2010s Decade in Evaluate Acquire US

It has been an unimaginable decade. A lot of my life has modified within the final 10
years. I’ll share just a few choose highlights from my life within the final 10
years after which discuss a few of the issues I am wanting ahead for the following
decade.

The 2010s had been the years that I went via school, fully unaware what I
would do for a profession and transitioned into the actual world as a Software program
Engineer (one thing I by no means thought I might do) and husband/father (one thing I
all the time wished to do). I do not assume any decade will probably be as impactful to the remaining
of my life.

I’ve advised elements of this story just a few instances on just a few podcasts and
on my AMA:

Disclaimer: My decade’s experiences are distinctive to me and topic to all of the
privilege of my life, luck, likelihood, exhausting work, and issues figuring out regardless of
myself. Hopefully if this is not useful, it is not less than as entertaining as an
episode of a mediocre Netflix collection.

Warning: I generally is a little long-winded.

Let’s get began!

In 2010, I used to be nonetheless a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints. I can not adequately describe to you the influence that 2 years had on my
life, so I will not even attempt. Simply know that nearly each advantage of myself
could be tied to one thing that I realized throughout the two years I served and taught
God’s youngsters within the Missouri Independence Mission.

I returned dwelling from my mission in February and was prepared to begin again up at
faculty at BYU within the Spring. I attempted and didn’t get a job
for that point, so I began my very own “firm” digitizing folks’s assortment of
DVDs and CDs:

I did not make some huge cash, however it gave me one thing productive to do whereas I
waited for varsity.

iSayHi: A commitment to friendliness

As soon as I bought again to high school, I met loads of new buddies (together with my future
spouse), however I used to be involved with how many individuals had been ignoring one another, so I
began somewhat group/membership referred to as
iSayHi which was a
dedication to friendliness
(here’s the Provo edition).

It did not get too massive, however I prefer to assume that we made our little nook of the
world a greater place!

Other stuff

I bought a job on the BYU Convention Heart as an A/V technician. The work was not
unhealthy and the folks had been superior.

I additionally bought concerned within the faculty American Signal Language membership (ASL). I used to be by no means
superb at ASL and in contrast to everybody else within the membership I wasn’t taking any ASL
courses, however I realized a bit earlier than my mission and used it throughout my mission to
educate the gospel to some deaf folks I met. It was a very good time.

Earlier than my mission, I had been within the
BYU Men’s Chorus. I joined again up
in 2010 as a Tenor and was additionally a part of management of the group.

2010 was additionally the yr that I noticed Electrical Engineering wasn’t going to
work out for me as a result of I used to be fairly horrible at math. So I bounced round
advisor’s places of work till I landed in Accounting… Ugh… Don’t fret, extra on
this subsequent yr.

In 2011, I used to be fairly into Final Frisbee.

On the finish of 2010, I left the BYU Convention Heart and joined up as a
“Laptop Lab Technician” which mainly meant I sat all day at a pc in
the “Laptop Lab” (only a room with school-provided computer systems for college students to
use) and each quarter-hour I walked round to verify no one wanted any assist
with Microsoft Workplace and ensured the printer had paper in it. It was a soft
job and I spent most of my time engaged on homework.

Getting into programming

Fortunately I found out that Accounting wasn’t going to work for me both and by
the start of 2011 I made a decision to change to Info Techniques which went a lot
higher. I labored exhausting and made it into the Info Techniques program which I
began within the Fall semester. It was extremely intense.

My first useful software program

After I began in this system, I additionally left my soft Laptop Lab Technician job
for one which I believed could possibly be extra according to what I wished to do for a
profession. I began as an intern on the non-profit group referred to as the
More Good Foundation they usually gave me the
job of importing a TON of church movies to our YouTube channels. It was
monkey-work to be sincere. Tremendous boring stuff.

On the identical time, I used to be in a Java programming class in school and I noticed
that Handbrake (the software program I used to be utilizing to tear the
DVDs and course of the movies) had this factor referred to as a CLI and I believed I may
in all probability generate the CLI string with a pc program I may write and velocity
up my course of significantly. So my boss mentioned I may attempt to make that occur and
it labored! Then I had time to do much more and finally we began simply
downloading movies (with permission) from lds.org and
importing them to YouTube. I labored out how one can make all that occur
robotically. In 13 languages. It was 1000’s of movies that my program
robotically downloaded and re-uploaded, leveraging the search engine optimization work the church had
accomplished on the official website.

In case you’re curious what sort of movies these had been,
here’s a personal favorite.
I am fairly certain the church determined to begin placing the movies on YouTube
themselves so the Extra Good Basis took theirs down as a result of I can not discover the
ones that I uploaded, however it was fairly cool. The CEO even had me current my
software program to the board of donors. It was a reasonably proud second for me. I did not
realize it but, however I used to be turning right into a software program developer.

Getting my internship

That yr, all of my classmates and I had been frantically in search of internships
for the summer time and I used to be struggling actually exhausting to search out one. Most of my buddies
had secured internships and I had didn’t get one regardless of attempting a number of
interviews.

I interviewed on the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saint’s Info and
Communications Division (it is a corporation with 1000’s of staff).
The individual interviewing me mentioned that he did not assume I match for the job he was
hiring for, however he wished me to get a place on the group so he hooked
me up with one other supervisor who supplied me a place as a High quality Assurance
intern.

A number of months later, I used to be presenting a undertaking that I labored on with a crew of
folks to some visitor judges from the Church. I went somewhat bit above and
past with my a part of the undertaking and one of many judges was actually impressed.
He came upon that I used to be interning on the Church and advised me he wished me to
transition to his group. I used to be flattered and thrilled, as a result of I wasn’t
tremendous enthusiastic about doing QA and he was providing me a chance to work in
his org as a Enterprise Intelligence Engineer (which is what I believed I wished to
do).

Other stuff

My spouse and I bought married in summer time of 2011. It has been great!

Oh, and that is the yr I lastly caved and joined Twitter.

Internships

My internship on the Church went tremendous properly. After I began, I used to be nonetheless not
satisfied I wished to be a software program engineer. I believed I wished to do enterprise
intelligence. I realized about denormalized database schemas optimized for quick
reads and answering enterprise questions. I realized about ETL processes and instruments.
It was cool, however my mentor requested me to assist him work on a Java program he had
written to automate emailing stories and after ending that easy job, I
discovered myself drawn to discovering increasingly issues that I may do to enhance
it. Throughout this time I lastly realized how a lot I loved writing software program to
remedy issues.

When my summer time internship wrapped up, my boss requested if I might like to remain on
part-time and I did for just a few months, however finally I bought a name from a
recruiter at Domo they usually advised me that I may write
software program as a part of my job description. Additionally they supplied free snacks, meals,
and a shorter commute. So I traded my collard shirts and khakis for a developer
shirt, shorts, and flip-flops. Truly, they employed me to put in writing automated exams
for his or her Java net endpoints, however that did not final lengthy earlier than I joined the
frontend JavaScript crew.

