DPL Reading List – November 6, 2015
Here are some of the articles we’ve been reading around this office this week.
Busy, But Not Productive (Thanks to Jarrod Wubbels for recommending this article) – “Progress at a startup is ultimately measured not by hours but by risk. In the early days of a company, everything is uncertain and the risk is extraordinary. Progress is made by reducing risk. And the only way to reduce risk, is to learn. Being productive at a startup means focusing all of your activity on learning so that you can reduce risk in the business.”
The Viability Of JS Frameworks On Mobile – “Unless we want the web to be seen as a second class citizen on mobile, I think we need to address these performance issues. I believe the web can be fast even on mediocre hardware while providing a good developer experience.”
Understand Your Entrepreneurial DNA Before You Start Up (Thanks to Brian Zimmer for recommending this article) – “So it behooves every aspiring entrepreneur to understand their own DNA before picking a project to bet their life on, and to facilitate effective communication with all constituents, including partners, investors, team members and customers. We all have strengths and special interests, and it always pays to capitalize on these, rather than assume all opportunities are the same.”
How Kansas City And Google Fiber Changed Chattanooga’s Gigabit Story – “Google brought national attention to the possibilities of gigabit-speed Internet. From there, a collaborative relationship began to grow between Kansas City and Chattanooga. Big thinkers, entrepreneurs, and tech enthusiasts started coming to both cities to test new ideas. Kansas City saw the emergence of a Startup Village. Chattanooga launched Gigtank, an accelerator for startups who wanted to develop high bandwidth business applications.”
Coding Academies Are Nonsense – “Learning to translate intent to a non-human foreign language — coding — is pretty daunting, even with handholding instruction. For a little while, spending tens of thousands of dollars on a coding academy might feel like a good way to surmount the intimidation. Eventually, it might even be a ticket to a job at a big tech corporation. More likely, it is just a new pathway into debt. For all but the impassioned few, coding academies are nonsense.”
Why Are Drop-Downs And Select Boxes Bad For Forms? (Thanks to Jarrod Wubbels for recommending this article) – “While drop-downs may seem like a good way of housing content in web forms they actually cause a lot of issues.”
The Secret History of the Hashtag, Slash, and Interrobang – “Glyphs are the hidden heroes of the typography world. You might not pay them much attention, but they’re undeniably important. Glyphs—and by glyphs we’re referring specifically to those little typographic symbols that include punctuation—give intention and structure to a sentence; they help you interpret a piece of text. They tell you when to pause, when to question, when to feel enthused.”
