Discover how strategic silence helps you get better information from colleagues, strengthens negotiations, and more. Then you'll explore how to build your own AI tools with RubyLLM through a practical example.

Enjoy the Silence

You can strengthen your professional relationships, improve communication, and negotiate effectively without saying anything at all. In a world full of noise, silence is your secret weapon. Here are a few ways you can use silence to your advantage.

Let explanations unfold.

Remote work offers a lot of freedom, but it comes with some traps. Thankfully, you can mitigate some of those traps with the advice in this month's issue.

I completed my 13th book recently, and I'm working hard on another, so I thought it would be helpful to explain why I'm still producing books when everyone has access to LLMs.

Let's look at remote work first.

How to Work Remotely

Presenting an idea to a busy decision-maker can be challenging. The key is to be clear and concise. In this issue, you'll explore the Minto Pyramid and how you can use it to pitch your next idea. You'll also explore a CLI tool for testing links in your content.

Scan Links with Lychee

If you're maintaining content, you'll find that part of that job is ensuring the things you link to are still intact. Lychee is a fast command-line tool for scanning links, and you can use it as a GitHub Action as well.

While it can scan live websites, it can also find links in Markdown documents and local HTML files, so you can integrate it into your development process.

This issue marks three full years of this newsletter. It's a significant milestone, and I'm thankful to everyone who's been a loyal subscriber. I look forward to sending this out every month and I appreciate everyone who reads this.

In this final issue of 2024, you'll explore one of the most crucial skills you can build to grow your career: the skill of discernment. You'll look at it through the lens of prioritizing your work to identify what's most important.

But first...

Things To Explore

In this month's issue, you'll explore how senior employees operate so you can move in that direction. Then, you'll see how to accelerate your slide development by turning Markdown into Google Slides.

What Separates Juniors from Seniors?

The difference between junior and senior employees isn't about how long they've been in the role. It's about how they show up, how they think, and how they work with others.

Here are four areas where seniors stand out and how you can start making those shifts yourself.

Hello, friends. This month, I'm excited to share with you a great way to improve the flow of your content, whether you're giving a talk, writing a chapter, or conducting a workshop. I'll also share how your company evaluates you.

Let's get right into it.

Guide Learners with Intentional Transitions

At some point, you learned about the importance of introductions and conclusions when delivering content, whether it's in a written form or as a presentation. A good introduction motivates people. It engages them and lets them know what they will get into and why it matters. A strong conclusion wraps everything up.

In this issue, you'll walk through what it takes to figure out a sustainable hourly rate that hits your desired target and covers your expenses, along with a link to a calculator I built to help you figure it all out. Then, you'll look at how to throw away all your changes in a Git repository, including any new files and folders you made.

Compute Your Rates

I've been doing some sort of consulting and freelancing since I was in college, and I've lost count of the number of times someone has asked me, "How do I know how much to charge?"

Most people ask around to find out what industry rates are and then charge accordingly. That might work if you are doing some side work to supplement your current salary, but it's not sustainable if you want to strike out on your own. A proper hourly rate factors in more than the time you're spending.

In this month's issue you'll explore if people management is right for you, and you'll look at how to take changes you've made to your code and split them into multiple commits.

Split Changes into Multiple Commits with Git

When working on a project, you might make several changes before you commit. However, these changes might relate to different features or bug fixes. For example, you might change a file to fix a bug, but you might see something else in the file that bugs you, so you fix it while you're there.

This was a busy month. I've been working on finishing up my latest book and preparing for a conference talk. But I have two small things to share with you in this issue. First, I'll explain why I dislike a particular word, and then I'll explain how I quickly copied thousands of small files between two machines. I've also added a new section at the end called "Things to Explore," which covers some resources I'm looking at that you might find valuable.

Please Use "Use."

I don't like the word "utilize." I wince when I read it. As an editor, I will strike that word from prose in almost every situation I can. Anyone who's worked with me knows how I feel about that word. My friend Mason recently asked me to explain why, and he suggested I write about it for this issue.

George Orwell and George Carlin explain my feelings well. George Orwell famously said, "Never use a long word where a short one will do."

If you're a freelancer who works with multiple databases, you'll love this issue; you'll explore a tool that lets you connect to multiple databases using a common interface with syntax highlighting, and you can use it to migrate data between databases.