I had no thought how good this might be for me. I labored with a few of the smartest
folks within the enterprise. I realized a TON from them. I am going to all the time be grateful to
Merrick Christensen for instructing me what
this in JavaScript means. I’ve so many different folks that I labored with who
taught me rather a lot whereas I labored there. I can not overstate the influence this time
made on me as a brand new engineer. Working with good individuals who had been keen to
reply my questions (or simply let me eavesdrop on their conversations) was
incredible.

Open source

This was the yr I began getting concerned on GitHub. This is
my first “open source” project (and
second one… and
third one) and I opened
my first pull request.
Since then, open supply grew to become the default for the code I’ve written.

Other stuff

In 2012, I joined the BYU
Association for Information Systems chapter management. I
spent the remainder of my faculty expertise as a part of the management of that group
(finally I used to be co-president) and that was a rewarding expertise. Our chapter
coordinated sponsorships from over a dozen firms who hosted occasions for our
college students just a few instances a month. It was an superior expertise.

2012 was additionally the yr that I grew to become a father too. This was additionally life altering
(in a great way). Oh, and I used to be an 11 yr outdated scout chief. That was a enjoyable time
too.

That is me writing code at dwelling throughout my summer time internship.

USAA Internship and keeping sharp

Earlier than getting the job at Domo, I had interviewed with USAA for a summer time
internship which I bought, so I talked to my supervisor who mentioned I might get my job
again once I returned from my summer time internship. So my spouse and I changed our
outdated automotive with a brand new one (our first automotive buy) that might make the journey, we
packed up our little household, and headed to San Antonio, Texas for the summer time.

I loved the folks I labored with, however it was a HUGE distinction to Domo. I did not
get a complete lot accomplished and did not get a lot satisfaction out of the work I did
there. However I did get pleasure from San Antonio and the folks I met whereas there. Go Spurs
Go!

Proper earlier than leaving for San Antonio, a number of engineers at Domo began speaking
about the necessity to transition our app from Spine to AngularJS. I used to be fearful
that whereas I used to be gone, everybody would get good at AngularJS and I did not wish to
be left behind. So within the evenings, I constructed just a few toy
apps
and
libraries (each AngularJS and vanilla
JavaScript). I had a couple of mile stroll to my desk (USAA is large), so I
read
several
books on my stroll (each
Angular and vanilla JavaScript). I used to be ingesting within the JS (and Angular). I
realized a ton.

General, USAA was a very good expertise, and I beloved the folks I labored with. I
realized from that have how invaluable autonomy, vanguard tech, and
smaller firms are to me. So I denied their supply of employment and went again
to complete my masters diploma and work with Domo half time once more.

Landing a full-time job

Getting a full time job at Domo is a enjoyable story. Having rejected USAA was scary
for me as a result of on the time my spouse and I had our daughter and we had been anticipating
our first son. All my buddies had been getting and accepting provides and I used to be
nervous I might be left with the dregs. Domo wasn’t making any provides to anybody
up to now out (like many different firms do), so I wasn’t certain I might get a job with
them both.

Domo had common hack nights that had been tons of enjoyable. You just about construct
no matter you need for 4 hours after work they usually choose “winners” on the finish
of the night time. Certainly one of my work associated duties concerned fixing some keyboard
shortcuts we had within the product. I forked
keymaster to do it. Then, for the
hack night time I added a bunch of keyboard shortcuts to the product.

It was enjoyable, however I quickly found out that the keyboard is fairly restricted to
intuitive keystrokes for actions. So for the following few weeks, I constructed
genie at dwelling and on the subsequent hack night time
I carried out it in our undertaking.

It labored out nice. Merrick was impressed and determined to convey Josh James (the
CEO) over so I may present him what I might accomplished. I just about stumbled (I used to be
critically intimidated by Josh) throughout my phrases and I do not assume he bought it
till Merrick defined it in plain english to him. This is about what occurred
subsequent:

Josh: Hey, that is method cool.

Merrick: Yeah, and get this, Kent’s an intern.

Me: That is proper Josh, and you already know what, for those who give me a job supply proper
now, I am going to settle for it.

There was nearly an audible gasp from the ten or so different folks standing round
once I mentioned that. Josh stared at me for a second, however slid me a bit of paper
and mentioned: “What’s your quantity?” I used to be freaking out! I hadn’t deliberate for this. I
jotted down one thing that I believed was honest and he referred to as the HR VP (it was
nearly midnight) to get approval. He wrote up a fast job supply and signed it. I
signed it a growth! I landed my full time job for once I graduated.

In order that was fairly neat.

Other stuff

That is the yr that Jake Lingwall began
calling me “Kent C. Dodds”. Because of him, everybody in school and work began
calling me that too and it simply caught. So you may name me “Kent” you may name me
“Dodds”, you may name me “Kent C. Dodds”, however you may’t name me “Kent Dodds”. It
simply sounds bizarre to me.

A number of months later, my spouse and I had our second baby.

2013 was a very good yr!

That is me on the Lego Retailer in Minneapolis the place I spoke at my first out of
state convention.

Graduating

In 2014, I constructed
my Facebook competitor (together with
a cell model with Ionic) that yr (it is not that spectacular, however there it
is anyway) for my capstone undertaking for varsity. That was plenty of enjoyable and I
realized a TON as a result of I needed to construct the entire thing entrance to again.

I graduated from BYU with a Masters in Info Techniques. That was a reduction.
Lastly I may cease worrying about grades and concentrate on offering for and
having fun with my household.

Conference and egghead time

I went to my first convention in 2014 (ng-conf) and came upon how amazingly
superior conferences are. I hosted my first workshop
which you can watch. It was about
AngularJS and I bought Firebase to sponsor pizza . That is once I realized how enjoyable
it’s to show folks the issues that I’ve realized.

2014 was additionally the yr I began talking at meetups and conferences.
One of my meetup talks was recorded
and primarily based on that recording, I used to be invited to hitch
egghead.io as an teacher to show that discuss right into a
course
(which I did).
That was HUGE. Other than the additional passive revenue that supplied, I additionally began
studying and instructing a LOT extra. A lot of alternatives got here up as a result of I used to be an
teacher on egghead.

I am going to always remember the expertise of getting my egghead recording tools from
John Lindquist (egghead founder). As a result of
he additionally lives in Utah we met up in a parking zone and moved the tools from
his trunk to mine. The entire thing felt just like the type of factor you see within the
films proper earlier than FBI brokers bust you Fortunately that did not occur

UtahJS Conf 2014 was the primary convention I spoke at. Then I flew to Minneapolis
for MidwestJS. I bought in as a result of a speaker canceled
final minute. My talk was about
that library I wrote that bought me my job at Domo. This discuss was attention-grabbing
as a result of the night time earlier than I watched a chat referred to as
How to Talk to Developers by
Ben Orenstein which dramatically modified the way in which I
give talks even to this present day.

