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Nick Taylor
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Posted on • Updated on • Originally published at nickyt.co

My 2023 Year in Review

Another year, another year in review. Let's get to it!

Work

2022 ended with layoffs at Netlify, so coming back from the Christmas break still felt a bit weird. I was glad that I was not part of the layoffs, but it still felt weird surviving them.

Regardless, I got back in the saddle for 2023. Being on the frameworks team at Netlify means you never have a dull day. 😅

I ended up creating the Remix Netlify Edge Functions adapter.

feat: implemented Remix server adapter and runtime for Netlify #16

Description

Related Tickets & Documents

Disregard this failed check. I'm having issues unlinking it from the repository. It's not related to the project.

CleanShot 2023-02-07 at 16 55 25

QA Instructions, Screenshots, Recordings

Local Development Steps

  1. Checkout this branch, e.g. via the GitHub CLI, gh co 16
  2. Run npm install
  3. Ensure you have the Netlify CLI installed/updated. See https://docs.netlify.com/cli/get-started/
  4. Run ntl build --offline
  5. Run ntl serve
  6. The local version of the edge demo site loads.

CleanShot 2023-02-08 at 07 43 46

Testing Deployed Site

  1. Ensure the deploy preview, one of the checks below, loads and that if you look in the Network panel of the devtools in the browser, that it has the cache control header set, i.e. cache-control: public, max-age=31536000, s-maxage=31536000

CleanShot 2023-02-07 at 16 53 02

For us to review and ship your PR efficiently, please perform the following steps:

  • [x] Open a bug/issue before writing your code 🧑‍💻. This ensures we can discuss the changes and get feedback from everyone that should be involved. If you`re fixing a typo or something that`s on fire 🔥 (e.g. incident related), you can skip this step.
  • [x] Read the contribution guidelines 📖. This ensures your code follows our style guide and passes our tests.
  • [x] Update or add tests (if any source code was changed or added) 🧪
  • [ ] Update or add documentation (if features were changed or added) 📝
  • [x] Make sure the status checks below are successful

A picture of a cute animal (not mandatory, but encouraged)

A hamster eating spaghetti

I also, along with the rest of the team, continued to work on the Next.js runtime for Netlify.

GitHub logo netlify / next-runtime

The Next.js Runtime allows Next.js to run on Netlify with zero configuration

Next.js Runtime

Next.js Runtime

This package handles the build process and creates the runtime environment for Next.js sites on Netlify. You should not normally need to install it yourself, as it is used automatically during builds of Next.js sites. See the docs for using Next.js on Netlify for more details.

Next.js is supported natively on Netlify, and in most cases you will not need to install or configure anything. This repo includes the packages used to support Next.js on Netlify.

Prerequisites

  • Next.js 13.5 or later
  • Node.js 18 or later
  • The latest version of the Netlify CLI

Deploying

If you build on Netlify, the Next.js Runtime will work with no additional configuration.

Manually installing the Next.js Runtime

The Next.js Runtime installs automatically for new Next.js sites on Netlify. You can also install it manually in the following ways:

From the UI (Recommended)

You can go to the UI and choose the site to…

Eventually, the Remix Netlify Functions adapter made its way into the remix-compute repository, but that was more Logan from the Remix team than me. I just brought it across the finish line.

feat: migrate remix-netlify adapter #83

Description

Related Tickets & Documents

  • Closes #82

QA Instructions, Screenshots, Recordings

Note that for the time being, it's expected that the E2E tests fail for a PR from an external contributor. They don't get access to the token to run them. I've checked and they do pass when running manually.

CleanShot 2023-07-10 at 15 15 45

For Serverless Demo

  1. From the root of the project, run npm run build:demo
  2. Run ntl serve to start the serverless demo site.
  3. Run npm run e2e to start up Cypress.
  4. Choose end to end tests from the Cypress UI.
  5. Run the smoke test for the serverless demo site.
  6. All tests pass.

For Edge Demo

  1. From the root of the project, run npm run build:edge-demo
  2. Run ntl serve to start the serverless demo site.
  3. Run npm run e2e to start up Cypress.
  4. Choose end to end tests from the Cypress UI.
  5. Run the smoke test for the serverless demo site.
  6. All tests pass.