You'll also see one way to think about content strategy and how to use it to drive product awareness and adoption.

But let's start with the database tool.

A Universal SQL Tool that Also Migrates Data

Hello, friends.

If you're going to put hours into creating content, you owe it to yourself to measure its performance and impact. You can use what you learn to determine where to spend the rest of your time. I recently updated the analytics backend on one of my sites. As I looked at the data, I saw some surprising things about several pieces of content that quickly changed where I plan to prioritize my efforts going forward. In this issue, you'll look at two metrics you can use to evaluate your content and how you can use them to predict future growth.

You'll also see how to rename multiple files with some Bash scripting.

Measuring Your Content's Performance: Pageviews and Unique Visitors

Have you taught, or did you just present to a group of people? Did your audience learn, or did they just read your words? In this issue, you'll explore how to add assessments to your content to nudge learners toward more active participation.

In addition, you'll use a command-line tool to run two background services simultaneously, so you don't have to juggle multiple terminal windows when developing apps.

Involve Your Learners In Your Content

Thanks to the Internet and a wide array of professional tooling, anyone with an idea to share can create content, publish it, present it, and even get paid for it. However, content alone isn't the whole story if your goal is to teach someone a new skill. Watching someone build an app isn't enough to grasp the complexities that lie within.

I've spent the last month and a half involved in performance reviews and employee calibration, so I've had a lot of time to reflect on what success looks like for myself and for the people I manage.

In this issue, you'll see how taking on thankless chores will positively affect your career trajectory, even if you are not immediately rewarded.

But first you'll play with a tool that lets you query your operating system using SQL rather than remembering a bunch of separate command-line tools. I learned about this tool years ago and recently rediscovered it. I'm excited for you to give it a try.

Unlocking Your System's Secrets with OSQuery

Command-line tools always make me smile. I love using small, useful utilities to solve problems, but I've found it even more fun to build my own tools. The Go programming language is one of the best ways to build these tools because you can create self-contained executables for multiple platforms. In this issue, you'll see how quickly you can build a tiny Go CLI app by building one that serves a directory over HTTP, even if you've never used Go before.

Education myths make me frown, though, because they make it harder on learners and teachers alike. One of those myths is the Learning Pyramid. You've heard of it, and if you've ever done content, you've had someone else tell you how some things are "better" than others for retaining information. Like learning styles, it's another myth without scientific backing. Read more to learn why.

The Myth of the Learning Pyramid

You've heard this before:

You want to grow your career, but those conversations with your manager might not come naturally to you, so in this January issue you'll find some advice on how to get those going. Then you'll explore a tool that makes looking at file changes easier on the eyes.

Advocating for Yourself with your Manager

If you don't advocate for yourself, nobody else will. Your manager has a ton of other things on their plate and your professional development might not be on it. Good managers are going to ensure that professional development is part of your regular discussions, but not every manager has the training or the desire for that.

No matter what kind of manager you have, you're going to have to bring things up yourself. Here's my advice on how to ask for what you need.

In this issue, you'll see how you can navigate the first three months of a new role and look at three HTML elements you can use to mark up changes in documents. Then you'll see some strategies you can use to create a better experience for people who might not be excited about learning what you have to teach.

With this issue, the newsletter is now two years old. Thanks for your support. I'm looking to grow the subscriptions to this newsletter in 2024; I'd appreciate it if you could share this issue with your friends and colleagues who would benefit from this content.

Navigating Your First 90 Days.

When you join a new team, you want to put your best foot forward and make a good impression, but you also want to set yourself up for long-term success. I've built two teams from scratch over the last 5 years, and every new member has asked me how they can be successful in their first few months. Here's what I advise my new team members to do as they get up to speed, and this is the advice I've followed at almost every place I've joined.

I've been writing, presenting, and teaching my entire career, even when it wasn't my primary job. I created tutorials using Microsoft Word and converted them to PDFs, and I used PowerPoint and Keynote when I did slides for conference talks. But those tools always got in the way of the content creation process. And despite my using HTML for ages, it also never felt right. So I looked into text-based methods like DocBook, which I actually like, but that required a lot of XSLT knowledge.