At MidwestJS, I additionally met Mark Grabanski (who
occurred to talking on the convention as properly) which finally would result in
beginning my relationship with Frontend Masters.

Changing jobs

In 2014, I used to be recruited away from Domo to AtTask (now Workfront). I made that
change for a number of causes, however one among them was that AtTask was providing me an
alternative to be in a extra senior place. I fearful that at Domo I might
all the time be seen because the intern and would not ever have the chance to do the
attention-grabbing work. I used to be truly solely at AtTask for 2 months, however whereas I used to be
there, I helped them to develop a plan to modernize their tech stack. I realized
later that they carried out that plan and it went very well, which made me
be ok with the 2 months I spent there.

I left AtTask for one more native firm referred to as Alianza. Alianza gave me the
alternative to be the only real frontend engineer. I used to be excited in regards to the
alternative to make all the selections (and errors) alone. To have
possession over your entire frontend software. I realized a TON from that
expertise, and I loved my co-workers. My boss gave me loads of belief and
autonomy which was actually rewarding.

Open source

That is the yr of my first substantial contribution to a serious frontend
JavaScript framework
(I added tests to AngularJS).

I also started exploring CSS in JS
(in AngularJS) this yr.

I began enjoying round with ReactJS this yr as properly. Actually, I first heard
of React whereas listening to a podcast on my approach to ng-conf. And I “gave it 5
minutes” just a few months later
(I tweeted favorite quotes from the docs as I was working through them).
I used to be actually impressed, however I used to be nonetheless loving AngularJS.

That is additionally the yr that I took possession of the
angular-formly undertaking which was
my first extensively used undertaking. The docs and instance websites are nonetheless getting tons
of visitors immediately regardless that it is unmaintained.

Podcasting

Towards the tip of the yr, I began AngularAir the
dwell broadcast podcast with Todd Motto. I
hosted that podcast for a full yr and talked with TONs of individuals about
AngularJS (everybody from the AngularJS crew to maintainers of libraries to
product engineers). I made loads of buddies via that podcast. Good instances.

Other stuff

I did somewhat moonlighting in 2014 at an organization referred to as Parakeet. Constructing that
gave me extra publicity to extra issues which gave me extra expertise.

We purchased a home this yr as properly. Residence possession took some getting used to!
We had an additional bed room within the basement which I transformed to a house workplace for
recording egghead movies, engaged on open supply, and dealing from dwelling
often.

That is me on the point of give a 3 hour “discuss” about AngularJS.

Conferences

In 2014, I began getting fascinated by talking at conferences. I noticed how
enjoyable it was to attend and knew that I may by no means pay to go to all of the
conferences I wished to go so I scoured the web for conferences that had been
accepting proposals and submitted a bunch. Most of those had been rejected, however I
did get just a few accepted. 2015 is once I needed to ship.

The primary convention of the yr was Jfokus. I submitted a number of talks to talk
and was chosen for 2 of them
“Utilizing ReactJS with current AngularJS codebase”
and Intro to AngularJS. They wished the “Intro”
discuss to be a 3 hour “discuss”. I wasn’t skilled sufficient to know that that is
ill-advised It truly went fairly properly contemplating that. I mainly simply
walked via the entire intro workshop I had given my buddies in class the
yr earlier than.

The React + AngularJS discuss was an attention-grabbing one as properly as a result of I truly had
by no means accomplished that earlier than. I knew it was attainable, however that was it. That is
convention pushed improvement at its most interesting. It labored out very well (and
there’s even
a recording you can watch if
you are ).

One other factor that is attention-grabbing about Jfokus is that I did not understand that it
was a global convention once I submitted to talk there. I had by no means
traveled internationally and once I came upon that it was in Sweden I truly
kinda freaked out. I will be completely sincere: Worldwide journey scares me, a
lot. After I journey (even domestically), I do not actually do a lot exploring
(usually I am going to discover a McDonald’s for dinner and take it again to my room to work
on my materials or one thing boring like that). I’ve a little bit of a worry that
one thing will occur that can stop me from getting again dwelling to my household
safely.

So I used to be actually nervous on this journey. Fortuitously for me, one other American there
who had been to the convention earlier than befriended me and invited me to go along with
him to see a few of the sights and that gave me the braveness to exit and see
the temple of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
which was cool:

Jfokus additionally set me up with a two day AngularJS workshop. This was my first-ever
paid workshop and I realized a TON about workshopping from this expertise. Like,
how exhausting workshopping for 8 hours two days in a row is, how vital
breaks are, and how one can by no means get via as a lot materials as you assume you
can.

One other convention that I used to be accepted to talk at was an AngularJS convention
within the Netherlands referred to as “ng-nl”. It simply so occurred that this convention was
scheduled the week proper after my time in Sweden for Jfokus, so it labored out
very well for me to fly straight from Sweden to Amsterdam.

This was the primary time I attempted doing an on-site dwell podcast broadcast (for
AngularAir) at a convention. It went very well, however making the tech work
was… a studying expertise:

I am shocked it went as properly
as it did.

I additionally attended “React Week” in Provo, Utah which was every week lengthy workshop
taught by Ryan Florence. I want to say
that it was life-changing, however I truly spent the majority of the time studying
about Angular 2 and advising the Angular crew on the brand new kinds API (I even snuck
away throughout instruction to do a video convention with the Angular crew whereas
Ryan was within the different room instructing folks React). Good instances

One other discuss I gave in 2015 that was of be aware was I spoke on Angular 2 at
Philly ETE. For these of you who know the
historical past, Angular 2 was introduced in October 2014 and was lastly launched nearly
2 years later, so it was in flux fairly a bit. I am used to speaking about
experimental applied sciences and concepts (properly, I’m now). I bought loads of assist from
the Angular crew and buddies. What scared me most about this discuss was that
a number of authors of different JavaScript frameworks could be attending the convention
and I felt like I did not belong there. Regardless of this, my preparation paid off and
I feel the talk went properly.

2015 was the primary yr of React Rally, my
favourite convention. I do not usually attend a convention if I am not talking, however
I’ve by no means missed a yr and I by no means plan to. It is an unimaginable convention.

Alianza work

Whereas I used to be at Alianza, I rewrote our construct from grunt to
this messed up gulp thing I thought was super cool at the time,
after which once more to webpack. I began colocating every part
and loving it sooooo a lot. I realized a TON whereas I used to be there. Most of my
webpack/babel expertise got here from making these instruments work at Alianza. I additionally
moved our frontend stuff to a Steady Supply setup with
SnapCI (after
evaluating other solutions).
I consider they’ve since moved to Wercker. I set it up
to deploy to each one among our environments for every construct and pull request so
we may validate issues in an actual setting with ease earlier than merging. When
all you’ve got bought is a few static information, doing one thing like that is fairly
easy. But it surely was soooo cool. Being the only real frontend dev at a 40ish individual
firm was fairly superior. I used to be given a substantial amount of autonomy. I beloved it.

