Develpreneur: Become a Better Developer and Entrepreneur

Architecting System Logs and Logging - Finding Proper Balance

05 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

System logs and logging is one of the least sexy things in software development.  Nevertheless, they are highly valuable.  The ultimate challenge in...

Messages and Notifications - Your Communication Architecture

03 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

While the GUI is used for most of our user interaction, there are other methods to consider as well.  The areas of focus in this episode will be mess...

Security And Authentication - Critical Architecture Concerns

31 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Hackers are everywhere.  Thus, security and authentication are essential pieces of software architecture.  There are so many common features of appl...

Scaling Up or Out Architectural Decisions

29 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Systems and solutions will grow if they are successful.  Therefore, it is essential for us to consider whether this will be handled by scaling up or ...

Administrative Tools And Architecting Your Solution

27 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Nearly every solution includes some manner of administrative tools.  These tools range from scripts and manual process steps to full graphical interf...

Core Component Architecture - Build a Strong Foundation

24 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

No matter what we build, there is always a foundation of some sort.  In software, the core component architecture provides us that foundation.  Thes...

Architecting For a Sometimes Connected Application

22 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The modern world is full of options to connect your app to the Internet.  Nevertheless, there are cases where you will have a sometimes connected app...

Architecting The User Experience

20 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Architecture design can start at the back-end or the front-end.  In either case, you will end up architecting the user experience at some point.  Th...

Architecting Large File Storage - Software From Scratch

17 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

One of the architectural challenges that are often overlooked is large file storage.  These may be documents, images, or other general binary structu...

Selecting Languages, Frameworks, and Libraries - Architecture From Scratch

15 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

One of the rarest of decisions we are allowed to make is when it comes to selecting languages and frameworks or maybe even libraries for our project. ...

Architecting The Database

13 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In no particular order, we will look at architecting the database as we continue our tour of software architecture from scratch.  There are several k...

Frontend or Backend Where To Start? - Software Architectural Decisions

10 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Every journey starts somewhere.  When we architect a solution, we need to decide whether to start at the frontend or the backend.  There are pros an...

Software Architecture - Agile vs Waterfall

08 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The decision of Agile vs Waterfall in software development is not often linked to architecture.  However, there is a difference in your approach that...

Software Architecture From Scratch - Season Kick-Off

06 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We kick off the season on software architecture from scratch with an overview of what we will cover.  We also set the table for the assumptions we wi...

Looking Forward and Planning for the Year Ahead

27 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

As we near the end of a decade, it is time to consider planning for the year ahead.  We need to consider the goals we want to achieve and how much be...

Year-End Success - Finish Strong

25 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We once again look at finishing strong.  Our steady efforts and incremental progress should result in year-end success.  However, there always seems...

Looking Back - How Did We Do With Our Prognostications?

23 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

As we start into our last week of the year, it is a good time for looking back.  Therefore, we think it is worthwhile to review what we proposed woul...

Making The Most Of Time Off and Holidays

29 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We wrap up Thanksgiving week with some recommendations for making the most of that time off.  While you may be working frantically on Black Friday, t...

Thankful For Friends, Family, Even Co-Workers

27 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We continue our focus during the U.S. Thanksgiving week with a look at things to be thankful for.  This episode, we look at people in our life.  The...

Being Thankful For Effective Tools

25 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The Thanksgiving holiday is upon us in the United States.  That allows us a week that is a little lighter than our normal workload and time to reflec...

Season of Lists Wrap-Up and Becoming a Better Developer

22 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We have reached the end of season 10.  This episode wraps up our look at how lists can be a quick way to cover a lot of ground as topics go.  This s...

3 Lessons We Can Learn From Lists

20 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This season has been an homage to clickbait and lists. Nevertheless, some values come from using lists to communicate.  There are some critical conce...

Three Ways To Avoid Burnout

18 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The worst thing that can happen to your career is burnout.  This situation can do lasting damage to your reputation as well as eat away at years of p...

Three Important Software Design Patterns To Recognize and Understand

15 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

There are a wealth of reasons for understanding and recognizing software patterns.  However, these three crucial software design patterns appear in m...

Three Signs Of Burnout - Address These Before Its Too Late

13 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The steady path of continuous improvement can be derailed by burnout.  This situation can not only halt progress, but it can also cause us to fall ba...

