ryanbigg

Great advice here! I especially like the idea of 50 minute meetings.

I’ve been lightly enforcing a rule of my own too: “no agenda, no attenda”

Ironically the article is barely readable on an iPhone…

On the topic of copy editing you raise: I wrote a book in DocBook for Manning in 2010. DocBook is XML, so I structured it with opening / end tags on their own line, content in the middle. As you would with a HTML document.

After copy editing multiple chapters, they sent it back to me with all the content on a single line. I was so incredibly upset that they ditched all my painstaking format that I almost abandoned the project there + then.

It sounds like from your experience that it has barely changed. I ended up moving to self-publishing so I have a greater control over the whole process. I wrote it up long-form here: https://ryanbigg.com/2015/08/my-self-publishing-success-stor...

I wonder if Fitzgibbon fits this pattern? Fitz being “the bastard son of…” and Gibbon, like ape? Or perhaps Gibbon has another meaning?

The "Writing" section here has huge "draw the rest of the owl" vibes. (I say this as an accomplished author of 10 tech books.)

Yes, it's worth optimising for your productivity. It's not the be all and end all. I've written at my desk with the comfiest chair (A Mirra) I have, and the most ergonomic keyboard for my needs (Ergodox EZ). I write at cafes with just the laptop. I write on the couch at odd but comfortable angles. I write on public transport squished against strangers.

I love using AsciiDoc as the tooling (asciidoctor + friends) give me output that looks decent, and the way I _input_ into that is not mind-breaking like Docbook is. Asciidoctor gives me a PDF which I then style how I like with CSS and then can put on leanpub.com and sell for real dollars.

The way I would put the writing section for tech books is this:

Start with the _topics_ you want to cover. Make these the chapters. Then dive into each topic and figure out what you want to say about the topic. Usually 3-4 main points per chapter. These come out to be your subheadings. Order the chapters from beginner-to-advanced concepts or in a way that makes sense for the book you're writing. For the books I've written it's usually start with a simple base app and then incrementally build things on top of that.

This is weasel wording but with actions. I’d expect better from Apple

I have written a few tech books:

https://ryanbigg.com/books

Off these, I’ve made $65,000USD. That’s over 13 years. None of these books have sold anywhere near as close to the Unicorn Project! (Which imo is fanfic for the tech-inclined)

The money is nice, but hearing from people who’ve read the books (especially those who ask questions!) is the best part.

Huh, maybe it is the friends we make along the way after all.

What an excellent resource! (And yes Outlook is a pain and supports so very little!)

We've tried building email templates for notifications for our apps where I work, and it has typically been a pain. We have since swapped to using mjml (https://mjml.io/) to build the templates, and it's working wonders. The output seems the be the most compatible with all different devices that we've tested on.

The other tool we enjoy using is Litmus (https://litmus.com), which allows you to throw in an email template and see what it looks like on all kinds of apps and devices. Other thread here mentions https://testi.at/ as well, which we've also had success with.

All of these have been really invaluable to designing emails for our apps.

I sometimes use it for moving code blocks around, especially between files or from scratch pad to a file.

Ah took a moment to load the second time round but it got there. Regular iPhone user here, but based down under.

Your personal site is so minimal, that it doesn’t even load on my phone. Is the URL right?

(Also, that would be a good domain name for myself ;)

It feels like there’s 20 years of history missing between 2000 and 2019. What cool stories are hidden in those two decades? :)

This is pretty incredible work!

(Action web service was an attempt to make Rails generate SOAP APIs as that was the style du jour at the time. Fortunately, JSON came along!)

Absolutely! When I wrote for Manning, a print book that sold for $45 netted me a huge $4.50 — 90/10 split. Ebooks were 50/50. Guess the print guys all gotta take their cut.

Been writing tech books now for over a decade, got about 8-10 under the belt depending on if you count 2nd and 3rd editions as new books.

Definitely not writing them for the money — that’s about $300 a month usually. Enough to buy a few knick knacks and some meals.

It’s more the notoriety of being a “subject matter expert” that counts.

I work full time and then put what I learn from the job into the books to share it with the world. No point hanging onto the knowledge and hoarding it all dragon-like.

I’ve done some work on something “less serious” in Ruby:

https://github.com/radar/mtg

I view it as a wide project full of little interlinked code katas.

I’ve thought about the card parsing stuff but that’s beyond my ability.

https://ryanbigg.com

I usually write posts about code, but this post about culture and values really resonated with a lot of people:

https://ryanbigg.com/2021/12/culture-and-values

I also like a Ctrl+T for finding a file in the current directory.

For example:

   bundle exec rspec <Ctrl+T>

Which example?

Maintained Spree as it’s community manager (https://GitHub.com/spree/spree) for 2.5-3 years, depending on how you count. Taught me a lot about OSS. Dollar figures processed using code I wrote / maintained hurt my brain. What hurt my brain more was US sales tax rules.

I also wrote quite a few programming books (https://ryanbigg.com/books) and some of the Ruby on Rails guides. These have gone on to teach thousands of people around the world. I really love hearing from those who’ve read my work.

Rails is what pays the bills :) Just because I don't like _parts_ of Rails doesn't mean I will completely abandon it. This occurs in other parts of my life too. I find it really inefficient to use allen keys to tighten hex screws, so I recently bought a set of hex heads. Now I can use them with my screwdriver. Doesn't mean that I've sworn off allen keys altogether though, because sometimes they come in handy in particular circumstances.

I just use the right tool for the job, and in this place I do not think strong parameters is the right tool for the job.

I’m working on an implementation of Magic: The Gathering in Ruby. https://GitHub.com/radar/mtg

It’s fun to work out the different card / game mechanics and how they all interact. It’s a good different project from the typical web-dev-y stuff I do every day.

I’m working on building an implementation of Magic: The Gathering in Ruby: https://GitHub.com/radar/mtg

It’s fun trying to work out the different card / game mechanics and how they all interact.

Um, thanks? I think? ;)

Thank you! I write as a side-hustle so I'm glad to get this sort of feedback as it helps me know when I'm doing the right thing.

Does that make me not a real coder? ;)

I already have a mechanical keyboard for one of the two desks, and in the new year I'll only have _one_ desk, so I'll move that keyboard over to there. I don't mind the trackpad, but I've considered getting one of those vertical mice.

This is a great step forward. Particularly changing the rules a little so that old buckets won’t break after a certain date.

Thank you for taking the time to write this up Jeff.

A little disappointed to see that they're still shipping Ruby 2.0; a version shipped 4 years ago. I would hope that they would update this soon to keep up to date with the language and security patches

Yup, sorry about that! I am a _horrible_ artist and so I'm hoping to rope a good friend of mine in to help with that. He's recently started a new job and so he's been busy. One day there'll be some great images in the book.