Hey man! Hope you’ve recovered from your shot and started doing fun re-entry things!
Sorry for the wall of text 😐 I actually, finally, have some code to go over tomorrow. If you could take a look at this repo, and tell me why the fuck https://ceramoni-gatsby.netlify.app/stone-index insists on ignoring StonesPageGrid, I would be grateful 🤠 https://github.com/ccsdevio/ceramoni-gatsbyThe Sanity dataset is public, so you should be able to build it locally.I’ve tried putting StonesPageGrid like four other places, and nada. Every time I look at it in the Chrome grid viewer, I’m getting nothing. What I would like eventually: auto-fill columns, min 300px max 400px (or so), and the entries fill across left to right and then to the next row. So on wide viewports like 3 or 4 entries per row, down to 1 per row on a phone. Right now it’s stubbornly insisting on 1 entry per row, even though I tried to force it to be good by setting it on 300px 300px 1fr. I’ve also tried 1fr 1fr 1fr, and auto-fill repeat minmax (300px 1fr).
Oh! And it’s time to pick testing back up again. I made a smoke test in Cypress to test routes, and linked it to Github Actions, and I’ve been ignoring anything else because I’ve been kind of in over my head, so I’ve just been concentrating on getting everything running. Having the understanding necessary to do TDD has felt like a luxury for a while.
My main question: how would you use cypress to test pages generated from CMS data?
There may be some short-notice code questions, too: I am pretty close to having pages for particular items display, so between now and tomorrow at 5e I’m going to try to get those fleshed out and try to hook up Snipcart. Once that’s done I think I’ll have most of the functionality finished, although apparently Snipcart needs Stripe, too? Anyway: fingers crossed!
Also regarding code: are you familiar with Sanity? It seems like not much. I have a pretty specific deep-dive Sanity question that’s not pressing, so probably not the best use of our time unless you’re a ninja in that area.I also wanted to go over the reddit post I’m thinking about. I’m planning to put it up in mid-June, when I get back from retreat. I think there will be a lot of interest in an alternative in between bootcamps and solo study. I ended up writing out all the advantages of this “middle path” in a tweet, and that seems like a good start:
I’m saving $1,000 - $17,000 (apparently paid bootcamps are $3,000-$20,000). 1. Over the course of a dev career, I’ll need to learn many bootcamps’ worth of material. May as well learn how to learn now. 2. I have the money to spend on top-tier tutorials, which I trust way more than bootcamps. 3. I get to go at my own pace. 4. I understand that I’ll be hired based solely on my own coding and networking skills. 5. My mentor has been amazing, consistently goes above and beyond, and also just knowing he’s around if I ever get stuck-stuck helps a ton. He also charges a very reasonable price, which I can afford because no bootcamp. 6. My future isn’t in the hands of a company economically incentivized to skimp on me. 7. There is a macro-level problem-solving part to this that I like. Evaluating the current tools, using them, and finding ways to make new and better ones will be a core competency for me in this career. Feels like I’m doing that. 8. There are tons of top-level free resources out there. 9. I’m forced to get used to using the same problem-solving tools I’ll use at work: google, docs, code-reading, forums, Twitter, zoom call. I can’t just wait for class and ask the TA a question. 10. I’ve found ways to build accountability into my routine:
- I’m rebuilding a friend’s website
- The calls with my mentor keep me on track
- I’ve been building a network of new friends on Twitter. I could improve in this area by forming a small dedicated group of independent studiers.What do you think? Anything to add or leave out? I won’t just throw up that list, but I’ll likely be pulling from it. The last one is something I’m planning to expand on: writing about how this approach hits the advantages of bootcamps, which for me would be, in order: 1. Accountability 2. Networking/accountability for job search 3. Good learning materials with a consistent approach free of holesFor me, #1 dwarfs the other two, and I get the feeling that’s the case for a lot of people. So I’ll be keeping that in mind too.Oh! And I’ve got a Jonathan-Stark-style side project that I’d like to talk through with you. It seems like maybe we’ve talked about it some? But for some reason it seems like I haven’t gone into detail with you about it. If I have, ignore this:My problem to solve: in family law (I was a family lawyer for two exciting years), the #1 problem will always be [not enough good clients and too many bad clients]. Good family law clients are a joy and an inspiration to serve; bad family law clients are a nightmare. The two problems go together because you can’t afford to pass on the bad clients unless you have enough good clients.My solution: use the “freebie for email address” move (you know this one! 🤠). As far as I can tell, no lawyers use this move. I think this is due to two things: lawyers are too goddamn busy lawyering to do marketing things, and this approach doesn’t look like a winner for lawyers because it’s too hard to write good freebie content while avoiding giving legal advice to non-clients. But in family law, you could offer people a “guide to making good decisions during your divorce” that would be incredibly valuable, and not have any legal advice in it at all. This would increase conversion among people who like to do homework, and therefore are good clients. In the guide, you could put something specific about looking for a lawyer, like “always bring a Snickers bar to give to the receptionist.” Then you just take note of who doesn’t bring Snickers bars. This helps avoid bad clients without running afoul of the ADA, because the #1 trait of a bad client is that they ignore their lawyer’s advice. Obviously I’d make this a lot more sophisticated; my aunt is a PhD in clinical psychology and will have some good places for me to start, and if I decide to go down that road I’m pretty sure I can get profiles from people’s publicly-available data that would go a long way towards spotting bad apples (though my first inclination is to loudly proclaim that I will never use potential clients’ data, and differentiate there from the start).Anyway. What do you think? It seems like all I really need software-wise is an email tool like MailChimp or ConvertKit or MailerLite.Sorry again for this running so long. Let me know if I need to trim these going forward, and how best to write them. Looking forward to our call!
Session Notes
- 4 disciplines of execution
Todos
- Figure out grid styling not coming through on Chris’s site