Its the end of the year season, and a lot of people are doing their end-of-year reviews.
Remember that fantastic bug fix from six months ago?
The one that saved the company thousands?
No???
Thats the problem.
Every developer has been there -- its performance review season, or you are updating a CV, and youre struggling to remember all the amazing work youve done over the past months/years. Projects blend, achievements become fuzzy, and those small but significant wins disappear from memory.
This is why I started keeping a brag document years ago, and its transformed how I approach my career development.
I wrote this article to outline what a "brag document" is and how to get started.
This Weeks Picks
Creating An Effective Multistep Form For Better User Experience (13 min)
What we dont often discuss is designing good-form experiences beyond validation. Thats what Jima Victor discusses in this article
Using Transformers.js for AI in the Browser (5 min)
A practical guide to implementing browser-based AI using Transformers.js, demonstrating sentiment analysis and image object detection with real-world examples and code.
CSS Wrapped 2024 (lots of examples in here)
The Google Chrome team made this fantastic article/mini-site showcasing all the great features introduced into CSS this year.
React v19 (release)
And what you need to break into the role.
Nine pillars of great Node apps (podcast)
This podcast lays out nine principles for doing Node.js right in enterprise environments.
Cursify (library)
I cant ever see myself using some of these animated cursors, but I do love seeing peoples creativity.
Deno v. Oracle: Canceling the JavaScript Trademark (3 min)
Did you know Oracle formally owns the JavaScript trademark? Could that change because of Deno? On November 22, 2024, Deno petitioned officially the USPTO to cancel Oracles trademark for "JavaScript."
Why Open Source UI Sucks (4 min)
Explores why open-source software tends to have less polished interfaces than commercial applications, highlighting some key factors.
Book of the Week
Last week, I suggested Product-Led Growth: How to Build a Product That Sells Itself. Since then, I have found out the second book in the series, "The Product-Led Playbook," is a thing. The playbook focuses on the how rather than the why outlined in the previous book. I read this in a few days because I found it so interesting and useful.
This is one of the most practical books I have for anyone hoping to launch a SaaS product or improve their thinking about product development for self-service customers.
Something Cool
Yup, you read that right.
Use your SQL skills to solve a murder mystery.
Its quite possibly the nerdiest way to test your SQL skills.
Quick Links
If you have any ideas or feedback, reply to this email.
Thanks, and stay awesome,
Niall
Founder @ Codú