Job change

After I hit in regards to the 10 month mark (round August 2015), a recruiter at Fb
reached out to me and wished me to interview. It is exhausting to say no to Fb,
and fairly actually that is in regards to the time I began to query my loyalties to
Angular. I had employed one other frontend engineer and he was incredible to work
with. Even with that, I used to be getting drained with how lengthy it was taking Angular 2
to occur, and I wasn’t tremendous enthusiastic about having to rewrite our app to get it
up to date. I used to be additionally actually drawn to React, so if we rewrote our app, I
deliberate on shifting it to React. However I talked to my boss and he mentioned we did not
have the time to do a migration of any variety. So a chance at Fb
(probably even on the React crew) was actually enticing.

So I interviewed, had a fantastic expertise (I even noticed Zuck from the again! Sitting
there hunched over his laptop computer in the midst of everybody else at a desk like
everybody else) and I bought a proposal. It was extraordinarily tough, however my spouse and I
determined that the explanations we did not wish to transfer to California outweighed the
causes we did. So we mentioned no.

However at this level, I used to be beginning to think about issues somewhat extra. I began to
understand that it could be very nice to work with a crew of frontend engineers.
Actually, the man I changed at Alianza had left for a similar purpose. I wished
extra crew members who had extra/totally different expertise than I had. So I stored my
choices open. I truly interviewed at two native firms and did not get
provides from them (a splendidly wanted humbling expertise).

PayPal

Then the PayPal job alternative got here up. This is how that went down:

First, right here had been my standards for a job:

• Pay that satisfies my household’s wants (I am married and had three children on the
  time and a mortgage)
• Stable product/firm I can get behind (wont work on one thing I am morally
  against) and get enthusiastic about
• Good work setting the place I really feel snug and secure
• Autonomy to do the work that I (and my crew mates) really feel is finest (versus
  administration dictating and micromanaging)
• Skill to make use of vanguard know-how (quite than 10 yr outdated dinosaur tech
  which some folks simply name “battle examined” ……)
• Skill to work with the online and JavaScript
• Work with clever folks I can study from who’ve totally different experiences
  from me

And for me at the moment in my life, I used to be additionally actually fascinated by working with
React.

So I searched round for firms that might test all these containers, after which
this happened:

Jamis Charles followed-up with a DM…
Completely calling my bluff.

One factor led to a different, I bought interviewed, they supplied me a place, they
checked all my containers, so I accepted.

Open source

2015 was additionally the yr I ramped up my open supply contribution. Principally to
angular-formly, but additionally my port
of React’s prop-types API: api-check
(earlier than React created
the prop-types package). To enhance
the contributing expertise for folks contributing to angular-formly, I created
cross-env and that is my most
explicitly downloaded module by an extended shot.

I additionally began First Timers Solely, which was tremendous
rewarding.

Other stuff

I began my
Tech Chats
playlist on YouTube. I in all probability ought to have made that extra of a factor in
retrospect as a result of there are 32 movies of some prime quality content material on there
(together with my first face-to-face with
Dan Abramov).

I additionally did my first enterprise session towards the tip of 2015. To be
sincere, it was somewhat surreal advising an organization of enterprise engineers (some
of whom had been twice my age) once I had solely been growing software program
professionally for a yr I do not keep in mind every part I advised them to do, however
I am fairly certain I gave them good recommendation

This yr I handed off AngularAir to a few of the
succesful panelists (the present remains to be occurring immediately!) and I began
JavaScript Air with a gap episode with Brendan
Eich (creator of JavaScript). That transition went very well and I used to be in a position to
develop the subjects of my weekly exhibits.

I gave a complete of 14 talks in 2015 (which you’ll find on
my talks web page). I delivered 5 workshops (which you’ll find on
my previous workshops web page), and I created some extra egghead
programs and movies (which you’ll find on
my egghead profile).

My spouse and I additionally had our third baby! This little household was rising quick!

In case you’re studying this, I am impressed you are truly studying this far.
Tweet me.

Oh, that is the yr I bought lasik and at last mentioned goodbye to my glasses
Hallelujah!

This image is me at Fluent Conf with some superior builders:
Estelle Weyl,
Kathleen Vignos,
Sarah Drasner, and
Ayşegül Yönet.

Conferences

Beginning in 2014, I realized how a lot I loved conferences and began
submitting to talk at them. I did not change my fee of submissions in 2015, however
they should have gotten higher high quality as a result of extra of them had been accepted and that
resulted in me getting scheduled to journey a LOT in 2016. Along with
conferences and workshops, I additionally needed to journey to the PayPal places of work in San
Jose each few months for work and as a TC39 delegate, I traveled to these
conferences as properly.

2016 was nice, however it was an exhausting quantity of journey and it took a toll on
myself, my household, and my crew at work. At one level my supervisor pulled me apart
and advised me of the truth of the truth that in the future in 5 I used to be off work
touring and my crew needed to choose up the slack. I remorse to say that I used to be
actually upset by this and even tweeted my frustrations. It was not a fantastic second
for me. A few of my co-workers and my higher-ups had some severe conversations
with me about my contributions to the crew. My spouse and I had some conversations
about what we actually wished from balancing my profession and household. I needed to develop
up a bit that yr for certain. I realized rather a lot in regards to the privilege it was to work
at an organization that allowed me to talk at conferences throughout work-time in any respect.

A number of of the conferences concerned workshops, talks, and on-site exhibits of
JavaScript Air.

One journey of particular be aware was to the KCDC conference in
Kansas Metropolis. In case you recall from the start of the weblog publish, that occurs to
be the realm the place I served my mission for my church! So I introduced my spouse and
our 1 yr outdated boy with me and we went round to see most of the folks that I
served throughout my mission. It was so superior. I am hoping that when my children are
older, I can convey my spouse (and possibly my children) together with me to extra journeys like
this.

One other convention I attended in 2016 was StrangeLoop. I am going to always remember the
unimaginable pre-party on the City Museum (which
would not sound practically as cool as it’s). I additionally was impressed by
Alan Shreve’s
talk the place I realized about
“Program Slicing” and began engaged on a babel plugin to do it for JavaScript
which I referred to as SliceJS.
I gave a talk about it
for those who’re . That plugin by no means went anyplace, however I realized a TON of
what I learn about utilizing Babel to govern ASTs from constructing that device.

Joining Frontend Masters

On the finish of 2015, I despatched an e mail to Marc Grabaski (of
Frontend Masters) after listening to him discuss
in regards to the firm on a podcast and requested him if I may come educate on the
platform. I pitched him the concept of changing one among my egghead programs to a
workshop and he was up for it. I used to be going out to Minneapolis for MidwestJS
once more, so I scheduled it for method out in August, however it did assist to restrict the
quantity of journey I did. Sadly it additionally meant that I had a busy week!