Better Developers Do These Three Things

11 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It only makes sense that we would provide a list of things that better developers do during this season.  That is a primary focus of this site and on...

Three Impressive Achievements We Can All Do

08 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

All resumes are not created equal.  There are impressive achievements we can list that will make us stand out from the crowd.  While these are goals...

Interview Better With These Three Tips

06 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

One of the ways to achieve your dream job is to interview better.  That allows us to impress decision-makers and win the positions we are suited for....

Win Projects And Jobs Better With These Three Tips

04 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Our career path will inevitably require us to try to win projects or land a job.  There are simply no ways to avoid that.  That means that almost ev...

Three Tips To Avoid Writer's Block And Find Content Topics

01 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Writer's block is a nasty situation when you are trying to crank out regular content.  This may be for a blog, a podcast, or a brown bag lunch sessio...

Three Tips for Faster Debugging

30 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It is time for honesty.  There is a dirty little secret we need to discuss.  It might be surprising even.  However, we need to talk about the bugs ...

Build a Better To-Do List With These Three Tips

28 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Steady progress is an essential step in becoming a better developer.  One tool for achieving this is to create a good set of tasks to complete.  A d...

Three Key Skills For Database Developers

25 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Relational databases are an essential piece of many modern solutions.  Thus, most developers have some exposure to SQL within the first few years of ...

Productivity Habits To Start Your Day Right

23 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

  One of our often stated goals is to make progress on our goals every day.  That leads us to look for ways to create daily habits that promote prog...

Three Everyday Applications For Developer Productivity

21 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We live and breath technology.  Thus, most of us have several everyday applications for developer productivity.  While each of us has our way to wor...

Three Technical Certifications To Advance Your Career

18 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

There are many ways to advance your career and earning potential.  A degree is one path.  However, technical certifications tend to be easier to ear...

Three Important AWS Services Developers Should Know

16 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We spent an entire season going over Amazon AWS services at a high level.  That shows how many options you have available in that world.  However, t...

Three Important Development Languages For Your Career

14 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of three things for improving your career, we look at important development languages.  This is not a look at a primary language.  T...

3 Habits For Every Day and a Happier Life

11 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We take a turn away from technology in this episode to focus on life.  It is hard to be a better developer when your daily life is miserable.  There...

Three Suggestions For Better Meetings

09 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

There are some activities that are part of any job.  While not all of these are also a common concern, it does seem that one often bubbles to the top...

3 Ways to Embrace and Improve Unit Testing

07 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Quality Assurance is an art as well as a skill.  We all can randomly break things.  However, testing is not just about breaking things.  It is also...

3 Quick Ways To Manage Email

04 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It is impossible to provide modern productivity suggestions without including a way to manage email.  This form of communication has done so much for...

Desktop Security - Three Ways To Turn Aside Hackers

02 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

There are many areas where our three suggestions can make a quick improvement.  Desktop security is one such topic.  The subject of security comes u...

Three IDE Options For Improved Productivity

30 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Our tour of three things you can do to make your life easier will look at IDE options in this episode.  We all have our favorite IDE within the first...

Three Tips For Writing Better Code

27 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, we look at a favorite topic.  Here are three ways to write better code.  We create a lot of source code during our career.  Thus, ...

Three Ways To Improve Your Ability To Pass Certifications

25 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Our season of threes continues with a look at three ways to make it more likely for you to pass certifications.  These tests vary a lot in style and ...

Season Kick-Off, Three Things You Should Know To Get Better

23 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We jump into a new season and a new topic.  This season will bounce around a bit as we tackle three things to know about a subject in each episode. ...

Vending Machines For Passive Income

20 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

One of the oldest methods of passive income is the use of vending machines.  They even found some example in the ancient Egypt pyramids (no, they did...

Events, Parties and Networking for Passive Income

18 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In the world of passive income, what can be better than parties and networking as part of your efforts?  I know that some of us do not find a lot of ...

Odd Jobs For Passive Income

16 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We have touched on a large number of potential passive income opportunities.  However, there is an incredible number of lesser-known odd jobs as well...

Arts and Crafts To Passive Income

13 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

While arts and crafts are not always a path to riches, they do often have some value beyond the material they are created from.  Thus, hobbies that f...

