Wow It's October Already
Cindy and Barb (Seattle, USA — September, 2023)
Hello hello everyone,
I almost sent the monthly digest out last month. I really did. But instead I spent too much time making new drafts of the ol' terrifying clipboard giraffe plus photo situation (above).
So, here we are, and this monthly digest covers three months: July, August, and September. I've been doing these for too many years to worry about missing a month or two. Many of you have been readers for that long (thank you) so you know the drill.
And, sorry, I should remember to say hi, it's me Max, your friendly neighborhood insert title of the week. I'm making an indie game right now and also write bad essays and take worse photos.
I've split the digest into two parts: meatier Posts, then smaller notes (garage, microblog). Here they are:
Posts
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Aug 23, 2024 Talk to Me Human Devlog: Automating Screenshots I wrote a small script to automate taking screenshots of webpages. The script summoned enough little edge cases that I thought it'd be a fun topic for a devlog. |
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Sep 22, 2024 Delete Your Backlog Delete your backlog. Unread books, unplayed games, unwritten essays, unwatched movies. They are all cognitive weight. You will experience an incredible lightness with them gone. |
Garage, Microblog
Tailwind custom selector trick Jul 25, 2024
This is a way to create a tailwind class that applies to a custom select `[&>p]`.
Backend vs Frontend Aug 7, 2024
Contrary to popular perception, frontend engineering is enormously more difficult. It's not even close.
Electron Breaks Brain Aug 7, 2024
Trying to get Electron setup has made me realize I don't understand so many aspects of my build and deploy and hosting setup.
µblog Sep 5, 2024
Just had the most fascinating Internet dopamine experience. This afternoon, I realized today was a bad one in consuming hyper-addictive media content.
Eleventy Circular References Sep 12, 2024
Trying to have one page display previews of others. For example a "monthly digest" post shows previews of posts written in that month.
µblog Sep 17, 2024
Dev startups, "It's important to listen to your developers, like _really_ listen to them. That's how we have achieved such amazing usability."
2024 Backlog Burndown Sep 22, 2024
I am in denial of my own advice and attempting to write everything in my essay backlog.
Inspiration vs participation Sep 26, 2024
On understanding a domain's true complexity. So many good and well-told ideas from Ted Chiang's essay that I keep referring to it.
News
Since this newsletter is sort of the insider's zone I figure I ought to give you some nuggets about what else is going on:
- NYC: Finally great weather. Writing this outdoors in a t-shirt. Can't ask for more.
- I'm working on a (free) demo for Talk to Me Human. It's been fun and I'm stoked for it to release! As usual, should be ready "any day now."
- Just finished playing Factorio. I avoided it for literally years knowing it would consume my life. It did, for nearly three months. Factorio was everything I had imagined and more. The long-awaited 2.0 update is dropping this month but I'm going to hold off for a short while to get a breather.
- The year's big Age of Empires II tournament (RedBull Wololo, in a castle near Córdoba in Spain) is happening right now. It's the first time I've actively followed a video game's pro scene. I'm a terrible player myself but it's been great fun.
See you next month,
Max