The 2021 Retrospective
2021 is almost over and it's that time when we're all asked to reflect on what we've achieved over the past year. How did you do? Did you meet all your goals? Are you now sitting back after building and launching that app you always wanted, with perpetual income forever guaranteed from only a couple of hours work a week? Congratulations if so...
The fact is, coronavirus is still here, another lockdown is looking imminent and we're still living in uncertain times. It's hard not to look at all that and not feel beaten down, especially if you're a pessimist like me. It's especially difficult to have the motivation to ship anything with all that going on.
For me, 2021 has been....different - I've tried a variety of new things, such as paid technical writing and youtube, trying not to become pigeonholed. The trouble is none of these new ventures have been massively successful for me. "Of course not", I hear you say - I mean it's only been a year right? I've struggled therefore with what I should put effort into which probably shows in the quality of what I create. It's all a little haphazard right now...
I have really enjoyed myself with each new venture though, which helps. It's taught me a number of different skills like editing and given me freedom which is something I very much am thankful for. Hopefully some of these ventures will begin yielding fruit in 2022 so it's obvious where I should be spending my time.
Hope you enjoy this issues links - which feature a bit of a banking slant today. As always, if you have any comments on them or content suggestions for the future, please feel free to reply to this email and let me know.
Until next time, keep on shipping!
Ian
Stories
14 pieces of bad advice aspiring entrepreneurs should ignore
I really liked this take on advice that you should probably ignore if you're looking to be a founder from Matt Visiwig.
An oral history of Bank Python
Did you know that banks use their own proprietary versions of Python in the financial industry? This article takes you through how it works.
Keeping on the banking theme, I found this interview with Monzo founder Tom Blomfield really interesting. I had no idea that the company was originally built from a big chunk of Starling Banks original employees at the time. A subsequent interview with Starling CEO Anne Boden adds a bit from her side of the story too.
Code
Advent of Javascript
An advent calendar of Javascript challenges delivered by email to solve each day.
Full-Text Campaign Templates
A collection of pre-written email templates from Userlist for a variety of scenarios. Includes, onboarding, upgrading and failed payments.
Open Doodles - Free sketchy illustrations
An awesome library from Pablo Stanley of sketchy illustrations of people free for personal and commercial use.
How SQL Injection attack works with examples 💉🔓
If you're building any kind of service on the web, you should understand how it can be compromised. This post from Guilherme Latrova goes through how SQL Injection attack works and explores it using Python and Flask....
VirtualBeeb - BBC Micro 3D simulation
This virtual BBC Micro build for its 40th birthday is so much fun to use. It's packed with many games for you to enjoy and even features the clicky clack of keys as you. I can now try out Chuckie Egg.
Building Stripe Tax
Understanding and correctly invoicing for Tax on the internet is so complex, so it's great that Stripe are finally making a move in this area. This article goes through the complexities in building a global tax platform.