Hey, friend!Welp. I had written this newsletter late last week, but then this week happened, so I had to delete basically everything. Literally the second line was "who knows what 2021 will bring," and, well, that was right! But feels a bit inappropriate now. I'm still hopeful about the things I was hopeful about in the first draft of this email. Vaccines. New U.S. leadership. New energy after holidays. I'm also discouraged by some things. As an American I'm discouraged that our political systems are so susceptible to manipulation; that the checks and balances we were taught about growing up turn out to be completely useless at protecting us. I'm discouraged so many people are so caught up in lies that they don't even see what's wrong. But that's not everything that's happening. As a programmer I'm excited. I have so many new ideas to talk and teach about, so may new projects I want to build. I've gotten to meet so many people new to their programming careers, people with so many hopes and aspirations and who come from so many different places. As a dad I'm hopeful my kids will be able to see their friends and family again soon. I'm happy they're safe, and that I still have work to provide for them. As a human I'm feeling rested from my first true vacation in years, which I spent just enjoying my kids and being outside as much as possible. I'm enjoying daily yoga sessions with my sister over FaceTime and the weather perfect for long walks with a sweater on. As your friend, I'm feeling hopeful that you and your family are safe, that your government will work in your favor, that your job and career are joyful and supportive and good for you. That 2021 will turn out even better than you can imagine. What else has been happening? A few quick updates: M1 : More Updates I returned my M1 Mac Mini, sent my MacBook Pro to another programmer at Tighten, and ordered an M1 MacBook Pro, which I'm now using as my primary machine. Other than Docker, I don't really notice the loss. I also don't notice too much of a speed improvement, but everyone else around me says it's blazing fast, so I'm guessing I'm just not the sort to notice speed unless it's noticeably slow, which this is not. Core Web Vitals I love performance optimization on web sites. I've been geeking out over frontend performance optimizations for a while, and I've spent the last few days—days I said I was on break—geeking out on the new Core Web Vitals initiative by Google, which is trying to measure more significant user-impacting performance metrics. Google just announced recently they'll be considering core web vitals in weighting their search results, so this is pretty key to focus on! I encourage you to take a look, but I'll also do some writing and streaming about it shortly. If I find the time. Fingers crossed. What Else? Links
Mattstauffer.com Laravel Podcast
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That's it for now! Until next time... Your friend, |