Writing a development blog: how I did it and what I learned
/ Communication, Development
This blog post shares how I wrote a dev blog, how it went, and what I learned from it. Are you going to do one too?
Hello there!
This human-written blog contains various things I've learned that are worth sharing. Enjoy and feel free to share your feedback.
Traffic Advice, .well-known/traffic-advice, and how to stop the 404 errors in a Next.js app
/ Development
Do you want to fix the 404s of /.well-known/traffic-advice in a Next.js app? What is the Chrome Privacy Preserving Prefetch Proxy?
Simple guide to implementing a place/address autocomplete input with Google APIs and React
/ Development
Making a location autocomplete input isn’t trivial, and even less with Google Cloud APIs. Here is a live demo and a step-by-step guide to do it with React
Unfurl: how to display link previews, like Notion shows web bookmarks, with Next.js
/ Development
Automatically displaying rich previews of highlighted links makes blogs and other content-driven websites much better. Let’s unfurl URLs and preview them using Next.js
How to find accommodation as a digital nomad couple
/ Digital nomad
Finding where to stay next can be a pain in the ass when you’re in a couple. Here are some platforms that my partner and I use to find accommodation
Don’t store app state in the URL with the Next.js router
/ Development
Through sweat and pain, I found again and again that it’s a bad idea to use the URL to store app state for highly dynamic apps.
Letter to self: Read Tribal Leadership
/ Management
Organizational culture unites people, but can also divide them. This is something I reflected on while reading Tribal Leadership, and I would have loved to know it earlier in my career.
How to render images from the Notion API with Next.js image optimization
/ Development
Because the image links of the Notion API expire, we need to find solutions to keep Next.js image optimization working with them.
How to generate an RSS feed with Next.js
/ Development
With Next.js plus one dependency to produce the XML, today it’s so easy to produce an RSS feed. Check out how and copy an example.
How to make large dynamic sitemaps with Next.js and next-sitemap
/ Development
With next-sitemap and rewrites, we can easily generate dynamic sitemaps for thousands of user-generated content URLs.
Working remotely at Selina in Monteverde, Costa Rica
/ Digital nomad
Selina Monteverde has an excellent coworking for digital nomads in a dreamlike location, but it isn’t the coliving I was expecting.
An elegant pattern to implement Authorization checks in React
/ Development
After seeing different ways authorization can be implemented, this is the best approach I’ve found to implement modular, plug-and-play, consistent access control checks.
Tips for living and working remotely from Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Costa Rica
/ Digital nomad
We loved Puerto Viejo de Talamanca. My partner and I stayed during 1 month as digital nomads, so here are some tips about work locations, food, places and getting around that will be useful when you come.
How to set up the Brevo (Sendinblue) tracker in a React TypeScript application
/ Development
Implement Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) in your React TypeScript app faster by not needing to figure out these issues on your own.
When to write tests in the frontend, as a freelancer
/ Development
Here’s how I keep frontend testing useful without overdoing it.
[Deprecated] How to prevent a Planetscale database from going into Sleep Mode with the free Hobby Plan
/ Development
Planetscale’s free Hobby plan makes inactive databases go into sleep mode. How to prevent it? Automation! Here are the steps to prevent your small project database from going into sleep mode.
What is it like to be a Digital Nomad staying at the Coliving Sun and Co. in Xàbia
/ Digital nomad
Located in Xàbia (Jávea), a Mediterranean coastal town in Spain, the coliving Sun and Co. has a great location, community, and environment for remote workers.
Hiring Manager Lessons Learned
/ Management
This blog post is to share some lessons I’ve learned as a hiring manager: Participate in Sourcing, Always Be Planting Seeds, Build Trust with Recruiting, and Set the Bar High with Candidate Experience.
What do we lose if we don’t make this decision?
/ Management
This question brought clarity and alignment to a hard-to-follow discussion. I was so surprised about the result that I wrote this blog post.
