[{"_1":2,"_3":-5,"_4":-5},"loaderData",{"_5":6,"_7":8},"actionData","errors","root",{"_96":97,"_98":99,"_100":101,"_102":103},"routes/tags.$slug",{"_9":10,"_11":12,"_13":14},"blogList",[81,82,83],"retObject",[15,16],"tilList",[],[17,18,19],[],{"_22":66,"_24":67,"_26":68,"_20":69},{"_20":52,"_22":53,"_24":54,"_26":55},{"_20":21,"_22":23,"_24":25,"_26":27},"readTime",{"_44":45,"_46":47,"_48":49,"_50":51},"slug","01-year-at-agile","frontmatter",{"_38":39,"_40":41,"_42":43,"_34":35,"_36":37,"_32":33},"matter",{"_28":29,"_30":31},"content","\nMy first year at an agile agency is coming to a close and I thought it apt to\nwrite a post about the lessons I’ve learned. People often say that\nself-reflection is one of the most important things for personal growth so\nthat’s what this is post is all about… self-reflection.\n\n1. [ Learn to accept ambiguity ](#learn-to-accept-ambiguity)\n2. [ Asking the right questions is more important than having an immediate answer ](#asking-the-right-questions)\n3. [ Collaborate, collaborate, collaborate. ](#collaborate-collaborate-collaborate)\n4. [Make Haste Slowly.](#make-haste-slowly)\n\n## Learn to accept ambiguity\n\nOne thing I’ve had to come to terms with is **ambiguity** and the role that it\nplays in the projects that an agency developer works on. As a developer, I’ve\nlearned that one of the most fundamental and valuable things a piece of code can\nbe is \"deterministic\". When a piece of code is deterministic, it means that\ngiven the same inputs it will give you back the same outputs… every single damn\ntime. If I give my double function 2, it will return 4 -- this is true the 1st\ntime and the nth time. I value predictability and having well thought out\nrequirements -- the more constraints the better but that’s just not how the real\nworld works!\n\nWhen starting on a project, I sometimes do not know what frontend framework I’ll\nbe using, the APIs I’ll be interfacing with, and hell, sometimes I don’t even\nknow who I’m going to be working with! At first, this worried and stressed me\nout to no end. Not knowing if I should be ramping up on Vue or React; not\nknowing if I was going to be using ImageRelay or Brandfolder; and not personally\nknowing if the contractor we were hiring to work with me on projects all seemed\nlike valid reasons to be pulling out my hair… but they really aren’t.\n\nJust because we want our code to be predictable and deterministic, doesn’t mean\nthat the world is going to behave the same way. Randomness and not knowing are a\npart of life; if you can’t make your peace with that, well you’ve got a rough\nlife ahead of you my friend. Somewhere along the line, I realized that even if\nwe’re not sure on the specifics, such as the framework that we’ll be using, the\noverall goal and vision of the project weren’t ever really going to move. Rather\nthan focusing on what I couldn’t know or couldn’t control, I chose to start\nfocusing on what I did know.\n\nIf I was going to be working with an API that was meant to act as the data\nsource for my app, it didn’t really matter what the API gave back as long as it\ncould help me produce the components and features that I needed -- I could still\nwrite my components and figure out the data layer later (thanks React). If I was\ngoing to be working with a contractor whose code style or conventions I couldn’t\nbe sure about, I’d set up proper mechanisms to ensure code quality and linting\nin addition to regular code reviews.\n\nWe can’t really know what's going to happen tomorrow… all we can really do is\nprepare as best we can today with the information that we have today. When the\nfuture comes to meet us, we just need to believe and hope that we’ve prepared a\nplan that lets us continue on with our lives.\n\n

\n\tYou can’t control the weather outside… but you sure as hell can grab\n\tajacket.{' '}\n

\n\n## Asking the right questions\n\nAlways having an answer for each and every question you’re asked means you’re a\nsmart, well-informed person, right? It’s better to give an immediate definite\nresponse than respond to a question with a question, right?\n\nI used to think these things; I used to think that it wasn’t okay to say “I\ndon’t know” and that if I didn’t have the answer right away that I was some sort\nof “imposter” who didn’t deserve to be called a developer. Boy was I wrong. As I\nwatched the senior developers around me, I realized that rather than giving an\nimmediate response to questions, they themselves would ask questions in order to\nsolidify their understanding and to get to the heart of what the real question\nactually was! In meetings, when they were posed with questions such as “Should\nwe use Shopify or BigCommerce for this project?” what followed from my seniors\nwas usually something like, “well it depends on what the client's needs are --\ndo we have a list of features that are considered must haves?”.\n\n

\n\tIt is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.\n

\n\n## Collaborate, collaborate, collaborate\n\nGreat software, great solutions are crafted by teams, not individuals. Even if\nyou’re the greatest engineer in the world, you’re still, more than likely, going\nto be collaborating in some fashion with either other developers or different\ndiscipline groups in order to get your solution to market. What’s most important\nis to remember that you’re working with other humans and that clear\ncommunication, respect, and a smile can go a long way.\n\nDuring the most intense times, what got me through the hell weeks wasn’t my\nability to craft great software (I’m not that great after all) but it was other\npeople. Other people who provided me with support when I was stumped by tough\nengineering problems. Other people who were willing to go to meetings in my\nstead so I could focus on patching a critical bug. Other people who could help\nme push back on requirements if they weren’t technically feasible in the\nbudget/timeline that we had at our disposal. Other people my teammates are what\ngot me through some of my toughest weeks as a 1st year FE developer.\n\nMore than emotional support, collaboration allows a developer to divide and\nconquer. If I know that a teammate is going to be tackling a specific feature, I\ncan devote my time and effort to developing what I have assigned to myself\nwithout needlessly stressing about whether or not I’ll have enough time to\nfinish the second feature while I work on this first feature. Stuck on a tough\nissue? Call someone over and whiteboard that puppy. Not sure on requirements?\nAsk a strategist. Worried about timeline or what’s priority? There’s a PM for\nthat. Really, collaboration enables us to focus on our craft and provide the\nbest quality solution; cut through the weeds and do your thang son.\n\n## Make haste slowly\n\nThis may seem like a paradox, but it’s not, I swear! This last lesson is one\nthat I learned after almost burning out. I was working 9 - 10 hour days in\naddition to weekends trying to get a project ready for launch. On top of my work\nschedule, I was trying (and failing) to work on my own side projects --\nessentially I was coding for about 12 - 15 hours a day. Needless to say, this\ncrazy coding schedule left me little time to attend to my physical health (I\ngained 40 lbs in 6 months) and created a situation in which my grandmother\nthought I had up and moved across the country because she hadn’t seen me at home\nfor the better part of a year (my grandma, like a lot of grandmas, goes to bed\nat 7 pm).\n\nWhy was I working such crazy hours? Why was I still working on side projects\nwhen I was clearly working myself to the bone at my day job? Simple really. I\nwanted and still want to be the best FE developer, period. It’s my dream to\nstand at the upper echelon alongside some of my role models and heroes: Kyle\nSimpson, Dan Abramov, and Brian Holt, to name a few. I want to be giving\nconference talks… I want to be teaching people about best practices and coding\nstandards… I want to give back to the community that helped me become, well, me.\nBut a flame that burns to bright eventually burns itself out… and that’s what\nalmost happened to me.\n\nI realized (after a short vacation with my best friends) that what I truly\nwanted was to be the best developer but also to be a well-rounded individual who\nwas physically fit and someone who had healthy, loving relationships with his\nfriends and family. If being the best FE developer meant sacrificing either of\nthose two areas, then it wasn’t for me. Lucky for me, and thanks to the example\nset by the individuals in the community, it is possible to have a well-balanced\nlife and still be a major contributor to the community -- you just need to know\nhow to balance your time and how to prioritize your life -- I’m working on it.\n\nMake haste slowly\n\n## Closing Thoughts\n\nThe end of my first year is just the beginning of my second year; I’ll take\nthese learnings with me and continue on down my path. More than anything, I want\nto be the best, the absolute best at what I do and whether or not I reach that\ngoal doesn’t matter. Why? Because even if I fail at trying to achieve a\nspectacular feat, at least I’ll fail spectacularly.\n","data",{"_32":33,"_34":35,"_36":37},"date","2019-07-18","tag","reflection","title","My year at an agile agency","description","As my first year comes to a close, I thought it apt to share what I thought were the most important things that I learned","hero","https://res.cloudinary.com/dinypqsgl/image/upload/v1743638076/blog/01-agile-reflection/1-year-agile_d6uvnd.png","subtitle","The things I've learned and what life has brought me!","text","9 min read","time",480600,"words",1602,"minutes",8.01,{"_46":62,"_48":63,"_50":64,"_44":65},"11-reflection-on-productboard",{"_32":58,"_40":60,"_42":61,"_34":35,"_36":59},{"_28":56,"_30":57},"\n\n\nThis may seem like odd timing, but with the recent resurgence of layoffs\noccurring in big tech, I thought that it was high time that I wrote a reflection\npiece at the first, and probably not last place, where I was a casualty of\nlayoffs: [Productboard](https://www.productboard.com/).\n\nThis isn't a hit piece, and I'm not going to sit here and gripe about how unfair\nand terrible Productboard was—they weren't. Rather, I'd like to talk about my\ntime there, the things I learned, and most importantly, the people I met along\nthe way. So if you're Hubert Palan and you're reading this blog post, fret not,\nyour company image is safe 😆.\n\n## Why I joined\n\nWithout getting too into the weeds about why I left my previous employer\n(Mastercard) for Productboard, I'd like to get into the why around me joining\nProductboard. Besides the monetary benefit I was hoping to receive from\nswitching jobs (which is a factor in any career move), I was looking to join a\ncompany passionate about the product that they were building, a company with an\ninspiring mission statement, and a company with a first-class engineering\ndepartment—Productboard seemingly offered all these things!\n\nIf you visit their about us page, Productboard's mantra is literally \"We’re\nmaking products that matter, together.\" That's an inspiring mission statement if\nI've ever seen one ✅. This\n[blog post](https://www.productboard.com/blog/9-ingredients-of-an-excellent-engineering-manager-tip-of-the-iceberg/)\nby Deani covered the first criteria I mentioned; the company culture truly\nseemed to be one where people were passionate about what they were doing ✅.\nAfter I found Deani's blog post, I perused the blog a bit more, and the\nengineering blog articles definitely seemed to indicate that these people were\non the bleeding edge; I was sold and had to join!\n\nSpoiler alert: I interviewed and got an offer (which I then accepted)! The\ncherry on top of me starting a new gig at Productboard—I was joining the company\nwith two of my dear friends from my previous employer. My old manager joined as\na staff engineer, and my other colleague joined as an intermediate software\nengineer. Even though I was setting out on a new adventure, I still felt\nsomewhat comfortable on my first day because I had some friendly faces looking\nback at me 😊.\n\n

If you know your why, you can endure any how

\n\n## The things I learned\n\nI learned a copious amount while working at Productboard. Some of it related to\ninteresting technology, and some of it related to non technical things such as\noffice politics—all of it useful for my career. I'll start the discussion with\nthe technical things that I learned and later dive into the non technical pieces\nafter that. Feel free to skip either section.\n\n## How to manage technical debt\n\n[In my previous blog post](https://taranveerbains.ca/blog/10-technical-debt)\nabout technical debt, I mentioned how I was utilizing NX to help implement a\nsort of strangler pattern in my current employer's codebase—choking out old code\nwith new code 😭. This pattern and its implementation are something that I\npicked up while employed at Productboard. Beyond grokking and learning about the\ntechnical implemenation with NX, I was able to absorb a wealth of information\nabout the pros and cons of adopting the aformentioned strategy. I was able to\nlearn why NX was adopted as a tool to help develop software at Productboard and\nthe business case for allocating engineering resources to its implementation.\n\nIt's all well and good to be able to show and sell the value of an engineering\ninitiative to other engineers —that's the easy part as you're both already\ncoming at the discussion from the same perspective. The difficult thing, which I\nlearned at Productboard, is being able to craft a compelling case to other\nstakeholders like product owners, designers, and even the finance team! Of\ncourse, it always helps if you can prove that your engineering initiative can\nhelp improve the company's bottom line and solve very real problems—in my case,\nthe very real problem I am trying to solve is scalability.\n\n## Feature flags are your friend\n\n\n\nUp until I joined Productboard, I had no real experience using platforms like\n[LaunchDarkly](https://launchdarkly.com/) for implementing feature flags inside\nof a codebase—I had no real need for them in any of my previous projects.\nNevertheless, I am so grateful that I was exposed to this wonderful platform!\n\nFeature flags give us the capability to not only run experiments and A/B tests\nwith our software products but also provides us the ability to disable\nfunctionality almost at a whim. We used these flags not only for running\nexperiments during my time at Productboard but also for managing the v2\nimplementation of certain key pieces of code. Indeed, having the ability to\neasily rollback to an old experience, to quickly roll out a segmented beta test,\nand to actively develop and view a new feature on a small subset of machines is\ntremendously useful when developing software.\n\n**Feature flags for the win!**\n\n## Non-technical things\n\nI would argue that the non-technical tidbits I picked up while at Productboard\nhave had a greater positive influence on my career trajectory than any of the\ntechnical things that I picked up.\n\n### Imposter syndrome is useless\n\nAs Ryan Holiday notes in his bestseller \"Stillness is the key,\" imposter\nsyndrome is a nagging endless anxiety that you're not qualified for what you're\ndoing—and that you're going to be found out about it. It's the evil twin of\negotism.\n\n

Imposter syndrome is the unassuming evil twin of ego.

