Using Skills
I’ve been feeling a little demotivated lately because I have not applied my Computer Science skills as much as I want to in a long time. I get a lot of satisfaction out of the work that I do but I don’t always have the opportunity to grow my technical skills.
A few weeks ago I discovered the OSSU Computer Science curriculum and I started working my way through some of the courses because I seem to have forgotten half of the things that I learned in college. This exercise was worthwhile because I remember more that I expected and have been more inspired than ever to actually do something with the knowledge that I have.
Earlier this week I read Paul’s blog post about porting dark from OCaml to F#. I forked the repo and started poking around to see if there was something I could do with my new found inspiration.
After a stumbling through a few things while getting started, I am really happy that I was able to make a small, but useful, contribution to the porting effort.
I went from not knowing OCaml, F#, or dark to shipping a PR in two days. I still don’t know OCaml, F#, or dark but I am optimistic that I can continue to figure things out. :)
Thank you for reading! Share your thoughts with me on bluesky, mastodon, or via email.
Check out some more stuff to read down below.
Most popular posts this month
- Everything wrong with developer tools in a single paragraph
- SQLite DB Migrations with PRAGMA user_version
- Urge to Edit Old Posts
- Setting up ANTLR4 on Windows
- Reinstalling Windows at 1am
Recent Favorite Blog Posts
This is a collection of the last 8 posts that I bookmarked.
- 21st Century C++ from Communications of the ACM
- Submarines DevCon 2025 Keynote Speech from JoshHaines.com
- How I Use AI: Meet My Promptly Hired Model Intern from Armin Ronacher's Thoughts and Writings
- DeepSeek from Maggie Appleton
- Digital Reality Digital Shock from Christopher Butler
- 10 habits to help becoming a Debian Maintainer from Optimized by Otto
- Tiny corners from Manuel Moreale RSS Feed
- Build It Yourself from Armin Ronacher's Thoughts and Writings
Articles from blogs I follow around the net
“Stop calling it work” – Cedric Raguenaud
Cedric Raguenaud argues that.. “When we label our photographic pursuits as “work,” we unconsciously impose constraints and expectations that belong in the professional world. Suddenly, we feel pressured to maintain visibility, chase originality, and demon…
via Colin Devroe February 10, 2025The Art of Making Websites
Hidde de Vries gave a great talked titled “Creativity cannot be computed” (you can checkout the slides or watch the video). In his slides he has lots of bullet points that attempt to define what art is, and then in the talk he spends time covering each one…
via Jim Nielsen’s Blog February 10, 2025Corporate “DEI” is an imperfect vehicle for deeply meaningful ideals
I have not thought or said much about DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) over the years. Not because I don’t care about the espoused ideals — I suppose I do, rather a lot — but because corporate DEI efforts have always struck me as ineffective and blan…
via charity.wtf February 10, 2025Generated by openring