Category: Uncategorized

Then, suddenly

May 9th, 2015 | Uncategorized |

It’s been a while.

I couldn’t sleep. I was thinking, maybe too much.

bookmarks.findAll();

I love IT, I love new technos, I love to discover new things and try to use them in the best way possible. I love to read stuff, blogs, twitter, I follow every links I find and read about everything. I want to know everything.

I have something like 100 unread bookmarks (I’m reading a bit every day but finding new ones at the same time), and the export file of all of them stands at 1800 lines, wow.

time.stop();

Discussing last night with a friend of mine who is quite successful — he’s working on different interesting projects on its own or with a team, knows a lot of tools/technos/languages, use them properly in a performant way, knows what he wants, and how to evaluate the stuff he’s working with —  made me realize that I want the same, but I’m stuck.

I’m not more stupid than he is, why couldn’t I ? what is blocking me ?

I’ve started BASIC at 10 and has always been some kind of reference for my friends/collegues when it comes to languages, patterns, ideas.

Thus this long night, then this post. Why should I post something and not move on, right now ? I guess it’s just to recap my own thinking.

require(‘experiment’);

So I’m reading a lot, and as I was tolding him, I can’t practice everything I read, there is way too much.

I already barely have time to read what I want and bookmark new stuff, and do things with my wife, how could I experiment those new tools, technos, languages I’m reading about ?

For some of them, I could, because it’s not that complicated to use at first glance such as the Javascript framework and tools. You don’t need a lot except NodeJS most of the time, install some modules and you can give a try.

When it comes to tools, that’s sometimes more difficult. For instance, I didn’t test “Flow” yet (the static typechecker from facebook) because I’m running on Windows and there is no official binaries yet. When you don’t have a Mac or a Linux, that can slow you down in your progress. (oh and I have a Windows Phone since few years, I’m definitely thinking to abandon Microsoft there, I can’t support to never have the application I want. It’s often Apple Store only).

I didn’t test every database or server I’m reading about. I don’t have time ! Or I just realize that it’s just useless to install something, do the Hello World, then be done. That’s useless, and I will forget about it in a few days.

If I don’t have a project using it, I just don’t see the point.

I just want to remember the name, what it does, what is its strength, “in case of”.

But I realize that I often forget things I’ve read one month ago if I didn’t practice. Even with you experiment something, you come there one month later, I’m way more interrogative about what should I type, where should I go, and always need to refer to Google or my bookmarks, or lose time trying stuff until I find the good combinaison.

But sometimes, things stays, such Sublime Text. It was a awesome discovery few months ago and I’m still using it. I’m not mastering every shortcuts, just the one I need and can think of, I know there are a bunch of them that could often help me, it’s just that I don’t realize. I guess with the experience, that will come in handy.

Few month ago, I watched a video of a guy coding an algorithm (in NodeJS, doing TDD). I was amazed by the speed of the development and the tools he was using : build the skeleton using yo, quite fast at using VIM with a lot of shortcuts, install what was needed to run the tests, auto-run them, then finally writing the algorithm etc. For some, this can seems like “why the fuck should I watch a random guy coding”, well, it was actually very very interesting to see how someone else is doing, you can learn so much.

We need you !

  • I want to do some big data work with Hadoop, Cassandra, HBase, CouchDB.
  • I want to run some true queue tasks system such as ZeroMQ, Apache Apollo, RabbitMQ.
  • I want to use some virtual machines and containers (in a performant, secure, reliable and proper way! not just install/run and be done!).
  • I want to use some scalable systems, distributed databases, see how it reacts.
  • I want to use graph database such as Neo4J and do some ElasticSearch.
  • I want to work on a isomorphic React website using ES6.
  • I want to get rid of WordPress and write my own performant React blog with multilanguage support.
  • I want to use Redis, I barely test it and I know its potential is huge.
  • I want to use Varnish, HAProxy, I know they are the way to go for web performance.
  • I want to use admin and deployment tools such as Vagrant, Chef, Puppet, Ansible.
  • I want to use the cloud as it should (Amazon, Azure), never did.
  • I want to work using GitHub with a team, and work the proper way (branches, rebase).
  • I want to use Slack
  • I want to work with nice work and build processes (hot reloading, gulp/webpack).
  • I want to do some mobile native app (and React Native ofc).
  • I want to work with TDD, I don’t like bugs.
  • I want to work with performant tools, and be able to profile anything. I don’t like to wait, and I love performances.

I want to masterize some tools. I don’t masterize anything right now. I know “well” React, I’ve subcribed to the github repo and I’m reading every emails I got but I’m starting to feel that it’s just useless. I’ve started some side projects but never finished them. At work, I’m using the classic .NET framework, and basic SQL, no fancy stuff. I know them “well” but that’s it. I think I’m getting lazy of all that. I want to work on new stuff, new tools, new ways of thinking.

volatile-ttl

Doing a introspection of myself, I realize that :

  • my memory sucks
  • if I don’t work on something during some times, I will forget about it. (well, it will go into my bookmarks at least!)
  • I don’t know how to evaluate if a tool or framework is good
  • I’m interesting in everything, I should filter what I know I won’t use
  • I know of lot of names (tools, frameworks) but can’t
  • And still missing important ones (I just heard about Apache Apollo, Jenkins)
  • I’m not mastering anything
  • I love to learn stuff but don’t practise enough
  • I like to write
  • I like order, performance, consistency, clean stuff
  • I like money, I want passive income
  • I can’t stay with one tool/one framework, I’m always attracted with the latest and new one
  • I don’t have a lot of free time: need to optimize how I’m thinking, how I’m working
  • I should unsubscribe from React mailing list
  • I should truly install Linux or well, buy a MacBook Pro and the iPhone with it.

Okay, this post is a bit messy but this is what was on my mind.

Now, listening to Global Communication to relax (thanks to some reddit post I stumbled upon!).