Ridesharing For Passive Income - Plan Accordingly

11 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

When you think of passive income, the idea of ridesharing is not likely to occur to you.  However, there are ways to make this new opportunity work f...

Passive Income From Overages - Make a little more, generate revenue

09 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

No matter what physical product is created, there are bits left over.  Sometimes these are full, unused products.  In this episode, we look at using...

Subscription-Based Products - The Holy Grail of Passive Income

06 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The best ways to generate passive income is through subscription-based products.  These solutions are the gift that keeps on giving.  We have a sale...

Passive Income Best Practices - Avoid Anti-Patterns

04 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

There are passive income best practices we can follow to improve our odds for success.  There are also anti-patterns we want to avoid.  This area of...

Outsource And Automate For Passive Income

02 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We have often discussed how we can outsource and automate our processes.  This approach allows us to reduce the hustle portion of our side-hustle.  ...

Reducing Expenses For Some Passive Income

30 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It is hard to argue that reducing expenses is not the least exciting episode of this season.  Nevertheless, this is an important part of our passive ...

Cashback and Rewards For Passive Income

28 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It is hard to flip through a magazine or sit through television commercials without being exposed to a cashback program.  These come in many forms. ...

Turn Your Hobby Into Passive Income

26 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

One of the best ways to generate a passive income stream is to profit from what you already do.  We have looked at a couple of ways to do this.  How...

Producing One-Time Content For Passive Income

23 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We have looked at regular content like blogs and podcasts for passive income.  However, there are better options for passive income that are one-time...

Side Hustle To Passive Income

21 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

A side hustle is an excellent way to improve your income.  However, that word "hustle" implies that it is anything but passive.  While that may be t...

Micro investing in Real Estate

19 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Real estate is an area where many investors make their money.  However, in the past, it has required a sizable investment to get started.  That is n...

Micro Venture Capital Investing for Passive Income

16 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

As forms of passive income from investing go, the idea of micro venture capital investments is the best fit.  These options can lose all of your fund...

Microloans and Passive Income

14 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Anyone that has ever been in debt has seen how lenders can make money.  However, we often see the level of entry for a lender is far beyond our means...

Passive Income From The Stock Market

12 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

When you think of your money working for you, there are several options.  However, the stock market is one of the best potential returns with easy en...

Public Speaking For Passive Income

09 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

There are several passive income and side hustle options that get mentioned over and over.  Public speaking is one of those options.  It seems like ...

Content Producer For Passive Income

07 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

While not precisely passive, a content producer can open up multiple streams of revenue.  We will point back to this option as a potential step in se...

Affiliate Links For Passive Income

05 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

One of the most popular methods of passive income is the use of affiliate links.  While there are courses and numerous books about it, there is a lot...

Creating Products as Passive Income

02 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The best possible approach to passive income is by creating products.  Even a single product can provide a substantial profit.  Of course, there is ...

Value-Added Reselling As Passive Income

31 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Value-added reselling is roughly a form of passive income.  However, it is still a good enough approach for us to look at it as an option.  This app...

The Passive Income Approaches Season Overview

29 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Passive income is a hot topic in certain quarters.  Likewise, we have mentioned and even discussed this approach to revenue over the years.  This se...

Book Recommendations During That Long Road Trip

26 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Whether in audio form or the old-school paper version, books are an essential part of becoming a better developer.  Better yet, they can help us enjo...

Podcast Recommendations To Improve Your Life

24 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

As a podcaster, I am also a fan.  I listen to numerous shows and have for many years.  Therefore it makes sense to offer an episode of podcast recom...

Removing Solvers Block

22 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In this stand-alone episode, we look at solvers block.  This is what I call the situation where one can not seem to push through to a solution.  It ...

The AntiPattern Season in Review

19 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We have marched through 31 examples during this antipattern season.  Therefore, we have enough of them to step back and look at themes, bad habits, a...

Death By Planning - A Rigid Anti-Pattern

17 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Death by planning is an anti-pattern that makes us look like lemmings.  We make a plan, and then we follow it mindlessly.  This approach can work fo...

The Fire Drill Anti-Pattern

15 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The fire drill anti-pattern is one that falls on project management.  While we can personally place ourselves in this sort of situation, the anti-pat...

