sebastiandaschner news

Welcome to newsletter #50!

I hope you’re all doing well. For me, the first weeks in my old/new job of being self-employed again were quite interesting and, due to no traveling, allowed me to focus quite well. I did quite a few client workshops and engagements, and recorded a bunch of videos for my YouTube channel. In case I can support some of you with consultation, workshops, or code reviews, feel free to reach out, I still have some open slots in the next weeks.

I’ve also started to record an extensive video course on development productivity. An early bird version will come soon, and I’m really looking forward how you folks will find that topic.

Learning a language — forcing you to level up

In mid-April, I’ve given a presentation about the importance of test code quality at the JPoint conference — in Russian. Yes, no kidding, in Russian. I’ve been learning that language for about two years, and, well, I like challenges, so beginning of this year, I’ve committed to give a presentation.

Besides that I was quite nervous before and during my talk, the talk and language went surprisingly well, I could even have a short chat and Q&A with the organizers and attendees. Also I got (surprisingly) good feedback after the talk.

This is actually something, I’ve experienced a few times: sometimes you need to make a commitment in order to force yourself to level up. It’s one thing to plan to spend a few minutes every day to learn a language, but it’s an entirely different thing if your deadline is approaching and you just have to get started and do something.

If you’re learning a language right now, I encourage you do think about something similar. It doesn’t have to be a conference with a few hundreds live attendees right away. It can be delivering a small speech in front of your language friends, or having specific conversations in the target language, or whatever creative commitment you come up yourself.

What’s new

DayCaptain feedback

As I’ve announced before, I’ve started to offer a time management tool, DayCaptain that I’ve developed together with a friend.

I’m really curious to know what you’re thinking. We have some very few users who are very big fans, but most new users try it once and never again.

I’d love to get a better understanding what we’re lacking the most, in getting the point across, or whether folks have or see the necessity to do a bit of planning. I’m especially wondering why it didn’t stick for most.

So, if you’ve tried it out, you’d do me a huge favor if you take a few minutes of your time and just let me know your thoughts, whether or why it didn’t stick for you.

.new TLD as shortcut

The new top level domain can be used to quickly create:

Being able to type these into your browser is much more convenient than to do this manually.

The Effective Developer Podcast — Interview with Philip Riecks

This is your reminder to check out my new podcast episodes if you haven’t already: https://anchor.fm/effective-developer

I’ve recently interviewed Philip Riecks, who is a self-employed IT consultant and who regularly shares content, recipes, tips & techniques, especially on the topics of testing and Spring Boot.

In the interview, we were talking about all things productivity, how Philip’s ideal day looks, his content that he’s producing and much more. I was really impressed how well Philip has structured his ideal day and his discipline to follow that.

I enjoyed the conversation and I’m sure you will too.

https://anchor.fm/effective-developer/episodes/33---Interview-with-Philip-Riecks-e111k2j

Thanks a lot for reading and see you next time!