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Mark Nicol
Mark Nicol

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An article a day for November?

Very quick idea. Would anyone else be up for trying to write a dev.to article a day during the rest of November?

This is, of course, a big cheat on my part because I'm counting this as my first one.


My lesson for the day was to always stash your code. Even for experiments.

This post by @srebalaji saved me quite a bit of time.

Long story short I was asked to see if something was possible with our code several months ago. I did the experiment we agreed it worked but not to implement it.

Because our Git branching is already pretty Byzantine I didn't do what I should have done and create a branch for it. Luckily though I did stash it with an almost sensible label.

Today I was asked to make the change, and thanks to having a stashed copy the code was still findable.

Looking back there are a couple of learns for me. Ones I really should have learned long ago.

  • Always keep your code safe.
  • People do change their minds or come back to things
  • A stash can sometimes save your bacon.

Top comments (19)

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theoutlander profile image
Nick Karnik

I’m not sure if I should write for the sake of writing. For me, writing a well thought out article takes time. I still think I can improve the quality of my articles and I’m not sure if I can do that if I write daily. Maybe that’s what it might take. You should by all means do it and not wait for approval from anyone else. I’ll be rooting for you. ;)

Another goal you could explore is to contribute to the dev.to branch daily.

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migben profile image
Miguel Ben

Dude, i can write mathematical proofs and research papers but i dont have the confidence to start doing articles.

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theoutlander profile image
Nick Karnik • Edited

Have you thought about teaching us how to derive a mathematical proof or summarize interesting research papers?

Just start somewhere. I still suck at this, but I try to do better every time I write.

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mark_nicol profile image
Mark Nicol

Thanks Nick - That's a very valid point about the balance of quality and time - and a good suggestion about going for a contribution per day instead.

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helenanders26 profile image
Helen Anderson

Wow that’s ambitious! I tried one every five days for my first couple of months ... that was challenging enough :)

Good luck!

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

I’ll try!!

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anaulin profile image
Ana Ulin 😻

I'm attempting this myself this year, as my own variant of NaNoWriMo. Just published the first one. 🙌🏼

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mark_nicol profile image
Mark Nicol

Thanks Ana - Your pomerdoro article was really good. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with. Good luck.

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anaulin profile image
Ana Ulin 😻

Best of luck to you too. We can do this! 💪🏼

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rpalo profile image
Ryan Palo

I'm in! I might try to write every day, and only put out posts when they're actually finished, though. But usually my posts are relatively long, so I think it'll be good practice to try to focus on a bit shorter posts for a little while! :)

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anonjr profile image
Mark Bussell Jr • Edited

Funny, found this on day 4 of what I've been jokingly calling "Almost NaNoWriMo" :)

Count me in for the long haul, though not everything will be published here as not everything I have on the roster to write about would be a good fit for here.

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aspittel profile image
Ali Spittel

A large part of me wants to try this, but I’m also scared. My posts on average take 8 hours to write, so my quality would be less good. Not sure....

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mark_nicol profile image
Mark Nicol

Thanks - that is a good point about the quality dropping. You produce such lovely crafted helpful articles I can understand why they take time and thoughtfulness.

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

I'm counting #discuss posts etc. as articles in this challenge, personally. I know it's the only way I'll make it.

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aspittel profile image
Ali Spittel • Edited

Thank you so much! After sleeping on it, I think it isn’t realistic for me this year — but maybe next year! Excited to see other people’s posts!

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mark_nicol profile image
Mark Nicol

Cool. This is why I love this site. I'd not really heard of LXC before reading your articles. Really enjoying the series so far.

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jonathansimonney profile image
Jonathan SIMONNEY

Thank you for the article. I've always been a fan of stashing for little experiments / restart with a possible comeback, but I had no idea the stash could have a label.

Thank you for the article.

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drbearhands profile image
DrBearhands

Nobody has an enlightening thought or experience every day. This would be a great source of spam. Please don't.