Yeah, it was a busy week. I keep in mind considering “I am going to by no means do that once more.” And I
do not plan to.

I continued work on egghead materials as properly, pushing out extra stuff about open
supply and Webpack.

PayPal

I additionally bought loads of superior work accomplished at PayPal. Whereas at PayPal, I used to be a component
of making
people’s
lives simpler. That was
actually superior. PayPal was actually supportive of the additional issues I do. They let
me attend a bunch of conferences on firm time. They had been supportive my open
supply work (because it was related to my work, and generally when it was much less
related). They supported me doing JavaScript Air.
They let me spend time giving talks and workshops internally. They usually requested me
to signify PayPal on the TC39. It was a extremely
superior yr.

My authentic crew at PayPal was with
Jamis Charles and
Jamund Ferguson. These two are a few of the
smartest engineers I’ve had the pleasure of working with. I realized rather a lot from
them. Nicely, it wasn’t lengthy earlier than we bought break up up into different initiatives and I
grew to become the crew lead (after being a crew of 1 for some time). I used to be a horrible
crew lead. Possibly partly as a result of I used to be the one distant engineer on the crew, however
additionally in all probability as a result of I by no means actually dedicated myself to the duty. I simply wasn’t
actually that fascinated by increasing my duties. Possibly in the future I will be a
good supervisor of individuals (I do an okay job managing my open supply initiatives), however at
the time (and proper now) it is not attention-grabbing to me.

Podcasting

I began (and ended) a React podcast referred to as React30
with Michael Jackson and
Ryan Florence in the midst of 2016. It
did not final lengthy, however there are just a few attention-grabbing episodes there nonetheless. And it
was a dwell video broadcast podcast like Angular Air and JavaScript Air.

Talking of JavaScript Air, I wrapped it up in 2016
as properly with a fantastic closing episode with Brendan Eich. I did not transition it
to anybody else this time as a result of I had a hope behind my thoughts that I
would begin it again up once more (at this level I do not assume that’ll occur
although). It was a incredible present and there are nonetheless some episodes which might be
related immediately.

On the identical time, I had additionally began micro-podcasting on my 3 minute podcast
3 minutes with Kent. I nonetheless
publish to that podcast often.

Other stuff

2016 was the yr that I joined up as an online Google Developer Professional. I bought the
invitation from Igor Minar (Angular Workforce Lead) in the identical dialog I advised
him I used to be shifting from AngularJS to React. He invited me to be part of the
program anyway. I keep in mind once I up to date my LinkedIn profile to incorporate the
indisputable fact that I used to be a GDE and everybody despatched me messages to inform me congratulations
for getting a job at Google

This yr I additionally went on Trek with the youth
in my church which was an exquisite expertise.

Oh yeah, and this was the yr I nearly bought killed by a moose (take a look at the
thread for extra):

In 2016, I gave 18 talks, 10 workshops, and
continued to create content material on egghead and
Frontend Masters.

Somebody designed and bought shirts for my library: glamorous. Fairly candy!

Conferences

In 2017 I made a decision to take it simpler on the conferences, however I had just a few
commitments and I nonetheless managed to get myself in fairly just a few talking
engagements. I feel it was round this time that I used to be invited to extra
conferences than I submitted to. If you’re invited to talk at a convention,
you in some way really feel extra compelled to attend even for those who would not have submitted in
the primary place. I additionally traveled fairly a bit for TC39 conferences and visiting the
PayPal places of work.

Open source (and PayPal work)

glamorous

I’ve been utilizing CSS in JS for nearly so long as I have been utilizing React. The
libraries that had been out there weren’t fairly what I wished out of an answer, so
I constructed glamorous internally at PayPal and
launched it. It rapidly grew to become one of many main CSS in JS libraries within the
React ecosystem and we had a ton of fantastic contributors to the undertaking.
I ended up deprecating it in
favor of emotion a couple of yr later, however I prefer to
consider that it pushed the CSS in JS world ahead.

downshift

A number of months after releasing glamorous, whereas nonetheless engaged on the identical product
at PayPal, I created and launched
downshift to fill a void I felt in
the prevailing options. Nothing I discovered was sufficiently small and fairly
customizable. I
live-streamed a lot of the development.
It was superior and resonated with lots of people. Virtually every part that I
realized about constructing extremely reusable, versatile, and easy React elements, I
realized from constructing and sustaining downshift. I now not keep downshift,
however it’s nonetheless actively maintained, and I am actually grateful to
Silviu Alexandru Avram for taking up
and doing a fantastic job!

babel plugins

I additionally constructed a number of babel plugins in 2017 that I am actually happy with and are
nonetheless extensively used immediately:

2017 was my greatest yr in open supply contributions. In line with GitHub, I
had 3,180 contributions that yr with a largely full “contributor graph”.

Role shift

Partway via the yr, I modified roles at PayPal. I joined/helped create a
new net infra crew the place I supported a number of groups within the client group
(largely peer-to-peer funds kind stuff). I additionally began engaged on
paypal-scripts (mainly a create-react-app variety
of device for PayPal). Tons of initiatives at PayPal are nonetheless utilizing it immediately. I additionally
created an open supply model of it for my open supply initiatives referred to as
kcd-scripts and it has been an
huge assist to my open supply work.

Content

paypal-scripts was truly the topic of
my first newsletter.
I have been persistently writing a weblog publish and emailing it out nearly each week
since then. This consistency has created an incredible wealth of content material on my
weblog. My mailing listing began with tinyletter as a result of it was free, I finally
moved to buttondown and at last
to ConvertKit. If I did not have a mailing listing immediately,
I might completely begin one and I might begin with ConvertKit (they lately
added a free tier!).

By 2017, I had fairly a little bit of expertise with React and instructing React, so I
determined it was time to create egghead programs about React. I created
The Beginner’s Guide to React and
Advanced React Component Patterns on egghead.
These programs went terribly properly and folks nonetheless watch and luxuriate in these
programs immediately.

I made and delivered two Frontend Masters workshops as properly.
Code Transformation and Linting with ASTs
and
Testing JavaScript Applications (feat. React and Redux).

Other stuff

One other enjoyable factor that occurred in 2017 is I helped my brother transfer from Utah to
St. Louis (~19 hour drive). He wanted me to drive his automotive (on my own) for him,
so as an alternative of falling asleep on the wheel,
I set up a conference call the place
folks may name in and hold me awake. It was a ton of enjoyable, and there is a
recording of the conversations we had.

In 2017, my religion in humanity was restored by the kindness of individuals
helping me buy a laptop for
Oliver Mensah.

Child quantity 4 arrived this yr too! Woo! And my daughter began faculty in
Kindergarten and that was a brand new main step for our household!

In 2017, I gave 9 talks, 6 workshops, and continued
to create content material on egghead and
Frontend Masters.

That is me on the Chain React stage in Portland Oregon giving
my first ever keynote talk.
It was incredible.