\n\nWhile imposter syndrome can be weaponized as motivation to start buckling down\nand to ensure that we are as prepared as possible for whatever obstacles come\nour way, I find that imposter syndrome is more of a detriment to my sanity and\noverall performance. In fact, Jordan Peterson has some sage wisdom reggarding\nthis matter that I've tried my best to internalize. Dr. Peterson calls for\nallowing ourselves to play out our anxious fantasies in their entirety, but not\nstopping there. He calls for us to take it all the way to the end and to ponder\nwhat we would do if the worst case scenario were to befall us. For example, if I\nwas worried about being found out for not being experienced enough to be a\nsenior software engineer and was let go by my current employer, how could this\nscenario play out? Would I be unable to pay my bills? No; I have an emergency\nfund ready to go. Would I have difficulty finding a job? No more than the\naverage person—being let go is nothing to be ashamed of. Would my family love me\nany less? No; the love of my friends and family is not dependent on my\nemployment status.\n\nI've found that the antidote to imposter syndrome is twofold. One must recognize\nthat no one really cares about what anyone else is doing and that confidence is\nan absolute necessity. Confidence is not the same as egotism. Confidence is a\nquiet unshakeable belief that you're a capable individual. Confidence is not\nviewing anything or anyone beneath you; it is a trust that you have in yourself.\nRemember steadfastly your experiences—the hurdles you've overcome and obstacles\nyou've surmounted, they will be your fuel—and the fact that every problem can be\nsolved. **You. Just. Need. To. Think.**\n\n### Optics matter\n\nNow this varies from organization to organization, but when it comes to optics,\nI've never worked at a place quite like Productboard. Slack was always bustling\nwith new messages, people were regularly talking about what they were working\non, and everyone gave updates almost every few hours on their initiatives. This\nis in stark contrast to other organizations I've worked at where Slack and Teams\nwere seldom utilized for updates, and all the real conversations happened in\nprivate, not in public channels\n\n

\n\tYour reputation is what others think of you; your character is what you truly\n\tare. Reputations can be manipulated; character can only be developed and\n\tmaintained.\n

