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You can also find my blog posts (but not my newsletter content) on Substack, Medium, and Bluesky.

Latest posts

2025 posts

• 
  More time to write
  I’m looking forward to having more time to write in the next few months. I have been to three conferences… Read more: More time to write
• 
  Three conferences in three months
  That’s right, I went to three conferences in three months (2.5 months, really). Enterprise Technology Leadership Summit (ETLS) in Las… Read more: Three conferences in three months
• 
  Writer enjoying speaking
  I’m a writer at heart, so enjoying speaking at conferences is a bit of a surprise for me. Speaking at… Read more: Writer enjoying speaking
• 
  Vibe coding made less terrifying
  It’s been a long time since I’ve felt I like I was hanging on every word of a book. I… Read more: Vibe coding made less terrifying
• 
  Developer’s checklists
  Posted just now about writer’s checklists – so let’s post about the developer’s checklists here too! As a developer, I… Read more: Developer’s checklists
• 
  Writer’s checklists
  Some of the best writing tips I learned were from a summer class I took as a teenager. I’m still… Read more: Writer’s checklists
• 
  Job seekers beware of scams
  Beware of the scams targeting job seekers. I’d say “it’s a new low” for scammers to target people who are… Read more: Job seekers beware of scams
• 
  Did I chat with an AI?
  I try to avoid posting about AI, but today I found myself wondering: did I just chat with an AI?… Read more: Did I chat with an AI?
• 
  Three books about storytelling
  I’ve been listening to books on storytelling recently, including three I recommend highly. Book 1: How to Tell a Story… Read more: Three books about storytelling
• 
  Not getting started guarantees failure
  I feel like an engine that won’t “catch.” You know what guarantees that I will fail at something? Not starting it.
• 
  You know what doesn’t help overcome resistance?
  “So, I put a lot of pressure on myself. All the time.” My husband stared at me. “Yes,” he said… Read more: You know what doesn’t help overcome resistance?
• 
  I attended networking events so you don’t have to
  People say that networking is important. Does this mean you should attend networking events? I say no. Not that these… Read more: I attended networking events so you don’t have to
• 
  Do you have the power?
  I was told once that I “should feel empowered” to influence strategy, something I had been blocked from doing in… Read more: Do you have the power?
• 
  House sparrows keep life from going by too fast
  How do we keep each day from blending in with all the others? Why does it seem like time passes… Read more: House sparrows keep life from going by too fast
• 
  Hotdogs and scrum
  In the midst of a recent LinkedIn discussion about whether scrum is a methodology or a framework, I considered a… Read more: Hotdogs and scrum
• 
  Finding myself in the online noise
  I keep reading that there are two keys to connecting to your people online: consistency and content. Show up regularly,… Read more: Finding myself in the online noise
• 
  Interview with an AI
  Another post about AI? I just made one earlier this afternooooon… But then Forrest Brazeal posted this, which got me… Read more: Interview with an AI
• 
  Exactly how much more productive?
  I’ve seen a few posts on social media with questions like: Why are we still trying to figure out exactly… Read more: Exactly how much more productive?
• 
  Where to start
  Many of my blog posts start as a response to something I see online. I start typing away in a… Read more: Where to start
• 
  How can I help?
  My first full time job after college was as an administrative assistant at a health insurance company. I did a… Read more: How can I help?
• 
  Language learning
  My Romanian coworkers were impressed when I started learning Romanian. I’d say “bună” (hello), complete with the ă, and they’d… Read more: Language learning
• 
  Blog post checklist
  I have been importing blog posts from my previous blog at Medium, and I keep losing track of the steps.… Read more: Blog post checklist

2024 posts

Oops, I didn’t post in 2024!

2023 posts

These posts were originally on Medium.

• 
  My first conference: lessons learned
  My first conference in person was incredible. More later about the content — here’s what I learned from the experience… Read more: My first conference: lessons learned
• 
  Projects one at a time
  The discussion about developer productivity (see: here) led me to following Paulo André, who recently posted: The secret to productivity… Read more: Projects one at a time
• 
  Feeling seen
  In the summer of 2019, I was three months into a new job. My house had endured major construction that… Read more: Feeling seen
• 
  The dangers of “who” and “why”: post-incident reviews
  Five valuable lessons, including one that really threw me for a loop when I read it.
• 
  Don’t do this: my career path
  Folks who are new to software development sometimes ask me about my career path. The first time I fielded this question, I told my story in a straightforward way. Hearing myself talk, though, I realized…
• 
  Lessons from Uncle Sidney
  Uncle Sidney was notorious. I think even he’d agree to that. He might indeed be someone’s uncle, but he isn’t… Read more: Lessons from Uncle Sidney
• 
  Have you been giving your employer money?
  I suspect most people would not spontaneously and voluntarily give back part of their salary to their employer. I don’t… Read more: Have you been giving your employer money?
• 
  Why people do what they do
  I’m a huge fan of the Enterprise Technology Leadership Summit. Disney’s Jason Cox is a fine speaker and storyteller, and my favorite Disney character. His presentation on Creating Digital Magic gave me a lot to think about.
• 
  Choosing a mentor (updated)
  I’m happiest in a job when I’m learning from someone who knows more than I do. Last year [this post… Read more: Choosing a mentor (updated)
• 
  Three reasons not to bring hostility
  I enjoy challenges to my “conventional wisdom” about how developers and dev teams work. We can improve. “The way we’ve… Read more: Three reasons not to bring hostility
• Bug hunting
  I once had a colleague who (jokingly) left this comment on a code review, and not in reference to a specific line of code: “Missing semicolon.”
• 
  Thinking Errors – Notes
  Notes from a post by Sheril Mathews about common thinking errors and how to spot them. First, the ones I… Read more: Thinking Errors – Notes
• Cloud Resume Challenge
  DevOps Enterprise Summit 2022 closed with a great talk from Forrest Brazeal. As a cloud architect, musician, writer, and cartoonist,… Read more: Cloud Resume Challenge

