Back in the saddle (of writing) Apr 2022
Things That Are Surprisingly Good For The Cost (AKA How I want to build my tiny house) Mar 2022
Bootstrapping streetcars in Golden Mar 2022
Fixing Ford and Washington Mar 2022
A New Old Financial Product Mar 2022
About Roundabouts Mar 2022
Write It Now Oct 2021
Collateralizing Mortgages and Loans With the Present Value of Rent Flow Oct 2021
Planned Unit Design Document (work-in-progress) Oct 2021
Migrating my Jekyll site to Netlify Sep 2021
Parking in Golden Aug 2021
The Violence of God and the Hermeneutics of Paul Aug 2021
Depression Jul 2021
Issues related to the city of Golden Jul 2021
RailsConf Presentation: ‘Junior’ Developers are a Solution to Many of your Problems May 2021
Josh Thompson presentation to Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Mar 2021
RailsConf CFP Outline Mar 2021
Structural Holes and Good Ideas Mar 2021
The Housing Market Is Absolutely Insane: How To Fix It Feb 2021
Driven by Compression Progress Feb 2021
Two Critical Books and Two Critical Articles (For ‘Software People’) Jan 2021
Dizzying but Invisible Depth Jan 2021
Ethan Magnass’ sermons from Grace Anglican Church in Grove City, PA Dec 2020
Fred Roger’s Method For Writing Scripts Sep 2020
Cultivate the Skill of Undivided Attention, or ‘Deep Work’ (Crosspost from letterstoanewdeveloper.com) Aug 2020
Full Copy of ‘The Atlanta Zone Plan’ from 1922 Aug 2020
My Thoughts on Eric Weinstein’s Thoughts on Pia Kalani’s Thoughts Aug 2020
How To Write A Letter of Recommendation for Yourself Aug 2020
Build a Personal Website in Jekyll - A Detailed Guide For First-Timers Aug 2020
A Runbook for Upgrading Your Parent’s Junky Old Laptop to a Chromebook Jul 2020
Medusa mythical creature: part 1 Jul 2020
Medusa mythical creature: part 2 Jul 2020
2019 Annual Review Jan 2020
Refactoring practice: Get rid of attr_accessors in ogre.rb in 2 minutes Jan 2020
Mythical Creatures: Refactoring wizard.rb Jan 2020
How to take payments via Stripe on a Static Site Dec 2019
Change your MAC address with a shell script Dec 2019
POODR Notes: Acquiring Behavior Through Inheritance (Chapter 6) Nov 2019
Aggregate and deduplicate your deprecation warnings in Rails Oct 2019
Notes from ‘Why We Sleep’ Sep 2019
How I take notes, AKA ‘Add an Index to Your Notebook’ Sep 2019
LeetCode: Words From Characters, and Benchmarking Solutions Aug 2019
Book Notes: ‘Why We Get Fat’ by Gary Taube Aug 2019
Book Notes: ‘The Case Against Sugar’ by Gary Taube Aug 2019
How to Run Your Rails App in Profiling Mode Jul 2019
Setting up Application Performance Monitoring in DataDog in your Rails App Jul 2019
Load Testing your app with Siege Jul 2019
Benchmarking a page protected by a login with Apache Benchmark Jun 2019
Deliberate Practice in Programming with Avdi Grimm and the Rake gem Jun 2019
Turing Prep Chapter 4: Arrays, Hashes, and Nested Collections Jun 2019
Exploring source code via Griddler and Griddler-Mailgun May 2019
Turing Prep Chapter 3: Moar Mythical Creatures May 2019
Turing Prep appendix: Troubleshooting Errors May 2019
Turing Prep Chapter 2: Run your first tests (and make them pass) May 2019
Turing Prep Chapter 1: Make Mod 1 Easier Than It Otherwise Would Be May 2019
2018 In Review & Thoughts on 2019 May 2019
Troubleshooting Chinese Character Sets in MySQL Apr 2019
VCR’s debug_logger and git diff Apr 2019
Climbing in Cuba, 2019 Apr 2019
Some Lessons Learned While Preparing for Two Technical Talks Mar 2019
HTTParty and to_json Mar 2019
Job Hunting Recommendations for Early-Career Software Developers Feb 2019
2018 Reading Review & Recommendations Feb 2019
Pry-ing into a Stack Trace Feb 2019
How To Procfile: Run Just a Single Process Feb 2019
Whole Messages in Slack Feb 2019
The Complete Guide to Rails Performance: basic setup Nov 2018
Growing in your first software development job Nov 2018
Primitive Obsession & Exceptional Values Oct 2018
ls command to show directory contents Oct 2018
Rails Migration: When you can’t add a uniqueness constraint because you already have duplicates Sep 2018