\n\nThere are pros and cons to both ways of working, but I'd have to say, and this\nis a personal preference, working at a place where the work I do matters more\nthan how much I talk about the work that I do is definitely more fulfilling. Not\neveryone at Productboard posted messages for the sake of optics, but I'd be\nlying if I said nobody did this—optics was the name of the game, and you had to\nplay it so that your livelihood wasn't in jeopardy. However, there are pros to\nthe optics approach! I was able to work on crafting well-thought-out messages\nand improve my communication skills—and emoji skills—via the written word. I\nbecame better at advocating for my time and confidently standing behind the work\nthat I did; posting a message about a feature you released to 500+ people felt\nintimidating, but you grow accustomed to it eventually.\n\n### Who you're working with matters\n\nLet me preface this with not everyone is the same, and some would argue that\nthey don't really care if the people they're working with become their friends;\nthey may only care about the paycheque or they may only want to work with\nwhatever the coolest tech is at the time. To those people I say, that's awesome,\nand I hope that you find an employer that satisfies you and your needs! For me\nthough, the layoff from Productboard gave me time to pause and reflect on what\ntruly made me happy as a software engineer.\n\n\n\nI can now say this unequivocally—the amount of satisfaction and enjoyment I\nreceive from my place of work is directly tied to the people who are in my\nproximity. My last two jobs (prior to the current one at BestBuy) were the best\njobs I've ever had. At Mastercard, I made lifelong friends, and even after\nleaving our jobs, we've remained close—we regularly get breakfast together, go\non hikes/adventures, and when there's a need, we help each other with matters\npertaining to our careers. The tech we worked with wasn't the latest and\ngreatest, and we weren't on the bleeding edge at Mastercard or Productboard, but\ndamn, were the people that worked there (or at least I worked with) incredibly\npleasant.\n\nI've worked at jobs where I've had complete control of the technical decisions\nand basically could do whatever I wanted. If I wanted to use Svelte, Vue, or\nReact, I had that autonomy. If I said we needed to rewrite an entire application\nbecause of some shiny new state management solution, I had that kind of\ninfluence. Despite this, though, those jobs were not my favorite places to work.\nI really began to appreciate and be grateful for the fact that I've gotten to\nwork with awesome people. I made 5 lifelong friends at Mastercard, and I picked\nup a handful at Productboard—you know who you are. Thanks to Productboard for\nputting me together with these awesome, caring, and talented people.\n\n## Closing Thoughts\n\nLayoffs suck, and to be honest, life sucks sometimes. However, there's always an\nopportunity to look back, reflect, and grow from an experience; we only need to\nmake the conscious decision to engage in this kind of behavior. I avoided doing\nthis sort of reflection because I was in \"go\" mode after the layoff. I had to\nfind a new job, find my bearings at this place, and lick whatever other wounds\nthat followed my layoff from Productboard. This was to be expected—if there's a\nproblem to solve, time seemingly does not allow for reflection, and the priority\nis fixing the problem.\n\nHowever, putting off reflection doesn't mean not doing it at all. I've found my\nbearings at my current job (it took about half a year 😆), and I'm all resettled\nback into my life. Reflect when you can, for however long you need, and remember\nthat whatever is going on in your life or whatever it is that you're feeling,\nthis too shall pass.\n",{"_32":58,"_34":35,"_36":59},"2023-08-21","Reflecting on my time at Productboard","https://res.cloudinary.com/dinypqsgl/image/upload/v1692654001/blog/person-meditating_xhvljr.jpg","Good work, good friends, and good times",619200,2064,10.32,"11 min read","14-epic-web-conf-2024",{"_40":78,"_42":79,"_34":35,"_36":76,"_32":77,"_38":80},{"_28":74,"_30":75},{"_46":70,"_48":71,"_50":72,"_44":73},696600,2322,11.61,"12 min read","\nimport Popover from './popover'\n\n\n\n**Yes, it is my birthday 🎈**, but anyway this post isn't about that... or maybe\nit is? Or maybe it can be...? hahaha no no! It's about attending conferences!\nLong story short, if you have the opportunity to attend a conference, do it;\ndon't think, just do it! This year, I had the privilege of attending\n[Epic Web Conference](https://www.epicweb.dev/conf) and it was an amazing\nexperience. From the speakers to the workshops, everything was well planned and\nexecuted. I learned so much and met so many great people.\n\nBut _why'd_ I go (start with why, right)? Kent made the talks available online\nfor free. I could've just watched the conference from the comfort of my own home\ninstead of spending money to travel to beautiful Park City, Utah. Technically\ntrue, but there's something special about being in the same room as the speakers\nand other attendees. The vibe, undeniably, is different. It's like the\ndifference between watching a concert on YouTube versus being there in person.\nThe disparity in the energy is **incomparable**.\n\nBeyond the differences of attending in person versus online, Kent's my boy and I\nwanted to support him. I was the first person to\nbuy [Epic Web Dev](https://www.epicweb.dev/buy) and you can bet your bottom\ndollar I was the first person to buy a ticket out to Utah! Don't belive me?\nCheck out this [clip](https://youtu.be/URKySjEq5rk?t=462) from Kent's\noffice hours 😆!\n\n## How I prepped\n\nTaran, you _prepped_ for a conference that you were _attending_? Yes, yes I did.\nI also talk in the third person. Deal with it. I wanted to make the most of my\ntime at the conference, so I did the unthinkable... I planned 😱!\n\nYou get out what you put in\n\nThanks to Kent's brilliant planning (and probably a handful of other folks from\nbehind the scenes), the conference was single track. I didn't need to do much\nprep work to see which sessions I wanted to attend -- everyone was attending the\nsame sessions -- so I had limited amounts of FOMO (fear of missing out). I loved\nthis single track idea and yeah, sure, I didn't necessarily _need_ to watch the\npresenter introductions before the conference... but I did, and let me tell you\nwhy: I wanted to know a little bit about the people I was going to meet before I\nactually met them! Cold approaches suck so anything that can be done to\nmetaphorically warm up the approach is a good idea 😂.\n\n### My goals for the conference\n\nI was lucky enough to have my employer cover the cost of my ticket for Epic Web\nConference and as such, I had added incentive to set up some goals for the\nconference. Even if my employer didn't cover the cost, I would've set up goals\nfor myself. Here are the goals I came up with... you may notice a trend 🙈:\n\n1. Talk to [Kent C. Dodds](https://twitter.com/kentcdodds)\n2. Talk to [Madison Kana](https://twitter.com/Madisonkanna)\n3. Talk to [Michael Chan](https://twitter.com/chantastic)\n4. Talk to [Ryan Florence](https://twitter.com/ryanflorence)\n5. Talk to [Simon Vrachliotis](https://twitter.com/simonswiss)\n\nIt's abundantly clear 😅 that my goals all centered around meeting and talking\nto people. I had no idea what I was going to say to them, but I knew I wanted to\nmeet them! I wanted to humanize the people I've been following on Twitter\n(technicallly X now) for ages because it's so easy to forget that there's a\nsuper rad person behind the screen.\n\nNow, despite being dubbed a social butterfly by my friends, and by a new friend\nI made at the conference (my boy [Devin](https://twitter.com/deriegle)), I\nwas nervous as hell to talk to these rockstars. I mean, they're like the cool\nkids in highschool and I'm just a pleb? Right?! Right?!!! Wrong lol.\n\n

