Weekly Report #66 - 10x Engineer, Technical Enthusiasm, and Personal Toolbox

Preface#

weekly_review_20240730

This article is a record and reflection on the life of the week from 2024-07-22 to 2024-07-30.

After an exceptionally eventful Adventure X week, I have returned to my daily routine of focusing on coding. I have been busy with some work requirements, continuing the development of the API part of EpubKit using Cloudflare Worker, refactoring the backend of a side project that was started over a year ago but never fully developed using Go, and starting to write an API server in Rust. I also created an Astro web project for my personal toolbox project "GitHub - yu-tools" called "tools.pseudoyu.com". I wrote a tutorial blog for deploying Remark42 and received feasibility validation from a reader who is setting up a blog system. My family and I went to a water park in Qiandao Lake, and I felt like I was living a fulfilling life. I tried watercolor painting and started a garage wall painting project. There are many interesting things happening.

10x Engineers#

randy_10x

Randy recently launched a project called "Ask Hackers", which is a search tool based on Hacker News Comments. It seems that from the conception to the launch and promotion, it only took about one or two days. He came up with a concept called "10x Engineers" who can quickly develop and implement their own ideas, and I envy that.

I have actually done a lot of work and personal projects myself, but I am ashamed to say that although I have touched on various technology stacks and can write a little bit, I still lack the ability to quickly implement and iterate a product. It seems that there is still a missing link between ideas and demos/products. I have discussed this topic with Randy, and he thinks it's a matter of engineering experience. When he sees a certain effect on a website or app, he can roughly guess the implementation method and reproduce it. On the other hand, I still have to rely on looking at source code or consulting AI to barely achieve it.

Technical Passion#

In addition, I found that passion and motivation also influence my behavior. Maybe because I haven't found my own product idea and direction yet, I always feel that when I was working on side projects before, I was just "implementing" or practicing my technical skills. What attracted me was not the final product itself, but the learning and improvement of technical abilities during the implementation process. It's understandable for an individual, but it seems to lack the soul of a product. It's like when I first asked Randy why he no longer updates Cusdis, which has many stars and many self-deployed users, he said that in addition to economic factors, he no longer has the motivation to do it. He can't put more passion into a product that he himself wouldn't use or pay for.

In fact, this is also my problem. It seems that I still haven't found an idea that excites me so much that I can't sleep at night. However, when developing EpubKit together, because I have been a user of e-books for many years, I can have more ideas and passion for the iteration of the product from the perspective of a user, and I feel a sense of accomplishment.

I must be the first user of the product.

Personal Toolbox Project#

yu_tools_website

I have always been a heavy enthusiast of various software and hardware, and I spend a lot of time selecting the most suitable tools for almost every niche requirement, even if the time spent searching far exceeds the time spent using the tools. From university until now, there have been countless people asking me questions like "Do you have any recommended cameras/keyboards/microphones/xxx?" or "Do you have any recommended software for doing xxx on a phone?" So over two years ago, I had the idea of creating a personal toolbox list for myself - "GitHub - yu-tools".

It started as a simple GitHub project with a README.md file, and then gradually added some categories and a brief description for each item. It has been updated periodically over the past two years, and unexpectedly became the repo with the most stars for me.

I have seen a toolbox website made by a developer I really like, Takuya Matsuyama from "devaslife" - "A curated list of the tech I use". He takes photos of each tool and provides his experience using them, which I find very valuable. So one night, I used Astro as a reference and created a website - "tools.pseudoyu.com", which focuses more on software and services. As the number of items increases, I also want to add a conversation search feature similar to "Ask Hackers".

The photography, screenshots, and descriptions of software and hardware are a big project and are continuously being updated. Interested friends can follow it.

Personal Life Highlights#

Watercolor Painting#

rust_painting

One time after dinner, my family and I tried watercolor painting on a fan, which was a completely new experience. I chose a small crab and, with the guidance of my sister, completed this artwork. I'm very happy!!!

Garage Wall Painting#

wall_painting

Since generating the image I wanted to paint on the workshop wall using DALL-E last time, I finally had time to start working on it. The progress is 30%, but because we had a team meeting on Monday night, my sister and I did the painting. I brought a camera but didn't have time to record the complete process, so I regret it a bit. Next time, I will take more photos of the process and details. I'm looking forward to the final result.

Nienie#

nienie_on_desktop

Recently, perhaps sensing my busyness, both of my cats have become more clingy. Every time I write code, Nienie quietly lies on the desk, occasionally stretching or acting cute. It's relaxing and healing.

Interesting Things and Finds#

Discoveries#

Although most interesting discoveries are automatically synchronized in the "Yu's Life" Telegram channel, I will list some of them here. It feels more like a newsletter.

Collections#

Books#

Shape Up, a book written by the founder of Khan Academy about the future of GPT and education, which has inspired me a lot. It provides many possibilities beyond being just a search engine-like tool.

Articles#

Videos#

TV Series#

Where the Wind Blows, watched during meals.