<![CDATA[Faolain]]>https://faolain.nyc/https://faolain.nyc/favicon.pngFaolainhttps://faolain.nyc/Ghost 3.25Fri, 20 Feb 2026 22:40:58 GMT60<![CDATA[The Rise of the Iconoclast]]>I won't bore you with the same often repeated (especially for my friends reading this) tropes or complaints about our modern economy and how a perversion of economic incentives has led us down a path of inefficiency/zombification of our economy(along with second third order etc downstream effects) However

]]>https://faolain.nyc/the-rise-of-the-iconoclast/5f13928c4636020c1edb4f48Thu, 30 Apr 2020 01:37:00 GMT

I won't bore you with the same often repeated (especially for my friends reading this) tropes or complaints about our modern economy and how a perversion of economic incentives has led us down a path of inefficiency/zombification of our economy(along with second third order etc downstream effects) However I have echoed these thoughts in public, in private, and in innumerable drafts over the years which I haven't published for fear of negatively impacting my job prospects or financial security. So with that preface aside let's get into it.

The era of bullshit startups, bullshit founders, and bullshit money needs to be over and I know this partly because I have ample experience working with all of the aforementioned. We have created a zombie economy where entitled trust fund "adult" children have stolen money, attention and time, from the economy, from its investors (who are complicit), and ultimately society. I know, bold assertion - if you think if this is too on the nose you need to go n-levels deeper. No this is not intellectually lazy, you are.

Focus has been unduly given and placed on false hopes built on a mirage of actually non-existent foundations or fundamentals. A great number of founders of many household names trick, bamboozle, "fake it till you make it" and insert other "inspiring" cliche here to secure funding to give their lives meaning. Yes, it is a form of escapism. Eat pray love meet 21st-century post-post-modern fulfillment/soul searching. Raise a bunch of money, sell lies without knowledge of what you are selling in the hopes you can gain enough traction that others do the dirty work while you claim credit, exit, and move onto the "next big thing", beginning to convince yourself that yes this was indeed entirely your accomplishment. This is the trust fund baby achieving their Brahman. Of course, I'm speaking generally here, and yes there are always exceptions, I know there are many great founders out there many of whom are my close friends. They have expressed similar frustrations echoed above and the false reality of "competition in the marketplace of ideas".

Creative destruction is a very real thing but everyone has so been preoccupied with iterating or copying an idea to add incremental change. This has been a result of short time horizons, high time preference for investment funds which are committed to realizing returns for their investors on the order of quarters. An era of pass the buck economics. Pass the buck....everything. All costs have been externalized, what is cradle to the grave analysis anyway? This has horizontal and vertical effects because you cannot compete with a company that does not take any of this into account. These companies have passed the costs elsewhere but make no mistake these costs still exist. Externalities exist. Risk exists.

The stark reality is that we cannot convince investors to do the right thing. We will always have those who choose to be either willingly or unwillingly duped in search of alpha. What I recommend here is a radical deviation of the norm. The norm has failed us. Look around you. A just-in-time economy, without redundancy, without resiliency, and without innovation. A just-in-time economy, for just-in-time everything, has led to improving efficiency by eliminating redundancy leaving us with neither.

I'm also here to tell you decentralized technology is poised to creatively destroy everything you thought you knew about running a company and even what a company is. I won't say more here because I'm sure many others have said this far better than I ever could.

That said, decentralized technology has been ironically memed as the answer to our problems both by crypto in and out-groups. Black swan of locusts eating our crops or droughts leading to famine? Hurr Durr Bitcoin fixes this amirite? Well, I'm here to tell you yes (in more ways than you think).

I am also here to say the time of the Iconoclast is now. We have seen mainstream media fail us. We have seen the blind leading the blind. We have seen morons parrot that which they do not know and even less that which they do not understand. We have seen the importance of being a contrarian even when it is dangerous or makes you a pariah.

I have verbalized these thoughts far better in the past and unfortunately you, my dear reader, do not have the luxury of experiencing that, so for that I apologize. I hope this little journey through some crystallized thoughts at 4 am serves to create some thoughts of your own, and more importantly than that, actions. ‌‌

]]><![CDATA[Do Not Pass Go]]>In high-velocity trash economy, there is no time to think or plan. Features are added on a whim with no consideration for long term planning. Work has become a mirror of the economy - fiat, valueless projects with runaway task inflation.

In today's FOMC Jerome Powell essentially stated (as an

]]>https://faolain.nyc/dont-pass-go/5f1390e44636020c1edb4f40Thu, 30 Apr 2020 01:33:00 GMT

In high-velocity trash economy, there is no time to think or plan. Features are added on a whim with no consideration for long term planning. Work has become a mirror of the economy - fiat, valueless projects with runaway task inflation.

In today's FOMC Jerome Powell essentially stated (as an answer to a question) that savers will be punished because stimulating investment by maintaining rates at effective near zero bounds is "good for the economy" regardless how it affects the individual saver. His choice words included that their actions are for the collective economy and not the individual savers (as if they don't have a valuable role in our economy). It's an economy of consumption with no other end than to consume further.

Whether that is true can be debated but what can also be debated is whether a decade of low rates has contributed to stagnation. How many carbon copy startups do we need? How many different delivery services or car services do you need to use? All of which offer the same set of race to the bottom "features" at the expense of something or someone else (see: externalities). How many seed funds or series a b or c were spent to copy and rebuild the wheel aka the entire technology stack for company A to do what company B does? Is this good for the economy? Who truly believes that this is pushing us "forward" and isn't another form of broken windows policy(spare me pedants reading this who don't understand nuance)

One can argue that competition drives prices down, sure. Pareto principle /power laws whatever you want to call it begins to kick in here and there are diminishing returns for the amount of effort or cost put in. Eventually the only way to beat your competitor is to lose more money than they can, in a war of economic attrition. Is this really rewarding winners? Unlike what investors, founder/evangelists/new age Yogis want you to believe no they aren't doing anything paradigm shifting. Their vision may be to change the world but schizophrenics have visions too.

It's naive to think one should always be investing as there will always be a glut of ideas. As is often mentioned sitting on your cash is also a position. Not all ideas (more importantly teams) are deserving of being invested in, by forcing this (~0% rates) you are forcing investors to misallocate money in an economy to the detriment of the collective long term. Sometimes it's simply better to save until something better comes along.

These stresses are needed and required in any system for creating resiliency (antifragility, no I haven't read it yes I want to when I eventually find time). It's naive and even dangerous to think /shortsighted that we must invest at all costs in all enterprises even those which are inefficient or being founded by empty headed founders with the promise of future returns. As we have seen, this has proved ruinous not only for some of these founders but also unfortunately for the livelihoods of many who depended on these false hopes/dreams.

It's a given that capital will funnel not to those who will benefit society the most in the long term but to those who will benefit the capital distributors themselves the most in the short-term. (I leave it up to the reader to determine if these two align) The reasoning for this is that time horizons for many real paradigm changing projects are on the span of decades (though not all). The problem here is that the only organization which has this long of a time horizon to deploy sufficient capital (governments) has no real desire or expertise for this. We are at a crossroads. Capital incentives therefore must be shifted to self sustaining models for low time preference initiatives which are baked into the technologies/initiatives themselves. I know this sounds abstract so bear with me.

]]><![CDATA[Economic Crash of 2020 - 2021]]>

Preface:

I made a prediction for the NASDAQ and DJI (Dow Jones Industrial Average) on October 4th that we were currently experiencing the peak of the stock market. I then sent a picture of a table I drew by hand (which I won't post because my handwriting is terrible) to

]]>https://faolain.nyc/economic-crash-of-2020-2021/5f1100b24636020c1edb4f00Tue, 08 Jan 2019 00:28:18 GMT

Preface:

Economic Crash of 2020 - 2021

I made a prediction for the NASDAQ and DJI (Dow Jones Industrial Average) on October 4th that we were currently experiencing the peak of the stock market. I then sent a picture of a table I drew by hand (which I won't post because my handwriting is terrible) to some friends on October 4th where the stock market was on that day, and where the direction I saw it heading. I didn't make a blog post at the time since I had other pressing matters but I figured to immortalize this in case anyone needs to fact check me in the future and so I can see how (hopefully) wrong I was. I have the conversations to prove I sent this in October 4th if need be but I hope this will suffice ;P .

Recession or Depression?

In any case, I see the market bottom to be either April 2020 or April 2021 (I know this is a very long range but humor me). The date is more of a fool's gamble which I arrived at projecting based on some supposed leading economic indicators on a graph (I know TA is more like Astrology than a science but it's fun, some indicators include the Yield Spread on various bonds/seeing what looks like a yield curve inversion, South Korean Export Growth Rate YOY %, corporate debt as % of GDP world trade)[1][2] coupled with gut intuition regarding geopolitics/federal reserve interest rate plans. A rise in interest rates which were long overdue meant that crappy companies propped up by easy credit would begin to falter and eventually die. Personally seeing that some companies got their last round of funding for what were clearly bad ideas was a canary in the coal mine. Additionally we are currently experiencing one of the longest economic expansions in history[3] and considering we're nearing the end of the short-term and long-term debt cycles, an economic contraction is long overdue.

That said, regardless of when it happens, when it does happen I conservatively expected at the very least a ~40% contraction from the date of my prediction on October 4th to the bottom (again whenever that is).

Now (Time of Post) - 10/4/2018 .

  • NASDAQ: 7,490
  • DJI: 26,650

Projected April 2021 but maybe sooner Apr 2020(?)

  • NASDAQ: 4,868 (~40% drop from October 4th can be more or less)
  • DJI: 17,800 (~40% drop from October 4th can be more or less)

I also predicted that following a possible Democratic win of the House, we would see a further drop in markets as lax regulation precipitated/supported by GOP would no longer be priced in and thus institutions would begin to "price in" increased oversight and regulation by the Democrats which would rein in profits.

Update:

Currently posting this on 1/7/2018, and some recent days of froth (that is, wild swings up and down of single digit %) point to the fact (which if crypto is any sign - somewhat facetious but somewhat not) that this bubble is about to burst. We may even have a short rally until mid February or March of this year but the looming specter of Brexit on March 29 (The UK is due to leave the European Union on 29 March, 2019 - it's the law, regardless of whether there is a deal with the EU or not)[4] will ensure it is short-lived. This combined with American political uncertainty as a result of the government shutdown (which has its own economic effects as 450,000 government employees are working without pay, which in turn means less monetary velocity/economic activity which depends on those very same employees: see nannies/daycares)[5] means that we do not have the political or economic will to a) stave off a crisis or b) mitigate a recession or other crises accordingly. This isn't even taking into account other issues which may arise which can have tertiary effects on the economy which politicians are not equipped to handle appropriately.

None of this even includes possible natural disasters(climate change will increase the scope and intensity of such disasters), increasing wealth disparity (who owns automation or stocks in automation?), inability for individuals in the US to bear the cost of a crisis.

40% of Americans still don’t have enough money to cover an unexpected $400 expense. And less than two-fifths believe that they are on track with their retirement savings. About six in 10 Americans (61%) don’t have enough cash put away to cover a $1,000 emergency, such as an ER visit or a car repair, according to previous Bankrate research. And data from GoBankingRates.com last year found that more than a third of people (39%) admit they have nothing in their savings accounts.[6] .

.

63% Of Americans Don't Have Enough Savings To Cover A $500 Emergency [7]

With Baby Boomers beginning their retirement they will have their purchasing power drastically reduced and their correspondingly lower expenditures will lead to a slowdown in the economy. Boomers cannot spend their money like they used to if they are no longer working, needing to rely on their retirement savings (which will be ever dwindling if they had their money parked in stocks which have recently took a beating). Economists forecast "dramatically lower stock market returns" in the next 10 years [8] [9] and, as such, this means that Boomer nest eggs won't go as far as they had planned them to, meaning again less economic activity. This issue will also have a ripple effect into Generation X and Y who will see their retirement funds grow much slower than they had planned, meaning they will have to work longer. Lastly, the aging Boomer population will begin to tax our healthcare system like never-before-seen. Decades of poor physical activity and dietary choices mean that the United States healthcare system will be stretched to its maximum capabilities with no one to care for them(look up growing healthcare worker shortages, this is without a huge old population). The "grey tide" which will flood the US will have its impact long after the Boomers are gone, although their health issues will begin now that they are entering retirement.

This also does not take into account if there is a global war(maybe resource wars - water as a result of climate change or localized civil wars which evolve into proxy wars such as in Syria due to climate impacts), pandemics, massive migration into wealthy nations as a result of climate change --> corresponding rise in nationalism/populism etc which I won't get into in this post. I rambled quite a bit here but wanted to get some of the thoughts down which I've talked about ad nauseum in person with friends of mine. A crash will eventually happen but ultimately who knows when. I hope to have enough self awareness and know this is an exercise in futility to try and predict how and when it will happen but hopefully what I have listed above helps you be a bit more prudent in your investment decisions.

Note:
This is still a rough stream of consciousness I'll get around to editing this...sometime.

Footnotes
References
  1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHe0bXAIuk0

  1. https://www.investing.com/economic-calendar/south-korean-export-growth-1316 ↩︎

  2. https://www.quora.com/Is-there-data-on-corporate-debt-to-GDP-available ↩︎

  3. https://money.cnn.com/2018/01/30/news/economy/us-economy-boom-history/index.html ↩︎

  4. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-32810887 ↩︎

  5. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/04/5-industries-affected-by-government-shutdown.html ↩︎

  6. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/18/few-americans-have-enough-savings-to-cover-a-1000-emergency.html ↩︎

  7. https://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiemcgrath/2016/01/06/63-of-americans-dont-have-enough-savings-to-cover-a-500-emergency/#5bc5f5ff4e0d ↩︎

  8. https://www.blackrockblog.com/2016/04/18/prepare-for-return-environment/ ↩︎

  9. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/07/get-ready-for-dramatically-lower-stock-market-returns-over-the-next-decade.html ↩︎

]]><![CDATA[Blockchain Startup Idea: Open Source Mapping for Autonomous Vehicles]]>

I figured I would start a series of Startup Ideas as I have way too many to tackle and not enough money (also time) to see them through.[1] My main goal is to advance our advancement so that we can all live on a better[2] planet. Everything written

]]>https://faolain.nyc/blockchain-startup-idea-open-source-mapping-for-autonomous-vehicles/5f1100b24636020c1edb4effFri, 19 Oct 2018 23:42:26 GMT

I figured I would start a series of Startup Ideas as I have way too many to tackle and not enough money (also time) to see them through.[1] My main goal is to advance our advancement so that we can all live on a better[2] planet. Everything written here is a stream of consciousness or pastes from chats which are also stream of consciousness, so bear with me.

Spark: https://www.axios.com/self-driving-cars-need-a-new-kind-of-map-df0b7e69-e0fb-4a8e-a865-24bc96708103.html

"What to watch: Since autonomy deploys in small pockets around the globe, shrinking the cost and size of sensors (some combination of cameras, lidar and motion-capture data) to create and update these maps is crucial to meeting market needs. The challenge is making the hardware footprint lighter and scalable, while also delivering sufficient accuracy."

Startup idea

Open source hardware sensors which use open source software to map areas to create a digital map dataset that Autonomous Devices/Companies can license (Ranging from Tesla and GM to Amazon drones). Mappers are incentivized and compensated using cryptocurrency which in turn has its value increased by the coins being bought/burned on the open market using the licensing fees. The reduced supply of coins on the open market will lead to an increase in the value of the outstanding tokens held by mappers.

Superficial Implementation Details

A distributed ledger is used to create, record and validate real-world map datasets by providing a platform to compensate individuals for mapping efforts. A distributed ledger capable of high transaction volume without fees would be essential to a mapping endeavor due to the volume of data and the need to ensure costs are relegated to only the electricity used for mapping, something like IOTA[3] comes to mind once it reaches maturity. Open source hardware (cameras, lidar sensors etc) for capturing data should be used to keep costs down while also ensuring everyone is using a standardized platform. The open source nature also ensures it remains relatively modular without a centralized source of control. That is, the "market" will determine what is of value to be mapped, as ultimately, the financial stakeholders are the mappers themselves.

Why cryptocurrency you ask? "Everything has to be blockchain this or blockchain that", just the new flavor of the month you say? The reason why distributed ledgers have such revolutionary potential is due to the fact that everything can be traced and validated in a trustless manner. Combine this with the financial incentive provided by cryptocurrencies and you create an economic machine to drive forward goals for actors that are both aligned and incentivized to keep everybody honest. Yes that is extremely simplistic and could use many revisions. By using cryptocurrency you can reward users for mapping their surroundings whether they're out for a drive, walk, crawl etc. This data can be hashed and sent with corresponding GPS coordinates with the hash and timestamp recorded on the ledger with the mapping data stored elsewhere, as the ledgers cannot store the massive troves of data. Data would be stored on something like IPFS. Similar to Proof-of-Stake[4] mappers will be required to stake a certain amount of MapTokens™ which they can purchase on the open market to get started. Once they begin mapping they will begin mining or earning MapTokens for the more places they map.

One would think "well what's stopping someone from spoofing their GPS or giving bad mapping data". Good question and that's where the stake comes in. There will be many mappers, in other words, users driving, walking, and just generally doing the same thing as the first mapper. A consensus method can be developed/instituted whereby users who are found spoofing data will be penalized by not only losing the MapTokens which were earned but locked in an "escrow"-like account (in reality locked in a smart contract and only released when others validate their mapping) but also their initial stake. In other words, fraudulent mappers get penalized with the funds from the fine being distributed to the validator and combined fund. On the other hand, if the mapper has shown to be honest then the mapper and validators receive some share of MapTokens.

Dataset hosts will be those hosting the mapping data uploaded by the mappers and will be also compensated for hosting this data and distributing it out to those requesting it. Compensation for the dataset hosts will come from organizations licensing this mapping data. As mentioned, any self driving startup or large company may license this mapping data for their endeavors with proceeds going to dataset hosts for hosting/distributing the content along with autonomously buying up MapTokens on the open market ensuring that the dwindling supply of MapTokens increases the value of all tokens. Yes I know this needs more thought but my time here is also finite.

Random thoughts: Instead of traditional blocks/proof of work, there are real life 3d grids/voxels used for mapping. Each grid will provide a form of compensation. Some areas are more valuable than others depending on difficulty(cities, terrain etc).

Why?

Instead of centralizing that data in individual companies, we should all be able to both take ownership and share in it, after all, we're the ones doing the driving (for now) right? Make some extra money doing what you already do and contribute to world digitization. This also solves the problem of fragmented datasets which may have incorrect information where the consequences of bad data in an autonomous vehicle can mean lives lost.

Footnotes:

  1. If I had the chance I would do any/all of them. If you don't think I'm blowing smoke I'd love to chat. ↩︎

  2. Yes I know there is a lot of nuance here, but overall meaning cleaner, safer, smarter (yes I know one can argue how is smarter better but let's just leave it at more efficient use and allocation of resources) etc ↩︎

  3. https://www.iota.org/ - The reason why I choose IOTA is that it can be used without an internet connection ↩︎

  4. https://hackernoon.com/what-is-proof-of-stake-8e0433018256 ↩︎

]]><![CDATA[How to Learn Elixir]]>

A language based on the Erlang VM built by one of the creators of Ruby, Jose Valim to deal with the issues encountered in modern web development. Hot swappable live code, concurrent, fault tolerant, distributed are just some advantages offered by Elixir. Phoenix is a web framework built on Elixir

]]>https://faolain.nyc/how-to-learn-elixir/5f1100b24636020c1edb4efbSun, 17 Jul 2016 03:45:43 GMT

A language based on the Erlang VM built by one of the creators of Ruby, Jose Valim to deal with the issues encountered in modern web development. Hot swappable live code, concurrent, fault tolerant, distributed are just some advantages offered by Elixir. Phoenix is a web framework built on Elixir which seeks to increased developer happiness while simultaneously ensuring high productivity.

Here is my path feel free to do it in any other order, you can find the links below

  1. Elixir Getting Started (Official docs from the source)
  2. ElixirSchool (Free online guide, quite in depth)
  3. Elixir Koans (Free online command line tutorial)
  4. Introducing Elixir (Book 210 pages)
  • Do some Exercism problems
  1. LearnElixir.tv (Paid Webcasts)
  • Do some Exercism problems
  1. Programming Elixir 1.3 (Book 350 pages)
  • Finish Exercism Problems (57 at the time of writing)
  1. Elixir in Action (Book 376 Pages)
  • Start Doing CodeWars problems if you want
  1. The Little Elixir and OTP Guidebook (Book 250 Pages)
  2. LearnPhoenix.tv (Paid webcasts by the same guy who brought you LearnElixir.tv, you get a discount on this webcast if you bought the previous)
  3. Programming Phoenix (Book 298 pages)
  • What are you waiting for? Build your startup

Tutorials

Getting Started - Introductory material to familiarize yourself with Elixir from the official site
Elixir School
Elixir Koans - Elixir Exercises "It is a tour of the most important features and idiomatic usage of the language."
30 Days of Elixir - 30 Elixir Exercises
Scraping in Elixir

Phoenix

Writing a Blog Engine in Phoenix and Elixir: Part 1
Let's build something in Elixir & Phoenix
Trello Clone in Elixir/Phoenix
Rewriting Production App in Phoenix
Deploy Phoenix Nodes on EC2 Clusters

Books

Beginner

Introducing Elixir
Etudes for Elixir - Companion exercises for Introducing Elixir
Programming Elixir 1.2 - Comprehensive Book on Elixir highly recommended by all

Intermediate

Elixir in Action - Could give you an idea how Whatsapp is Structured
The Little Elixir & OTP Guidebook
Metaprogramming Elixir
Elixir Cookbook - Recipes for coding

Phoenix

Programming Phoenix

Videos

Youtube: Micropatterns: Learning to Reach Quickly for the Right Tool // Cameron Price
Elixirsips - Paid
Learn Elixir TV - Paid (companion exercise solutions https://github.com/learnelixirtv/exercises)
ExCasts

Phoenix

Learn Phoenix TV - Paid

Podcasts

ElixirFountain

Cheatsheet

PragProg
https://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/elixir/
AwesomeElixir - Curated list of resources and packages for elixir

Practice

CodeWars
Exercism.io
ElixirGolf

Misc

ElixirRecipes
ElixirExamples
ElixirDose - "Journal of the overlooked tiny bits in young programming language. Will update weekly or two, as a way to build the habit of writing something on a regular basis. Authored by Riza and Augie as Editor In Chief."
Virtuous Code
Virtuous Code Functional Programming Exercises
http://www.elixre.uk/ - Elixir Regex

Interesting Articles

Part 1/2 of Ruby -> Elixir Olympics Media Scaling - Great post describing how the media team behind latin america's biggest media team was able to scale/rewrite their application taking advantage of Elixir's concurrent/parallel/distributed nature. Amazing metrics.
Part 2/2 of Ruby -> Elixir Olympics Media Scaling

References:

http://blog.jordan-dimov.com/round-up-of-elixir-books-and-resources/
https://teamgaslight.com/blog/the-best-resources-for-learning-elixir https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-good-ways-of-learning-the-Elixir-programming-language
http://www.phoenixframework.org/v0.13.1/docs/learning-elixir-and-erlang
http://www.akitaonrails.com/2015/11/03/my-first-week-learning-elixir

]]><![CDATA[How to Learn Javascript]]>https://faolain.nyc/how-to-learn-javascript/5f1100b24636020c1edb4ef7Mon, 11 Apr 2016 02:01:35 GMT

Intro to Programming & Web Dev

    I decided to write this because I see there is an increasing interest in learning web development/programming but it is almost impossible to know where to begin. There are tens of thousands of sites which proclaim to be the best way to learn or the definitive guide and it's easy to get lost in tons of technical jargon and confusing lists. The title of this blog post is "How to Learn Javascript" and you might ask why not Python or Ruby/Rails? Simply put because Javascript is the most dominant language on the web at this point by leaps and bounds. Don't believe me? Activity of Code for Different Languages, Job Trends. Popularity matters on the web as it determines how much support you can get and how often things are updated.

    Not only that with Javascript now on the Backend(NodeJS) one can make a site from front to back entirely in Javascript without having to learn the syntax of another language or deal with the mental context switching involved when one has to go from Ruby for example to Javascript and then back. An advantage of having Javascript on both the frontend and backend you can very often reuse your code. Additionally with Facebook's React Native you can create native iOS and Android applications with only Javascript, you don't need to learn Swift or Java to make apps anymore. Is IoT(Internet of Things) more your thing? You can use NodeJS on the Raspberry Pi and program drones/sensors to use NodeJS. There are even Machine Learning Libraries which can help you to develop your next artificial intelligence (I believe in you).

    My main issue with self learning was always coming across outdated fragmented code and trying to piece together tutorials/books which had bad practices or code which didn't even work. In the list of links below I have books, video tutorials (which I personally love), articles, cheatsheets, and miscellaneous links of interest along with personal guidance which can all accompany on your journey towards being a javascript wizard. Some people learn better by books others through project or practice. I suggest using every option available to ensure that your knowledge is airtight.

Anyway like I said the ecosystem is exploding, you can code anything from a drone to an iphone app.

You think you're ready now? Watch this before reading anything below, it may be a little dated but gives a good general overview. LearnCodeAcademy Web Development Career Advice

Then read this State of the JavaScript Landscape: A Map for Newcomers

Don't get overwhelmed I promise you it's not that complicated. Sit down, relax, breathe, and most importantly have some patience. Now let's begin.

Learning Sites:

Free
CodeAcademy -Tons of Guided and Interactive Tutorials for HTML/CSS/Javascript/Angular. Start here before going to any other site.
FreeCodeCamp - Online free guided bootcamp with certifications. Have not personally done it but have good things about the different curricula. I personally learn better with video screencasts such as Pluralsight, Treehouse, CodeSchool supplemented by books which are listed.
The Odin Project - Ruby Based Code Development Online Code Camp with Javascript taught for frontend. I personally would not recommend learning Ruby/Rails at this point especially as this blog post is focused on using Javascript on both the backend and the frontend. Backend Javascript is NodeJS with the accepted standard as Express(although Sails, Koa are alternatives).
Scotch.io - A website with a bunch of step by step tutorials for MEAN applications (Mongo, Express, Angular, Node), React, Sockets, Node in general, Setting up API's, Using APIs, Learning React etc.
NodeSchool - A bunch of command line tutorials for everything not only node but javascript in general such as sockets or array methods

Paid
Pluralsight - Online Video Tutorials with tons of content for not only Javascript, but design, development, etc. Highly recommended as I have used this myself and not only for software development but for everything.
CodeSchool - Website primarily focused on web development, I would suggest checking out CodeAcademy first before diving into CodeSchool as some background is required. Also highly recommended as it helped jumpstart my javascript knowledge.
TeamTreehouse - Similar to pluralsight, tons of great content, and extremely easy to use dashboard to keep track of your progress and the courses you are taking. Has everything from simple introductory courses for noobs to more advanced tutorial videos. Like pluralsight it has much more than just web development.
Egghead.io - Some Free Videos to get a taste. I would highly recommend from personal experience. Their React, functional programming, d3, and redux videos are concise yet information filled.

Javascript

  1. CodeAcademy
    • I would personally suggest doing the Javascript tracks in CodeSchool to solidify your javascript knowledge before progressing. They routinely offer free trials although I would highly suggest signing up as they have some great content although the video introductions sometimes get slightly cheesy.
  2. Practical Javascript - "Free online course that get started. There's a lot of learning material out there that purports itself to be beginner level but in reality isn't made with the perspective of the student in mind. The examples in practical js are all building towards the same todo list application so the context for what you're doing is all there, and that's extremely important for beginners like us. I'd have to agree with the watchandcode.com link. It's a FREE course that is actually pretty amazing. The instructor's goal is to get you to give you a foundation so that you can easily learn other languages. You won't have the question of "what should I learn next?" anymore, since you can easily learn any language with a good base of knowledge.
    I've tried most of the resources on the sidebar and struggled through each one of them before invariably giving up . I've tried codeacademy, but it didn't get me very far into actually building something. I looked at Eloquent Javascript, and it was so confusing that did more damage to my progress than anything else. Considering that I'm a beginner, I had no idea how applicable any of the first few chapters were and it became a slog to get through. I had tried to remember all the definitions of the terms without actually doing any programming. Lots of my developer friends say that the struggle is just a part of learning how to program. I believed them at first until I ran across Practical Javascript from watchandcode.com.I like that the course is project based, and that a lot of the features in the project can be applied to building most every website out there. You learn what you need to learn in a nice sequence, building upon what you've learned. There isn't jumping around from one concept to the next. I actually feel like I'm making progress and not googling every little thing and wasting my time going down rabbit holes.Also, the instructor runs study sessions every Sunday. He gets on google hangouts and does screen shares with people who need help. I don't think I've seen that kind of feature in any other course. I'd jump on the course now, while it's still small. I don't think he'd be able to keep up these office hours with a few thousand students.Gordon has become a personal acquaintance and I can count on him to ask specific questions to help ease in learning. He's a former Google engineer....enough said. He has two courses and is always in touch if you need to contact him. Try practical JavaScript first (it's free) and will lay an appropriate foundation to continue your career development - especially in front end development. Next, I'd highly recommend looking into developing w/ angular and taking Gordon's course. - I've done both courses and pretty much use his courses everyday as reference. Check it out - I think you'll really enjoy learning from Gordon." - This was not written by myself but rather can be found in the references at the bottom of this page. I decided to include this at it was informative.
  3. I found online the following suggestion once you know syntax check out Adam Khoury youtube playlist Which has a lot of small projects. There's something to achieve, and he goes through it step by step explaining how it is achieved and why he took certain steps. I feel it's a good next step if you think you understand how to use javascript to do simple things, but want to go deeper while doing something practical. I haven't checked this out so I cannot confirm whether or not this is the case but once I do I will either remove this or edit this comment.
  4. You Don't Know Javascript Series. A great series of books by Kyle Simpson although may be a bit dry for a javascript novice. If these end up being too hard to digest I would head over to the Books section by the introduction.
  5. Object Playground - Short video tutorials and excerpts explaining what objects are and how they "work" in Javascript. Excellent.
  6. Advanced Javascript by Kyle Simpson PAID
  7. You-Dont-Know-JS: This & Object Prototypes - More from Kyle Simpson in his You Don't Know Javascript series
  8. Article on ES6 Class
  9. Essential Javascript Links by Eric Elliot
  10. Asynchronous Programming: The End of The Loop by Jafar Husain

Node (back-end/Serverside)

Quick rundown before you begin, Javascript is able to run on the backend due to NodeJS which was created by Ryan Dahl. This lets you create Javascript code which can run on servers or perform the tasks of a server. Express is a framework built on top of Node which abstracts away some of the complexity of Node and can be seen as the Sinatra/Ruby for those familiar to the Rails world.

  1. Node.js tutorial for beginners 2014 - an introduction to Node.js with Express.js LearnCode Academy Youtube Channel 15 min
  2. The Art of Node - Cursory Introduction of Node and the Environment
  3. NodeSchool.io - Free site with command line tutorials
  4. LearnYouNode - Command Line Tutorial to introduce you to node
  5. Philip Roberts: What the heck is the event loop anyway? - High Level Abstraction as to what NodeJS is and how it works (27 minutes, Youtube)
  6. Paid Courses
  1. Great Resources in comments to get Ramped up on Node
  2. https://hyperdev.com/help/learn-node-js-free-beginner-course/ - Online Beginner Tutorial to learn Node

Frontend

There are tons of libraries and frameworks out there which you may come across. Names like JQuery, Ember, Knockout, Backbone, Angular, Meteor may stick out but as with anything in the web development world, things move fast and the defacto standard is now React. Built by Facebook it has been adopted by everyone from Netflix to Khan Academy. However React only deals with the "view layer" of your single page application(SPA, google it if you don't know the term) and you need something to manage your local application data flow, aka your data model. This is where Flux came in (an architecture pattern) which then became Redux (which is what you should use for many many reasons). List of sites using React if you need more convincing. Lastly why React? There's React-Native which is essentially React with some slight changes and you are able to make native applications for both Android and iOS devices. One language and you can write applications across many ecosystems.


React How-To by Pete Hunt - Written by one of the creators of React. A collection of links and steps to learn frontend development using React.

  1. Tyler McGinnis React Fundamentals Course
  2. The Just Enough Redux Reading List
  3. Getting Started with Redux on Egghead by Dan Abramov who is the creator of redux. Extremely easy to follow and one of, if not the best redux tutorials(screencasts) I have come across. Notes to follow along.
  4. Building in React with Introduction to Flux Ryan Florence 4hr course PAID
  5. SurviveJS - Flux/React/Webpack/ES6 (Uses "old" implementation of Flux called Alt, Redux is now the norm as of writing) Good for seeing how the pieces fit together.
  6. Crowdsourced List of React Tutorials on Github
  7. Complete Intro to React
  8. Learn Redux - 20(free) video series by Wes Bos and a paid React For Beginneers also by Wes Bos
  9. Speed Learning React with ES6
  10. https://reactjs.co/ - Great Intro to why you should learn React & Redux and a quick intro to learn them/resources to get started

Miscellaneous

  1. Asynchronous Javascript FrontendMasters Jafar Husain ~9 hrs
  2. Asynchronous Javascript Teaser Jafar Husain Youtube 43 min
  3. Functional Programming / Observables
  4. Programming Javascript Applications - Eric Elliot
    • Straight to the point, learns you good patterns and also includes stuff on how to secure your js applications, which is hard to find information on. Supposedly good but requires a strong knowledge base.
  5. "JavaScript: Understanding the Weird Parts" video series by Anthony Alicea on Udemy has been invaluable for some
  6. CLI Tutorial
  7. MDN - Mozilla Developer Network, Great Documentation which I personally use for both reference and for tutorials when I was learning.
  8. ES6-in-Depth
  9. http://www.sitepoint.com/preparing-ecmascript-6-let-const/ and all the links in it
  10. Why do ES6 Classes Exist and Why Now - In Depth Explanation of ES6 Classes
  11. Best Resources To Learn About Javascript Promises

Data Manipulation

  1. Learn JS Data Data munging with Javascript using Native Array Methods, Functional Programming, D3 & Node

Machine Learning

  1. Not Javascript, but advised Andrew Ng's Machine Learning Course on Coursera
  2. Andrej Karpathy Neural Net Intro in JS
  3. Burak Kanber Machine Learning in JS
  4. http://www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/machine-learning-in-javascript-a-compilation-of-resources
  5. Deep Learning Library by Karpathy

