Matt Rickard, yes this Matt Rickard from episode #463 of The Changelog, shared some thoughts (an unordered list) about the forces acting on RSS.

He sets the stage by sharing a swath of think pieces written on the subject.

No technology other than RSS has had more think pieces written proclaiming the death of RSS (2006, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013) and the rebirth of RSS (2009, 2010, 2011, 2018, 2018, 2019).

Here are two points (of several shared) that stood out to me.

Substack has revitalized the blogging movement by giving away free hosting and email lists, and a business model for supporting writers. As email newsletters grow, RSS is a decent alternative to an increasingly cluttered email inbox.

Creator incentives work against RSS. The protocol does not benefit content creators because it doesn’t give them any insight into their audience (number of subscribers, emails, or other data).

What are your thoughts in his thoughts? What’s next for RSS?

Today we’re talking to Matt Rickard about his blog post, Reflections on 10,000 Hours of Programming. Matt was clear to mention that these reflections are purely about coding, not career advice or other soft skills. These reflections are just about deliberately writing code for 10,000 hours, which also correlates with the number of hours needed to master a skill.

If you count the reflections we cover on the show and be the first to comment on this episode, we’ll get in touch and send you a coupon code to use for a 100% free t-shirt in the merch store. Good luck…

Matt Rickard shares 31 reflections after putting his time 10k hours in programming:

These are reflections only about pure coding — no lessons sum up to “programming is about people” or “how to be a senior technical leader” (arguably more important to a career, but not the topic of this post).

These reflections are just about deliberately writing code for 10,000 hours. Most don’t apply to beginners. These reflections are not career advice. Think of them as lessons on being a technical guitarist, not about being a good band member. They are about becoming a better programmer for yourself.

Here’s the first one, just to whet your whistle:

Browsing the source is almost always faster than finding an answer on StackOverflow.