Brian Ball @brianball

Coffee & Cookies. Level 1 rhyme.

last shared their writing on Getting clear on "Application" in API
Brian's Pantry
🥟 3 Dumplings
🍪 2 Cookies
🍵 5 Teas
🍺 4 Beers
🧇 1 Waffle
🥚 3 Eggs
🍍 3 Pineapples
🥓 1 Bacon
🍊 2 Tangerines

Writing without focus.

Ever show up and not feel like writing? No sparks in your brain seem to be catching. The kindling is wet. The fuel is covered and won't ignite.

It happens. In that moment, it's okay to reflect on the situation. Maybe try metaphor and analogy to connect your feelings to imagery....
2021-02-02 22:28:15

Massive Progress NOT REQUIRED as reply to January is over

It's easy to think we need to accumulate results to have proof.

I'll do X when I accumulate Y amount of Z.

I'll sign up for the marathon when I have put in 500 miles of training.
I'll clean out the garage when I get my room organized.

Vinyl record scratch.

The logic doesn't work.

2021-02-01 15:59:43

Egg-timer Attention

The 3-minute timer has started. It's an egg-timer really. If the water was boiling and I dropped in an egg, what might I get?

Does it matter if the egg is at room temperature or near-freezing temperature directly from the fridge? 
What will happen? 
Does the water have to be at a rolling...
2021-01-31 18:03:18

Hold My Beer - in 10 Languages

There are numerous spoken languages but most people successfully live a life knowing one or two. Unless you live in a part of the world with lots of international trade and your livelihood depends on being able to transact with a multitude of travelers, your time is better spent on...
2021-01-30 13:02:57

I/O -- Can You Connect

Inside the machine you're typing on -- there is only data. The 1s and 0s in green cascading on the black background of the matrix -- yeah, that's all just data. The data, it turns out, are created by electrical signals and are then grouped into recognizable patterns. This is...
2021-01-29 14:14:30

The Story of Before & After

In 2021, the resume is dead. People in their 20s have never used one and never will — especially in a Zoom educated world. Why? Proof.

It's too easy in a full-video / no-code / free-tier world to not just create something that proves you've got the requisite skills. 

You want a...
2021-01-28 17:12:56

Choose Your Mistakes as reply to Past Mistakes / No Mistakes

If I reflect on the word mistake, a couple of ideas immediately get their hooks into me. First, learning — action from a place of no information. Second knowing - action when you know what you need to do but don't. 

A mistake while practicing a song on your saxophone is...
2021-01-27 19:24:38

Wrap your code

Spend a lot of time with somebody, as many of us are doing in these COVID-19 times and the conversations repeat. Time with any material causes patterns to emerge and familiarity to grow.

When you spend a lot of time with code, the language becomes your own and your fingers can...
2021-01-26 14:47:39

Typing the Docs

When you don't know how to make something work in code, the old time suggestion was to RTFM. It meant read the fucking manual.

Of course, back in the RTFM days, you wouldn't ask somebody how to do something unless you were into it. And, if you were "into it" you'd...
2021-01-26 06:36:51

The Concept

Who doesn't want a fill-in the blanks recipe for quickly getting your writing started? 

Well, there's a lot to writing, but to start, you'll need a concept. The concept is the overarching idea you want to discuss. 

J.K. Rowling's concept was a boy who becomes a powerful wizard. House of Cards on...
2021-01-25 03:36:15