\n\t\n

\n[ via GIPHY\n](https://giphy.com/gifs/filmeditor-mean-girls-movie-xT9KVuimKtly3zoJ0Y)\n\nThat gif (and that's with a hard g) is a pretty accurate representation of how I\nfelt. However, framing meeting people at a conference in this way is a terrible\nidea; _frame better, do better_! Thank God for Kent and his \"you can sit with\nus\" attitude/t-shirt/sign. Seeing that sign reminded me that these people are\nactually really sweet and approachable. They're not the cool kids in highschool,\nthey're the cool friends on Twitter that you've never met in person. Those\npeople and everyone else as the conference were\nso [fetch](https://youtu.be/jjt9Qx9MBPk?t=22) 😏!\n\nAlso, and this is more of a me thing, something that helped me deal with my\nnerves with being in a new place with new people (in the States where the Second\nAmendment is a thing), was training some Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I'm not saying\nthat I was going to use my BJJ skills on anyone at the conference, but getting\nmy sweat on with a BJJ class let me get a feel for the people of Park City. I\nknow this is a cliche, but\n[I believe you really get to know someone after having fought them](https://youtu.be/lPRZE5gJ_Vs?t=109).\nI got to _kinda_ know Park City after having a few sparring bouts with my boys\nfrom BJJ Revolution Utah.\n\n## My experience\n\nThe conference was amazing. I met so many cool people and learned so much.\nThat's it. That's the post. Make sure you come in 2025 😆.\n\n### Everyone is a person\n\nI met some of my heroes and \"celebrities\" in the web development space: Kent C.\nDodds, Una Kravets, Ryan Florence, Michael Chan, Theo. This was hella\nintimidating at first. They were \"somebodies\" and I was a \"nobody\" -- or at\nleast that's what my anxiety had me thinking. But dude, and hear me out here...\nintimidation is _so_ unnecessary when meeting people in or outside of industry!\nDespite being \"celebrities\", they were all so easy to talk to. Hell, Kent upon\nseeing me, gave me a big hug; it was so awesome 🙏🏽🤗!\n\nAnd you might be thinking, \"Taran, of course they're people... everyone is just\na person\". But it's easy to forget that when the person you're speaking with is\ninfluential in your field and whose opinion carries weight in the community.\nBut, again, they're just people. They're just like you and me. The things we\ntalked about ranged from thoughts on Design Systems and Storybook's place in the\necosystem, red flags in dating profiles (you're not 5'11\" Madison), my awesome\nbeard, and how amazing [inngest](https://www.inngest.com/) is as a solution\nfor dealing with async jobs and events (Jessy was a major hype man for this...\nbut I don't have his twitter handle 😕).\n\n

\n\tAnd \\[that's why\\] I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties\n\tthere isn’t any privacy.\n

