of requests: good judgement
• get whatever you can from cache: good judgement
• don’t block loading: good judgement
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as coders, we
work below the
surface
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what makes a great
coder isn’t code
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there are no
natural coders
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pro code skills
• ability to organize tasks
• very simple logic
• very simple math
• rules of grammar and language
• things you learn before your 20s
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pro code skills
1. problem solving
2. communication
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you don’t learn
to code arguing
about editors
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great code
comes from not
coding
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hot code tips
• go for a walk
• make friends
• read a book
• watch the news
• make something physical
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myopic code
makes a half-
assed product
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No content
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No content
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“natural” just means
you anticipated the
problems
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a “natural” coder
remembers people
use their code
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but that’s design!!
• code involves design work
• building anything does
• the more of the big picture you see, the better your design
• hence, the better your code
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code experience is
meaningless without
human experience
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code is a
living
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passion don’t
pay the bills
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food, water, sleep
safety and security
friends, love
respect
code
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after a decade
“good” code
isn’t enough
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food, water, sleep
safety and security
friends, love
respect
a better
world
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“just” a job
• in capitalism, a job is essential
• in a job, accountability is essential
• if the code is important, make it a job
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stop pretending
you’re going to
cash out at 30/
40
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#goals
0k
50k
100k
150k
200k
20s 30s 40s 50s 60s
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over your
career, results
matter most
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great code is
more than just
some typing
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great code gets
you home in
time for dinner
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someone is
always wrong
on the internet
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even the biggest tool
authors will probably
fade into obscurity