@brwngrldev - August, 2017
Hey! Welcome to the ninth issue of my newsletter. Lots of great events coming up over the next few months. Seems like every month this year has an Android Conference going on. Last month was no exception. I went to Denver, Colorado for the first time to attend 360|AnDev. Had lots of fun there, met some online friends in real life, and found my new favorite clothing store. I’ll be heading to a few more places in the U.S. this year as well, so check out where I’ll be next, below. Also, planning to spend a few weeks in Amsterdam soon. Looking forward to sharing more about that in my next newsletter. Now, let’s get into the good stuff...
Upcoming Engagements
KotlinConf (San Francisco, CA) - https://www.kotlinconf.com/speakers
KotlinConf promises two days of content from Kotlin creators and Community enthusiasts. I fall into the enthusiasts bucket ;) This is the first year for the conference and they’ve managed to score a very impressive line-up. As excited as I am to speak, I’m more excited about the opportunity to meet many of the folks whose Kotlin content I consume on a regular basis. The talks haven’t been announced yet, but I’m already hard at work on my outline. Can’t wait to share it!
I’ll be presenting my talk, “First, Do No Harm” at a few more conferences this year:
Android Summit (Tysons, VA) - http://androidsummit.org/#speakers
Really excited to be participating in this conference. Android Summit is a multi-track event focused on designing, developing, and testing for Android. I spoke here two years ago and it was very well organized. So definitely looking forward to going back.
DevFest Florida (Orlando, FL) - https://devfestflorida.org/
This is my first year speaking at DevFest Florida. In fact I haven’t been to Florida at all for many, many years so I’m eager to get back. DevFests are great because they’re community-driven events and you get to network with developers from the local area. Also, you can’t beat the location: Disney’s Contemporary Resort…can’t wait!
Books I’m Reading
The Manager’s Path - http://amzn.to/2feqVJJ
"Actionable advice” is the best way to describe this book. It starts out by explaining what you should expect from a manager, and then goes into how to be managed. This section was great for me because it helped codify some thoughts I had around where I want to go next with my career. Especially the section on taking ownership of your relationship with your manager and not just letting it be a top-down exchange. I have recommended this book to so many people at this point. If you’re still on the fence, just do it; you won’t be disappointed.
Reactive Programming on Android with RxJava - https://leanpub.com/reactiveandroid
This was a very approachable read versus other books on the subject which have a much more academic feel. By providing several examples and avoiding the typical RxJava jargon, the authors do a great job of helping you to understand the benefits of RxJava and how you can start using it in your Android applications. I truly recommend giving it a read!
Let’s Talk Podcasts
The ONE Thing - GRIT – New York Times Bestselling Author Angela Duckworth
This one was a recommendation from my brother. He’s always up-to-date on productivity and business mindset so I gave it a listen. In this episode, Angela talks about having a focused vision for your life. She argues that once you’ve settled on what you really want, everything else becomes easier. This is because any opportunity that comes your direction you weigh it against wether it will help you get closer to your vision. If yes, then determine if you can take advantage of it. If not, move on. This is something that I’ve been putting into practice the past year. It helps me to avoid feeling bogged down with things that don’t help me achieve my life goals.
Beyond the To Do List - Artistry: Jeff Goins on Thriving in Your Work and Collaborating With Others
Jeff Goins discusses portions of his new book in this episode. It’s all about how people can go from “starving” to “thriving” artists. After interviewing hundreds of thriving creative professionals, he noticed that “the norm was a gradual progression in the direction of a dream.” I found this inspirational because sometimes it’s easy to feel like it’s taking forever to reach your goals, but thats’s ok as long as you take consistent steps in the right direction. Few people can just quit their day jobs and attack their passion projects right away. This definitely applies to those who want to get into the Tech space, or who want to expand into another area of Tech. So no need to get discouraged if it takes you a while to get to where you want to be.
Android Developers Backstage - Architecture Components 1 - Lifecycle
In this episode, Yigit and Sergei were on to talk about the new Architecture Components project. In particular, they talk about the Lifecycle part of Architecture Components. One thing that stood out to me is what Yigit said about onStart() and onStop() in Android. He said he would love it if one day no one had to override those methods at all. That’s a lofty goal, but it just might be attainable for those starting projects from scratch. They talked about the new ViewModel class and how that fits into the Lifecycle piece. Explicitly calling out that it was designed to work with any architectural pattern, not just MVVM. So I’m going to try to put it through its paces with MVP.
Must Watch Videos
Mocks, Stubs and Fakes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFaBHHg6RQU
There is so much confusion on the topic of when to use a Mock vs. a Stub vs. a Fake. This was a very clear explanation of when you should use one over the other. The instructor even does some live coding to show making the choice between the different options while writing a unit test.
Comprehensive Ruby Programming - https://www.udemy.com/comprehensive-ruby-programming-tutorial
The backend API for my company is built using Ruby on Rails. One source of frustration for me is not having enough visibility into that codebase. So I decided I needed to learn. The first hurdle for mastering Rails would be to learn Ruby. This course delivers on its promise: "teach you how to program in the Ruby programming language, starting from scratch and moving to advanced coding techniques." I’m over half-way through; I love the pace of the instructor and it has helped me to better understand the code in my company’s API. Definitely recommend it!
My Recent Videos
I’ve been putting together a course for Caster.io on how to use Git in Android Studio. I start out by covering the various user interface components available in the Version Control Tool Window. Then I move on to creating commits, working with branches and understanding changelists. Initially I’ll be exploring all of this functionality working with a local repository only. I also plan on showing how Android Studio can make it easier to work with remote repositories as well. Check out the videos => here.
Until next time, thanks for reading!
"My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”
- Maya Angelou
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