This quote from The Pragmatic Programmer always stuck out to me:

As Pragmatic Programmers, our base material isn't wood or iron, it's knowledge. We gather requirements as knowledge, and then express that knowledge in our designs, implementations, tests, and documents. And we believe that the best format for storing knowledge persistently is plain text.

Plain text is terrific. It's always going to work, but it always seemed so limited compared to what people expect.

In this issue, you'll look at how scheduling your work helps you focus on the right tasks so you can focus on what matters, and you'll explore the stages authors go through when developing a large project like a book so you can identify those when they start happening to you.

But first, I'll share a quick shell trick I use when working with Git repositories on the command line interface.

Jump to the Repository Root

If you're working on a project in the CLI and you've navigated to a subfolder, you might want a quick way to navigate back to the project root. You can use a combination of pushd and popd to jump around your shell, but there's a faster way if your project is a Git repository.

Hello friends.

This month, I want to focus on an area of professional growth I've seen some people struggle with recently, and I'd like to see you avoid that struggle. As you navigate your professional journey, you'll encounter the challenge of adapting your tried-and-true "playbook" to new situations. This can go horribly wrong if you don't consider the factors that made your playbook successful. In this issue, you'll see the pitfalls you can run into and how you can adapt.

But first, I'll share a tool I've been using to track my time on projects right from my Terminal window that I think you might find helpful if you're in an environment where you need to be accountable for your time at a more granular level.

Tracking Time with TimeWarrior

Hello, friends!

In this issue, you'll see three things that can help you work smarter and faster. First, you'll see how you can get ready to do the work you need to do each day by explicitly setting aside time to plan the work. Then you'll see the one command-line trick I use every day that I can't live without. Finally, you'll see how you can help your learners stay engaged in workshops or classes you're facilitating.

Incorporating Prep Time Into Your Day

Work comes at you fast.

Hi friends. This month's issue will be slightly shorter than others; I spent the last couple of weeks under the weather, so I've been catching up on many fronts, but I still wanted to get a couple of pieces of content to your inbox.

I've had several conversations with people who have been frustrated by the lack of growth in their careers, and it got me thinking about how I never really understood how promotions worked until I became a manager and had to help my direct reports get through that process. In this issue, you'll see a few reasons why you're not getting promoted and hopefully gain insight into what you can do about it.

In addition, you'll see how you can apply adult learning theory to your content.

Let's get into it.

If someone's ever told you that you need to get to the point faster or that your answers are too shallow, this newsletter issue is for you. In this issue, you'll see how to give concise answers that provide the right level of detail.

Then you'll learn about Campbell's Law, which has nothing to do with soup, and everything to do with how focusing too hard on a metric can lead to poor results. Finally, you'll look at a tool that lets you respond to file changes. It's one of my all-time favorite tools, and I'm excited to introduce it if you've never heard of it.

Let's dive in!

Give Stronger and Clearer Answers in Interviews and Beyond

Hi friends.

It’s May, and I’m thinking back to my teaching years, watching my students graduate and move on to start their careers. I remember how hard it was for many of them as they competed for a handful of jobs in the area. It got me thinking about advice I used to give them, and I’ll share a little of that in this issue.

I’m also excited to share a little CSS library I’ve been using on a project I’m building. I’ve been frustrated with the state of CSS lately, and this library came at just the right time.

Let’s get into it.

The end of April is always an interesting time for me. I often spend the first part of my year figuring out the priorities and goals for the year while also preparing for income tax payments. Usually, I feel good by this time of year because I’ve got plans in place and taxes are done.

But this year is different. Because of layoffs and job insecurity, a lot of my friends are worried and are asking for advice. I feel uneasy.

I’ve had more than 30 conversations about compensation this year. They’re all asking some of the same questions that made me realize that there are probably a whole lot of other people who don’t understand how compensation works. I’m not an expert here, but I do have a lot of takes here that I’ve decided to share in this newsletter in the hopes that I’d have something I could point folks toward as a resource in the future.

Unlike other issues, this is the only topic this month because it applies to everyone reading this, whether you create code or content.