Sidekiq and Background Jobs for Beginners Jul 2018
Mocks & Stubs & Exceptions in Ruby May 2018
Recommended Reading May 2018
Pry Tips and Tricks May 2018
MacOS: Keyboard Shortcut to Toggle Bookmarks Bar in Firefox Feb 2018
Denver.rb meetup notes Feb 2018
Boulder Ruby Group meetup notes Feb 2018
Testing Rake Tasks in Rails Feb 2018
Array divergence in Ruby Feb 2018
How To Take Back Your Attention On The Internet with uBlock Jan 2018
Recommended books from 2017 Jan 2018
MySQL concatenation and casting Jan 2018
2017 In Review & Thoughts on 2018 Jan 2018
My terminal setup Dec 2017
Cultivate Curiosity, or ‘Reasons to be More Childlike’ Dec 2017
Setting up for ‘SQL Queries for Mere Mortals’ Dec 2017
On Friction Dec 2017
Quick Dive into React Oct 2017
Elixir/Phoenix part deux Oct 2017
First pass with Elixir/Phoenix Oct 2017
Blocks and Closures in Ruby Sep 2017
Metaprogramming in Ruby: method_missing Sep 2017
The How and Why of BlockValue Sep 2017
A Retrospective on Seven Months at Turing Aug 2017
Anki and Memorization with Spaced Repetition Software Jun 2017
On Learning Jun 2017
Workflow for developers (AKA My current tools) May 2017
How to Ask Questions of Experts To Gain More than Just Answers May 2017
Switching to Jekyll May 2017
Finding an Edge May 2017
On Cleaner Controllers May 2017
Tour of D3 for Clueless Folk Like Me Apr 2017
Playing with the HTTP send/response cycle in Ruby, without Faraday (“HTTP Yeah You Know Me” project) Apr 2017
Streets in Asheville Feb 2017
2016 - Biggest Lesson, Most Dangerous Books Jan 2017
December Review, January Goals Jan 2017
December 2016 Goals Dec 2016
November 2016 Review Dec 2016
Typing for Programmers Dec 2016
November 2016 Goals Nov 2016
October 2016 Review Nov 2016
Quitting the shallow for the deep Oct 2016
October 2016 Goals Oct 2016
Wrapping my head around local politics 001 Aug 2016
Resources for People with Jobs Jul 2016
How Can You Buy Happiness? Jul 2016
Write Less Say More Jul 2016
Five Lessons Learned in Buenos Aires Jul 2016
Three Android Apps I Use Every Day (and maybe you’ll use them too) Jul 2016
The Millionaire Next Door Jul 2016
Avoid a car accident with a $3 tool Jul 2016
Ruby Tutorial 001 Jun 2016
A message for high schoolers Jun 2016
12 Lessons Learned While Publishing Something Every Day for a Month Jun 2016
Customer Success: American Airlines Case Study Jun 2016
Success is not support Jun 2016
Gratitude 3x/day Jun 2016
An Intro to Customer Success May 2016
62 lessons learned after one year of full-time travel May 2016
On Boldness In Climbing May 2016
An announcement, and a teaser (for you rock climbers) May 2016
Social skills are like any other skills May 2016
Career advice for Millenials. (ugh. I hate this title) May 2016
Who inspires you, and is still alive? May 2016
OK, some new books May 2016
No New Books May 2016
Constraints May 2016
Lay a foundation May 2016
The advantage of low friction goals May 2016
Travel somewhere fun. But first get on Scott’s email list May 2016
Input metrics vs. Output metrics May 2016
Give it 30 days May 2016
Cheap fix to night-time teeth grinding May 2016
My all-time favorite question to ask people (and why you should ask it too) May 2016
How to never accidentally click Twitter’s “Moments” again (and to block anything else on the internet you don’t want to deal with) - with uBlock May 2016
Find out how much money you’ve made (in your entire life) May 2016
The Slight Edge, and why you should read it May 2016
Overcome (some) barriers in work with this magic phrase May 2016
What I’ve learned from cooking in 36 kitchens in the last year May 2016
Twenties vs. Thirties (from a feeling-behind-the-curve 27 year old.) May 2016
Save hundreds by being willing to spend $20 May 2016
Be a little better at personal email May 2016
Why schedule something that doesn’t exist? May 2016
Everything I Do and Think I’ve Read in a Book (or, exploring the relationship between books and money) Mar 2016
About working remotely at Litmus with Pajamas.io Mar 2016
On Minimalism Mar 2016
