The latest articles from Igor Gassmann
When building software that others will use — a library, a framework, a tool — there's a recurring temptation to expose configuration for anything that might vary. It feels like you're giving more power to the user. But most of the time, it's premature. Every option has a cost. More configuration means more documentation, more test surface, more edge cases, and more decisions the user has to…
Starting last month (June 2021) , your page’s Core Web Vitals will be taken into account by Google Search ranking. That means that if you have bad performance results your page might be ranked lower on Google results. You can check how your pages perform on Google Search Console . If you’re using Webflow, it’s not very clear what are the most effective changes you can bring to improve the…
A few months ago I applied for my dream job. A Product Engineer role at a startup named Stir. I researched all I could find about them and applied like everyone else through their job application form. After a few steps in the job application process, the conversation started to die off. I followed up for weeks, but I wouldn’t get any more replies. I started to give up and went looking for other…
You might be starting a YouTube channel, or you are a YouTuber and you're trying to figure out how to grow your audience, or maybe you want to understand how YouTube’s algorithm works. If you’re one of these people, I’ve saved time for you and compiled the essential videos to get a grasp of how to successfully grow as a YouTuber from the best channels about the subject.
After reading How to Market Yourself by swyx , I got inspired to revamp my online presence starting with the visual aspects of my brand. I identified two key components of my online brand: social profiles (Twitter, GitHub, LinkedIn, Facebook…), and my website. I noticed that I wasn’t being consistent across them. I had two different profile pictures and different bios across the platforms. Social…
Segue abaixo a versão escrita em português. I’ve recently had the honor to be in contact with a local community of creators in Brazil. These creators produce content for at least one of the following platforms: YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. They have together on average an audience of more than 1M followers. Most of them produce entertainment videos. In my pursuit of better understand content…
From where should one start developing an application? Frontend First? API Design-First? Database First? Model First?
This is the stack I would use if I would build a new MVP at this moment. The MVP in mind is any web and mobile application. The idea is to have tools that don’t have a steep learning curve and let you focus on the essential: releasing your MVP . The choices have been influenced by my experience of building a startup in a remote environment during the past two years. Let me know on Twitter what…
I’ve been studying the past weeks the OpenAPI specification and the tools around it. I'm using it as a solution for bringing a REST API closer to continuous delivery. The mentioned API lacks automated testing. Contract testing is the first sane step towards achieving continuous delivery. Thanks to OpenAPI and its tool ecosystem, it can generate contract tests. The strategy consists of first having…
Here are the resources I believe one should consume when getting into Test-Driven Development, a.k.a. TDD: TDD & The Lump Of Coding Fallacy The Art of Agile Development: Test-Driven Development Mocks Aren't Stubs Workflows of Refactoring If you have any other resource you believe should part of this list, tweet me it.
There’s something that my life keeps remembering me. The value of communicating. I would even say the value of over-communicating. Even though over implies too much communication, I believe that is rarely the case. Over-communicate how you feel to your loved ones; Over-communicate to your co-workers; Over-communicate to your audience; ... The idea of communicating goes hands in hands with the…
Here are the ideas I’m currently diving deep into: Software Development DDD-Oriented Architecture Clean Architecture Refactoring Software Testing TDD Test Pyramid Unit Testing Contract Testing OpenAPI Contract Testing Wire Mocking VCR Software Security ABAC OIDC API Design OpenAPI
Since December of last year, I’m part of a community of curious, ambitious and critical people. This community are the participants of the education program Praxis . This community is currently hosted on a Facebook Workplace website. There we used to discuss work, philosophy, personal struggles, technology, memes… pretty much everything that we were interested in. Each of these themes were…
Today I drove about 1000 miles in 14 hours. Naturally, I felt sleepy sometimes. I’m conscious of the danger of driving when you’re almost falling asleep, so I developed some practices to avoid these types of situations. The most popular way to avoid getting sleepy when driving is to drink an energy drink or a lot of coffee. It’s a useful technique, but it’s also not the best on your health. My two…
During the past month, I experienced a growth in confidence in many activities. I became more confident doing hard trail runs, driving boldly, and speaking to other people. Confidence improves your performance in almost every aspect. The lack of hesitation will make you more efficient. For example, when I was running a trail in Yosemite last week, two persons that were physically more capable than…
It’s not uncommon to hear that people who come back from long travel have changed. Why is this the case? How can a simple trip to another place on earth changes someone's character and beliefs? When we’re abroad, our usual environment changes. Our routines are broken. Your days are different. The people we pass by on the street, the landscapes, and the place we use to sleep. Many times all these…
During the first semester of this year, I developed a few Java EE web projects. Before starting to code and build something, I needed to decide how I would structure and organize the application’s components. After researching for a moment, I became obsessed with these concepts. There were so many different ways to structure an app, and I wanted to find the most appropriate one for the project…
As an individual with a diverse cultural background, I have always been interested in the differences between cultures. My experience involves mostly the Brazilian and the French-speaking Swiss cultures since I lived in those two countries for a considerable time. Each of them has pros and cons personally. For example, Brazilians are very outgoing. You can go out on a night alone, and people would…
During the 2nd year of my apprenticeship as a developer, we received an offer from the local hospital. They wanted us to develop a mobile app for people who have apraxia of speech. Apraxia of speech is a disorder in which the person has difficulty speaking. It frequently happens because of vascular lesions. The app would help those people by playing videos for them. The videos would consist of a…
During the last year of a Swiss developer apprenticeship, the apprentice has to develop a project in 3 weeks to demonstrate that he is capable of handling a project by himself. At the end of the last month, as an apprentice, I was assigned to develop a web application for the university where I work. This application would be used by university’s employees to view and manage work place…