[BAWD #110] Boring Architecture and Building for Users

Jul 19, 2023

Hello 👋🏾,

I trust you had a blissful week. Btw, here’s a friendly reminder that you should stick to boring architecture for as long as possible and spend most of your time and resources building something your customers are willing to pay for. Use the right tools that help you get valuable things into the hands of users.

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Featured Technical Articles ✍🏾👩🏽‍💻

Stick to boring architecture for as long as possible by Addy Osmani.
Finish your projects by Aaron Francis.
How React 18 Improves Application Performance by Lydia Hallie.
CRA is dead: Best Alternatives to Bootstrap React Applications by Zainab Tijani.
Express payments by Filippo Conforti.
A developer’s guide to prompt engineering and LLMs by Albert Ziegler and John Berryman.
Make your first open source contribution in four easy steps by Ruth Ikegah.
TypeScript and the dawn of gradual types by Mike Melanson.
How To Become A Better Speaker At Conferences by Andy Budd.
A case study on scroll-driven animations performance by Yuriko Hirota.
Building an external payment gateway with the Twitter API by Bolaji Ayodeji.

Featured Productivity Articles ✍🏾🦅

5 Boring Ways to Become More Creative by Mike Manson.
What I Do When I Feel Like Giving Up by James Clear.
No More Productivity Hacks by Zef Hemel.
Speculation: A Game You Can’t Win by Lawrence Yeo.

Product of the Week ✨

The Good Docs Project creates best practice templates and writing instructions for documenting open-source software.

Good Tidings 🔊

Life is a journey of precious moments that should be preserved and remembered. If you’re in New Zealand, my brother specializes in preserving memories through photography. You can learn more, see samples, or book him anytime :winks:.
If you’re looking to build a career in tech, especially if you’re in Africa, AltSchool has commenced applications for its second year. You can learn more about all the courses they offer and apply for either the School of Engineering, Product, or Data. Some scholarships are going on too, and acing the assessment test could qualify you for one. All the best!
If you’re looking for work, Deel currently has 120+ open remote roles across several departments, Netflix is hiring, TBD is too, etc.
In GitHub, you can specify the theme an image is displayed for in Markdown by appending #gh-dark-mode-only or #gh-light-mode-only to the end of an image URL. You can look at this PR to see how it works, plus some of the limitations.
This is the best course you can use to learn about documenting APIs, either as a technical writer or software engineer.
If you want to level up your JavaScript skills and need project ideas to work on, you can take inspiration from this thread.
If you’re looking to get started with technical writing, you should check this for a curated list of articles, books, videos, tools, podcasts, etc.
Here’s a curated list of interview questions for different programming languages, frameworks, and technologies.
Here is a collection of universities, companies, and organizations that offer free online courses with certificates.
For managers, here’s a collection of engineering leadership resources that you’d find helpful.
Here’s a complete computer science study plan you can use to become a software engineer.
Looking to network with other student community leaders and professionals or level up your skills and give back to your community? You can join the GitHub Campus Experts program now and expand your connections!
If you’re a student (at any level), you can apply to get the GitHub Student Developer Pack and access the best developer tools, resources, and courses for FREE.
Here’s a curated list of project-based programming tutorials you can use to learn how to build applications from scratch.
Need support for your learning? Every month, you can get funding for your learning needs (internet subscription, computer device, or courses) from anonymous people who care.
Here's a recommendation of the top five websites to find remote jobs for different fields in tech.

Book Recommendations 📚

All of Grace by Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
Simplified JavaScript for VIPs by Ebenezer Don.
Engineering Management for the Rest of Us by Sarah Drasner.
Building Python Web APIs with FastAPI by Abdulazeez Adeshina.
The Pragmatic Programmer by Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt.

Featured Tweets and Videos 😍

Here are some cool tweets and some of my favorite videos from YouTube this week.

⬇️: It's not worth switching tech stacks in 2023

⬇️: High-school student makes React a million times faster

⬇️: Home Network For Beginners

⬇️: People Made New

Quote of the Week 💙

“When presenting at work or [at a conference or] anywhere else, never assume the audience has pledged their undivided attention. They have pledged maybe 60 seconds and will divide their attention as they see fit after that. Open accordingly.” –Mike Davidson.

Shout out to my amazing Patrons: Maya Shavin, Angie Jones, Sarah Drasner, Samson Goddy, and Obinna Odirionye.

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That's all for this letter. See you next time, and stay safe!

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