I just started following Jim Nielson's blog after listening to this wonderful Shoptalk interview. I was inspired by how he shares what he's been reading throughout the month. I love this idea!

It can be hard to discern signal from noise in an era of media abundance. Something new is published every second—blog posts, books, essays, videos, podcasts, tweets, photos, etc. My favorite way of finding potentially impactful new content to consume is through recommendations by people I trust or admire, hence my enjoyment of Jim's posts (and the Shoptalk Show, for that matter).

Because sharing is fun and potentially useful for others, I want to share what I'm learning every month by highlighting the most impactful content I've consumed.

Here's to more signal and less noise!

Book: The Power of Now

The Power of Now has been incredibly impactful after struggling with anxiety, stress, and overwhelm during the past few years. Eckhart Tolle's conversational style of writing on topics such as mindfulness, consciousness, self-awareness, and spirituality is more akin to receiving heartfelt advice from a friend, not dictates from a self-help guru.

This book is easy to read in short spurts, making it the perfect companion when I'm experiencing moments of high anxiety.

It is the quality of your consciousness at this moment that is the main determinant of what kind of future you will experience, so to surrender is the most important thing you can do to bring about positive change.

Article: My first impressions of web3

In the span of six months, I've fallen into and climbed out of the cryptocurrency/web3/NFT rabbit hole. I went deep. I "invested" in coins and NFTs, involved myself in various crypto communities (primarily as a lurker), and spent a lot of time learning about the underlying blockchain technology.

The time I spent investigating the underlying technology paved the way for my losing interest in crypto. I now see it as much more detrimental than beneficial.

This article by Moxie Marlinspike, creator of Signal, put the nail in the coffin for my interest in the current version and utilization of blockchain technology. He outlines how purportedly "decentralized" platforms work, why such platforms aren't truly decentralized, and why decentralization may not even be an ideal outcome for a rapidly evolving ecosystem.

The people at the end of the line who are flipping NFTs do not fundamentally care about distributed trust models or payment mechanics, but they care about where the money is.

Book: Several Short Sentences About Writing

Several Short Sentences About Writing is changing the way I write. I never realized how bloated my sentences were until I started reading this book.

If you're a writer, do yourself a favor and read this book.

Every word in a sentence is optional until it proves to be essential.

Podcast: Command Line Heroes

I recently found out about the Command Line Heroes podcast, and it quickly became my favorite show to binge. In it, host Saron Yitbarek shares stories on computing, software, and technology.

This show is well-researched, concise, and contains countless interviews with developers, programmers, and enthusiasts.

Course: Next.js Firebase Social Blogging Platform

I recently accepted my first client project after taking a lovely six-month sabbatical. However, the project I've accepted is a bit outside of my wheelhouse. Instead of building marketing websites for clients, I'm working on a React.js/TypeScript/Firebase web application. How exciting!

Having never used these technologies in a real-world project, I needed to get up to speed quickly. I worked through a few tutorials before eventually stumbling on this course, offered by Jeff Delaney, creator and author of the immensely popular YouTube channel and course platform Fireship.

Boy, am I happy I found this course when I did. I quickly learned the fundamentals of these technologies while building a fun web application.