Build and Learn CJ Avilla, Colin Loretz

This week, CJ and Colin talk about content clickbait, Gameboy nostalgia, and the in-vogue topic of AI/LLMs. CJ dives into some cautionary tales around more API integrations and his steps to avoid platform risk while trying to build software at a growing company. Finally, we bid farewell to RailsConf and discuss the market for Ruby/Rails conferences in 2024 and beyond.
Colin's Gameboy nostalgia a dose of retro gaming wifi gameboy cartridge right to repair Retro Future YouTube Acquired FM: The Complete History & Strategy of Nintendo Analogue Pocket Gen Alpha == Generation AIWizards of the Coast/D&D and AIPlatform Risk when building on APIs More integrations API stability Degrated integrations and deliveryThe RailsConf 2024 FOMO 2024 will be the penultimate conference2025 will be the last RailsConf Focus on rubyconf and rubygems Focus on regional conferences Announcement: A New Era for Ruby Central Events

In this episode, you'll hear about the Write the Docs conference in Portland, a must-attend for anyone in the tech writing community. CJ and Colin chatted about the unique, community-focused vibe of the event, which was akin to RailsConf or RubyConf, and shared some standout talks. One highlight is Calvin Fung's "Beyond Words: Strategies for Leveling Up Your Tech Writing Career," where he details practical tips for documenting your work and aligning it with your job description to advance your career. They also discuss creative ways to enhance documentation using interactive elements, and offers tips on how to get involved and meet people at conferences.
You'll also hear about "Slow Productivity," Cal Newport's book that has us rethinking how they manage their workloads. We'll discuss the book’s core principles: (1) doing fewer things, (2) working at a natural pace, and (3) obsessing over quality. This leads to a deep dive into managing distractions, the anxiety around being constantly responsive, and the value of deep, focused work. Plus, they share updates on fun projects at Craftwork, like organizing painting crews with a drag-and-drop interface and rebuilding a pricing engine. Finally, they touch on their DIY approach to calendar management and Colin’s adventures in learning Unity for game development. This episode is packed with insights and practical advice for balancing productivity and creativity in the tech world.
Resources
Afford Anything podcasthttps://affordanything.com/495-cal-newport-the-shocking-secret-of-productivity/Write The Docs https://www.writethedocs.org/conf/portland/2024/speakers/ Slow Productivityhttps://amzn.to/3UNP0qT 

This week, we discuss building companies on top of API integrations and recent acquisitions that we've been following closely and dig into some tech we're both using in our daily work. If you feel like you have a lot going on in your world right now, we also tease our upcoming episode on Cal Newport's newest book, Slow Productivity.
- Postman acquires Orbit! Congrats to the team!- Discussing building companies that are heavy on integrations- Autocode shut down- Cloudflare acquires Partykit- Using Turbo at Craft- Calendaring and staffing in Craft- Neverending conference room app- Slow Productivity by Cal Newport- Podcast Interview with Cal Newport- Cal Newport's website- Events and Event Emitting- Building and learning on Game Engines

In this episode, Colin shares insights from the Game Developers Conference (GDC) on cutting-edge technologies like motion capture and AI-powered game creation. We'll chat candidly about the challenges of achieving work-life balance, recognizing burnout signs, and staying productive amid demanding software projects. Additionally, we'll explore personal finance topics, such as budgeting, emergency funds, and leveraging AI and APIs to optimize spending and financial planning.
Resources
frvr.ai https://www.frvr.ai/ Robin desk booking software https://robinpowered.com/Tailwind UI Calendars https://tailwindui.com/components/application-ui/data-display/calendars Tailwind Catalyst https://tailwindcss.com/blog/introducing-catalyst Fullcalendar https://fullcalendar.io/ GDScream https://twitter.com/search?q=%23GDC2024&src=typeahead_click

In this episode, we talk about that subscription fatigue that is coming for us all. CJ has been working on some homesteading projects, including maple syrup harvesting and an AI birdspotting camera. Colin finally reveals what he's been working on at work: a new SDK!
What we're building- CJ is homesteading: maple syrup - Raspberry PI + camera + AI to detect birds in the yard- Colin finally shares what he's been working on at work: documenting a new Discord SDK!
What we're learning- Our lessons learned when buying (or not buying) a house

In this episode, we'll dive into the codebase of Campfire, a product released by the 37signals (now Basecamp) team. Sharing our initial impressions of the codebase hitting some of these topics:
- The use of helpers and views in this Rails app- The gems and dependencies- The decision to use SQLite- The integration of Hotwire, Stimulus, and front-end tech- The inclusion of Go code for the Thruster proxy accelerator- The CSS files and design choices
Resources
https://twitter.com/dhh/status/1748378865725329495https://world.hey.com/dhh/finished-software-8ee43637