PayPal work

In 2018, I used to be nonetheless working at PayPal and nonetheless engaged on paypal-scripts, however
we would have liked to rewrite paypal.me from scratch they usually wished
to check out paypal-scripts on a greenfield undertaking. So I and some different
engineers began to work on it and finally we shipped a wholly new
expertise. Although stored the shock emoji easter egg
(,
, and so on.). It was constructed on graphql (we
used graphql-request), React,
and unspoken. I used to be fairly proud of what we constructed collectively there (although if
I am being sincere, Arnab Banik did much more of
the work than I did, and there have been a number of different engineers, PMs, and designers
who had their hand in rebuilding it as properly).

After the paypal.me rewrite, I returned to supporting the groups within the client
org and dealing on paypal-scripts, however finally the work that I used to be doing with
paypal-scripts grew to become extra encompassing than simply the patron org and we
created a extra official “Net Infra” crew which labored instantly underneath
Bill Scott the place I helped to help all of
the patron org groups at PayPal. paypal-scripts was my specific space of
focus. It enabled groups to cease worrying in regards to the tons of of improvement
dependencies they used to construct their app and as an alternative concentrate on constructing their
app. My guess is it has saved the corporate hundreds of thousands of {dollars} of engineering
time as a result of as an alternative of 1 engineer per crew spending time managing these
dependencies and configuration for the tooling, there was simply me and occasional
contributors doing it.

I imply, stuff as trivial as a 2 hour dep improve:

Or as intense as a serious model bump of a serious dependency:

And even including help for TypeScript that is as easy to opt-into as including a
tsconfig.json file!

There weren’t many breaking modifications for any of those superior upgrades both.
Individuals simply upgraded and impulsively their apps had been quicker, smaller, and
that they had a greater expertise growing their apps.

I am tremendous thrilled to know that since I left PayPal,
paypal-scripts is being actively used and maintained.

It undoubtedly was my magnum opus of my time at PayPal. As superior because it was to
construct merchandise which might be utilized by hundreds of thousands of individuals everywhere in the world, constructing
some software program that accelerated the speed at which different engineers may try this
was immensely satisfying.

Towards the tip of the yr, I made a decision to shift my focus from developer tooling
to a element library. On the time just a few engineers on a product crew had put
collectively one thing, however it wasn’t serving the broader PayPal neighborhood prefer it
wanted to (and it was combating adoption for that purpose). So I began
engaged on a PayPal element library I referred to as pp-react. Proper as I used to be
beginning with that, another people reached out to me who had been attempting to resolve
the identical downside and we labored collectively to develop a design system that I feel
is absolutely fairly good. pp-react grew to become key to that initiative (as a result of most groups
at PayPal had been both utilizing or shifting to React).

I am thrilled to know that
pp-react is also still alive and strong!

If you consider in your organization’s mission and really assume that it is making the
world a greater place, contributing towards that purpose is satisfying. In case you can
allow others round you to contribute to that purpose extra successfully, the joys
is compounded.

Conferences

I spoke at 11 conferences in 2018. React Rally particularly was one convention
I used to be so pleased to have a chance to talk at. I’ve submitted to talk at
React Rally yearly, and I used to be over the moon to lastly get accepted to talk
in 2018.

I additionally gave my first keynote discuss at Chain React and that was an superior
expertise. And I spoke on the first ever Assert(js) convention which was actually
superior. A number of the conferences had been distant as properly. I am pleased to see extra of
these sorts of conferences popping up (usually fully free to attend) making
conferences extra accessible.

Workshopping, the birth of React Testing Library, and TestingJavaScript.com

That is me instructing a 2 day testing workshop at Trulia

In 2018, I gave a bunch of testing workshops (one at Assert.js, two at Trulia,
and two at Frontend Masters). I do not forget that the primary testing workshop went
fairly properly, (it was primarily based on the Frontend Masters workshop I had already given)
however I wished to enhance the way in which I taught testing React code. Usually once I
educate an abstraction (like enzyme which was the de facto normal testing
library for testing React on the time), I like to begin with out the abstraction
and educate what the abstraction is doing for us. So I again tracked a bit and made
some workouts for that. Then I noticed that the soar from ReactDOM.render to
enzyme’s mount was fairly massive. They provide you so many helper capabilities and I
spent a lot time telling folks which of them had been okay to make use of and which of them to
by no means use underneath any circumstances. It dawned on me that as an alternative of telling
folks to make use of solely a part of a device, I may construct my very own device that solely allowed
the sorts of issues that individuals needs to be doing, and immediately I did not want
enzyme anymore and React Testing Library was born

Ultimately, I noticed that a lot of the APIs in React Testing Library had been
unbiased of React and I extracted that stuff to a DOM Testing Library

And there have since been implementations of Testing Library for all the main
testing platforms and frameworks.

Very quickly after constructing React Testing Library, I went on to show it in
workshops. I am relieved that it is caught on so properly and wasn’t just a few foolish
concept that fizzled off and died. I felt actually assured about it although
(in any other case I would not have taught it).

It was round August time of 2018 that I began itching to do one thing massive
with testing. I used to be prepared to show these testing workshops into a number of egghead
programs when Joel requested if I might be keen to
attempt an experiment with him. I had sufficient materials that he advised we make a
website separate from egghead that is completely devoted to testing. After a number of
months of exhausting work, I created the content material, the egghead crew created the
platform, and we printed
TestingJavaScript.com which is the premium
useful resource for studying how one can check JavaScript functions for absolute freshmen
to whole consultants. It was far more profitable than I anticipated, which enabled me
to depart PayPal and pursue this full-time the next yr (extra on that
later).

I’m a fantasy author!!

Additionally round August, I bought one other itch. My children stored asking me to inform them
tales and I might make up foolish ones on the spot (I might attempt to work in just a few
good morals and stuff to show them as I may). I grew to become fascinated by making
tales that had been truly good. I did a little analysis on story, after which I
remembered that National Novel Writing Month
(NaNoWriMo) is a factor (write 50k phrases of a novel in a single month) and determined to
give it a shot. I began Devs Who Write on Discord with
Antonín Januska so we may encourage one another
and we had been joined by a number of different builders who write as properly.
Zack Argyle labored on his first novel as properly
and he was an enormous assist and encouragement to me.

So, I spent the following two months consuming as a lot data as I may cram
into my mind about story construction. Joel directed me to
the story grid which is an outstanding method to have a look at
the craft of storytelling.
Brandon Sanderson (an enormous inspiration of
mine) teaches at BYU and I discovered some recordings of his materials he is printed
and watched all of it… twice. I listened to hours value of
Writing Excuses podcast episodes. And I did all
of this on 3x velocity (our brains are amazingly succesful!) so I could possibly be able to
go.

I additionally deliberate out a fantasy world, characters, and story which I personally
assume is absolutely actually superior.

