Here are some of my favorite videos, articles, and a podcast episode I made to talk about the techniques I use to stay productive. They cover the Getting Things Done method, how to use technology while avoiding distractions, and various tools that have helped me over the years to stay productive. Enjoy!

Articles

How I use Productivity Apps and Organize my Digital Life

> Everything has a home and no visitors allowed. - David Crenshaw Productivity isn’t about cramming in as much as you can in a day; it’s about getting all of your work, chores, and errands done in a timely way so you can have more time to spend doing things that are really important, like spending t…

Gwendolyn FaradayfreeCodeCamp.org

How to stay focused - distraction-free programming in a connected world

I, like many programmers (I assume), struggle with focusing and staying on task. Every hour of every day it seems I am being bombarded with texts, emails, messages, tweets, and in-person interruptions. Not to mention all of the blog sites I like to check and the new videos from my favorite YouTubers…

Gwendolyn FaradayfreeCodeCamp.org

How the Book “Deep Work” has Helped Me Become a Better Software Developer

I read the book “Deep Work” by Cal Newport [https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Cal-Newport-audiobook/dp/B0189PVAWY/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2CF81NKTJWKC1&keywords=deep+work&qid=1649945232&sprefix=dee%2Caps%2C179&sr=8-1] about five years ago now and it completely changed how I think about my work habits. The b…

Gwendolyn FaradayGwendolyn Faraday

Videos

Podcasts

Episode 1.4 | How to Finish Projects & Craft Resumes with The Jared Wilcurt

Listen to this episode and more from Faraday Tech Cafe Podcast on TuneIn. Jared is a Senior Software Engineer and Cross-Platform Desktop App (XPDA) developer. Fan of Sass, Vue.js, and NW.js. Builder of Scout-App, a popular open source library. Editor of XPDA.net. Giver of talks and workshops on code…

TuneIn

👋 Stay in touch! 👋

If you have any additional recommendations or questions, let me know over on Discord!

I hope to do another productivity update soon since I started using a new method called The 12-Week Year.

Happy coding, everyone! 🎉

I think you are already aware at how important AI knowledge and awareness is becoming in the software development space. It's just moving so fast that it can be really hard to keep up with everything!

Here is my attempt at sharing my favorite resources to help you keep up with what is coming out now in the developer-tangental AI space. All of the links below have previews so I'm not adding much as far as descriptions go; I have personal used and gone through each one or else I wouldn't be recommending them 🤓. I think each link speaks for itself. If you want to ask about any of these resources, my Discord link is at the bottom of this article.

I hope these resources are helpful to you!

Courses

ChatGPT Prompt Engineering for Developers

What you’ll learn in this course In ChatGPT Prompt Engineering for Developers, you will learn how to use a large language model (LLM) to quickly build new and powerful applications. Using the OpenAI API, you’ll...

> In ChatGPT Prompt Engineering for Developers, you will learn how to use a large language model (LLM) to quickly build new and powerful applications. Using the OpenAI API, you’ll be able to quickly build capabilities that learn to innovate and create value in ways that were cost-prohibitive, highly technical, or simply impossible before now. This short course taught by Isa Fulford (OpenAI) and Andrew Ng (DeepLearning.AI) will describe how LLMs work, provide best practices for prompt engineering, and show how LLM APIs can be used in applications for a variety of tasks, including: Summarizing (e.g., summarizing user reviews for brevity) Inferring (e.g., sentiment classification, topic extraction) Transforming text (e.g., translation, spelling & grammar correction) Expanding (e.g., automatically writing emails) In addition, you’ll learn two key principles for writing effective prompts, how to systematically engineer good prompts, and also learn to build a custom chatbot. All concepts are illustrated with numerous examples, which you can play with directly in our Jupyter notebook environment to get hands-on experience with prompt engineering We are excited to collaborate with OpenAI in offering this course, designed to help developers effectively utilize LLMs. This course reflects the latest understanding of best practices for using prompts for the latest LLM models. ChatGPT Prompt Engineering for Developers is beginner-friendly. Only a basic understanding of Python is needed. But it is also suitable for advanced machine learning engineers wanting to approach the cutting-edge of prompt engineering and use LLMs. InstructorInstructorWant to learn more about Generative AI?Keep learning with updates on curated AI news, courses, events, as well as Andrew’s thoughts from DeepLearning.AI! Short CoursesSpecializationsThe BatchCommunityCareersAboutShort CoursesSpecializationsThe BatchCommunityCareersAbout

Google Cloud Skills Boost

A Generative AI Learning Path with a technical focus, built for App Developers, ML Engineers, and Data Scientists. Recommended prerequisite: Introduction to Generative AI learning path.

