Dev in the Time of COVID-19

written by Zach Morrissey on 1/20/2022

Been a while!

This is the first post I’ve written here since Feb 2020. That was a long two-year gap. There’s likely no explanation needed for most. I didn’t keep my promise to publish more often.

I’m usually a voracious learner outside of work. It’s partially due to the fact that I’m a career-switching developer, and for ~3-5 years most of the gains I had in this new track came from extracurriculars. It’s also partly due to the fact that I am always usually some combination of bored with current tasks, frustrated with current tech, or curious about new stuff. I am normally able to make time every week to try something out, watch some videos, hammer out some bad code, etc.

COVID-19 changed all of that. I’m also a data junkie to a fault, so I’ve been glued to case numbers, virology experts, newly released studies. I’ve been fairly cautious throughout most of the pandemic, but I’m not immune to anxiety. I’ve noticed myself worrying more as I read more. As I became more anxious, I spent less time learning because I found it harder to disconnect. Now that I and my family have been vaccinated, I’m hoping to gain some of that patience and willpower to learn on my own again.

The Last Two Years

Let’s look at the stuff I’ve been working with / on.

Typescript Everywhere

This is the major technological development for me over this time. I stumbled on a nascent Typescript around when I started doing web development in earnest, circa ~2016-17. It was far from a sure thing to succeed at that point, but it’s absolutely ubiquitous now. 100% of the frontend work that I do is in TS, and plenty of the backend work that I do as well. There’s a lot to love here, but I think it’s a combination of a few things:

  1. Ecosystem - TS adoption is almost ubiquitous at this point. I rarely have to use a library without available types, and when I do it’s not particularly difficult to wrap that in my own type-safe code.
  2. Documentation - The TS docs themselves are a comprehensive reference. Not very easy to browse/read, but most of the answers I need come from the docs as opposed to Stack Overflow. The only things I have to go hunting for generally are little-used or esoteric.
  3. Tooling - TS makes web development in any editor significantly better. VS Code type-checking is comprehensive enough that, once you’ve learned the basics, it’s easier to write Typescript than Javascript.

Recipe Development

I actually learned to use cooking as my primary means of post-work relaxation during the pandemic. I’d learned very early on that it forced me to be away from my phone. It made me use my hands.

I started to make the same recipes over and over again. I began to jot down notes about what I’d changed and why I changed it. Some is technique, some is using new ingredients, some is synthesizing multiple recipes that didn’t quite work for me. I’ve been meaning to publish a handful on this site and I intend to do that this year. I’ve been learning how recipe SEO works.

Cycling

Another way I forced myself to disconnect from the world this year was cycling.

I went from a 1x monthly to a 4x weekly rider. Due to the weather turning worse for the season, I’ve slowed my frequency but intend to pick back up again in the spring. For a while, I felt most free and level-headed when I just suited up, threw on a podcast, and peddled as far in one direction as my legs would take me and the sunlight would last. Living in Seattle, I lose the ability to bike in the sun after work during the winters. I’ve noticed a drastic effect on my mood from the sunlight, cardio, and general seclusion that comes from riding.

What’s Coming Soon

Now that we’re into 2022, and I’ve been a developer for over four years, what am I going to focus on next?

Web Web Web Web

I’ve always enjoyed web development most of any type of dev-related work, but I’m committing to making this my primary focus. I’ve been primarily a backend dev for most of my career. I’ve only ever been a frontend-as-needed type of person. In the past two years I cobbled together some meaningful interfaces, and it made me realize the user connection of developing the frontend is invigorating. Feels like I get to make tools useful in a way that the backend work just hadn’t allowed me to.

I’m hoping to do some experimentation with some different web technologies, ones that I’ve not used before. UI frameworks that aren’t React, WebAssembly, newer CSS features, performance optimization.

Being Offline

I’m working on strategies to be able to not live online all the time. This is a common struggle I’ve noticed both in others and myself over the past few years. Even when I’m in a time I set aside specifically to work, in a place where I’ve got focus, I find it hard not to drift. I think that years of having entertainment be so easily accessed has done a number on my ability to concentrate.

I’ve noticed that my favorite part of backpacking (or other off-the-grid activities) is regaining my patience and attention span during those times where I’m not constantly drawn away from the moment by my computer or phone.

Creating Learning Materials

My penchant for doodling on this site and my desire to make useful content is bound to collide in some way. I think I’m going to look into creating reference materials. I love a good diagram or well-formed cheatsheet.

I’d like to make some short-form, targeted content for learning specific frameworks, language features, or concepts. I am planning on creating a new section of the site for it, but we’ll see how that goes. Either way, I’d learn something out of it.