My spouse made me this card for my birthday. She additionally made a cake that was formed
like town I created for my story. I used to be… obsessed… However when November
hit, I began writing and it was wonderful what got here out of that have. It
was extremely exhausting. There have been instances that I fell method behind, however I pulled
via and I received NaNoWriMo!

I’ve had a number of folks learn the ebook that I created throughout that month and apart
from some points attributable to my inexperience as a author, folks loved the story
and world which is absolutely encouraging. It has been exhausting to get via the primary
spherical of edits, however I am actually dedicated to getting this ebook (collection) printed
finally. If you would like to maintain up with my progress,
follow @kent_writes on twitter.

Additionally, Zack additionally received NaNoWriMo and he is made much more progress on his personal epic
fantasy. I’ve learn loads of it and it’s totally superb. He is getting near
publishing so observe his writing twitter account to maintain up with him at
@SFFAuthor.

Livestreaming

In 2019, I additionally began doing extra livestreaming. Actually, with
my AMA, twitter, my inbox, and so on. as my
inspiration, I began livestreaming one thing semi-short each single day. I
referred to as it DevTips with Kent. The unique tagline was
“Quick movies. Helpful information.”, however I discovered that arduous to do with out working towards
and I did not have the bandwidth to observe, so the tagline modified to “Dwell
movies. Helpful information.”

Livestreaming is hard since you by no means fairly know when the stream truly
begins, so I created
an intro video. The rationale I
convey this up is as a result of the intro was coded on codesandbox and you’ll
check that out here. Additionally,
the intro music is by
Ken Wheeler.

Ultimately I began livestreaming a few of my common coding with no instructing
targets in thoughts. As a result of DevTips is meant to show a selected factor, I made a decision
to create a brand new collection referred to as Coding with Kent with the
tagline “Dwell coding. Actual initiatives.”
(The intro for that was additionally
created with codesandbox and
music by Ken).

With the livestreaming, I wished to get a greater setup for displaying my face
together with my display, so I bought a greenscreen
(watch the debut).
You possibly can watch “How I livestream”
for extra on this. It has been a piece in progress, however I feel it makes the
expertise rather a lot higher for viewers. Fewer distractions and I cowl up the code
much less. I am nonetheless experimenting with this setup to this present day, and I am fairly certain
I am actually near one thing superior. Look out 2020!

Other stuff

We bought a canine. Her identify is “Gemma” and she or he’s a Bernedoodle. She’s virtually
excellent in each method and I could not probably respect her as a lot as she
deserves.

In 2018, I gave 21 talks, 13 workshops, and
continued to create content material on egghead and
Frontend Masters. And I created
the best and biggest resource on the internet about Testing JavaScript.
Good yr.

That is me giving 5 days value of workshops for
Family Search. That they had determined emigrate from
polymer to React and wanted me to assist them get on the best foot.

Full Time Educator!

By far, the most important factor that occurred in 2019 was
I went full-time educator. For so long as I can
keep in mind I have been instructing folks the issues that I do know. It is what I like to
do. PayPal was superior and allowed me to take action a lot stuff for them in addition to
the general public, however I wished to spend extra of my time instructing what I do know and
studying what I need, so I made a decision to make the swap.

This was solely attainable as a result of TestingJavaScript.com went so properly. I am a reasonably
fiscally conservative and risk-averse individual. Because of the success of
TestingJavaScript.com, I used to be in a position to really feel snug making this vital
change in my life.

As a part of this, I tightened my partnership with egghead. They revamped my
web site for me (large thank-you to Vojta Holik) and
supported me by dealing with the logistics of all my workshops. Joel Hooks additionally
provides me plenty of useful recommendation.

Workshops

Egghead bought me began on doing extra distant workshops. I did a
TON of these this yr. I even did one on Halloween, and also you’d higher consider
I took the chance to profit from that:

My parents are currently serving as missionaries in the Manhattan temple. I
wanted to visit them, so I scheduled a workshop out in New York city and that
paid for a trip to visit my family.

Stress Story Time

One story that is kinda humorous wanting again is somewhat scheduling confusion. In
Might 2019, I used to be scheduled to provide three workshops:

• Superior React Hooks (Friday the tenth)
• Superior React Patterns (Monday the thirteenth)
• Construct a ReactJS Utility (Wednesday the twenty ninth)

I already had the fabric for the patterns one (simply wanted to be up to date for
hooks) so I wasn’t too involved about it. The Superior React Hooks workshop was
the primary time I used to be presenting that materials (hooks had been nonetheless fairly new) so I
was somewhat fearful about getting that prepared in time, however I used to be fairly
assured.

Construct a ReactJS Utility was a model new workshop for me as properly, so I wanted
to construct an software after which create workouts for instructing how one can construct it.
That one was distinctive as a result of it was fairly totally different from most of my kinds of
workshops. We could not have workouts for constructing every part in a single
5-hour workshop. You would not have the ability to end something attention-grabbing in that
period of time (and remember you want ~1 hour of breaks). Fortunately, I had
loads of time to assume it via and give you one thing.

I completed the Superior React Hooks workshop on the ninth (the day earlier than the
workshop). I felt fairly good about it. I used to be going to name it quits for the
night time. I knew I may get the patterns workshop materials up to date the following day
after presenting the hooks workshop.

Simply earlier than closing my laptop, I observed I had a scheduling downside. My
calendar mentioned the patterns workshop was on the thirteenth, however the tickets web site
mentioned that the patterns workshop was on the twenty ninth and the construct a react app
workshop was on the thirteenth. I had switched the times on my calendar. After I
realized my mistake, I made this face:

So the workshop that I wanted two and a half weeks to work on, I now realized
I solely had just a few days I ran upstairs and advised my spouse my mistake. She was
amazingly supportive (although we had been each disillusioned). She helped me come up
with concepts for what the app could be and she or he even did somewhat handbook knowledge entry
for the database. She’s wonderful. Then I ran again downstairs and began working
frantically to construct a React app and format it into one thing I may ship in
workshop kind in only a few days.

I could not keep up too late as a result of I had a workshop to provide the following morning
(Friday). After presenting that workshop (suggestions was tremendous constructive), I bought
again to work on it. Vojta was superior and developed a design for the app to make
it look skilled. I labored late into the night time (missed date night time).

Then the following day (Saturday) I began engaged on it once more. My spouse and I had
deliberate somewhat day journey someplace and we determined that she would take the youngsters
herself. That was the worst, however I knew that if I went I would not have the ability to get
this accomplished. I labored all that day and all the way in which to somewhat previous midnight.

By this time, I had completed the app. I used to be actually proud of it. However I nonetheless
wanted to make workouts. Regardless of this, I spent Sunday with my household. We went
to church, I did my calling (on the time, I used to be a Major instructor, and I used to be
chargeable for instructing six 9-year-olds), and we frolicked collectively across the
home. I went to mattress with the youngsters (~7:00 PM) and awoke at midnight to get
every part completed.