QwiklabsGoogle Cloud Skills Boost

Books

Practical Deep Learning for Coders - The book

Learn Deep Learning with fastai and PyTorch, 2022

Practical Deep Learning for Coders

Channels

DeepLearningAI

Welcome to the official DeepLearning.AI YouTube channel! Here you can find the videos from our Coursera programs on machine learning as well as recorded events. DeepLearning.AI was founded in 2017 by machine learning and education pioneer Andrew Ng to fill a need for world-class AI education. Deep…

YouTube

OpenAI

OpenAI’s mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.

YouTube

Yannic Kilcher

I make videos about machine learning research papers, programming, and issues of the AI community, and the broader impact of AI in society. Twitter: https://twitter.com/ykilcher Discord: https://ykilcher.com/discord…

YouTube

HuggingFace

HuggingFace is on a mission to solve Natural Language Processing (NLP) one commit at a time by open-source and open-science. Our youtube channel features tutorials and videos about Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Deep Learning and all the tools and knowledge open-sourced and shared b…

YouTube

Blogs

Machine learning and artificial intelligence

The use of machine intelligence to drive business outcomes is becoming ever-more critical.

Thoughtworks

Newsletters

AI Tidbits | Sahar Mor | Substack

Stay ahead on the latest in AI through weekly summaries and editorial deep dives providing unique perspectives on recent developments. Click to read AI Tidbits, a Substack publication.

Sahar MorSubstack

Podcasts

The Practical AI podcast

Making artificial intelligence practical, productive & accessible to everyone.

Changelog

Podcast - freeCodeCamp.org

Browse thousands of programming tutorials written by experts. Learn Web Development, Data Science, DevOps, Security, and get developer career advice.

Quincy LarsonfreeCodeCamp.org

Last Week in AI | Skynet Today

Our 152nd episode with a summary and discussion of last week’s big AI news!Read out our text newsletter and comment on the podcast at https://lastweekin.ai/Email us your questions and feedback at contact@lastweekin.ai and/or jeremie@gladstone.aiT…

PodBean DevelopmentPodbean

👋 Stay in touch! 👋

If you have any comments or something I missed here, let me know over on Discord!

If you want to stay up to date about AI, I also have a newsletter and course coming out soon! You can sign up for free here.

Happy coding, everyone! 🎉

In case you missed it, we had a live interview with Greg Foster from Graphite. We talked about git workflows, creating and maintaining Graphite, AI tooling, and a lot more!

Check it out here: https://youtu.be/M9oVfdL6ihk

Links From the Interview

• The Mom Test book
• Graphite's docs
• Graphite's VSCode Extension
• Follow Graphite on Twitter, Github, YouTube
• Join the Graphite Slack to Chat with the Team!

Let me know if I missed anything!

Continue the conversation over on my Discord ❤️

Hi everyone 👋

Here is a quick update of everything that's been going for the last couple weeks as well as upcoming content :)

I posted two new videos!

• The first was about monitoring and securing your APIs.
• The second was an hour-long intro to software architecture.

Here are a few other updates around my content.

• I opened my merch shop! If you like coding, cats, and want to support my content, you can check it out. 😻
• I just posted a new channel introduction video this week about the type of content that I create and a little intro to myself.

What am I working on next?

• Some more videos on developer productivity with Git and other tools.
• Working with AI APIs like chat GPT and Google's API suite.
• One video on deployments! It will be a follow up to my old docker and deployment series from a few years ago.

Have a great week and stay tuned for more! 🥰

This is a companion blog writeup for an architecture video that will be live on my channel soon. I will post the link here when it's live.

Here are some of the resources I've found the most helpful to learn and stay up to date on this topic.

Videos

• "How to 'think' (and design) like a Software Architect" talk by Ron Kleinman
• "Visualising software architecture with the C4 model" talk by Simon Brown

Books

• "Clean Architecture: A Craftsman's Guide to Software Structure and Design" by Robert C. Martin
• "The Software Architect Elevator" by Gregor Hope
• "Software Architecture: The Hard Parts" by Neal Ford, Mark Richards, Pramod Sadalage, Zhamak Dehghani
• "The Missing README" by Chris Riccomini and Dmitriy Ryaboy: If you are a new to the field of software development, I recommend reading this book first. It includes a chapter on software architecture.