Happy Spring! Some folks are closing out the first quarter of 2023, and others are wrapping up their taxes. But many are talking about ChatGPT. I’ve got a lot of opinions myself, but in this issue, I’m going to share a few ways you can use it right now to do some tasks faster, along with some warnings to keep in mind. I’m also excited to share a tool I’ve been using to copy files securely between computers with different operating systems without installing servers or worrying about permissions.

Using ChatGPT to Work Faster

ChatGTP is on many people’s minds. To some, it’s the greatest invention in years. To others, it’s a terrifying tool that’s already eliminating jobs. I’ve seen it solve some problems well, and I’ve seen it write the most useless, surface-level nonsense I’ve seen in ages.

I’ve got my concerns about ChatGPT and other AI tools, especially since this tool seems to be at the “peak of inflated expectations” on Gartner’s hype cycle. Still, I will save a lot of time and space here because the reality is that these various AI tools exist, and we have to contend with them, so it’s worth looking at leveraging them like you would any other tool. It’s a good bet that your peers already are.

Hi friends. February draws to a close, and it’s been a busy month. A couple of weeks ago, my former team was laid off, and since then, I’ve been networking with folks to help these fantastic educators and technical writers find new jobs. The outpouring of support has been incredible, and I’ve learned that while many companies are doing layoffs, there are still quite a few smaller companies hiring.

I’m starting this issue with a handful of reasons that you should be interviewing for jobs even when you have one because one of the best things you can do for your career is to be proactive about your job search. Then I have a couple of tools to share with you: one to help with your writing and another to help you share your local development work with others so you can get feedback.

Let’s dive in.

Interview While You’re Happy

We’re one month into the new year, and for many, that means annual review time. I’m preparing for it myself, writing my self-evaluation, an evaluation for my manager, and evaluations for the team I support. This month I want to share the model I use to do my self-evaluation and make sure I don’t leave certain things out.

I also want to show you a tool that’s helpful for both content creators and software developers that lets you create diagrams using a plain text markup language.

Let’s dive in.

Build a Strong Self-Evaluation

It's the last issue of 2022, and it's been quite a ride. But rather than do the usual "look back at the year," I'm bringing you three fresh articles in this last issue, and I hope they're helpful. First, you'll look at some tactics to help find work in a slow job market, and then you'll explore two command-line programs that can help you free up disk space. And finally, I'll try to convince you to rethink using "we" in your technical tutorials.

Also, you'll notice this newsletter looks a little different. I've moved to Buttondown, and I'll be making some changes to where messages come from and where the archives are stored. Please bear with me as things roll out between now and the next issue.

Let's go!

Finding Work in a Down Market

Hi friends.

In this issue, you'll find some questions you can ask your potential teammates to see what the team culture is like so you can make a better decision when interviewing. You'll also explore a new tool for interacting with APIs from the command line interface that I'm really excited about. Finally, this newsletter is going to move to a new home, so please read on to learn about that.

Assessing the Team During an Interview

Interviewing for a job is a two-way street. You're looking for a company that will pay you for your skills and experience, so it's natural for you to spend most of your time selling potential employers on your skills and experience. But remember that interviewing is a two-way street, and if you're going to spend a minimum of 40 hours per week with this team, you need to know what you're getting yourself into. The company itself might be great, but you want to make sure there's alignment with the team and how you want to spend your time. Plus, the team and its manager have the most significant impact on your day-to-day happiness.

Hey friends. I'm excited to share this October issue with you because it covers a topic I've been thinking about for most of the year, and I'm ready to start discussing it more widely. In this issue, I hope to convince you that there’s a better way to think about the delivery methods you use when creating educational content.

I also want to share with you some reasons why perfectly qualified candidates don't get the job. I've done a fair amount of research this month, which took some extra time, so this month's newsletter will only have two articles instead of the usual three.

Let's jump in!

Rethinking Delivery Methods

Hi friends!

It’s Fall in the United States, and here in Wisconsin, the leaves are changing color and falling from the trees. The air is drier and colder, and it’s almost hockey season. It’s also the end of the month, so here’s the September issue.

In this issue, you’ll explore how to tell if you’re being pushed out of your role, how to make your writing and teaching more inclusive through the words and phrases you choose, and how to add notes to your Git repository.

Warning signs that your job is in danger

Ah, late August. In Wisconsin, it's the time of year when kids are gearing up to head back to school, football is gearing up, and the realization that the weather is about to start getting colder.

Summer is winding down, but this newsletter is just getting started. This month's issue introduces a new command-line tool you might find useful, explores effective marketing, and shares some advice about effective résumés based on my experience as a hiring manager and some patterns I’ve seen.

Let's go!

Marketing is good and good for you.

Happy Summer, folks. I'm excited to share this issue with you because it covers three areas I think are important for career development and growth. I'm looking forward to hearing what you think.

Let's start with some interview prep.

Create Five Stories to Prep for Your Next Behavioral Interview

I've been conducting a lot of interviews as I look to fill a very specialized role on my team, and so interview techniques are on my mind. I wanted to share with you how I prepare for behavioral interviews and how I coach others to do so.

Hi friends. Once again, I’m putting out the monthly issue at the very end of the month, but I’m excited to share a couple of things with you in this issue. First, you’ll find my advice on when it’s time to leave your current role. Then I’ll share some thoughts on programming language popularity, based on some data I learned about recently.

Let’s go!

Is it time to leave?

Every so often, I’ll have a conversation with someone about whether or not it’s time for them to move on to a new role. Sometimes they’re actively looking, sometimes they’re unsure if they should look, and occasionally they have an offer in hand.

Hey friends. It's the last day of May here in the US, so technically, this still counts as the May issue. Things have been hectic on the personal side, but I still had a couple of thoughts around content creation and leveling up your skills that I wanted to share this month. I also didn't want to skip an issue because, as you'll read in this issue, consistency is essential to success.

As always, thank you for reading. I hope you enjoy this issue.

The Quick Win isn't that quick

People are looking for a quick win. A shortcut to success. People shell out money to influencers so they can learn to be as successful as that influencer. Companies look at other successful companies and try to copy their approaches.

Happy April, friends. I hope it's been good to you all. The new job is taking up a lot of time and mental energy, and I've been dealing with some personal family things this month, but I'm excited to bring this month's newsletter to your inbox.

This month features two pieces. The first focuses on how people skills are critical to your success as a software developer in today's world. The second explores how you can shift from an instructor-centered approach to a learner-centered one when creating content.

Software is 20% code and 80% people

The days of the lone coder are all but over. Modern software development is now a team sport in startups and large organizations. You'll find that collaboration across teams is necessary to get anything done. This means that you'll spend a lot of your time interfacing with people. And since the workforce is more distributed, you'll do a lot more communicating than before, often in public spaces.

Hello friends. The March edition comes to you much later than usual because on March 15th, I left my role at DigitalOcean, and on March 21st, I started a new role as Director of Education at Temporal.io, so things have been busy on the personal and professional front. But I still have a great issue for you that I hope you enjoy.

This month's issue takes a look at advice. First, we'll talk about all that social media content about how to get a new job, and why it might not be as valuable as it first appears. Then I'll share a tip about pitching your next article, book, or conference talk. Finally, I'll share my thoughts on one of the worst pieces of advice I hear developers give. Spoiler alert: it's about code comments.

Let's go!

Don't confuse "it worked for me" with "It will work for you" when it comes to the job hunt!

Happy February, everyone. This month's issue comes to you a little later than I'd hoped due to some technical reasons on my end. But I hope you find it worth the wait.

This issue is about putting your best foot forward, putting yourself out there, and thinking about why you're doing what you're doing and what impact you're looking for.

Please don't ask this question during your interview

It's the Great Resignation, and many people are out looking for jobs. That means lots of interviewing. Over the last year, I've seen the following question come up from candidates when I'm interviewing them:

Hi folks, and welcome to the first issue of Code, Content, and Career. My goal for this is to cover each of these areas each issue in some way or another and help you make positive steps in your career in tech. Rather than get into the super technical details, this newsletter will offer my advice and thoughts around what I call “core skills”. It’s my hope you find this useful.

This issue is all about responsibility, from what it looks like to how you hold yourself accountable as you deliver products for people. As you read it, think about how you demonstrate responsibility in the work you do. And at the end, you'll find some thought-provoking questions to ponder.

Active vs. Passive Responsibility

Are you waiting to be told what to do? Or are you doing it before being told?