The End of 2025 Q1 is Near

Yes, another new name as I figure out what I want this newsletter to be. If you’ve stuck around and read these in the past I appreciate it and hope you’ll continue to do so.

There was some weird hiccup with the provider of these emails, Beehiiv, and my old posts were deleted somehow and I’m trying to get them back. We’ll see if that happens; in the meantime, I’ve been wanting to write more anyway.

So I think I’ll do just that with this newsletter! Write about cool things on the web I find, what I’m up to, and thoughts about stuff and things — of course all surrounding software engineering, tech, and productivity!

Q1 Retrospective

The end of March is approaching, and with that, the close of the first quarter of 2025 — it’s absolutely wild to me how fast the time has went after a January that felt like it lasted an eternity. You know what? I’d take that eternity than time flying by every day.

Last year I flirted with this idea of “treating myself like a business” and this year I’m doing my best to put that into action. What do I mean exactly? Well, I’m not tracking KPIs and micro-managing employees, that’s for sure.

The best example of this is giving myself quarterly goals I can work towards weekly. For Q1 of 2025 I had three:

1. Give my first talk

2. Launch my new portfolio site

3. Put out educational videos

At the time of writing I have given not one, but two talks and my new portfolio will be launched on or before Friday, March 28. The last one though? Not happening — let’s dive into each quickly.

Giving my first talk

In January I had the opportunity to give my first talk to This Dot Labs employees. I was given this opportunity by Tracy Lee, CEO of This Dot Labs, when I met her at The Commit Your Code Conference (CYC). I prepared an hour-long talk, a slide deck, and demo website.

When I entered the Zoom with This Dot Labs, Danny Thompson, Director of Technology, told me we’d be live streaming it as well! While I’m no stranger to streaming it caught me by surprise — but it was even better so more people could see it and learn about the wonderful thing that is Astro.

I think the talk went well and I was very happy to knock this one out so quickly. If you’d like, you can watch the talk, see the demo website and the code, or read the blog!

Launching my new portfolio site

Another year, another portfolio site. At least, that seems to be my current trend 😅

I have learned a lot about design and code in the last year and feel like my old portfolio no longer is the best representation of who I am and what I can do. Since my portfolio is supposed to do exactly that I thought it time for a redo.

While it is not out at the time of writing, I’ll update this post with the link on or before March 28. For now, here’s a teaser — let me know what you think!

Put out educational videos

Also at CYC, I was approached by someone behind a very well known and esteemed educational platform for developers. I’m not going to drop names as I don’t want to give away all of my secrets. Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity and we got to talking in January.

However, I did not record a single one. Not because I don’t want to as I certainly do! I feel confident on camera, I love teaching others, and it’s a great opportunity!

So what happened?
I said yes to too many things.

A common problem and one I know all too well. I am still looking forward to doing this, but in due time.

Q1 Summary

In my opinion, two out three isn’t bad, but there is obvious room for improvement especially surrounding making the most of my time. However, I’d be remiss if didn’t mention another few wins I’ve had this quarter:

I got my first job in tech!

Featured in Astro Weekly again

Gave another talk at the Vercel NYC meetup

Watch it on YouTube or read the written version and see the slides.

Things around the web

Until next time

Thanks for reading this issue of Coding Catchup, I really appreciate you being a subscriber.

Until the next one 👋🏻
Ryan