Podcasts

• Software Architecture Radio: There aren't any new episodes from the last few years but still good information.
• Software Engineering Daily: They don't focus on architecture but have some good episodes on the topic.

Other

• Memi's Monthly Newsletter
• The C4 Model

I hope you found this helpful :)

Check out my Discord server if you have any recommendations or want to continue the discussion 🥰

Hi everyone 👋

I hope you are having a great year so far 🥰!

Here is an update about my future plans for Faraday Academy.

• I have a video premiering this Thursday about API tools using my curriculum app that I built previously on this channel. Join me at 3 pm EST on Thursday to watch it live with me!
• I have an intro to software architecture video that should be coming out next week so stay tuned :)
• I'm currently working on a few other video series as well.

That's all for now. I will post updates here or over on my YouTube channel as I go along.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to join my discord and discuss it with me.

Have a great week! ❤️

🤗 🤗 🤗

Starting my hybrid role in engineering management/technical leadership 15 months ago has been eye-opening, filled with its fair share of hurdles and chances to learn. If you asked me even a few years ago, I would have told you that I never want to go down the management path. Why did I choose to become a manager now then? I can boil the answer down to a few things:

1. The team I was working on needed a manager and we were having trouble hiring one.
2. After speaking to several engineering leaders, I realized it would be a good opportunity for me to challenge myself and embrace new growth opportunities, like improving my interpersonal and communication skills (especially with non-technical peers).
3. I wanted to push myself so I didn't get too comfortable as an engineer after so many years in the industry.
4. I could have a much bigger impact in building out a great product.
5. I wanted to understand the bigger picture of software development as a business; including end to end product development and sales, etc.

This new position marked a clear shift from my fully technical roots and that's why I have been seeking out educational material like books and trainings to learn how to properly manage an engineering team. Amazingly, my experiences and struggles as a new manager were echoed in what I learned from the first day at the Front-end Masters Engineering Management 101 workshop. Let me share some key takeaways, mixed in with my own thoughts and ideas 💡.

Key Insights on Management

The workshop made it clear that as managers climb higher, they drift away from the day-to-day technical details and must rely increasingly on their teams. Micromanagement is a pitfall to avoid—it's a false sense of contribution. Instead, the real challenge lies in building trust and focusing on broader goals beyond the daily coding tasks.
It's a tough transition, especially if you've excelled as a software engineer. Letting go of that intricate, hands-on technical role means learning to trust your team while you tackle the macro challenges. No one will micromanage your time—you set your own priorities, and with leadership comes the weight of responsibility. It can be a lonely place, but allowing team members to vent and being there for them is part of the job.
You don’t have to become a manager to progress in your career, but if you do, it should be for the right reasons. It's about lifting everyone up, knowing when to listen, and being consistently present for your team, even when personal and business issues loom large.

The Shift in Perspective

One of the initial themes of the workshop centered on the necessity for managers to adopt a high-level and broad perspective. No longer is it sufficient to tunnel vision on technical problems. As a manager, one must see software development from the altitude of business strategy and product success. Engineering management is portrayed not as a promotion but a significant change in role; one that requires a holistic understanding of how each technical cog fits into the larger machinery of the company.

Managers must balance the technical with the human element, considering the interplay between people and business in decisions about compensation, hiring, and project priorities. The evolution into a managerial role implies that your concern is not just code but the coders, not just systems but the synergy between them.

Leadership and Influence

Climbing the managerial ladder doesn’t come with an increase in roles but rather a decrease, underscoring the competitive nature of advancement. The climb isn't about asserting dominance but about understanding the integral workings of each part of the team and the business.

Interestingly, the workshop highlighted that part of a manager's job might involve playing the roles of a cheerleader or even a therapist at times. The emotional well-being of the team is as crucial as their professional development. Managers must become adept at listening, defending, advocating, and connecting teams. This is a far cry from just writing code; it’s about writing the narrative that others will follow and believe in.

The Realities of Management

Contrary to popular belief, becoming a manager does not equate to having more control. The responsibilities are heavier, and the balance between keeping a team motivated and aligned with business objectives is a delicate art. This balancing act does not necessarily come with more job security or higher pay. Prestige in management must be earned, and respect is not given—it’s built through impact and influence.

Mistakes in management can have far-reaching effects. A manager's actions and decisions are under constant scrutiny, not only for their immediate repercussions but also for the influence they exert on the team's behavior.

