Welcome to Issue #8 of The Codbix! This week: building software is not coding, what is successfully blogging, codepen’s most hearted Pens, and I am a poem I am not software.
Welcome to Issue #1 of The Codbix! This week: Learn In Public, Make free stuff, documentation, and Brag now.
Learn In Public
If there’s a golden rule, it’s this one, so I put it first. All the other rules are more or less elaborations of this rule #1.
A habit of creating learning exhaust:
- Write blogs and tutorials and cheatsheets.
- Speak at meetups and conferences.
- Ask and answer things on Stackoverflow or Reddit. Avoid the walled gardens like Slack and Discord, they’re not public.
- Make Youtube videos or Twitch streams.
- Start a newsletter.
- Draw cartoons.
Make Free Stuff
The best growth hack is still to build something people enjoy, then attaching no strings to it. You’d be surprised how far that can get you. Make free stuff! The web is still for everyone.
How to hone your new superpower: teaching
I learned early in my developer journey that teaching others is an effective way to quickly deepen my understanding of a new concept or technology. I’ve found that needing to articulate a particular concept to others causes me to revisit my assumptions and leads me to do additional research to fill any knowledge gaps.
Your future self will thank you: Building your personal documentation.
Developers can take a DRY approach to how they search for answers to questions they encounter multiple times. By relying on an internal database (or “second brain”) they can reduce their reliance on external search engines.
Brag now, remember later: Document your accomplishments
Given five minutes notice to summarize your recent professional and personal accomplishments and wins, how detailed would your response be? Would that be enough time for you to sufficiently capture some of the things you’re most proud of from the past few months or years?
The most successful developers share more than they take
One of the questions I always ask successful bloggers is: what motivated you to start? The answer is always the same: I did it for myself. Whatever your work, you should embrace the philosophy of “public by default”.
Public-by-default means this: everytime you create something, learn something, or just notice something’s interesting, do it in public. This may seem daunting—writing blog posts, helping the community and transforming ideas from thoughts into words all takes time. But sharing is like a muscle, and by committing to a regular schedule, you become much more efficient. This consistency of volume is also key to reaping the benefits of sharing.
To truly embrace public-by-default, it’s not enough to share your successful projects and knowledge, but additionally to bring the humility to share your learning and failures.
What are your thoughts on this post?
I’d love to hear from you! Click this link to email me—I reply to every message!
Also use the share button below if you liked this post. It makes me smile, when I see it.