Web Developer Monthly (September 2019)

15th issue! If you missed the last few months, check them all out here.

If it’s your first time here…(otherwise skip this part)

Being a web developer is a fantastic career option. You have many job opportunities, you can work around the world, and you get to solve hard problems. One thing that is hard, however, is staying up to date with the constantly evolving ecosystem. You want to be a top performing web developer, coder, programmer, software developer, but you don’t have time to select from hundreds of articles, videos and podcasts each day.

This monthly newsletter is going to be focused on keeping up to date with the industry, keeping your skills sharp, without wasting your valuable time. I will be sharing the most important articles, podcasts and videos of the month. Think Tim Ferriss and the Pareto Principle (80/20 rule) meeting the Software Development world. What’s the 20% that will get you 80% of the results?

What you missed in September as a Web Developer…

Learn New Features in JavaScript ✍️

An awesome list of all of the recent updates to the JavaScript language. Keep track of past, present, and new changes as they happen by following this guide. There are a lot of write-ups online, but so far, this is the best one I have found. Enjoy it and bookmark it for future updates.

Free Tools For Web Developers ✂️

Some tools and assets to help you build your next project since we are best friends by now (unless this is your first time reading my articles… in that case let’s take things slow):

All the freebies in one location
More free absurdist illustrations from last time
Free business documents for those freelancers out there
Generate colours between 2 colours!
Inspirations for your portfolio website
100,000 Faces generated by AI for you to download for your own personal use (you weirdo)
A nice resume builder
Superhero API for all your superhero needs

Super Deep Dive Into JavaScript 🐠🐟

It is very easy to find beginner material on JavaScript online. However, when it comes to really deep dives into advanced topics, you really need a keen eye. Some great resources popped out this month. I only recommend this if you want to go “beyond” the basics/intermediate JavaScript:

Why React had some performance issue with older V8 JavaScript Engine.
A lite version of V8 is being worked on to target mobile devices that may require low memory usage.
This youtube channel goes beyond what most JavaScript tutorials teach. Top quality content that I haven’t seen anywhere else.
V8 now can be used as a WebAssembly Execution Engine.

React News 💎

It wouldn’t be a monthly recap without some React news. What crazy things did they get up to?

A nice little React component library so you don’t have to build your own
Annnnnd another React component library
A rundown of how you should check your React application performance. But also note how unnecessarily complex it currently is to measure the performance of a production app
Check out this decision tree (at the end of the post), of where to put your state
React Native has been getting a lot of push lately from Facebook. With the newest release, there is a nice “refresh” feature which should make development more fun.

Python 2 Goes Bye Bye 🐍

January 1st, 2020 is officially the end of Python 2. This means that Python 2 will no longer get updates, security patches, and other goodies. This means that if you have a Python application, you should definitely quit being stubborn and upgrade to Python 3.

PS — good thing my new Python course uses the latest version: Python 3. Yep, I have a new course out…you should probably check it out because I worked really hard on it and Python is eating the world 🐍.

You’re Not an Imposter 🗿

Sometimes it is easy to think that everybody else around you in this industry is smarter than you. You feel like you’re constantly swimming upstream as you try and catch up and learn as much as that one smart person you know. Don’t worry. The people that you admire, probably don’t know as much as you think. Instead, they google things a lot. Don’t believe me? Here is a typical “day in the life of” a developer when it comes to google.

New SEO Changes 🎡

In an effort to improve journalism and news delivery online, which has been a big topic of debate as of late, Google is changing their policy to give bigger importance to original stories and content. This is their official announcement.

A Great Teach Stack To Use 🥞

It can be overwhelming in the world of software to know which tools to use. This 1 person business breaks down all of the technology stacks that they use to run the business. This is a great overview of what each tool does, but also a lesson in keeping things simple and manageable. Highly recommend this read.

Get Started With Tensorflow.js 🏗

A really fun and enjoyable tutorial that builds a pretty fun project that you can add to your portfolio. It also does a great job showcasing our current abilities and tools we can use when it comes to Machine Learning.

HTTP3 📮

HTTP 3 has some big improvements coming for the web. Mainly that UDP will be used for the transport layer instead of TCP. Have no idea what I am talking about? This gives you a nice writeup of the history of HTTP and where we are headed.

When Not To Use Serverless 🏰

A great writeup to show you when to not use AWS Lambda/Serverless setup. There is always pros and cons, so make sure you measure things for your specific needs.

Google Gives Feedback to TypeScript 🛎

This is a pretty interesting one: Google made some recommendations to the TypeScript team. It actually reads like a nice document on where TypeScript could be improved, while also showing where TypeScript shines.

Want To Learn Data Visualization? 🌅

This is probably the most enjoyable documentation I have found on a visualization library. D3.js is super powerful, but it can get overwhelming pretty quick. This blog series does a good job keeping things simple.

Learn About Databases 📚

One of the best articles I have read on Databases, to give you an understanding of where we came from and where are are now.

PostgreSQL vs MySQL? A great discussion of these two databases and suggestions on which one to use. I only included this here since I get weekly questions on why I chose to use PostgreSQL in my Web Developer course instead of MongoDB or MySQL.

Big Picture JavaScript Vision 👁️

It is always nice to see a high level overview of the JavaScript ecosystem. You can learn all of the little features and syntax of a trendy library, but it’s important to also understand the big picture of the ever evolving language and its community.

Big Tech News 🏢

Amazon had their yearly conference and announced a few things: Amazon Sidewalk was my favourite. Amazon also had an AWS power failure. People complained, but in the end, all was well as long as you backed up your data. Cloud native architecture involves being resilient to other people’s infrastructure failures (even Amazon’s). Also they released the most useless product ever created (personal opinion).
Apple officially shipped a product using Web Components: Apple Music. This is a big deal because they are late adopters of Web Components (Safari), have a big influence over tech standards, and have the least to gain from Web Components use unlike Google. They also announce the new iPhone 11 Pro. Basically it has a nicer camera. There is now a new OS for the iPad: iPadOS, and a new automation feature for the iPhone. Finally, there is a new version of Safari now with more and more focus on privacy and security.
Do you think you had a tough month? Well you have something in common with Google then. They got fined for collecting personal info on children, and 50 states are investigating Google for Anti Trust. On the positive side, they announced Android 10. No more candy names for their new versions. Also, they announced Google Fi, a new type of phone plan for those remote workers. They also pulled a prank on Apple.
Meanwhile, Facebook is now Cupid who will help you find your true love. Oh and France and Germany said “Nope” to Libra.

Completely useless to your career but still great 🙃

Somebody just transferred about $1 billion in Bitcoin between wallets. That’s quite the flex.

On another note, when was the last time you were bored? You should probably do it more often (even if you’re an adult). If you want to be bored, you probably shouldn’t click on this link.

Best Resource of the Month ✅

Google has to manage a large and well educated engineering workforce. One of the biggest headaches when you have such a big company, with so much code being written everyday, is to manage code reviews. They created a guideline on how to have successful code reviews and they are bang on with their advice: A must read.

Trick of the Month 🌗

Ever wanted to copy and paste some text from an image file or PDF file on the web? Well with Machine Learning, you can now do that!

Also, do you have bad posture when sitting in front of the computer? This can help you.

By the way, my full time job is to teach people to code in the most efficient way possible as the Lead Instructor of Zero To Mastery Academy. You can see a few of my courses below or see all of my courses by visiting the courses page.