The Throw It Over The Wall Anti-Pattern

12 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The throw it over the wall anti-pattern is shared across a broad range of disciplines.  However, it is particularly damaging to the software developm...

Analysis Paralysis - An Over-thinking Anti-Pattern

10 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The "Analysis Paralysis" anti-pattern may be the most well known.  It has a few other names.  However, a search on this one will return a broad rang...

Mushroom Management - A Miscommunication Epidemic Anti-Pattern

08 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The mushroom management anti-pattern is one that appears everywhere.  While it can be simplified to keeping employees in the dark, there is more to i...

The Feature Creep Anti-Pattern

05 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Feature creep is one of the most prevalent anti-patterns in my experience.  I personally find it a recurring challenge to avoid.  The issue is that ...

The Magic Strings Anti-Pattern

03 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The magic strings anti-pattern implies a much more entertaining experience than it is.  This coding style is not rare.  Thus, it is likely you have ...

The Death March AntiPattern

01 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The death march anti-pattern is one of the most painful to endure.  There is even a tendency to envy those involved in actual ones.  This situation ...

Cover Your Assets - The CYA Anti-Pattern

28 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, we cover another anti-pattern that everyone has experienced.  However, the CYA approach is not often seen as something to avoid.  T...

Intellectual Violence - A Short-Sighted Anti-Pattern

26 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This anti-pattern implies a heavier hand than is common.  While the intellectual violence anti-pattern sounds shocking and over-the-top, it is common...

Reinventing The Wheel - An Age-Old Anti-Pattern

24 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It is hard to go through life without being warned against reinventing the wheel at some point.  This recommendation is a general warning to avoid du...

The Swiss Army Knife AntiPattern

21 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

A swiss army knife is a great tool to carry around with you.  However, this anti-pattern tells us that building a one-stop-shop for your design funct...

Architecture By Implication - An Easy Anti-Pattern to Fall Into

19 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

While experience is an excellent teacher, it is not a silver bullet.  Every problem we tackle is a little different.  Thus, we should follow best pr...

The Grand Old Duke of York Anti-Pattern

17 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The skills of writing code and abstracting functionality are not the same.  This fact is why the Grand old Duke of York is an anti-pattern.  Passing...

Design By Committee - A More is Less Anti-pattern

14 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

There is an old saw about too many cooks spoiling the broth.  This statement roughly describes the design by committee anti-pattern.  While two head...

The Warm Bodies AntiPattern - Not a Cool Situation

12 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We all know that more is always better except when it is not.  The challenge of quality and quantity is a common anti-pattern for software developmen...

Autogenerated Stovepipe - An Anti-Pattern

10 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In an effort to re-use our previous work, we can over-simplify a solution.  One such situation is when we grow from a stand-alone system to a distrib...

Wolf Ticket AntiPattern - Not What It Seems

07 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We often look at vendors and standards for a way to improve productivity.  There is nothing wrong with this and it even is a best practice.  However...

Defining The Jumble AntiPattern

06 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, we tackle a higher form of the Spaghetti Code Anti-Pattern.  While that is a code-level issue, the jumble antipattern shows up in th...

The Input Kludge AntiPattern

03 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It is hard to think of the word "kludge" and anything other than an anti-pattern.  Thus, the input kludge antipattern is an obvious name.  This exam...

The Ambiguous Viewpoint AntiPattern

31 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The ambiguous viewpoint anti-pattern is one that goes to the heart of object-oriented design.  We want to abstract and isolate functionality in a way...

Walking Through a Minefield AntiPattern

29 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Velocity is an important part of modern software development.  However, there is also that adage that "speed kills."  Therefore, we need to strike a...

The Dead End AntiPattern - The Name Says It All

27 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Over the years, we have built tiny up to large systems that provide a launching point for other applications.  These solutions are built on the hard ...

The Copy Paste AntiPattern - An Easy Trap To Fall Into

24 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We all do it.  There is a chunk of code that almost does what we need.  So, we copy and paste it where we want it then make some modifications.  Wh...

The Lava Flow Pattern - After The Code Cools Down

22 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

While lava is hot and deadly early on, it becomes hard to move once it cools down.  The is the thinking behind the name for the lava flow pattern.  ...