Hi - author here. I retired the book during the pandemic but am planning to update and unretire it soon. I can't do that now because I'm away with my kids.
If you want me to ping you when it's back, drop me a line using 8qwt95ckm@mozmail.com
(That's an aliased address using relay.firefox.com BTW)
Product-focused senior dev / tech lead with experience of getting startups from nothing to MVP to funding to scale-up stage.
I'm happy to pitch in with an existing team, help you create and expand a new team or simply take a feature or problem out of your backlog/roadmap and replace it with a solid, working solution.
I'm available solo, or could bring 1-3 additional, trusted developers with me - whatever you need.
Skills include:
* Python, Django - expert level.
* Modern JS (ES6 and Vue.js, plus jQuery for legacy stuff), HTML5, CSS3.
* Excellent communicator, facilitator and developer mentor - I enjoy making teams happier and better.
* Until recently I was tech lead at http://www.yunojuno.com, with a multi-disciplinary team of ~8.
* Big fan of testing, of good documentation, of automation, of creating clear, developer-empowering processes and of keeping production environments as dull as possible (because no one likes being on call).
* I know my way around machine learning (incl. TF) and am keen to apply it real-world projects.
a) it's a side project - our daytimes are spent busily making www.yunojuno.com for a client
b) small print runs of posters (eg 1-5) are unsustainably expensive per item - leaving no or even negative profit when printing just one - so we had to pick a few designs to test the water and get those printed up, up front
c) I wanted to be sure that every poster we make is 100% 'legit' in terms of usage of the quote. Even the dealings with the PSF (which is v friendly and generally awesome) took a fair amount of back-and-forth to ensure everyone was happy
So, yeah, MVP out the door - see what the water is like, then add more designs. That's the plan
Hi - I made PP with a friend/colleague as a tiny side project. Because it seemed small, I thought would be more likely to ship. (Client work takes up most of my working time).
It came about for a few reasons:
1) My current main client's walls were a bit bare, which started me thinking.
2) I then wondered about nice motivational stuff for developer workspaces, specifically -- ideally more cerebral/stuff about good practice, rather than the adrenaline-pumping 'CRUSH IT!' kinda tone or funky designer-oriented posters. Oh, and no crappy jokes.
3) I like the Zen of Python, even years after discovering it.
4) It thought it would be interesting to ship a product that wasn't just bytes.
So, it's a static site (Pelican) + a Shopify backend + a designs from a designer friend + some cash up front to create an affordable print run + a big stack of posters on my spare office desk.
Easy, right?
Er, not quite. It's only been a few weeks and I’ve been rapidly learning that even simple physical products (rather than a SaaS, say) bring a world of complexity... Even though I had experience of the print world (long ago), I’d never had to deal with the mixed quality of print-house results (therefore reprints, therefore delays). Then there's absorbing the cost of defects and damage, plus that need to pre-buy and hold actual stock to reduce the print costs and the angst over shipping physical objects safely (including crossing your fingers when you get a Slack message saying "Hey! The posters just arrived! Opening them now!")
So, yeah, it’s been taking a surprising amount of headspace, but it is still fun – and with lots of small bits of learning (or, perhaps more honestly, small bits of realising that so much of the stuff I've read about physical products is true, even with "simple" posters).
But, yeah, at least it shipped :o)
PS: I know about the FOUC - it's an annoyance of the theme I adapted for the site, which uses skel.js to do responsive layouts (for some reason that I regret not spotting before I pulled the lever and made it live a few weeks ago)
I can't speak to whether or not it's good, but I think http://cushionapp.com/ is a really nice idea in terms of helping freelancers track and manage cash flow. Wish I'd thought of it :o)
If you want me to ping you when it's back, drop me a line using 8qwt95ckm@mozmail.com
(That's an aliased address using relay.firefox.com BTW)