We can have a lot of fun at work. A lot of fun comes from our team unity and togetherness. Just fun and silly stuff can be in the service of that end. Sad cyclops is no different.Profile TeamAt Pluralsight, we have product dev teams that own a full product vertical. One of those teams is the profile...

As they say, perception is reality. We often think of this as managing other people's perceptions of us or our efforts. We can also change our own reality by changing our own perceptions and what we seek out.The PhenomenonRemember when you were thinking of buying a new car? You went through ads, loo...

We find motivation in many ways. Some motivations will prove to be more reliable than others. There are barriers to start and keep going -- to act. Sometimes looking within ourselves for motivation will be more helpful than other sources. We can be better able to put ourselves out there and make of ...

We have limits to our learning. These limits might include mental capacity, emotional readiness, time, or interest. We have thresholds for how much learning we can handle at a time and quotas for how much we feel we need. Find your optimal zone for learning and thrive there.Learning ThresholdsWe can...

Did you know that you can run an accessibility audit on your site from Chrome? Simply add a Chrome extension, read the errors and warnings, and you're on your way to fixing the issues.Chrome ExtensionThe tooling for running the audit is available in the Chrome Web Store as an Accessibility Developer...

Over time we can get very comfortable in our ways. We do things as they've always been done. In this state, sometimes we can find ourselves constraining new ideas or stifling new possibilities as they come to us.Why Not Go For the BananaOnce there was a study done on monkeys where a group of the pri...

Language is powerful. It's super interesting to discern viewpoints based on language used. We make value statements all the time. Depending on how we view something, we'll describe it differently. This is just as true in software and software dev as anything.Everyone Has OpinionsWe all have opinions...

There are a few options for client-side code highlighting. Highlight.js is one of the most popular, and it's super easy to integrate into your site. Let's do it!Compared to Server SideI usually default to server-side code highlighting. It puts the complexity of code highlighting in the build phase a...

When we are exposed to a new thing, we might not at first see its full grandeur. After a bit of context and perspective, our appreciation for that thing may increase substantially.Subjects are Deep and BroadThere are so many fields of study in this world. Many of them have been around for a long tim...

Ideas happen all the time. Statistically, we'll hear some bad ones. At least we think they're bad. How can we best hear and react to these bad ideas?Ideas Have ValueFirst, a basic foundation for ideas: Ideas come from people's thoughts. People's ideas are the catalyst for innovation -- things to try...

I have traditionally been a big holiday coder. I've had a ton of fun projects start or finish on vacation. It's a great time for these projects. But what might we be missing on vacation if we're always coding?Waiting for This MomentYou've had an idea in your head. It's been percolating for a while n...

When we are seeking a new position or an advancement in our current career path, we are asking others to take a chance on us. Hiring managers, peers, teams, whole companies are among those that we ask to take a chance on and trust us to do a new thing. Sometimes the most important person to convince...

Several weeks ago, I decided it was time for me to move on from Octopress. It's given me a good run. But there were a couple of causes that pushed me over the edge. My experience has been good with a few pains in the conversion.Outgrowing OctopressThe most fundamental and important reason for me con...

Create-react-app is Facebook's no-config solution to starting a React project. This setup does not support a server out of the box. You can create that easily enough. Node.js can be a good choice for your app server. Once it's made and functioning, you might want to deploy your static app and app se...

I've said jokingly, when coding through date/time-related problems, someone could do a PhD on this stuff. Surely they have. It can get complicated. Here are a few core facts related to Utc time and the usage of .Net's System.DateTime and System.DateTimeOffset classes that you may find useful.Univers...

There aren't many functions in the standard lib for elm that create side effects. Elm's Debug.log is one of those exceptions. It logs to the console. Here's how it's setup to make console logging whilst piping easier that patting your head whilst rubbing your tummy.The signature of Debug.logThe cool...

When testing a unit, often you'll want to stub out that unit's dependencies. Some libraries will help you do this. But you can do it with plain JavaScript, and it works quite well.Stubbing DependenciesWe're unit testing a module in Node. That unit has dependencies on some other sub-unit. For our exa...

NewRelic is a monitoring vendor that has good support for Node.js apps. When your Node app goes down, you'll want to tell NewRelic about it. It's surprisingly easy.newrelic npm PackageThe newrelic npm package is super easy to integrate with. First install:npm install newrelicCall it from early in yo...

As with any software, here you can expect the unexpected. Node apps experience errors as well. Let's say that an error crops in our Node API -- what should we do about it?Errors can be handled in a lot of different ways. "Handling" in this article will essentially mean error response messaging.Speci...

GraphQL provides a query language to define the shape of data you'd like returned from an HTTP API on a server and a library to help make it happen. It's easy to return a single item or multiple items.Query Many ItemsTo query in graphql, you setup what looks like a json payload without the values. F...

Getting riot.js setup for development isn't too bad. But the combo of language features, testing tools, and riot templates made setting up the test environment a bit trickier than I expected. Here are some of the details.Es2015 in SrcFor this project, I am using riotjs, which is a React-like library...

You build a product. Someone else builds a shared lib. You want to use the shared lib in your app for its apparent utility. There come new features that the product team wants to adjust and add to your product. The shared lib provides utility that is related to these new features but does not provid...

react-dnd is a fantastic library for implementing drag and drop features in a React application. In browsers, you have the ability to specify a drag preview for the thing your dragging. Images are easy. Text takes more work -- because you need to generate an image.I love the abstractions in react-dn...

You work every day. It's a part of life. It's a good part of life, and you have the power to make it better. Ever since you were young child, you knew what the magic ingredient was: fun!Making software is a creative endeavor. It allows situations for lots of free thinking. It comes with the satisfac...

Npm has a fantastic init tool for creating the descriptor for your project. It will gladly provide defaults for you. These are sometimes helpful. Wouldn't it be more better to define your own defaults?Npm InitIf you're doing any JavaScript development, NPM is likely a helpful tool for your toolbox. ...

Culture will emerge after a group of people attempt to solve problems again and again in a certain way. This "way" becomes the culture. If you are deliberate in your choices on how to solve problems, you will be deliberate in creating a culture. Once you have a culture in mind and are working toward...

Electron will give you a couple ways to open a directory from the filesystem.Note: This article has been substantially updated from Electron 0.37 to Electron 7 architecture and recommendations.1. Easy Street From HTMLIn Electron, you use HTML for your views. Thus, if you want the user to select a di...

Remember that last time that you spoke at a conference and really felt like you had connected with your audience? You were able to keep them with you for the length of your journey. You felt like they grew and were enlightened with you. There's a certain magic to that, and there's also some delibera...

With deep object structures, console.log can leave you wondering what's down in the depths of the objects you're printing out. Here's a quick help from Node stdlib.The Problemconsole.log is nice for printing out the value of an object. But sometimes the object is too "deep" or too nested, and regula...

There are many files that you don't want to store in your project's Git repo. Some of these are even specific to the project. Some are definitely not. How do you ignore these that aren't related to the project?.gitignore For the ProjectIn your project directory, you likely have a .gitignore file. He...