\n\nNot only was it dope meeting my heroes, but it was awesome meeting new friends,\nfriends that weren't \"famous\"! I can't list everyone but if you're not listed\nhere, I think you're famous 😅! Some awesome folks I met and had great chats\nwith: Devin, Devon, Harmony, Stephanie, Jessy, Brad, and Brendan. Of those\nfolks, I am especially thankful for being able to build up a great rapport with\nDevin. Over coffee, we got into the thick of things! Beyond just tech and our\nplace in the industry, we discussed things like raising a family, values and\nmorals, and the nature of the human condition; it was one of my favorite\nconversations during my stay in Utah 😄.\n\n### Workshops\n\nIf your budget allows for it, I defnitely suggest that you go and check them\nout! Thankfully, the one I attended was free so there was no excuse to not\nattend. I learned about [Sanity.io](https://www.sanity.io/) and its\ncombination with Hydrogen for setting up a storefront with Shopify. Don't expect\nto pick up everything there is to learn about the technologies during a\nworkshop, but you'll get some **exposure** to something you can dig into later!\n\nI never realized how _easy_ it was to get going with Shopify and creating my own\ne-commerce store prior to this workshop. I'm not saying I'm going to quit my job\nand start selling beard oil online (my\nfriend [Manjot](https://github.com/mannyv123) once thought we could do that\nfor a living 😂), but I'm one step closer to being _able_ to do that after that\nworkshop with [Simeon](https://twitter.com/simeonGriggs) and\n[Knut](https://twitter.com/kmelve) 👀.\n\nBTW, if you want to learn more about Sanity and Hydrogen, check out this\n[learning article](https://www.sanity.io/learn/module/sanity-and-shopify-with-hydrogen/hydrogen-prerequisites)\ncreated by my friends from Sanity; it may or may not be the same content we went\nover during the workshop day 🧐.\n\n### The Talks\n\n**There was not a bad talk among the bunch**. The emcees were _damn_\ngreat. [Madison](https://twitter.com/Madisonkanna)\nand [Marc](https://twitter.com/marktechson) really set the tone and overall\nvibe for the whole event. The playful banter between Marc and Madison was not\nonly hilarious, but it also helped to establish a totally friendly and welcoming\natmosphere. I messed up though and didn't get a picture with them 😢.\n\nKent's keynote set the spirit for the conference: He gave us examples of why the\nweb is great. The web is permissionless (I can deploy stuff anywhere and I don't\nneed to get \"approval\" from some governing body), the web doesn't break\n(websites from 20 years ago still work 🤯!), and most importantly, the web is\nyou (us); a melting pot of ideas. It doesn't matter what you're using... there's\na place for you! Whether you're a PHP lambo dev or a plebian React dev, the web\nhas a place for you ❤️.\n\nBut okay, let's get into what I learned from the talks (otherwise my employer\nisn't going to pay for me to go next year 😭). I'm not going to go into detail\nabout each talk, but I'll give you a high level overview of what I learned from\na few of them!\n\n#### CSS and HTML\n\nUna Kravets' talk on CSS and HTML was super informative. I learned so much about\nthe future (and present day) of CSS and HTML and how great the web platform has\ngotten. One day in the near future, we'll be able to ship native select elements\nthat we can easily style (no more having to create div soup to get a nice\nlooking UI for selects)! Another thing from this talk which was dope was\n[scroll driven animations](https://scroll-driven-animations.style/) I'm already\nusing it on my site for the progress bar in my blog posts! Moving away from JS\ndriven scroll events to CSS will help unblock the JS thread and improve the\nperformance of our sites! Native `popover's` have also kinda\n[come our way...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Global_attributes/popover)\nso dope; my brain melted.\n\n```html:title=popover-example.html\n\n Click me\n\n\n\n

\n What's up friends!\n

\n\n\n```\n\n\n\n#### Accessibility and Web Dev\n\nAnother thing that I really enjoyed was\n[Sandrina Pereira](https://twitter.com/a_sandrina_p)'s talk on Accessibility! My\nbig take away from her talk was:\n`Every click is an interaction but not every interaction will be a click`.\n\nWhen it comes to developing for the web, we need to make sure that we're\nconsidering all users; not just the ones who can see or use a mouse. If game\ndevs can make something like `The Last of Us`\n[accessible to blind players](https://www.gameaccessibilitynexus.com/blog/2024/01/16/the-last-of-us-part-ii-remastered-low-vision-review/#:~:text=Final%20Thoughts,adding%20what%20was%20left%20out.),\nwe can sure as Hell make our websites accessible for everyone 💪🏽 (or we can at\nleast try).\n\nAnd if you're thinking \"I already know how to make accessbile websites\". Shut up\ndude. Even Tanner Linsley, the creator of Tanstack \\{Query,Router,Table\\},\nlearned something new from Sandrina's talk! Namely, that the `aria-current`\nattribute can be used to announce the current page in a\n[navigation menu](https://github.com/TanStack/router/commit/430e8f1ff3501b856e1ea88053d30abb5e441fc0)\n\n#### Local Development\n\n[Alex](https://twitter.com/ralex1993) gave a talk on local development and how\nwe can almost sorta kinda but not really have a web app with data colocated with\nthe UI. Honestly, go check out this [website](https://localfirstweb.dev/) for\nmore information on this. I, unashamedly, need to rewatch his talk.{' '}\n\nHowever, I did pick up some wisdom from this man, whilst waiting for our Ubers\nin the hotel lobby. That is, \"there are three elements to a talk; it can inform,\nit can educate, and it can entertain; in \\[Alex's\\] experience, the most\nentertaining talks are the most important\". I'm gonna have to agree with him\nhere because some of the most talked about talks (try saying that 5 times fast)\nwere Ryan Florence's talk on `let vs const`\nand [Jacob's](https://twitter.com/jacobmparis) talk on High Performance\nCRUD apps. I seriously recommend that you go check them out (as well as the\nother talks from the conf), once the recordings are avaialble.\n\n### The Afterparty\n\nDon't skip the mother trucking after party! It's so much fun and it'll help\nsolidify some of the relationships you helped create earlier on in the day. It's\nsuper low pressure, everyone's just happy to be there, and if you're lucky,\nthere's fun games and karaoke!\n\nI regret leaving as early as I did from the after party. Yes I was tired. Yes,\nmy social battery was running on empty. Yes, I missed home... but also, when is\nthe next time I'm gonna be in the same room as those wonderful folks again?\nProbably not until next year... 😢.\n\n