For us to review and ship your PR efficiently, please perform the following steps:

  • [x] Open a bug/issue before writing your code 🧑‍💻. This ensures we can discuss the changes and get feedback from everyone that should be involved. If you`re fixing a typo or something that`s on fire 🔥 (e.g. incident related), you can skip this step.
  • [x] Read the contribution guidelines 📖. This ensures your code follows our style guide and passes our tests.
  • [x] Update or add tests (if any source code was changed or added) 🧪
  • [x] Update or add documentation (if features were changed or added) 📝
  • [x] Make sure the status checks below are successful ✅

A picture of a cute animal (not mandatory, but encouraged) image

More Layoffs

More layoffs happened at Netlify in July, which I did survive once again, but I saw some great teammates leave the organization. It was stressful, and the work I did on the frameworks team was pretty demanding as well, and I kind of got burnt out.

That said, my team there is still awesome and my manager, Marc Littlemore (@marclittlemore) was the best. Always championing for me and always up for a good chat even during stressful times. Aside from Marc, Claire Knight, who was my previous manager and then director of my part of the organization, was also wonderful. Both are really great, genuine people who have your back. No Game of Thrones shit going on there. I was so lucky to have them as managers.

In the end, though, it was time for a change. I want to thank all my Netlipeeps for being so awesome while I was there.

New Beginnings

For those that know me, I'm a big fan of open source. I've been working in open source since 2015, and professionally since January 2020. I actually used to work at dev.to where you might be reading this year in review post.

The way I decide to contribute to open source projects is I find a project I like, use, or both. That's how it started for DEV, and that's how it started for where I work now, OpenSauced!

I think my first contribution to the OpenSauced organization was a couple of years ago. I was a fan of all the work Brian Douglas (@bdougieyo) had been doing at GitHub in DevRel, and in his new company, OpenSauced.

I first met bdougie on the DEV Twitch stream a couple of years ago where we discussed Hacktoberfest, open source and OpenSauced.

And then we hung out again a couple of times on my own Twitch stream.

Fast-forward to me contributing to some of the projects in the OpenSauced org, and now I work there as a Senior Software engineer!

I started there, September 18th and haven't looked back. We had a successful Product Hunt launch in the fall, I shipped a tonne of stuff, and we've got all kinds of goodies coming in 2024!

OpenSauced Product Hunt Launch

Content Creation

It was another big year for content creation for me.

Blogging

First off, I have to give a big shoutout to my good friend and now co-worker Bekah (@bekahhw). Although I had blogged before working at OpenSauced, she pushed me to blog more.

I'm not going to list all my posts, but I wanted to drop a few that, I thought, were pretty solid.

Live Streaming

Streaming on Twitch

It was another big year for me on Twitch. Consistency is the name of the game. So many great guests throughout the year. I wrapped up the 2023 live stream season with Saron Yitbarek (@saronyitbarek) with a great discussion about Not A Designer.

Streaming on the CFE YouTube Channel

I've been a fan of Brian Rinaldi's (@remotesynth) for a while. He's doing so many great things in the developer community, so when he asked if I'd like to start guest streaming on the CFE YouTube channel, it was a no-brainer.

The live stream is called 2 Full 2 Stack and I do it once a month, typically the second to last week of the month.

Here's one of the episodes if you want to get a feel for the live stream.

Podcasting

My own podcast went to the wayside in 2023. I've got to get that back up and running in 2023. 😅

I still managed to make it on a bunch as a guest, though.

JavaScript Jam Podcast: Open Source Framework Maintenance with Nick Taylor from Netlify

Hadith tech with Nick Taylor

Virtual Coffee Podcast, Season Seven Finale - Live with Nick Taylor

Jamstack Radio Ep. #138, What’s New with Next.js Featuring Nick Taylor of OpenSauced

Talks

I gave some more talks at meetups and lunch and learns, but this year was the first time I gave a conference talk. Unfortunately, it wasn't in person, but it still felt good to give my first conference talk.

Nick Taylor's Node Congress 2023 Talk, Fresh: a New Full Stack Web Framework for Deno

Once again, I was a part of the front-end test fest expoert panel. It was great hanging with Colby and Christina and Joe.