Getting others to act with No-Oriented Questions
/ Management
Asking no-oriented questions has improved my ability to influence others. Also, applying this technique to myself has pushed me to get done tedious but meaningful tasks I felt lazy about.
Growth Framework for Direct Reports
/ Management
I defined a baseline framework to manage growth of my direct reports. Not a one-size-fits-all solution, but a starting point.
Adoption of New Tools and Processes
/ Management
Have you ever feel frustrated that a process or tool you rolled out didn’t get adopted? I surely have. I’d ask myself why the heck the team wasn't doing that thing I asked them to do and made so much work for. The problem? My mindset.
How to hand off a direct report without stress
/ Management
Handing off a direct report to another manager can be stressful for the report and the new manager. It’s better to explain the process to both of them before, and then run with it.
How To Communicate And Roll Out Changes: Change Rollout Documents
/ Management
In the day-to-day of the organization, do you know what we don't want any of? Surprise organizational changes. How can leaders roll out both planned and unexpected changes in the least surprising way possible?
How to deliver the manager review part during performance reviews, as a manager
/ Management
This format enables the direct report to have more clarity on each aspect. They can process each bullet point separately. It sticks better.
How to deliver the peer review part during performance reviews, as a manager
/ Management
This year, I've followed a more structured approach with some reviews. Now, my summaries are more accurate with what the peers wrote, as I don't feel tempted to add extra words to glue the different answers. The best is that, during the meeting, it focuses the conversation on the specific topic of the question. It allows pausing, reflecting and discussing each of them.
How to deliver the self review part during performance reviews, as a manager
/ Management
In the past, I've spent many hours preparing each performance review. This year, I've followed a more structured approach. Now, my summaries are more accurate with what the direct report wrote for each question. Which leads to a better mutual understanding. And sets the right stage for the peer and manager sections of the performance review.
Team Building with Abstract Contemporary Art
/ Management
One of the teams I manage has 5 members distributed between 5 cities. Wow! How would you go about making such a team start getting along? Here comes Team Building With Art, one of my tactics for creating a space to connect as a team.
What do collaborative teams have in common? From a Psychology student
/ Management
The very nature of organizations consists on collaboration, which means two or more people working together towards shared goals. We know collaboration is a good thing. However, both personal experience and scientific studies tell us that it isn’t as simple as putting a group of people together for the positive effects of collaboration to happen. In fact, working together can also be detrimental.
The Secret to Results that Last (from Atomic Habits)
An inspiring and useful book. Reading Atomic Habits by James Clear was quite a journey for me. I share one of my favorite sections with the positive intention of spreading the word and encouraging you to read the full book.
[Podcast] Building a team from scratch with Splash
/ Management
Guillermo de la Puente, Engineering Manager at Splash, shares his story of moving from New York to Madrid to start building an engineering team from scratch.
How to practice Passage Meditation
Training my mind through meditation has enabled me to find calm more easily, slow down the pace, dissolve stress and boost my confidence in order to achieve my resolutions. It’s been one of the biggest life improvements I’ve made recently. But not every meditation style resonates with me. It was when I read Passage Meditation by Eknath Easwaran that I found the right method for me. It might be the right method for you as well.
About company priorities
/ Management
How often have you seen companies working on the wrong things? How often innovation has taken resources over the main value proposition of the business, causing it to fail? My answer: too frequently.
Persuasion techniques by email: Your Expertise is Requested
/ Management
LinkedIn showed an excellent example of applying persuasion techniques on the last email I received from them, in September 2018.
You're managing at least one person
/ Management
You’re continuously managing one person. You manage their time, energy, motivation and frustration.
Tell-Show-Tell Method
/ Management
Since I learned about the Tell-Show-Tell method, I’ve used it almost every day at work. It’s a recipe to articulate explanations successfully that involves showing the usage of a product. Its beauty lies in its simplicity and effectiveness.