\n\thttps://twitter.com/kentcdodds/status/1778627096975425561\n

\n\n## Closing Thoughts\n\nMy time in web dev is up in the air. AI might take over, I might switch out of\nthe industry, I might open up a hot dog stand? Who knows! However, I won't\nforget the fun times I had at Epic Web Conf. I truly hope I get to go back next\nyear.\n\n\n",{"_36":76,"_32":77,"_34":35},"Epic Web Conference 2024","2024-04-16","https://res.cloudinary.com/dinypqsgl/image/upload/v1713221071/blog/14-epic-conf/epic-web-conf_zj26uo.webp","Happy birthday to me! Reflecting on Epic Web Conference!","Don't think. Just go.",{"_24":92,"_26":93,"_20":94,"_22":66},{"_22":53,"_24":88,"_26":89,"_20":90},{"_24":84,"_26":85,"_20":86,"_22":23},{"_42":43,"_34":35,"_36":37,"_32":33,"_38":39,"_40":41},{"_28":29,"_30":87},{"_50":51,"_44":45,"_46":47,"_48":49},{"_32":33,"_34":35,"_36":37},{"_40":60,"_42":61,"_34":35,"_36":59,"_32":58},{"_28":56,"_30":91},{"_50":64,"_44":65,"_46":62,"_48":63},{"_32":58,"_34":35,"_36":59},{"_40":78,"_42":79,"_34":35,"_36":76,"_32":77,"_38":80},{"_28":74,"_30":95},{"_48":71,"_50":72,"_44":73,"_46":70},{"_34":35,"_36":76,"_32":77},"ENV",{"_123":124,"_125":126,"_127":128,"_129":130,"_131":132,"_133":134},"requestInfo",{"_119":120},"newsLetterData",{"_110":111},"honeypotInputProps",{"_104":105,"_106":107,"_108":109},"nameFieldName","name__confirm","validFromFieldName","from__confirm","encryptedValidFrom","jDu2gJbbpEcxv3xnfygVBNzmnTDSHS+GS3TMRoHT5zBABS7f0VJF9Bo=","newsletterImage",{"_112":113,"_114":115,"_116":117,"_118":117},"src","https://res.cloudinary.com/dinypqsgl/image/upload/f_webp/c_scale,h_150,w_150/b_transparent/r_max/v1/blog/me?_a=DATAiZeEZAA0","srcSet","https://res.cloudinary.com/dinypqsgl/image/upload/f_webp/c_scale,h_150,w_150/b_transparent/r_max/v1/blog/me?_a=DATAiZeEZAA0 1x, https://res.cloudinary.com/dinypqsgl/image/upload/f_webp/c_scale,h_300,w_300/b_transparent/r_max/v1/blog/me?_a=DATAiZeEZAA0 2x","width",150,"height","userPreferences",{"_121":122},"theme","light","MODE","production","SENTRY_DSN","https://4e34045e065e0a3ef57135ae5020f388@o4506001960468480.ingest.sentry.io/4506001960599552","AMPLITUDE_INIT","12e15cca4c978dad4bb7dc430e747471","CONVERT_KIT_FORM_ID","7241351","ALGOLIA_APP_ID","1WK0J33355","ALGOLIA_SEARCH_KEY","1020981c7c75273359b7fe3f80a8909e"]

Blog posts

Epic Web Conference 2024

Reflecting on my time at Productboard

My year at an agile agency