January 2022 - Deja Vu 🔄
It's 2022, and it's been a bumpy ride already. Omicron has made COVID even more contagious, and it also looks like we're getting a collective head start on hating each other for the 2024 presidential election here in the United States.
Despite all of this, there's still a lot of beauty and interesting things going on if you decide to look for them. As promised, here's a breakdown of some of the music, articles, code resources, and more that I found in the last month.
Above all, I hope you and your family are staying safe right now.
- Nathan ☕️
Articles / News
"On Loss" by me
What good is having a newsletter if you can't shill the occasional article you write? My new article called On Loss contains some thoughts I have on the last two years of COVID and how to move forward when dealing with loss.
Web3 First Impressions
A lot of you know that I'm a huge fan of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Web3, but it's important to be realistically positive in life (otherwise you end up living with your head in the clouds). To that end, here's a good article on Web3 that went viral a while back; I think it does a good job of summing up some of the potential drawbacks of Web3 (or at least where the space has room for improvement).
Dependency Hell and NPM
For those of you out of the loop, the open source community for JavaScript has had a bit of a month. An account on GitHub that goes by the username Marak started deleting code in highly-used repositories they maintain, including FakerJS (where they removed all core code to the project, rewrote the git history, and published a new version called v6.6.6) and also ColorsJS (where they intentionally introduced an infinite loop). The account allegedly did it because the owner was fed up with massive corporations using their open source code without ever paying (more background).
I think this is a good cautionary tale. Just reading this on your screen right now means that you're using software that was built on some free open source software. Companies should give back. However, that also doesn't give an author a right to be a huge jerk when hundreds of other people have contributed to your open source project under a shared understanding the result would be free.
Books
"Shoe Dog" by Phil Knight
This book by Phil Knight (founder of Nike) is one of the most motivational memoirs I've ever read. It simultaneously got me back into running and also thinking about how much effort it takes to make something insanely great.
(Yes, I technically read this last year. But I haven't finished my current book this month, so I'll tell you about it next newsletter.)
Coding
Code Book Club
I've been attending the virtual Code Book Club (created by Madison Kanna) and it's been a blast. We have been making our way through various chapters of Eloquent JavaScript which I haven't read in years. Come learn with us!
Tech Interview Virtual Handbook
A friend who recently started their job interview process showed me this free resource for interview prep. From what I've read, I think it's phenomenal and might help some of you out as well.
Games
Baba Is You
This amazing little indie puzzle game will stretch your mind with the way it encourages you to try to break the rules in order to solve problems. Don't believe me? Just watch the game trailer. 👾
Music
Note: I'm in the middle of switching to Apple Music from Spotify (mostly because the audio quality is light years better) thanks to my friend Edede Oiwoh. However, I'll try to include a Spotify option as well just in case.
Monophonics
Monophonics is one of my favorite music finds for January 2022 (link to Apple Music and Spotify). They blend heavy soul and psychedelic rock while making it feel so chill.
80s-style Adele Remix
I can neither confirm nor deny that I listened to this 5x in a row when I first heard it (link to song on YouTube).
Lane 8 Fall 2021 Mixtape
While it's neither the fall nor 2021 (thankfully), this playlist from Lane 8 (link to it on Apple Music and Spotify) is amazing. Also, Lane 8 is a great artist who you should check out as well.
Videos
Coming Up With Great Startup Ideas
Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel from Y Combinator recorded a really interesting breakdown of Airbnb, Coinbase, and Stripe along with the ideas behind them.