About ten minutes earlier than the workshop began, I pushed the final replace. Individuals
left me glowing suggestions. I scored a 4.7 of 5 on “recommendability” which is a
fairly good indicator of success! I can not consider I pulled it off! I promise you
that I do not make a behavior out of doing this sort of factor. More often than not my
materials is ready properly prematurely and I am solely making slight tweaks main
as much as the presentation.

In case you’re curious, here’s the repo
(be at liberty to peruse the commit historical past) and
here’s the app.

Individuals inform me that they reference it every so often to assist them construct their very own
apps and that is superior. I do plan to make some modifications to it sooner or later, however
usually it encapsulates plenty of the way in which I take into consideration constructing UIs.

Conferences

This was at React Amsterdam my greatest discuss ever. I
assume there have been someplace round 1400 folks in attendance at that discuss. Fairly
wild! I used to be fairly proud of the discuss itself, although I in all probability ought to’ve
practiced just a few extra instances to keep away from saying “umm” an excessive amount of.
Watch that talk here.
Shout-out to Artem Sapegin for the photograph!

Whereas in Amsterdam I made buddies and gave some workshops.

And the React Amsterdam convention hosts “The Open Supply Awards”. React Testing
Library and downshift had been each nominees for “most impactful contribution to the
neighborhood”. React Testing Library received!

I additionally had the honour of
speaking
at React Rally (my favourite convention) once more
this yr:

And I used to be honored to be a keynote speaker at
Connect.Tech in and
All Things Open:

My All Issues Open discuss was particularly good/vital I believed:
Building the Open Source Community We Want

Truly, All Issues Open and Join.Tech occurred throughout the identical week and I
gave two talks at every in addition to a workshop at Join.Tech. I additionally gave a
distant discuss for Concatenate Conf the Saturday
earlier than. So in a 6 day interval, I gave 5 talks and 1 workshop. It was… superior!
And fairly busy/annoying.

TestingJavaScript.com update

One of many first issues I deliberate to do once I went full-time educator was
replace the handful of classes that had already fallen outdated on
TestingJavaScript.com. It wasn’t an enormous factor, however I wished to maintain them
up to date. Nicely, I used to be somewhat busy with every part else occurring and I did not
get to this till later within the yr, however I finally bought
TestingJavaScript.com up to date!

And I may have gone overboard with the marketing:

Podcast

Egghead additionally helped me launch Chats with Kent:

It is a new type of podcast for me. The purpose of the podcast is to show my
viewers to attention-grabbing individuals who wish to assist the world change and we dedicate
our half-hour collectively to assist push the world in that route. So it is not
all tech associated (although a few of it’s). I am actually proud of that podcast and
plan to proceed with it sooner or later.

Other stuff

I found Andrew Yang, watched method too
lots of his interviews, and I need him to be the following President of the United
States..

My second child began faculty. He loves it.

Writing

In 2019, I continued writing. I began enhancing my first novel that I wrote
in 2018. I realized how exhausting that’s to do! I went to my first writers
convention: LTUE. Whereas there, I met
Brandon Sanderson (who is a large inspiration
for me).

My purpose was to get ebook 1 edited earlier than NaNoWriMo 2019, however I did not match it into
my schedule. I attempted to put in writing ebook 2 for NaNoWriMo anyway and did not make that
occur both. I am nonetheless actually desirous to make this occur although! You will see
these books finally!

Additionally, I wrote a ebook for my children for Christmas:

I also got an electric vehicle. A Tesla Model 3 Long Range Dual Motor. I’m not a
car guy, but this car has turned me into one. It’s unlike anything else. I’ve
saved a lot of money fueling and maintaining the thing. Electric cars typically
last much longer than regular cars. And the self-driving capabilities that it
has today are nothing short of remarkable. The fact that I get over-the-air
updates every few weeks which improve the capabilities of the car is just
fantastic. It is objectively the safest car on the planet. And I love that I’m
helping the planet be cleaner. The next step for us is to get solar so we reduce
our carbon footprint even more.

Speaking of awesome electric things that go, I was inspired by my friend
Dave Geddes and bought myself
a onewheel:

It is depraved enjoyable. Simply be sure to put on a helmet! If I hadn’t been carrying one,
I do not assume I might be typing this proper now:

I’ve determined to rework my workplace:

The goal is to make it much easier to livestream which is currently a huge pain
(for more on that, go back up to the the livestream section in 2018). So far, I
think it’s looking really good:

I need to make a few more adjustments still, but you can look forward to more
livestreaming from me in the future!

Oh, one other thing… In 2019, I discovered that I’m lactose intolerant. Nice
to know, but it’s like… such a bummer.

Oh, and Google sent me this thing:

I can’t tell you how excited I am about the future. So much has happened during
this last decade. Many things I never imagined would happen. Some things that I
actively didn’t want to happen but I’m glad they did. I can’t predict all of
what the next decade holds for me and my family, but I do have some plans…

Conferences and Workshops

I am going to hold doing these items. I get pleasure from it. I do not journey a ton, and I do not plan
on touring greater than I’m now.

KCD EDU

For a very long time now, I’ve wished to create a spot the place I may assist get
somebody from 0 to hero in software program improvement. I wish to take somebody with solely
the information that they’re fascinated by writing code, and information them to
turning into an knowledgeable software program engineer. In my thoughts I’ve considered this as “KCD
EDU”. Like my very own on-line bootcamp type of factor. So it was humorous when my good friend
Erin tweeted this at me:

To which I responded:

This can take a ton of labor, however it’s undoubtedly one thing that I am working
towards.

Build something

After I went full-time educator, behind my thoughts was all the time: “How will I
keep sharp?” I used to be involved that I might lose contact with what it is prefer to work
in a manufacturing codebase. It is solely been a yr now and I have never forgotten what
I realized, however there are instruments that we now have immediately that I’ve by no means utilized in a
manufacturing situation but.

To fight this, I plan on constructing an app of some variety. I do not know what it
will probably be precisely, however will probably be non-trivial. Who is aware of, possibly it’s going to flip right into a
enterprise/product of its personal? I am unsure. I do not assume that I wish to go
again to work for another person although. If I do, I can inform you that I will be
distant except one thing modifications big-time for me. Working from dwelling has been
wonderful for me and my household.

This can in all probability give me extra alternatives to livestream.

Other stuff

My household and I’ll proceed our efforts to scale back our private contribution to
the local weather disaster. I hope you be part of me. I feel we are able to make a distinction.

I am fairly certain this decade my automotive will drive itself. My children will not learn to
drive.

This publish was loads of enjoyable to put in writing, however it took a TON of time and work. Going
via all of my outdated calendar occasions, pictures, tweets, and so on. has been stuffed with
nostalgia. I bought to scroll previous photos of me and my household having great
instances collectively. I bought to recollect the individuals who helped me get into the business
and the folks that I’ve helped as properly.

It is loads of work, however I like to recommend you dedicate a while to assume again in your
final decade and assume ahead to your subsequent. Good luck, buddies!