2022 posts

These posts were originally on Medium.

• 
  33 Things You Don’t Need on Your Desk
  Friends, writing on Medium (and getting photos from Unsplash) taught me that I’ve been doing it all wrong. Back in… Read more: 33 Things You Don’t Need on Your Desk
• 
  Why Everyone Else Knows More Than You Do, and What To Do About It
  The developers you work with know stuff that you don’t, and you know stuff that they don’t. Obvious, right? So… Read more: Why Everyone Else Knows More Than You Do, and What To Do About It
• 
  Don’t tell me what API stands for
  Let’s talk about what an API actually is. When I first learned about APIs, all I ever heard for a… Read more: Don’t tell me what API stands for
• 
  Naming things, in spades
  Naming things is hard. One of the hardest things in computer science, as the saying goes. I once spent a… Read more: Naming things, in spades
• 
  Recognize your wall
  I’m not saying it’s time to go stare at the wall. Well, maybe I am. Maybe you’ve been firefighting most… Read more: Recognize your wall
• 
  Something’s gotta give
  You’ve already got a full schedule when the boss asks you to take on a special project. Or maybe an… Read more: Something’s gotta give
• 
  Boredom is an interesting thing
  Okay, you’ve put off that dreaded task long enough. Finally, you get to work, but the time just drags on.… Read more: Boredom is an interesting thing

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Posts by tag

API ask asking blog book recommendations boredom checklist checklists cloud coding practices courage debugging desk does it help empathy errors estimating ETLS Forrest Brazeal getting stuff done helping others hostility kindness LeadDev learning listening logic manual vs. ai mentoring mentors minimalism not knowing overwhelm prioritization procrastination productivity questions resistance self-awareness self-care setting limits StaffPlus why writing you do you

How does Leaf cross-post these blog posts?

Glad you asked, Leaf! (Yeah, these instructions are for my reference, haha)

1. I start by posting here on my site.
2. I WAS using Blog2Social to repost to BlueSky, Medium, and perhaps Facebook. Not 100% perfect, but it gets the job done. I clean up Medium, adding a link back to the original.
   
   Recently I set up a Zapier to post to Bluesky and Facebook Pages. I was hoping it could handle Medium, LinkedIn, and Substack too… no such luck. Not Zapier’s fault. But right now it’s not getting me much I wasn’t getting from Blog2Social, so unless I do something else cool with Zapier, I’ll probably cancel when my free trial is up.
   
   However, now I’m getting an error when trying to add Medium back to Blog2Social. So I’m manually importing, cleaning up. And I need to remember to go into Settings and Advanced and add the canonical link, which Blog2Social did for me 🙁
   
   New: There’s a Medium RSS import also… I’ll try this next time. This apparently includes setting the canonical link.
   • https://medium.com/p/import
   • Paste the URL of the story and click Import.
   • Click See your story.
   • Edit your post and click Publish to publish it on your profile.
3. I get prompted by Kit.com to send my posts to subscribers who get each post separately by email. Kit sets up the email for me, I just need to check the formatting and send it.
4. I manually copy and paste to my LinkedIn newsletter because LinkedIn doesn’t have an API for newsletter posts.
5. You can import posts to Substack via RSS feed.
   • I set the number of posts on my feed to however many need to be imported. So, one, if I’m on the ball.
   • On the Dashboard, I go to my Substack Settings (lower left).
   • I choose Import/Export, then Import Posts
   • I enter: https://www.beyondwritingcode.com/feed
   • I confirm that it’s importing the correct number of posts and that I own them.
   • Then I clean up the posts. The import process adds the links back to the originals for me.
6. Once per week (Thursday morning), Kit checks my RSS feed again and grabs the posts from the past week into a digest email for my subscribers that prefer that. It puts them into an email for me, I just need to check the formatting and send.

Whew! It’s a bit tedious, but it works. Kind of 🙂