@brwngrldev - March, 2018
Hey! Welcome to the eleventh issue of my newsletter. I’m writing this from Amsterdam! It’s been almost 3 months since my move. I’m slowly getting the hang of life here in the Netherlands. There have been a few challenges for sure, but all-in-all things are looking great. If you’re curious about some of the interesting tidbits of expat life, check out my blog.
Upcoming Engagements
Droidcon Berlin, 2018
https://www.de.droidcon.com
This year I’ve joined the Program Committee for Droidcon Berlin. Being a part of the committee allows me to participate in helping to shape a well-rounded, diverse program. In year’s past, I served on the Program Committee for Droidcon New York. It’s cool to see the behind the scenes work that goes into planning a conference. As well as, getting a sneak peak of the upcoming talks for the Conference Season. It will be my first time in Germany, so I’m excited to visit yet another place in Europe.
Books I’m Reading
Radical Candor
http://amzn.to/2FshLl2
In this book, Kim Scott, shares her tried and true tips for being a great boss. There’s really too much to say about this book, so I’ll just mention a couple things. First, she talks about recognizing the types of people that are working for you. Some are rockstars and others are superstars. What’s the difference? What value do both types bring to the team? How do you retain them?
I also really learned a lot from the section on giving performance reviews. I’m always unsure of how best to get across the things that need improvement. I like how Scott says it’s best to spend 50% of the time focused on the past (what the person did) and then the other 50% focused on the future (what the person plans to do). This will help those who did well to keep moving forward. And at the same time those who didn’t do so well won’t leave feeling beaten up. If you’re a manager and you want to level up how you interact with your direct reports, I’d recommend giving this a read. (Note: this book contains profanity)
Let’s Talk Podcasts
Freakonomics Radio
After the Glass Ceiling, a Glass Cliff
This was my first time listening to this podcast, and it was great. I liked the style and the interviewees were awesome, lots of personality. In this episode, they talk all about the “Glass Cliff”. According to Wikipedia, "the glass cliff is the alleged phenomenon of women in leadership roles, such as executives in the corporate world and female political election candidates, being likelier than men to achieve leadership roles during periods of crisis or downturn, when the chance of failure is highest.” In this episode, they interviewed Carol Bartz, Ellen Pao and more about their opinions and perspectives of the “glass cliff.” It was very eye-opening for me. If you do give it a listen, I’d love to hear your opinion.
The Hanselminutes Podcast
Jessica Rose and the Worst Advice Ever
Favorite quote in this episode was: “At this point interactions in tech are just like a thumb war of who’s on top…” I've definitely felt like this at times while attending conferences. I tend to focus on competing with myself, not others. And it can be draining to feel like you have to pull out your list of recent accomplishments just to be a part of a conversation. It’s really unfortunate that some are made to feel less than, just because of someone else’s biases. This episode was an easy, informative listen. Looking forward to part two on Jessica’s podcast.
Fragmented
Multi-Module Builds in Gradle
I was ready to charge ahead with moving my app to a multi-module build until I listened to this episode. Donn made a great case for really taking your time and thinking about if it’s going to help your build time to warrant the pain of the refactor. And my current application really isn’t that bad, so I’m going to push it off for a bit. Either way, Kaushik and Donn cover how one can make the move, as well as the various pros and cons. Quality content as usual!
My Recent Videos
My second course with LinkedIn Learning is now available, “Intermediate Kotlin for Android Developers”! As an avid fan of the Kotlin programming language, I had lots of fun putting this course together. I hope you enjoy watching and learning!
Course Description:
Kotlin is now officially supported by Google as an Android development language. If you’re an Intermediate Developer interested in learning more about Kotlin, this course can help you get acquainted with this concise, fun language by learning about its efficiencies and power in Android development!
The course starts with a general overview of what Kotlin has to offer, and how to leverage the Kotlin Android Extensions plugin. It also explains how to work with Anko, and provides an overview of some of the library’s main artifacts: commons, layouts, and coroutines. To wrap up, the course covers how to work with collections.
Topics Included:
* What Kotlin has to Offer
* Working with Lambdas
* Common Android Extension functions
* Kotlin Android Extensions overview
* Making use of the Anko library
* Working with Coroutines
* Nullability and Collections
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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