Here's all my talks if you want to check them out.

Conferences

This was my first year attending conferences. Originally, I had planned to attend the one conference, RenderATL thanks to my work education stipend, but Netlify also sent me to Remix Conf. Later in the summer, I decided to attend one in Toronto on my own dime which was super fun as well, Refactor: DX.

I finally got to meet a tonne of people that I'd only ever spoken to on Zoom or Twitter. So great connecting with so many folks.

Here's a few pics:

Remix Conf

Me and Ashley Narcisse at Remix Conf

Me and Shruti Kapoor at Remix Cong

Me and Henri Helvetica at Remix Conf

Me, Kent, Heather and Edmund at Remix Conf 2023

Here's my whole Remix Conf 2023 album for anyone interested.

RenderATL

Me and a bunch of my virtual coffee crew at RenderATL

Me, Nerando and Taylor at RenderATL

Me, Danny Thompson and Francesco Ciulla at RenderATL

Me and Shaundai Person at RenderATL

Me and Ryan Burgess at RenderATL

Here's my whole RenderATL 2023 album if folks want to check out more pics.

Refactor: DX

Me, James Quick, and Joe Young at Refactor: DX 2023

Me, Taz Singh and Stefan Judis at Refactor: DX 2023

Me and Darcy Clarke at Refactor: DX 2023

Me and Rishab Kumar at Refactor: DX 2023

Here's my whole Refactor: DX 2023 album if folks would like to check out more pics.

Wrapping Things Up

What a whirlwind year 2023 was. It started off with coming back from Christmas break post layoffs at Netlify and finishing off the year with making a big impact at OpenSauced.

I'm pumped for 2024! How about you?

Photo by Kajetan Sumila on Unsplash

Other places you can find me at:

🎬 YouTube

🎬 Twitch
🎬 nickyt.live
💻 GitHub
👾 My Discord
🐦 Twitter/X
🧵 Threads
🎙 My Podcast
🗞️ One Tip a Week Newsletter
🌐 My Website

Top comments (12)

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thomasbnt profile image
Thomas Bnt ☕

That's one fantastic year I've just read! Well done Nick! 🥳

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nickytonline profile image
Nick Taylor

Chow Yun-fat giving a thumbs up

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bekahhw profile image
BekahHW

Thanks, Nick! I’m lucky to be on your team and to see you crushing it everyday. I’m convinced that if you didn’t need sleep, you could take over the world 😎

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nickytonline profile image
Nick Taylor

Captain America saluting

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glenmccallumcan profile image
Glen McCallum

Good on you for leaving Netlify. Companies that use multiple rounds of layoffs as a cost cutting measure need to learn that it affects everyone. It's hard on "survivors" too. The best people have options and move on.

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nickytonline profile image
Nick Taylor

Thanks, Glen. It was a tough decision as I worked with some awesome people.

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trag profile image
Chris Traganos

Great job on your year in review @nickytonline! It's exciting to hear you're at OpenSauced now -- I love the mission and what @bdougieyo and your crew are building.

QQ: I'm curious on the Twitch streaming versus just going straight to YouTube Live / YT Premiere -- often I see that majority of developers I'm working with all have YT and just the gamer-center devs having/caring about Twitch. Also I find that the livestream recordings perform best on YT over time and Twitch makes it circular to access. Would love to know your perspective on this!

Here's to a stellar 2024 for you and what you build 🥳 🛠️

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nickytonline profile image
Nick Taylor

Thanks Chris!

Yeah, I've been thinking about where to stream. A lot of folks I know stream to multiple platforms. I tried briefly streaming on multiple platforms but was worried about diluting a following, but I think I may do it again. Can't hurt. Plus I'm trying to bump my YT numbers up anyways.

Here's to an awesome 2024 to you as well!

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uncommonnayana profile image
Nayana

Woah, I want to work my way up to such a great year in the hindsight!

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nickytonline profile image
Nick Taylor

Yeah!

A T-Rex saying Yeah!

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marclittlemore profile image
Marc Littlemore

Thanks for your kind words mate! 🙏

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Nick Taylor

Kylo Ren on Undercover Boss giving a thumbs up