The Long Game

The workshop emphasized that the true measure of a manager’s impact often unfolds over a longer time span—approximately two years—compared to the more immediate results seen in software development. This delayed feedback can be challenging as managers coach and mentor their teams, striving to facilitate positive changes and break old habits.

A Manager’s Tale: Interview with Ryan

An interview with Ryan, a seasoned manager with over a decade of experience, further grounded the discussions. His transition from lead engineer to manager was not smooth sailing. He underlined the heightened impact a manager has—not just on their immediate team but across the entire company. In this role, every word and action can ripple through departments, affecting numerous individuals and outcomes.

As I reflect on the first day of this workshop, it is apparent that the journey to engineering management is complex and nuanced. It's about growing into a role where the technical meets the human, where strategy and empathy coalesce, and where influence extends far beyond one’s immediate reach. The days ahead promise to delve deeper into this metamorphosis, and I look forward to sharing these continued insights. Stay tuned for more as we navigate the path of becoming an effective engineering manager.

Q&A and Comments

My hybrid role has left me apprehensive about losing technical skills as I consider a full shift into management. But the workshop brought clarity: management can actually make you a better engineer. You’re not abandoning technical skills; you’re gaining new ones to tackle different problems, often not directly in the code.

Discovering joy in the achievements of others is a cornerstone of management. Dealing with imposter syndrome is another aspect, one that doesn't necessarily fade with time or level—it's about adapting to how you contribute value in this new role.

The differences between an engineering manager and a product manager were discussed, highlighting their shared goal of delivering a product without writing code. Optimal meeting sizes, handling task estimations, and the importance of setting expectations were also covered—vital for preventing a culture of overestimation and under-delivery.

Meetings and Cadence

Meetings are less about immediate solutions and more about listening and understanding. The workshop recommends 1-on-1s every two weeks, and team meetings weekly. These are not just check-ins but powerful tools for management.

At my company, I made a checklist as well as a 1-on-1 tracker for each team member so we can be organized about check-ins and progress.

The First 30 Days as a New Manager

Understanding the company’s core—how it makes money, its relationship to your team, the users, and partners—is crucial. Without this knowledge, setting a long-term strategy is impossible. This foundation helps a new manager focus on what truly matters.

Mistakes to Avoid

The discussions were frank about common pitfalls: micromanaging, over-promising, and staying too close to the code. Other highlighted mistakes include over-engineering, not letting go of one's creations, putting too much pressure on oneself, and trying to change too much too soon.

Managing Up

Understanding the expectations of higher-ups, what they care about, and how they can assist is pivotal. You can learn a lot just from staff meetings and one-on-ones with upper management. Be sure to ask lots of questions and keep notes from every meeting.

Course Takeaways

The path to management is varied, and the motivations for taking on such a role should be well-considered. It’s a challenging role, demanding a diverse skill set and the foresight to develop these skills over time. Taking advantage of opportunities and recognizing that an interview measures potential, not just current ability, is part of the growth mindset encouraged by the course.

The workshop has illuminated the multifaceted nature of management—a balance of guiding a team, strategic thinking, and personal development. The transition from engineer to manager is a significant shift, not just in responsibilities but in the very essence of day-to-day work. As the course progresses, these insights will become part of the larger narrative of becoming not just a manager, but a leader in the field of engineering.

Those were my notes from the first session on Thursday. Later this week, I'll post my compiled notes from "Engineering 102" to get into more of the nitty-gritty of management. In the future, I hope to share how I've implement some of the strategies that I've learned. Stay tuned 😊 😁

Join me over in Discord to continue the discussion!

Hi everyone 👋

I've been taking some time away from content, trying to manage my stress levels and focus on work. I feel like I'm in a much better place now (partially because I started taking medication). You can read my update on mental health and medication over on this page.

Here is an update about my future plans for Faraday Academy.

• I'm currently working on a videos series for deploy applications.
• I have plans to do an updated Vue.js courses, followed by some updated ones for Python web frameworks.
• I'm still working with freeCodeCamp on some content that will be coming out soon.

That's all for now. I will post updates here or over on my YouTube channel as I go along.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to join my discord and discuss it with me.

Have a great week! ❤️

🤗 🤗 🤗

Usually I make a book list like this one from last year where I categorize and pick out all the books that I've enjoyed reading over the last 12 months. This year, I've been looking through all of the titles that I have read, listened to, and/or reviewed summaries of (via my Blinkist subscription). There were some that were so amazing that I read them multiple times and took away action items that have changed my life. Those are the ones I want to share with you here.

Some of these are technical and some, non-technical; all of them are inspiring IMO.

