My annual Drop of the best articles and other interesting things I’ve found on the internets in 2020. Mostly Developer focused.

Note: These are not necessarily things published in 2020, but the things I’ve discovered.

Best Articles

• Deploys at Slack
• The first two lines of your bash shell Should Be - Or, unofficial Bash “strict mode.” Saves you from common shell headaches.
• User Engagement is Code for Addiction - This article unfortunately was taken down by Medium (presumably because they employ this kind of addiction on their own platform)
• How to Make Your Code Reviewer Fall In Love With You - We all want our code review lives to be easier.
• The Two Minute Rule - If you need an easy way to motivate yourself.
• I Push Therefore I am: 2 Days at Etsy - it’s fascinating to me that Netflx and Etsy once had a “developer exchange program” (seriously how did HR and compliance work?), so a story around that experience is pretty neat to see documented.
• Self Directed Learning - A comprehensive framework to learning how to learn.

Best Sites

• [https://wizardzines.com/] Julia Evans has the coolest style, combining comic book structures with highly insightful technical instruction (especially around linux). A dream resource for any visual learner.

Best Online Course

• The Missing Semester of your CS Education - While geared towards undergrads who are about to go into the professional world, this course is an amazing survey of how we can best code professionally, and I recommend it to every one. Even if you’ve been in the field for a few years, chances are there’s at least one new thing you’ll learn from this course, probably more.

Best random highlight:

When you’re on a complex task, keep your brain at the top of its game: dump all important stuff on paper. Our brains’ working memory easily overflows with facts and ideas.