Datasets

Big Data

Cheatsheets

Cool Libraries

  • DiffCam - Image Tracking, Heatmap Creation

Books

Title Author Pages Date Difficulty Extra Info
Head First Javascript Eric T. Freeman, Elisabeth Robson 704 2014 ★
Eloquent Javascript Marijn Haverbeke 490 2014 ★ To purchase hardcopy Amazon link
Annotated Version of Eloquent Javascript Marijn Haverbeke 490 2014 ★
JavaScript and JQuery: Interactive Front-End Web Development Jon Duckett 640 2014 ★
Speaking JavaScript: An In-Depth Guide for Programmers Jon Duckett 640 2014 ★★ Predecessor to "Exploring ES6". To purchase hardcopy Amazon Link
Javascript Patterns Stoyan Stefanov 236 2010 ★★★
Professional JavaScript for Web Developers Nicholas Zakas 964 2012 ★
Javascript The Good Parts Douglas Crockford 172 2008 ★★ Somewhat dated but a lot of good kernels of knowledge
Async Javascript Trevor Burnham 104 2012 ★★★ "Build More Responsive Apps with Less Code"
Expert Javascript Apress Mark E. Daggett 248 2013 ★★
A Smarter way to learn JavaScript Mark Myers 254 2013 ★ Online Version http://www.asmarterwaytolearn.com/js/index-of-exercises.html
JavaScript Application Design: A Build First Approach Nicolas Bevacqua 244 2015 ★★
You Don't Know JS: ES6 & Beyond Kyle Simpson 278 2015 ★★ Very comprehensive, Kyle also has video tutorials on Pluralsight/Frontend Masters. Amazon
JavaScript Allongé, the "Six" Edition Reg Braithwaite 513 2016 ★★
Exploring ES6 Axel Rauschmayer 614 2016 ★★ Not a standalone book, should read once you know Javascript
Secrets of the Javascript Ninja John Resig 392 2013 ★★ Author is the creator of Jquery
Effective JavaScript: 68 Specific Ways to Harness the Power of JavaScript (Effective Software Development Series) David Herman 228 2013 ★★ Aimed at People who Already Know JS. New edition coming out soon!! Stay tuned.
Learning Javascript Design Patterns Addy Osmani 245 2014 ★★★ Really great book to start getting deeper into the JS language once you have all the concepts. Purchase hardcopy Amazon
Principles of Object Oriented Javascript Nicholas Zakas 93 2014 ★★
Object Oriented Javascript 2nd Ed. Stoyan Stefanov 382 2013 ★★
Learning JavaScript Data Structures and Algorithms - Second Edition Loiane Groner 314 2016 ★★★

23 Free Javascript Books

General Resources:

jsBin For practicing in browser
repl.it For practicing in browser
Javascript is Sexy -"16 Javascript Concepts You Must Know Well"
Learn JavaScript Essentials (for all skill levels) by Eric Elliott
http://www.linuxmaster.me/2015/05/javascript-learning-resources/
http://sixrevisions.com/javascript/free-javascript-books/
[Awesome Web-Dev Resources][https://github.com/fahd/webdev-resources] - Nice organized collection of resources for the beginning/starting developer. Highly suggest checking it out.
Awesome React-Redux Links - Curated tutorial and resource links collected on React, Redux, ES6, and more, meant to be a collection of high-quality articles and resources for someone who wants to learn about the React-Redux ecosystem.
Stack Overflow - Online Community/Forum where most of your google searches will come from. Check the solutions with the most upvotes/selected answers.
12 Essential Books - Essential 12 Books by Eric Elliot

Practice Problems

General Coding
Codewars
Coderbyte
CodeKata
Project Euler
Exercism.io
Code Forces

Interview Practice
HackerRank
InterviewCake
Javascript Interview Review - Great collection of resources to review for an interview in Javascript
Frontend Developer questions https://github.com/h5bp/Front-end-Developer-Interview-Questions#js-questions

Biology/Bioinformatics
Rosalind

Data Science
Kaggle

Youtube Channels

FunFunFunction Host: Mattias Petter Johansson aka mpj, Good channel to learn principles and concepts of functional programming (Beginning with Filter, Map, Reduce Array methods)
LearnCodeAcademy Host: Will Stern, Extremely well done videos covering all aspects of web design, Node, React, etc
Kyle Robinson Young- Tons of Mini Tutorial Videos Covering tons of concepts
Derek Banas - Tutorials not only limited to Javascript
Rob Merill
Max Sandelin
WebTunings - Videos for Big O notation Learning, Angular, Node(a bit outdated), Python, Java etc
BritishCode - A british chap who has begun to make introductory videos on javascript but seems to have promise
Frontend Center - Australian starting with webpack, producing high quality snippets of video

Newsletters/Sites to Follow

Echo JS
Javascript News
Pony Foo
Hot JS
Newsletters:
Front End News
Javascript Weekly
Node Weekly
2ality
r/webdev
r/javascript
r/learnjavascript
r/reactjs
Rebecca Murphey Blog - great resources/exercises

Javascript Jabber podcast - excellent shows, discussion. Over 200 now covering almost every tool chain, framework, library.
Javasript Air - live broadcast podcat all about javascript

People to Follow:

@getify, @_ericelliott, @BrendanEich, @holtbt, @jhusain, @andrestaltz, @drboolean, @cmdv

If you have any more links or comments that could help those reading this feel free to drop a line in the comments and I'll update this guide as often as possible.

Sources:

https://medium.com/javascript-scene/learn-javascript-b631a4af11f2#.4pm496sg5
https://medium.com/@cmdv/i-want-to-learn-javascript-in-2015-e96cd85ad225#.a0azbmhhr

]]><![CDATA[Why Broken Sleep is a Golden Time for Creativity]]>https://faolain.nyc/why-broken-sleep-is-a-golden-time-for-creativity/5f1100b24636020c1edb4ee1Tue, 18 Nov 2014 03:01:29 GMT