Here are my top 10:

1. Engineering Management for the Rest of Us, by Sarah Drasner
2. Building a Second Brain, by Tiago Forte
3. Let My People go Surfing, by Yvon Chouinard
4. Infinite Game, by Simon Sinek
5. Fundamentals of Software Architecture: An Engineering Approach, by Mark Richards
6. Building Microservices, by Sam Newman
7. The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You, by Julie Zhuo
8. The First 90 Days, Updated and Expanded: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter, by Michael Watkins
9. Go H*ck Yourself: A Simple Introduction to Cyber Attacks and Defense, by Bryson Payne

UPDATE: I remove one book here as it came out that the claims made in the book were false.

What are your favorite books? Let me know in my Discord chat!

Have a great new year everyone 🎊  🎆  🥳

I love speaking at tech events. The two things that stop me from doing it more often are time constraints and, ironically, anxiety about speaking in front of people.

I have been working to overcome the latter problem for many years so I wanted to share some of the techniques that have helped me. I will also share a smattering of other things that I've learned about public speaking in this article.

Talk Preparation

First, preparation is key. The best way to prevent anxiety is to prepare well. It's hard to do though because my anxiety keeps me from being able to get in the right mental space to actually prepare my material without procrastinating.

I actually have to plan before I prepare. I like to have a kickoff meeting with myself and take the end goal and break down the talk into the smallest possible steps and just set a goal of doing one step at a time. My first steps always have to do with research, outlining, and writing any demo code that I need. Slides and finishing touches come at the end.

I "give" the talk to friends or acquaintances incrementally as I work on it. One of the hardest things is actually starting to give the talk so I force myself to just start running through it with anyone who will listen. Just going through it in front of someone forces me to go in order - all the way through - and I also end up realizing so many things I can make better when I do this. These run throughs also help with finding my cadence so I can tell if I have too much or too little material. By the way, I almost always think I don't have enough material and then I realize I actually have too much.

Sometimes, I've used local meetings to practice for conference talks. That way I can feel comfortable in a lower stakes environment before I go in front of a bigger crowd 😅.

Scheduling & Check-Ins

Another similar technique I've used in the past is asking a friend to check in on me every week and hold me accountable for working on it. This worked ok for me but isn't always consistent as people seem to forget if it's not a priority for them.

I have found that digital reminders with apps on my phone are much more consistent than relying on a human to check in. One exception to this is scheduled practice times that are marked on my calendar. I invite one of my friends to listen to a run-through of my talk at a certain day/time and I send them a calendar invite so we both have it on our calendars and neither of us can forget :)

Positive Thoughts

I've taken some speaking classes over the last seven-ish years to improve my speaking skills and they have taught me various techniques to overcome the pre-talk anxiety and help me stay calm during the talk as well. I want to share some of those things that I've found most helpful.

1. Nerves: Being nervous means you care.
2. Fear of judgment: The audience is there to see you. They are on your side. They want you to do well.
3. Imposter syndrome: You know enough. You are an expert. You have done more research than almost anyone else here.
4. Perfectionism: You don't have to be the most perfect speaker with the most perfect presentation.

Remember that giving a talk is a great opportunity for you to learn! You learn as you do the the research to create the talk and also from questions you receive and the discussions you have afterward. Thinking about that can help you feel exciting about giving the talk instead of dreading it.

Speaking Skills

I try to continuously hone my speaking skill with education and practice.

In the past, I've taken some professional classes like the ones from Dale Carnegie and O'Reilly Media. I definitely learned a lot from them and would recommend them to you if you have the budget.

I also find it really helpful to watch other people's talks who are very good at speaking and take notes about how they present. Sometimes these are Ted talks and sometimes conference keynotes. There are thousands of these on YouTube and on the TedX website.

I also watch a lot of conference talks in general given by speakers with varying levels of speaking ability. Doing this makes me realize that other speakers are not magical people who are way better than me. They are other humans. They have good days and bad days. I'm not the worst speaker ever :) I'm just like the rest of them.

I have also been considering hiring a speaking coach one day but it isn't a priority for me. Maybe when I need to give more high profile talks or get a job as an actual developer evangelist where I need to represent companies at conferences.

I still get anxiety when I speak, but at least it's mostly manageable and doesn't feel as crippling anymore.

I recently gave this talk at a local freeCodeCamp meetup if you want to check it out :)

I'm planning my next talk on understanding CI/CD pipelines and feature flag development!

🥰 🫶 😻