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Past Issues

How a bad GitHub Profile is holding you backSeptember 09, 2020Many non-devs in tech call GitHub the new resume for developers. As a developer, you know that is not true since a lot of the work we do is behind the walls, i.e., closed source. We cannot even share snippets of that work. Many experienced developers…
Marketing your projects to get users and feedbackJuly 22, 2020In the last email, I talked about why and how to build original products. Today I want to talk about how to share them. The thing is, if you want to have fun and go above and beyond in building side-projects, you need to have users. After all, they…
Building software products for fun, learning and career (Part 1)July 01, 2020Recently, I posted on my LinkedIn about using projects to get experience. Now, the term "project" is a broad brush. It covers everything from - full-product clones like clones of Facebook to small bash scripts to original creations. Clones are a…
Why you should get a good, international domain for yourselfFebruary 12, 2020I see many new developers and even some senior developers going by a .in or even a .tk for their websites. But this is short-sighted. Why? Because you might move out of India. Or you might work for US and UK companies remotely. In that case, .in is…
Immutable requirements if you want a remote jobFebruary 01, 2020I see many people want to do remote jobs. But in my experience, there are some things that you need before you can have a great remote work career. Consider it as the smallest definite checklist. Note that these might be true for office jobs as well…
Optimize all the things - Using rsync instead of FTPJanuary 06, 2020As programmers, we have superpowers. The superpower to do things faster than non-programmers by using the proper technology and coding skills. We should use it whenever we get the chance. I realized that after I had been doing an operation in a very…
Why you should not just be a good Indian engineerDecember 28, 2019Many business owners reach out to me on LinkedIn for offering me jobs. It’s great. Except that they think of me as a good Indian engineer. Nothing is wrong with it. But Indian engineer implies that you are a good software engineer living in India…
My most used Bash scripts including a script to sync to DropboxDecember 18, 2019I posted a tweet about how investing time learning Bash scripting and various command-line tools is always worth it. Every time I learn a command-line tool, I am like how did I work without this. Command-line tools are awesome. In this email, I will…
Why we get burned out and how to fight itNovember 30, 2019Burnout. Chances are, most of you are familiar with it. But for someone new to this career, an introduction is due. Burnout is a state of mental, physical and emotional exhaustion. Often you don’t realize when it starts happening. Finding why it is…
Should you keep your code dependency free?November 24, 2019I posted this tweet on Twitter about a trending JS library 🤷🏻‍♂️ called Immer. Immer is a small library that helps to work with immutable data in JavaScript. Its main purpose is helping create immutable objects which are a big pain point in the…
Podcasts for React developers and Indie MakersNovember 16, 2019Podcasts are great. They give you raw, unfiltered content from people. That’s because people give out their thoughts in the heat of the moment. I don’t know of any podcaster or podcast guest who prepares for the questions they are going to be asked…
The various levels of motivationOctober 28, 2018Motivation - Something that we all struggle with, and we all want to solve. Being motivated through the entirety of your life sounds like a dream goal, right? If you could only manage that, you can achieve anything in life. But motivation is tricky…
Career choices for programmersSeptember 30, 2018In the last couple of years, I have tried different careers as a programmer. First, I tried a part-time office job for some time and then I went remote in the same company. Then, I did some freelancing and now I am trying to do freelancing…
Lessons learned while reaching 100k+ downloads as a 17-yr oldSeptember 22, 2018I started developing Clipjump in March 2013, and by the same month, next year, it had 100k+ downloads. And just so you know, this was done without any marketing or outreach. I had no contacts, no industry experience and I was still in school. But the…
The N% handicap - How to startup without leaving jobSeptember 18, 2018Most of us have plans to do our own business at some point in our lives, right? Let's be our own boss for once! But make no mistake, starting your own thing is not easy and that's the reason most of us are stuck in our daily jobs. The only way to…
GSoC is easy if you have a planned approachSeptember 12, 2018Google Summer of Code - I am sure every undergrad has the dream of being selected in it one day. And the good news is that anyone can do so with some effort. By anyone, I mean any person with some appetite for coding and a strong resolve. Seriously…
Why you should make thingsSeptember 07, 2018I don't know about other fields of study but making is of paramount importance in Computer Science. Making means creating something. That is, putting your knowledge into practice. Let's try to understand why is putting knowledge into practice…
Interview with a NLP engineer: Navneet NandanSeptember 03, 2018This Dev Letter is a bit different. Today, we have Navneet Nandan, who is a Data Science professional and he is sharing some insights about his career. Data Science is a fantastic discipline with almost unlimited possibilities, and I am sure, like…
The Toptal hiring process for freelancersAugust 29, 2018I wrote this Medium post of wanting to become a digital nomad. There I discussed why the digital nomad lifestyle appealed to me and how I wanted to accomplish this dream of mine. Wannabe Digital Nomad The last step in that article was getting…
How to find your best career fitAugust 25, 2018The more I go through trying to build my career, the more I realize finding your dream "career" is way simpler than it looks. I will give an example. Almost everyone wants to be startup founders, you know, running a million/billion dollar business…
Getting started with Competitive Programming and AlgorithmsAugust 21, 2018I started Competitive Programming as soon as I got into college, around 2014. And I seriously continued with Competitive Programming(CP) till 2015. My career was only for a year. But I learned a lot during that time since it was my #1 priority…
How to create more time for yourself (and your goals)August 18, 2018How do I manage time for other activities while going to college? How do I complete this side course on React when I have a full-time job and a family? After mentoring 1000s of students through the Udacity platform and spending 4 years in college, I…
Why you should do Competitive Programming, even if a littleAugust 16, 2018I first started Competitive Programming(CP) in the first year of undergrad college. I should have started sooner. CP has played an important role in my career so far. In fact, it was the major reason I got the freelance contract (Toptal) that I am…
Advice for a Computer Science college fresherAugust 14, 2018I was recently asked by a Computer Science college fresher about plans and advice for this new adventure of theirs. Here is the exact reply I sent. Hi Slim, I don't know if this will be a self-fulfilling answer. But here it goes. The truth is, you…
Why software shouldn't be freeAugust 13, 2018People have really a hard-time paying for software, online courses, digital subscriptions, and other similar online stuff. This really saddens me. We have reached this point in our civilization where software (or any code-backed product) are…
Freelancing - Worth the risks? And how to get startedAugust 12, 2018I have been asked this many times. How do I get into freelance? Honestly, it's not that easy. Freelancing comes with downtimes where you won't get a client for a period of time which can be quite nerving if you are just starting out (and don't have…
Move Fast and Break Things - How it worksAugust 11, 2018Move Fast and Break Things - such a popular saying in the startup world. Some are so in favor of it that they sing it everyday while there are others that absolutely loathe it. I, for one, used to be not much of a strong believer in this. But then…
Why you should learn new languages and frameworksAugust 10, 2018The new languages coming out these days are amazing, especially when coming from the C's and Java's. Go is super fast and a pleasure to code in, thanks to its static typing. Rust has a syntax we all know and love but in bonus, with the speed of C…