Glenn Stovall

Stop Writing, Start Constructing

Writing isn’t a linear process. It’s an exploratory process where you never know where you’ll end up. Here's how to rewild your drafting process

Two Templates That Make Running an Interview Podcast Easier

It's pandemic summer. I'm isolated, I'm bored. I decide to leverage my broadcast experience (former host of AM radio show Classic Country and also reading the weather & eulogies, coming to you live from the internet) and start a podcast: Production Ready. I want it to be conversational and fun.

Writing

What I Learned Writing 100 Notes

Earlier in the year, I decided to write and publish 100 notes in a public notebook. Here are the key takeaways from that experiment. This kind of prolific creation habit can help you clarify your thinking and do better work.

defi

Build Your Own High-Yield Savings Account

I've been dipping my toes into Decentralized Finance(DeFi). In my opinion, the gains are real but temporary. I've been trying to map out the easiest path to roll your own high-yield savings account. Here's what I came up with: How To Set Your High-Yield Savings Account1. Set up an

defi

Liquidity Pooling Explained With Settlers of Catan

I've been studying Decentralized Finance(DeFi) for two months, playing board games since I was six. So here's Liquidity Pooling in explained with Settlers of Catan:

front-end development

How to Improve Website Performance

Website performance affects your users' experience, SEO, and conversion rates. Users are happier with a site that loads quickly. Google rewards sites that provide that experience with higher search engine rankings. And having a site that loads fast is easier to use for people in areas with low-quality connections. In

Antifragile Interviewing

Interviewing for a technical position is stressful. It burns out and breaks down many a developer. But with the right mindset, you can use the process to improve your interviewing skills and become a better developer. When it comes to interviewing, you need to be more antifragile. In this article,

The Wolf Test

Dealing with recruiter spam on LinkedIn, for good. I've recently implemented a change to my LinkedIn profile, one that helps me filter out automated recruiter spam. I call it "The Wolf Test" Here's how it works: Replace your first name with an emoji of your choice. I went with the

Indie Dev

When the client won't pay for testing

If an agency or project manager ever tells you "the client won't pay for testing." This comment is a process smell, a surefire sign of communication and project management issues. Here's what to do instead:

Writing

Name Your Next Product With This Exercise

How do you come up with a product name? or a business name? Naming products is a hard but learnable skill. There are agencies that provide names-as-a-service. ZinZin’s existence corroborates the idea that naming can be distilled into a repeatable process. When you’re feeling stuck, it

Indie Dev

Squads: The Cure for Indie Isolation

Since reading this essay, I can’t stop thinking about the concept of squads: people working independently in an interdependent fashion. If you are curious about what squads are, how they can be helpful, or about starting or creating one, this is for you. I encourage you to read the

Deep Forest Tech

Birds Aren't Real: The Lies of Tech Twitter

This entry is part 2 of 2 in the blogchain Deep Forest Tech Social media can give developers a false sense of the tech landscape, especially if they are newer and don’t have as much real-world experience. understanding why requires understand what drives tech content. The new drives

Deep Forest Tech

Exploring Tech's Deep Forest

This entry is part 1 of 2 in the blogchain Deep Forest Tech The tech industry isn’t what you think it is. When people think of the tech industry, they tend to think of startups. They see the companies that make up the FANGMAN stocks. They think about

Tech Strategy

SaaS Under The Surface

The Unknown Unknowns of Building a SaaS Application Some vital parts of a sustainable software business easily get overlooked. Building a Software-as-a-service(SaaS) is much more complicated than it looks on the surface. Creating a piece of software that you charge other people money for means that you have added

podcast

Production Ready Season 1 Summary

Everyone has their pandemic hobbies. Some people bake bread, others play Animal Crossing, I started a podcast. I’m looking for ways to connect with people online and have more conversations about the “non-technical side of software development.” I enjoy coding, but I’m tired of most of

Tech Strategy

Move Fast, Break Things, Slow Down

Facebook started with a saying: “Move fast and break things.” Later on, they updated it to say: “Move Fast with stable infrastructure.” Why did Zuck change his tune? First, we need to understand why he had the initial statement. The phrase is common in startups, although

tech tempo

Scrum: Tempo Codified

I can’t think of a more clear example of rhythms in software than Scrum. Scrum is an attempt to codify tempo and wield it as a project management tool. Scrum sets the rhythm with recurring ceremonies: planning meetings, daily scrums, sprint reviews, and sprint retrospectives. You can take

tech tempo

Thinking In Tempo

Since reading Venkatesh Rao’s book Tempo: timing, tactics and strategy in narrative-driven decision-making, I’ve been thinking about how tempo works as a useful mental model when it comes to how software gets built. All software companies, teams, and projects have a tempo. A mental model

Tech Strategy

How to decide when to build software vs. when to buy

All software choices fall somewhere on the build-buy spectrum, & all companies fall somewhere on the ‘tech company’ spectrum. A piece of technology’s ubiquity, price, and proximity to a company’s core competency all play a factor in where it fits on this spectrum. In

Career

Is Your Engineering Focus on Product or Craft?

There are two types of developers in this world, those who care about the product they produce and those that care about doing their craft well. You can tell them apart by how much they ask “why?” Traits of a Product Engineer I was first introduced to the

Career

Stop fighting holy wars

There are many “holy wars” in tech, and you’d be best served to stop participating in them. These discussions are bikeshedding: Spending an outsized amount of time and energy on trivial details. And when talking in public, they don’t paint you in a good

Career

My best developer interview experience

There are many less-than-ideal practices when it comes to interviewing software developers. Some people give whiteboard interviews, which treat your craft like trivia and put you spot. Others provide you with take-home projects that can seem like free labor. Developers looking for work don’t have time to

Career

How software can be racist (and what you can do to stop it)

An audio version of this essay is available as this week’s episode of the Production Ready podcast. Software is powerful and can shift the balance of power in society. Look at how social media has impacted how we talk about politics, and everything else for example. If politics

Remote Work

Quarantine Work is Not Remote Work

I’ve worked remotely for nearly a decade: Either self-employed or at a job, it was always completely or partially remote. I can count myself as blessed during the current situation; I have a full-time job in an industry that hasn’t taken much of a hit. My

CSS

How to position an element at the end of a flexbox row

Flexbox rows may not work quite the way you think. If you want to have a row of elements, and you want to align one element at the end of the row, many CSS rules won’t work. Floats do not apply to elements using flex, so you can&