Hey friends,

Nature is crazy, y'all. We had golf ball-sized hailstones last night — it sounded like a whole flock of birds just jumped on our house when it first started! Now it's just my car that looks like a golf ball... 😬

Thinking Too Hard 🤔

I'm cleaning up my presentation for Frontrunners, and I thought I'd share this list of presentation guidelines I've collected along the way. I have split it into DO's and DO NOT's.

When presenting, DO:

• Show don't tell. This translates to visuals as well, not just your content.
• Tell stories. The more embarrassing the better.
• Humor makes things memorable. If you can make something weird happen, you'll grab attention. (But don't force it).
• Energy is contagious. If you're excited, it will translate. If you're flat, it will steal energy from whatever you're saying.
• Do your homework. Be crazy prepared.

When presenting, DO NOT:

• Explain the obvious. If the audience can see it right in front of them don't over-explain.
• Present things that are unreadable. ("Can you see this in the back?")
• Fill the silences.
• Pre-apologize. ("I whipped this up last night...")
• Go last in the presentation order. (Although you can't always control this one).

None of these are revolutionary, but they help remind me of things to shoot for each time I put a presentation together.

What are some things you aim for with a presentation? I'd love to hear it!

Interesting Web Bits 🍿

Web Dev Stuff:

• The folks at ByteDance (TikTok) have released a competitor to React Native with Lynx, not to be confused with Lynx, the text-only browser ... 😏
• That feeling when you look away for a little bit only to find that JS framework is now something else...
• Geoff Huntley thinks students are screwed unless they take action with AI. I'm still forming my opinions on how this all shakes out.
• The TypeScript team is writing a Go port for 10x speed gains
• An exploration of what makes code hard to read.
• Amelia Wattenberger uses a gorgeous piece to think about what it would be like if our interfaces involved more of our senses.

Other stuff:

• What if comfort is our enemy, and we actually need growth and proof of work to thrive?
• It is as if you're on your phone... Except you're not on your phone while being on your ... phone? (Check it out on your phone, it'll make more sense later).
• Tom Usher urges you to kill your feeds saying that algorithms are breaking how we think. I mostly agree, but I took the red pill a few years ago and quietly slid off most social media — and I can say it's just fine out here.
• Someone built a mechanical calculator ... you know ... for funsies.