Circles of Influence Mar 2016
On Money (again) Feb 2016
Thoughts on Money from 2013 Jan 2016
Learning Spanish: Conversation connectors Jan 2016
2015: The year I didn’t think much? Jan 2016
Two Things That Are Helping Me (Finally) Learn Spanish Jan 2016
On Fables: Finishing up Antifragile Jan 2016
Limitations of My Own Thinking Nov 2015
Upgrade your job Oct 2015
So you want to work remotely… Sep 2015
Trip Report: New River Gorge Sep 2015
Piece by Piece Jul 2015
Type. Publish. Done. Jul 2015
Maybe “Now” Is Not the Right Time Jul 2015
A little bit of slope makes up for a lot of y-intercept Jun 2015
“A delicate mix of chess… and bear wrestling” Nov 2014
Do Not Work in Isolation Oct 2014
A Small Goal is Better than a Grand Plan Oct 2014
Can You Recover From Months (YEARS!) of Not Climbing? Oct 2014
Letter to Two Climbers (Part 2) Oct 2014
Letter to Two Climbers (Part 1) Oct 2014
Your “Community” Should Not Be Local Oct 2014
Why Your Belayer is Keeping You from Climbing Hard(er) Oct 2014
Three Levels of Competence Sep 2014
Don’t Focus on the Present Sep 2014
Injury Impedes Improvement Sep 2014
$150 Custom-Made Standing Desk Jul 2014
Tiny Habits take 2 Jul 2014
Taking the Plunge with Colemak Jul 2014
Focus: One Thing at a Time Jul 2014
Winter on Two Pairs of Socks Jul 2014
Benefits of helplessness Jul 2014
Hidden Damages of the Introvert vs. Extrovert “debate” Jul 2014
Be Gentle to You Jul 2014
Blessed to be Sick Jul 2014
A 40 Hour Work Week Jul 2014
STOP YELLING ON THE INTERNET, or, A Better Use for the Caps Lock Key Jul 2014
Learn to Type - Again Jul 2014
The Present You Jul 2014
“Cooking” is so much more Jul 2014
Typing in Colemac 2.0 Jul 2014
A Five-Hour Experiment Jul 2014
Use an Alarm to Go to Bed Jul 2014
Illdefined Success is Unattainable Jul 2014
What Do You Do? Jul 2014
The Power of an Audacious Goal Jul 2014
Corollas and U-Hauls Jul 2014
Habits Take Preparation Jul 2014
Accomplishments and Achievements Jul 2014
Change Jun 2014
Why I Eat Bacon Every Day (And You Should Too) Apr 2014
Fry Your Pizza Apr 2014
Playing Pranks Apr 2014
How to Move Mar 2014
Falling into Place Mar 2014
Back in the Saddle Mar 2014
Act a Fool, or: Motion vs. Action Mar 2014
Five Days to Inbox Zero: How to Get Control of your Email Feb 2014
Talent is Overrated Jan 2014
How to complete a project Jan 2014
Make Hard Things Easier by Removing Friction Dec 2013
Monthly Review: November Dec 2013
Processes Vs. Goals (or, Systems vs. Accomplishments) Nov 2013
Monthly Review: October Nov 2013
Redefining Success Nov 2013
How to fly… like a boss Oct 2013
Persistence Sep 2013
Train Hard Sep 2013
Content but Restless Sep 2013
Mentors and Attitude Aug 2013
Feedback pt. 2 Aug 2013
Things You Can’t Do from Behind a Computer, pt. 1 Aug 2013
On Feedback Aug 2013
20 Things 20-Year-Olds Don’t Get Aug 2013
Cancel Your Cable. Seriously. Aug 2013
Waking Up Early, Part 3 Aug 2013
Dream Big, and Build Optionality Jul 2013
My Good Friends (Who Don’t Know Me) Jul 2013
Why I use a Kindle Jul 2013
Rules for Fighting Fair Jul 2013
Waking Up Early 2.0 Jul 2013
Crock Pots are Foolproof, Right? Jul 2013
First five meals from The 4-Hour Chef Jul 2013
Simplify, simplify, simplify Jul 2013
June trip to the New River Gorge Jul 2013
Krav Maga, or “Crush Balls, Gouge Eyes, and Break Bones” Jun 2013
Climbing in “decking range” Jun 2013
Training for climbing (progress update) Jun 2013
Friends Don’t Let Friends Shortrope May 2013
How to be an awesome belayer May 2013
Daily Exercise - Russian Kettlebells May 2013
How to Wake Up Early May 2013
Lifestyle Design (AKA Intentional Habit Building) May 2013
Habits, Milestones, and Climbing May 2013
Becoming an Early Riser Apr 2013
Preparing to adopt a habit Apr 2013
I Once Worked Hard Apr 2013
Three Ways to Decide What to be When You Grow Up Dec 2012
I write many, many guides/tutorials. Here are some of them. Most of them are so focused that they’re useful to almost no one, but for the person they are useful to? They have the potential to save that person hours-to-days of effort.