[BAWD #120] React Server Components and OSS Fellowship

Feb 20, 2024

Hello 👋🏾,

It’s been a while. I trust you had a blissful past few days and are keen for the week ahead. Btw, here’s a friendly reminder not to wait for some magical inspiration before you get to work but just actually get to work. The process of doing the work in itself is the inspiration that will fine-tune your ideas. Just do it!

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Nerd Memes of the Week 🥲

Featured Technical Articles ✍🏾👩🏽‍💻

The Ultimate Guide to Centering in CSS by Josh Comeau.
The Two Reacts by Dan Abramov.
Why LinkedIn chose gRPC+Protobuf over REST+JSON by Rafal Gancarz.
Next.js App Router migration: the good, bad, and ugly by Brandon Bayer.
Common mistakes with the Next.js App Router and how to fix them by Lee Robinson.
Component Testing in Vue: Using routing for states by Maya Shavin.
How to Study for Data-Structures and Algorithms Interviews at FAANG by Esco Obong.
Creating Standalone PHP App Binaries using Static PHP CLI by Bosun Egberinde.
Array Types in TypeScript by Dominik Dorfmeister.
How to Create an Automated Profile README using Nodejs and GitHub Actions by Bolaji Ayodeji.
Delivery matters (more?) Emmanuel Bakare.
Freemium and open source business models. Friends or Foes? by Andi Gutmans.
Ignore All Web Performance Benchmarks, Including This One by Miguel Grinberg.
Sharing in the Age of 3p Cookie-mageddon by Aaron Gustafson.
The most popular licenses for each language by Nick Vidal.

Featured Productivity Articles ✍🏾🦅

Screw Finding Your Passion by Mike Manson.
Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds by James Clear.
The Many Worlds of Enough by Lawrence Yeo.

Product of the Week ✨

Metabase is the easiest self-service open-source business intelligence tool for people and companies to get insights from their data (any source).

Good Tidings 🔊

React Server Component (RSC) has been buzzing for a while now with many takes, confusion, and difficulties experienced by many engineers trying to understand the paradigm and how it fits into modern web engineering, given a decade of React.js usage. As Bobae puts it in this short tutorial, “RSC is best understood as React Server + Component, not React + Server Components. The key difference between React Server Components and React Client Components lies in not what they are but rather where and when they’re executed—and consequently, the computing environment they have access to during execution.” To learn more, you can read this tutorial and this one; both should get you up to speed.
Sequoia’s Open Source Fellowship is now accepting applications for folks working on OSS projects with real-world adoption. Their goal is to support OSS outside of the walls of companies by covering reasonable living expenses for a 6-12 month period without any form of equity.
Application is ongoing for the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences AI for Sciences Master’s degree through Google DeepMind’s scholarship for 40 scholars. The funding covers full scholarships, equipment, and computation costs. You should apply now before it closes on 29th March 2024.
Do you know how large language models (LLMs) like GPT or LLaMA that power generative AI applications actually work? Here’s an insightful guide you can read to learn something new today.
The application for the Google Season of Docs 2024 is now ongoing. This is your opportunity to get direct grants to improve your documentation (for OSS projects) or gain paid experience (for professional technical writers).
ICYMI, adding .new to the end of some of your favorite developer tools domains will quickly start a new project for you. Here are some examples: design.new (Canva), email.new (Gmail), excel.new (Microsoft Excel), docs.new (Google Docs), repo.new (GitHub), invoice.new (Stripe), database.new (Supabase), hn.new (Hashnode), etc.

Lists and Collections 🗂️

You can take over 2,500 MIT courses from various fields online for free through MIT OpenCourseWare.
Here’s a curated list of project-based programming tutorials you can use to learn how to build applications from scratch.
Here’s a complete computer science study plan you can use to become a software engineer.
Here is a collection of universities, companies, and organizations that offer free online courses with certificates.
Here’s a collection of the best promotional deals for developers to level up your skills, workspace gadgets, etc.
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.
For managers, here’s a collection of engineering leadership resources that you’d find helpful.
Are you 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!
Here's a recommendation of the top websites to find remote jobs for different software engineering and product fields in tech.
Here’s a curated list of interview questions for different programming languages, frameworks, and technologies.

Book Recommendations 📚

All of Grace by Charles Spurgeon.
Fluent React by Tejas Kumar.
Developer Experience (DX) by Addy Osmani.
Engineering Management for the Rest of Us by Sarah Drasner.
Building Python Web APIs with FastAPI by Abdulazeez Adeshina.

Featured Tweets and Videos 😍

Here are some cool tweets and my favorite videos from YouTube these past weeks.

⬇️: Web Development In 2024 - A Practical Guide

⬇️: Large Language Models in Five Formulas

⬇️: Build a Habit Tracker Web App that Makes You Laugh

⬇️: Training an Unbeatable AI in Trackmania

Quote of the Week 💙

“In delivery, some say “simple is best” but only because the simple appeals to a wider audience. Where a wider audience need not be aware and the situation allows it, the far more complicated delivery might serve a greater outcome in the end.” —Emmanuel Bakare.

Sponsors and Patrons 💫

Shout out to my amazing supporters: Maya Shavin, Angie Jones, and Obinna Odirionye. Their support enables me to keep writing, teaching, curating resources, and supporting others. Thank you!

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Bolaji Ayodeji's Weekly Digest