Not a lot of updating around the CMS project. Lots of activity but the only thing worth sharing at this point is that I'm definitely running into all of the compile-time vs. run-time edges of Ecto. Ecto is great in that it does things at compile-time to protect you from a lot of problems but that prevents significant usage for my use-case which is much more dynamic. So Ecto.Schema and Ecto.Query are likely out. Currently looking at options around Ecto.Changeset and I'm leaning away from it. Before you worry, this is not a problem with Ecto and it is not a problem for you if you end up using whatever we build. It will mostly impact what we can do in our internals.

Another Twitch stream is planned for today. Previously announced on Twitter, so if you need more heads up, follow there, I'm aiming for a consistent time though. And that consistent time is this afternoon (fridays) at 15.00 CET / 9 AM EST on my Twitch. I thought the Livebook one went well and this will be on the Membrane Framework which is a media streaming and processing framework built for making robust pipelines using Elixir. There is a sample repo here if you want to follow along from home. That is the foundation and I will be jamming on it with a guest to see if we can do some fun stuff.

The previous one about Livebook is now available on the blog or if you prefer, the Underjord YouTube.

I've also written and sent the first issue of the official Nerves Newsletter. Super happy that Frank and the gang were hype to let me do this. I adore the Nerves project and want to contribute in whatever way I can. And since I can't do C but am decent at english this felt like a good thing. Very excited to be producing that. The plan is weekly and if you have thoughts on things to feature, let me know. You can still get the first issue if you sign up before thursday.

Beam Radio has a new episode out with Parker Selbert of Oban fame. Should be a good listen. Parker has been a delight every time I've spoken to him.

A question and request: If you are at an Elixir company, consider hiring junior folks and building them up. If you know an Elixir company looking for junior devs or inexperienced devs. Reach out or ask them to reach out. I know a bunch of good ones and am happy to work with you to help them find their footing in your org and code. This is part of what my mentorship program can help do if you don't have the bandwidth. Build that team.

I also have exciting client work confirmed. It will start to show up eventually in public. For now I gotta stay quiet about it, like a pro :)

Make my work fit my brain

 I got a hundred lethal weapons that I call my friends
Ain't a person on Earth who could take my life
I wish they would so a man could get some sleep at night
- Idle Hands, Stone Sour

I'm pretty good at focusing. I'm also terrible at focusing.

I'm good at focusing on things I find interesting or engaging, even if they are difficult. I'm pretty bad at just doing the thing I'm supposed to if it is boring, repetitive or looks intractable.

The first part is not hard for me. So when people ask me about finding passions or motivations I have a hard time because I have not intentionally spent time trying to do anything in particular there. I absolutely constantly have more ideas and things I want to do than I can execute on.

The second thing is what I've had to contend with. I consider it a crowning achievement that I've kept this newsletter on a weekly cadence for a good number of months now. Consistency is something I have to put effort to achieve. I'm good at projects. I'm much worse at maintenance. I value it, it just doesn't fit my brain very well.

So I tend to be fairly scattershot left to my own devices and have many things I want to do. I try to restrain myself to a few at the time, driving a few ones hard rather than failing at many. Anything I want to drive to completion has to be systematized a bit if it reaches a consistency phase and ideally making it something I can form into a habit. Every friday at 08.00 CET I'm writing this newsletter. Every two weeks on tuesday evenings I'm recording with BEAM Radio.

Everything that is one-off meetings and project I plan blocks into my calendar and my calendar drives my day. This is essentially not to force myself to do any particular thing but to remind my dumb ass self "this is what you want to get done". This lines up nicely with the calendar also having all the meetings that I need to plan around.

I also strive to not do things on my own if they are larger in scope. Because end-to-end creation of a larger project is really helped by accountability. Knowing other people's efforts require you to put effort in is powerful for maintaining direction. At least for me. I hate failing in the eyes of others so I put pressure on myself in this way. Pressure as direction mostly, very rarely pressure as stress. That shows up when you put too many of these things on your plate. Or at least that seems to be the thing for me. When I start to get torn.

Ideas that I can't be acting on right now go into my todo-managers infinite list of maybes. Actually, that's what I'm hoping Noted can handle soon.

The pre-topic ramble of what I'm up to in this issue of the newsletter has quite a few things going on. That is not the signs of focus. That is the sign of having built your work life around getting to do and try multiple things. I love doing a variety of things, I've always enjoyed varying opportunities at work and as an independent operator I have more freedom to do things my way.  The part where I have applied focus is in making them all happen, over time. They were all built up over time. Stacking bricks that I think can fit in what I'm trying to build.

I'm not sure "do things you like" is good actionable advice for your personal productivity. I think it is more of a case that I've found places where what I like and what people appreciate me doing overlap. And I've found those by following what I like more than I've followed what the market shares say or what tech trends tell me. But lets be very clear, I have a fortunate overlap of the types of things I really enjoy and what constitutes marketable skills that pay well. If you are reading this odds are you are into software development/programming. You also have a significant and fortunate overlap in that case.

Being a "creative person" or "having ideas" and "following your passion" is pretty hyped up all over the place. It works pretty well for me but I think people should be clear that in many cases you don't really have a choice in brain chemistry. Creativity can be practiced, skills and talents can be practiced and developed, mentality can be worked on. But overall I didn't do much of that. What I've arguably done is shore up the weakest parts to avoid chaos. I just am this way. The good and the bad.

I've worked hard on skills because I enjoy them, I've developed talents because I'm stubborn and think they are cool. And if I hadn't liked programming I would likely be very passionate about my hobbies and have a shitty job doing something I despise. Or be an artist struggling to make ends meet. Or something less dramatic like an okay job doing something uninteresting.

Or maybe a librarian. I did study to be a librarian. I think I would have liked that okay.

If you want to share your thoughts on focus you can email lars@underjord.io or start a conversation on Twitter where I'm @lawik.

I appreciate you reading this. Thank you for your attention.

- Lars Wikman