Books and articles on learning to code
On development, teaching, and how people learn. Written for people who found the usual path into programming didn't fit.
Coding for Visual Learners
Learn to code by making art with p5.js, for people who think in pictures rather than syntax.
Awesome Coding
A friendly, project-first path into programming with JavaScript and Node.js.
A Practical Introduction to Developing Blockchain Apps
Build a blockchain app powered by a smart contract from scratch with Solidity, Hardhat, React, and Next.js.
Articles
Deep Research Topics for the Rest of Us
Trying out Deep Research from OpenAI, Manus and others
How much does it cost to build and run a profitable side project?
Services I use and costs that I incur in building a profitable side project
No, I don’t want to chat with my documents
Prompt Engineering Tactics on Biological Intelligence
From Visual Effects to Web Development: My Journey into Programming
Lessons Learned in 2022
Teaching Coding to Absolute Beginners
Lessons learned in teaching coding to absolute beginners
Reflections on Actively Trading in the Stock Market for a Year
My reflections on actively trading in the stock market for a year using swing trading principles
Things that are Different in Berlin
Things that stood out to me in Berlin after living in Toronto for 12 years
A Philosophy of Software Design: It is All About Complexity
The Summary of A Philosophy of Software Design by John Ousterhout
Guide to Online Dating for the Rest of Us
Everything that I know about online dating and why you should consider doing it.
Don't Eat Grapefruit and Other Useful Life Advice
Waterfall Model of Personal Development
On taking time to work on yourself
Elsewhere
Guest posts & publicationsBuilding an App With the ChatGPT API: Lessons Learned
What I learned shipping a real product on top of the ChatGPT API
Creating Photorealistic 3D Graphics on the Web
Building lifelike 3D scenes in the browser with Three.js
Creating a Book Cover using JavaScript and p5.js
Generative design, from sketch to printed cover
Creating Declarative Animations in React Using Popmotion Pose
A cleaner mental model for animating React interfaces
Writing a Book as a Programmer
The unglamorous reality of turning knowledge into a book
How Python Helped Create the VFX for an Emmy-Nominated Show
My PyCon Canada talk on tooling for visual effects
Using the Notion API with JavaScript
Reading and writing Notion data from a Node.js script
Learn How to Build a GraphQL API in Node.js Using Apollo Server
Standing up a GraphQL API in Node.js with Apollo Server
Building a Web API using GraphQL vs. REST
How the two API styles differ, and when each one fits
Web Scraping in JavaScript and Node.js using Puppeteer
Pulling data from pages with a headless browser
Reasons Why JavaScript is Awesome
Why JavaScript is a solid first language to learn
Coding for Statistics
Building an intuition for statistics by writing code
How to Use the YouTube JavaScript API to Search for Videos with Node.js
Querying the YouTube API from a Node.js app
Learn JavaScript Step-by-Step
A beginner path through the JavaScript fundamentals
Programming for Art
Using code as a medium for making visual art