Last Week in Code E008
Wait, is that 8 weeks??! Yaay!! Interesting how few 56 days can turn out to be. I didn't see this coming this far. Anyways. What has been rolling since the last post?
A lot. Reshaping this site's structure to match my mind's as I mentioned I would in lwic e006. Started producing 'content'. Posted some of that on my instagram channel. I think there was no coding at all. Still, there was a lot of learning worth sharing. Let's get to that.
Updates from me
You don't have to opensource everything.
Some personal projects should probably stay that way This thought crossed my mind. Going through a random project's readme. It read somethig like
No contributions accepted. This is a hobby project of mine. I am fine with it developing at the pace with which it is. I have a lot of plans for it. However, you can fork if you want to..
I found that relatable in a sense. I recently gave up an idea I am working on with a team. And I like how its going. But I have lost interest in moving on with the older version. I still want to. But, I now feel like any effort towards the old one's progress forced. Its as if, if I hadn't given up the idea, I would probably have been more interested.
My conclusion? Maybe some projects just ain't meant to be opensourced. The ideas that birth them also. Some projects are meant to be toys. Soon they can be open sourced. But after soon passes, not before.
See a big tech influencer? Fret not.
Swiping through instagram, looking through the \#devops posts, you notice how interesting it is what passes for 'content'.
I found it really absurd what metrics drove 'like' count. Whether this is for the platform structure's incentives or the people or both is a different question.
Popularity on instagram feels so much skewed towards who is best at presentation of content no matter how shallow.
Produce a well edited video on "3 grep commands every senior devops eng should know" – yes , ain't making that up..– and sooner than later, your follow count will be in the thousands.
The site rewards what catches eye balls. The producers, most of them, do what the site rewards.
So I was like.. Wait, bro, you got 134k followers
and you are making a big deal out of
/ grep 'error' log.txt ???/
And don't get me wrong. There's people doing actual work though.
Meanwhile, I'm trying to become one of those. But like everything else, lets see how that will go.
Publish on your own site, syndicate elsewhere.
On creating information storage and sharing spaces that live with us. The more control, the better.
This is less about tech but I think its nevertheless worth sharing. In lwic e006 I talked briefly about my transition from Whatsapp to Hugo. One point I think I did not articulate well was on the feeling of ownership. I read an article that laid it out more clearly than I ever would have.
Right here if you want to check it out.
The interesting thought it sparked in my head though is what I'd like to share about.
Kinda the same idea for why I started this. I was like.. I have a lot to share every week. And I need a release valve. I am a human being. But the one I have now, I soon won't have it since I am changing locations soon. (the club meetings I meant).
Well, let me build something that will give me a permanent let out avenue for my week's experiences. An online presence seems like the perfect solution. Hence this site. Or this series.
… makes any sense ??? …
In the news.
I did not do a lot of hacker news this week. I am drifting further and further away from the 24-hour news cycle. It was strange looking back at the news section links from lwic e001 . How mundane and useless they are from now's perspective. Who's talking about Mythos? Or, whatsapp-ads?
The life time of news relevance really deserves an article of its own so I'll cut my rant short. Anyhow. Something interesting happened.
So Meta is an attention company. It's whole business model is built around keeping eye balls for as long as is possible. And they do this very well. Instagram reels are conceptually indifferentiable from cigarrettes in the addictiveness sense.
But what's your reaction when, as a drinker, asking for another round is met with… a "No, that's enough.. " from the one that makes the most off your drinking habit. Stuff of make believe.
Whatever Instagram is up to I cannot tell. Countless times it's reminded me to choose between quitting the app and carrying on with the doom scroll. All these times I've taken a screenshot in shock. I wonder if this' been rolled out everywhere.
Extra news
As always, I hope you learnt something.