I am back from my trip to Korea and will be back to work this week. I am mildly excited to work again, which shows my vacation was long enough. My year begins now!
Software Engineering ⚙️
The State of CSS 2020 Report
My two takeaways:
Tailwind CSS (now with Tailwind UI components) is the thing to learn.
Utility CSS classes are not a minority opinion anymore.
Leveraging the TypeScript API to find issues in your code
I didn’t expect that writing a script to look at Typescript’s syntax tree could be accomplished under 100 lines of code. Something for me to try when I have tedious, mechanical refactors in the future. Link
GitHub’s WebGL Globe
GitHub launched its cool looking website with a 3D globe, visualizing Github’s activity. This article explains the visualization code line by line. Link
Iterating over iterable JS objects
During my phone screens, I see even senior candidates struggle with iterating over an object. It would be a good idea to brush up on iterations if you can only come up with forEach when you read this. (Spoiler: use for-of) Link
People ❤️
Would you discuss politics at work?
This week was marked by a series of challenging political events in the United States. Some workplaces ban the conversation around politics to avoid the pitfalls. But I personally believe acknowledging the stress on all of us and providing the space to process our feelings are the best course of action. Link
Learn to deal with uncertainty
As an engineer, I am used to immediate and clear feedback; I wait for 10 minutes, and automated tests accept or reject my work. But when I discuss long-term product roadmaps or lead cross-functional projects, there are no such mechanisms. This article helped me understand why I struggle with those high-level discussions: fewer constraints, longer feedback loops, and more high-stake problems. Link
Interviewing for Engineering Manager
I am thinking of returning to engineering management in the next year or two. Since it will be quite a big shift, I started looking at what companies look for from their engineering manager candidates. This is from Reddit. Link
News 📰
Twitter bans Trump
Twitter finally bans Trump’s account from the service after Trump used the service to encourage his supporters to storm the Capitol. I am glad that Trump won’t be able to use Twitter to seed confusion and incite violence. But Twitter is not the only social network, and other services still enable these extremists. (The alternative Twitter-like service is now suspended from app stores for the lack of content policing)
A society can’t leave its safety up to the few tech execs. The only proper way to censure and contain Trump will be through democratic institutions. Link