It is surprisingly hard to get any programming done when you have a 2 month old baby. She will interrupt whatever you thought you were doing. Sleep is a joke to her. Especially your sleep.

On that note, I haven't been writing very hands-on blog posts recently as I have precious little focused time right now. I've reserved that for what little client work I currently do. I've mostly been on parental leave. I actually went back to work today so going forward I'll have some hours every day, isolated in the office out in the stables. I look forward to being able to write code again on a regular basis. I do love it.

This also means that while I have some good work lined up and some clients to follow up with as August picks up I might also be able to fit in some mentorship work or contribute to your software quality efforts at your company. The shedule tends to fill up quickly. Just respond to the email if you have something to discuss.

Podcast recommendation: Elixir Mix

Only fair that I mention this since I was recently brought on to be part of the panel of hosts. Very exciting and I have enjoyed it a lot so far. It is a weekly show where we generally interview a guest from the Elixir community. I guested the podcast twice based on my writing (Inky & the Ecto multi-tenancy series) before I was approached to come on as a panelist. I find the time I get with my fellow panelists delightful, the guests are great and I look forward to see where we can take the podcast.

You can find the podcast here on devchat.tv the network that runs it. No, I don't know why it is TV either.

I made a splash again

I've had a few pieces of writing hit the front page of Hacker News. Just recently it was my piece Five Buck Fatigue that seemed to resonate well. Discussion seemed pretty constructive, I'll admit I didn't read all the two hundred comments but I did skim the threads. The post is about my feelings and the challenges around memberships, subscriptions and sustaining creators you like. I'm not an expert on financing creative projects or avoiding subscription fatigue, this was mostly me trying to put a feeling into words and it seemed to resonate. I've heard a lot of technical approaches to solving this. Which I think is neat but also misses the point. I think the problem is intensely human and I don't think you can remove all the emotional conflict without lessening the bond between creator and patron.

Since I have a slight influx of new readers with a HN front page, my previous Best of Hacker News hits are:

• Why am I interested in Elixir?
• Lumen - Elixir & Erlang in the browser
• An. eInk display with Nerves & Elixir - Getting started with Inky

They are generally more technical. It is nice to see that my writing can draw that kind of interest without leaning on interesting technology specifically. Though I do believe the topic did the heavy lifting. Just a timely thing right now. Lots of membership and subscriptions going round.

I also finished another piece which I think might be of Hacker News interest but we'll see. That's not why I write them, but it is fun to see the graphs go "Weeee!". This one is on how The best parts of Visual Studio Code are proprietary. Not a fun topic but it has rubbed me the wrong way for a bit.

A few questions

I have plans to make something in a new format. I'd love to get your answers to these questions:

• What technical programming skillset would you like me to teach? Does not have to be for you, maybe you want everyone else to learn it.
• What architectural or high-level concept would you like to see explained?
• What part of hacker culture would you like me to attempt clarify or introduce to people?

If you could answer these in a reply it would be a good help, both in inspiration and knowing about where interests are focused. Thanks.

Going forward

I hope to have more time to write as I pick up work again and can dedicated some time. I have a whole bunch of blog post topics brewing that I want to put some code and writing into. So check the site or put it into your RSS reader.

As always, if you have questions, thoughts or anything in particular to say, just reply or send an email to lars@underjord.io.

Thank you for reading, I appreciate it.

- Lars Wikman