Read & Listen log - September 2020

published 7.10.2020

log

A log of articles, blog posts, and podcasts, that I've read and listened to in recent month.

Articles

More of React Native documentation, along with Android docs for apps build and distribution process.

Videos

Topics about games architecture for a bit of fun, and more of DT's linux videos. Beside this, I watched several videos about home network installations.

Podcasts

I liked the following podcast most:

What I didn't enjoy as much as I expected:

RNR: Ep. 148 - What’s in My Stack?

In this episode of React Native Radio the panel overviews the libraries and tools they choose for their stack and explain why they choose them. Christopher Reyes starts by discussing his favorite notes app, Bear Notes. He shares the features from the app that makes him love it so much.

Chris outlines the stack he would recommend for someone new to development and React Native. He recommends React Native CLI, React Native Navigation, Native Base, and Async Storage. Chris explains why he recommends these tools. The panel also discusses the importance of going back to your source to make sure you are using the most up to date product. The panel considers what version five of React Navigation with the component-based API will change in their everyday work. They all express their excitement to try it.

Jamon Holmgren is the next panelist to outline his stack. He builds with Ignite and uses the stack that it provides. Jamon explains how Ignite works and what it has in its stack. He likes React Navigation, MobX and, React Native Screens. Jamon goes over the pros and cons of a Native navigation stack compared to a JavaScript one. He also explains why he prefers MobX and goes over the differences over their various tools. He also discusses the boilerplates built by Infinite Red and what to expect in their upcoming boilerplates.

Next, Charles Max Wood shares his troubles with his current DevchatTV app and the panel tries to help. Josh Justice is the last to overview his stack, he discusses one of his hobby apps, building a todo app. He is using Orbitjs, ESLint, Prettier, React Native Elements, and React Native Paper. Josh emphasizes the need to test even in hobby projects, for that he uses Dependabot, React Native testing library, and Detox.

RNR: Ep. 165 - Full Stack Development with React Native on the Cloud with Nader Dabit

Longtime React Native Radio's host Nader Dabit returns to talk about full stack development on the cloud. We get into the options such as Azure, AWS, GCP, Netlify, and Zeit. We also catch up on what Nader has been up to lately.

UXPod: Visual Communication: An interview with Alberto Cairo

Why everyone should learn to think like a professional, honest journalist. What makes a good “infographic”? And how can we find the stories in our data, and tell those stories effectively?

Adventures in DevOps: Ep. 21 - The Ideal Pipeline with Stephen Chin

Stephen runs developer relations at JFrog. Stephen starts by sharing what JFrog has to offer and their most recent announcements. Including their new free version of Aritfactory.

Charles and Stephen consider the biggest trends to emerge in 2019 and speculate on what’s going to be big in 2020. This leads them into a discussion about security and inheriting vulnerabilities from packages. They share examples of vulnerabilities in code being exploited. Stephen shares how JFrog helps with identifying and fixing vulnerabilities in code. Stephen shares the characteristics found in the ideal pipeline. It needs to be highly flexible so that it will work for every team and every project. It needs to give you a single source of truth and account for security. He explains how to get started with JFrog and what is included in the free version.

Go Time: Ep. 126 - The monolith vs microservices debate

What is a microservice, and what is a monolith? What differentiates them? When is a good time for your team to start considering the transition from monolith to microservice? And does using microservices mean you can’t use a monorepo?

ReWork Podcast - Help Wanted

The pandemic has caused enormous job losses and forced many companies to rethink the nature of work. In this episode, two Stanford students talk about the online resource they built to help fellow students whose summer internships were canceled, and Wildbit CEO Natalie Nagele returns to Rework to discuss the launch of People-First Jobs, a job board that connects seekers with human-centered companies.

Manager Tools: Mistakes We've Made - Part 1, 2

After 14 years, surely we've made some mistakes? Yes, but not where it matters.

This Cast Answers These Questions

Manager Tools: COVID: Distant Manager Basics - Part 1, 2

A rerelease of our guidance on managing distant team members, which addresses problems related to working from home and managing remote employees that you may now be facing because of COVID-19.

This guidance recommends some simple things managers can do to improve the accountability and productivity of distant team members. How do you manage when some of your directs are not co-located with you? What if you're in Chicago, but one of your team members is in New York, or London? The fact is, far-flung teams make sense for some organizations in some situations...and, they make management MUCH harder. What can we as managers do to increase the chances that the distance doesn't affect our ability to produce results? Here are some simple things you can do NOW.

This Cast Answers These Questions

Manager Tools: COVID: Distant Manager Basics - For Directs - Part 1, 2

A rerelease of our guidance on how to work with a remotely located manager, which addresses problems related to working from home and managing remote employees that you may now be facing because of COVID-19.

This cast gives our guidance on how to effectively work with your manager when he or she is geographically distant from you. We have a cast on Manager Tools which is designed to give managers who work with geographically dispersed teams some simple things to do to make achieving results more likely. In this cast, we want to give directs a few simple things to do from their side to assist their manager and themselves in achieving results. You can look at this issue from two sides. For your boss, taking the actions described in this cast will give him confidence that you are a productive member of the team even though you're not co-located. For you, it means that out of sight IS NOT out of mind. Your chances of recognition, payraises and promotions go down when you're not co-located with your boss. These simple steps go some way to mitigating that fact.

This Cast Answers These Questions

Manager Tools: Improve Your Feedback With DiSC

It's been quite a while since we talked about feedback. We think one of the reasons for that is that there's some negativity to it. What we mean by that is that One on Ones are an easy winner. It's about your team member, they want more time with you, a half hour with you every week seems too good to be true. And, if you've stuck to it, you've noticed improvements in areas that go beyond just employee relationships. Maybe they're kind of hard on your schedule INITIALLY, but they're perceived positively. Not so much with feedback.

This Cast Answers These Questions

Manager Tools: Simple DiSC®, Delegation, And Project Management - Part 1, 2

This cast describes how to delegate and manage projects more effectively based on the DiSC profiles of your team members.

Cast Note: This cast does not address in detail each of the four general styles of behavior suggested by the DiSC behavioral profile. We'll take a minute and give a quick overview, but you'll probably want to know more. For that, please refer to our series of 4 casts to get much more detail on the model and how each of the 4 "styles" behaves. And, we do provide a way on our site to order and take the DiSC assessment. We price it lower than most websites do, because we're more interested in you learning your natural behavioral preference than we are in making money from it.

Two of the most frustrating "lessons" when we're starting out as managers are ones that many of us ignore. The first one is, "Hey! Not everyone is just like me!" Some of us just ignore it, rely on our power, and struggle through with less than ideal relationships with our team members. Some folks Mike and Mark know never change this behavior their entire careers. And the second one is closely related to it, but still different: "Hey! Not only is everyone not like me... they're not like each other, either! THEY'RE ALL DIFFERENT!"

If we want to be effective as managers, we've got to manage everyone who works for us as an individual. [Hey - maybe we need to meet with them one on one every week ;-) ] And using the DiSC profile, the best behavioral profile and communication tool we know of, makes one to one managing within all of our reach. Here's how to use DiSC in a simple way.

This Cast Answers These Questions