Presently:

• Code BEAM Stockholm Lite vlog should be done early next week.
• Next video might actually be teed up appropriately for my vacation. I'm out for July and start of August. Terrifying. It will be great.
• Regular Programming has missed a few episodes due to scheduling and health. While it annoys me, it happens. We are taking July full off. More to come after vacations though :)

Library of the moment

site_encrypt
github | hex

A Saša Jurić special.

This library integrates the song-and-dance for Let's Encrypt certificates into your Phoenix application using only Erlang and Elixir. If you deploy your application on a server without some kind of TLS termination in front of it, this is incredibly useful. It is also a mean demo of this idea he has underlined in his book Elixir in Action. What might require additional and separate infrastructure in other ecosystem can just be integrated into your app. You are on the BEAM now.

If you weren't familiar with it and you like futzing around with servers. Strong recommendation.

Difficult problems, frictionful work and coasting

It is never easy. It is never simple. If it is. You are probably not paying attention. Even if you are a slacking through life (I've tried it), the only reason things might seem simple and easy is because you are not paying attention. When you don't pay attention things deteriorate. Relationships, decisions, understandings, code, agreements.

Entropy ensures that unless you are comfortable to dwell in the heat death of the universe, your status quo is not actually stable.

It is okay and reasonable to coast every now and then. We can't all pay attention to everything constantly. That is tense, stressful and may very well lead to burning yourself out. We do generally need to pay enough attention that things do not deteriorate to a dangerous, harmful or troublesome point.

I've recently had a lot of meetings, with a lot of people, team members in a variety of constellations, clients, teams. Some have been straightforward, reaffirming direction, pinning down some problems and generally clarifying things. Some have been weird, contentious and uncertainly casting about for whatever we are doing. I hated the latter. I just want to decide and move. Whenever I think it is that simple, I'm not paying attention.

That is not the work. Sometimes the work is establishing collaboration where it has been missing. Sometimes the work is figuring out what the work needs to be. Very often the work is making sure the humans talk and then suddenly an unstated problem vanishes. The work is unclear, uncertain and troublesome at times. The tech is the least of it.

Some conversations have been difficult, straining, exerting but also a lot more clear. Emotionally charged, requiring vulnerability, requiring listening and reflecting on oneself. Good, open, transparent, loving. Just hard emotional work. The best circumstances and still hard, uncertain work. Ultimately strengthening, encouraging and hopeful.

Whether in the most loving contexts or in the complex push and pull of a complex professional setting there are always problems, always things to attend to. And the work will never stay simple or easy. At least not with the humans, the people. And we won't always have the energy to engage with everything and invest ourselves, pay attention, work to improve things. It is reasonable to coast now and then. Conserve your strength.

It is useful to be aware though, that eventually there will be signs of deterioration, of parts crumbling. That is worth attending to. The alternative is almost always worse.

Do you pay attention? Do you tackle human problems? Does this resonate with you? Reply to this email or poke me on the fedi @lawik@fosstodon.org.

I love a reader. Thanks for being a reader here. I appreciate you spending your hard-earned attention here.