✨ Jamstack Explorers 👩🚀
this is a load-bearing app that a lot of people depend on
⭐ I’m a frontend dev. I work mainly w/HTML, CSS, & JS
last year I built stuff that doesn’t sound like frontend work:
- custom APIs and DBs (both GraphQL & REST)
- user dashboards
- video manipulation
but it all *felt* comfortable & within my skillset
how? a thread: 🧵
✨ Jamstack Explorers 👩🚀
this is a load-bearing app that a lot of people depend on
🗄 a custom database to track mission progress
📝 a content management system
🔐 user authentication
🎬 video manipulation
we were a small team of frontend devs and we needed to ship quickly — this was a daunting todo list 😅
using @HasuraHQ Cloud, we were able to create a new DB, configure it, and test the API all from a web interface — no config files or server setup required
we got it running in a day & I never felt like I was in over my head, even though DBs make me nervous!
we chose @sanity_io as a CMS. we used their CLI + JSON schema to set it up for Markdown + @mdx_js, exposed through a GraphQL API
the docs were great — it still felt like I was well within my frontend wheelhouse while we set this up
OAuth2 is a challenge to set up, *BUT* by using @Netlify Functions, we only had to figure out how to handle auth — not how to set up/deploy a server, listen for requests, AND handle auth. it was head-bendy, but it's still written in JS, so it felt familiar
this scared me — like, where do we even start?
fortunately, @cloudinary made it super approachable! we upload videos through Cloudinary's UI, then use the URL-based API to handle transformations like auto-generated title cards & auto-inserted bumper videos
what we *didn't* do is go into crunch mode to ship 👀
More from Education
Working on a newsletter edition about deliberate practice.
Deliberate practice is crucial if you want to reach expert level in any skill, but what is it, and how can it help you learn more precisely?
A thread based on @augustbradley's conversation with the late Anders Ericsson.
You can find my complete notes from the conversation in my public Roam graph:
https://t.co/Z5bXHsg3oc
The entire conversation is on
The 10,000-hour 'rule' was based on Ericsson's research, but simple practice is not enough for mastery.
We need teachers and coaches to give us feedback on how we're doing to adjust our actions effectively. Technology can help us by providing short feedback loops.
There's purposeful and deliberate practice.
In purposeful practice, you gain breakthroughs by trying out different techniques you find on your own.
In deliberate practice, an expert tells you what to improve on and how to do it, and then you do that (while getting feedback).
It's possible to come to powerful techniques through purposeful practice, but it's always a gamble.
Deliberate practice is possible with a map of the domain and a recommended way to move through it. This makes success more likely.
Deliberate practice is crucial if you want to reach expert level in any skill, but what is it, and how can it help you learn more precisely?
A thread based on @augustbradley's conversation with the late Anders Ericsson.
You can find my complete notes from the conversation in my public Roam graph:
https://t.co/Z5bXHsg3oc
The entire conversation is on
The 10,000-hour 'rule' was based on Ericsson's research, but simple practice is not enough for mastery.
We need teachers and coaches to give us feedback on how we're doing to adjust our actions effectively. Technology can help us by providing short feedback loops.
There's purposeful and deliberate practice.
In purposeful practice, you gain breakthroughs by trying out different techniques you find on your own.
In deliberate practice, an expert tells you what to improve on and how to do it, and then you do that (while getting feedback).
It's possible to come to powerful techniques through purposeful practice, but it's always a gamble.
Deliberate practice is possible with a map of the domain and a recommended way to move through it. This makes success more likely.
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1/“What would need to be true for you to….X”
Why is this the most powerful question you can ask when attempting to reach an agreement with another human being or organization?
A thread, co-written by @deanmbrody:
2/ First, “X” could be lots of things. Examples: What would need to be true for you to
- “Feel it's in our best interest for me to be CMO"
- “Feel that we’re in a good place as a company”
- “Feel that we’re on the same page”
- “Feel that we both got what we wanted from this deal
3/ Normally, we aren’t that direct. Example from startup/VC land:
Founders leave VC meetings thinking that every VC will invest, but they rarely do.
Worse over, the founders don’t know what they need to do in order to be fundable.
4/ So why should you ask the magic Q?
To get clarity.
You want to know where you stand, and what it takes to get what you want in a way that also gets them what they want.
It also holds them (mentally) accountable once the thing they need becomes true.
5/ Staying in the context of soliciting investors, the question is “what would need to be true for you to want to invest (or partner with us on this journey, etc)?”
Multiple responses to this question are likely to deliver a positive result.
Why is this the most powerful question you can ask when attempting to reach an agreement with another human being or organization?
A thread, co-written by @deanmbrody:
Next level tactic when closing a sale, candidate, or investment:
— Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) February 27, 2018
Ask: \u201cWhat needs to be true for you to be all in?\u201d
You'll usually get an explicit answer that you might not get otherwise. It also holds them accountable once the thing they need becomes true.
2/ First, “X” could be lots of things. Examples: What would need to be true for you to
- “Feel it's in our best interest for me to be CMO"
- “Feel that we’re in a good place as a company”
- “Feel that we’re on the same page”
- “Feel that we both got what we wanted from this deal
3/ Normally, we aren’t that direct. Example from startup/VC land:
Founders leave VC meetings thinking that every VC will invest, but they rarely do.
Worse over, the founders don’t know what they need to do in order to be fundable.
4/ So why should you ask the magic Q?
To get clarity.
You want to know where you stand, and what it takes to get what you want in a way that also gets them what they want.
It also holds them (mentally) accountable once the thing they need becomes true.
5/ Staying in the context of soliciting investors, the question is “what would need to be true for you to want to invest (or partner with us on this journey, etc)?”
Multiple responses to this question are likely to deliver a positive result.
To people who are under the impression that you can get rich quickly by working on an app, here are the stats for https://t.co/az8F12pf02
📈 ~12000 vistis
☑️ 109 transactions
💰 353€ profit (285 after tax)
I have spent 1.5 months on this app. You can make more $ in 2 days.
🤷♂️
I'm still happy that I launched a paid app bcs it involved extra work:
- backend for processing payments (+ permissions, webhooks, etc)
- integration with payment processor
- UI for license activation in Electron
- machine activation limit
- autoupdates
- mailgun emails
etc.
These things seemed super scary at first. I always thought it was way too much work and something would break. But I'm glad I persisted. So far the only problem I have is that mailgun is not delivering the license keys to certain domains like https://t.co/6Bqn0FUYXo etc. 👌
omg I just realized that me . com is an Apple domain, of course something wouldn't work with these dicks
📈 ~12000 vistis
☑️ 109 transactions
💰 353€ profit (285 after tax)
I have spent 1.5 months on this app. You can make more $ in 2 days.
🤷♂️
I'm still happy that I launched a paid app bcs it involved extra work:
- backend for processing payments (+ permissions, webhooks, etc)
- integration with payment processor
- UI for license activation in Electron
- machine activation limit
- autoupdates
- mailgun emails
etc.
These things seemed super scary at first. I always thought it was way too much work and something would break. But I'm glad I persisted. So far the only problem I have is that mailgun is not delivering the license keys to certain domains like https://t.co/6Bqn0FUYXo etc. 👌
omg I just realized that me . com is an Apple domain, of course something wouldn't work with these dicks