Half a Year in a Flash
Hi.
It’s been a little while. I’m not as great at this as I had started to believe just yet, but I’m glad you’re still here to read about a whole bunch of blog posts and various personal and professional news.
First the blog posts, of which there are eight:
- Dedupe a List in Python, Slowly is a fun little exploration of slow ways to dedupe a list in Python. Spoiler: don’t iterate through a list.
- Getting Nothing Out of a Python Dictionary covers a few nuances of dealing with falsy values in Python.
- Garage Detector is a write-up of a project I’ll probably never actually do, given my track record. But I’m hoping that perhaps my writing this put it out in the universe and I’ll be able to just buy a solution Real Soon™.
- Boolean Properties in Python: A Pitfall is a warning to be careful when using Python class properties as booleans.
- Self-Hosting: Resolved? is an admission that I’m simply not interested in being a SysAdmin.
- Not Just Tech is an announcement of sorts, promising more non-tech stuff coming to the blog in the future.
- Markdown URL Tag Bookmarklets is about a few handy bookmarklets I’ve been using.
- Rebound 2023: Big Syc has more pictures of nature than you ever expected to see from me, alongside some words about my first gravel cycling ride.
Professionally, I stepped down from the squad lead role after about five months in it. There were things about it I enjoyed and did well, and things I neither enjoyed nor did well, and that was an extremely valuable lesson to learn. Fortunately we deprecated the need for this role in a slight restructuring of our engineering org, and have landed in a great spot. I’m back to doing what I still do best: writing software full-time.
Personally, it’s been a tough year so far, honestly. Not to dwell on the unhappy parts, here are some good things:
- We adopted another kitty–meet Artemis! He’s awesome and adorable and I’ve included a photo of him below.
- I traded my road bike for a gravel bike and started riding dirty. It’s been a fantastic adventure so far.
- After not really working on any software on the side for a long time, I’ve started tinkering again, and that’s a good thing. More on that later.
That should be enough for now. Thanks for reading!
—Nik
P.S.: Cat tax, as promised:
