9 Must-Know Tips for Your Next Trip or Vacation

I’m far from collecting enough passport stamps for a world tour.

But, I’ve traveled abroad more than once. Thanks to coding, I saved enough to visit Spain and France before the pandemic. It was my final exam after studying French for a couple of years.

Here are 9 tips I’ve learned from those travels:

1. Always pack a jacket: Last time I was on vacation I visited a tropical country. Of course, I only packed shorts and swimsuits. But once I was thousands of feet in the air and inside a pressurized cabin, I was freezing.

2. Pack underwear and cleaning essentials in your handbag: In case, your baggage is lost or delayed. Better safe than sorry.

3. Visit your favorite destination first: For my travel to France, Paris was the last city I visited. By the time I got there, I didn’t have the energy to walk for hours and visit museums. I missed a lot of must-see places. And I didn’t truly enjoy the ones I visited. I was tired. Next time, I’m visiting my favorite destinations first.

4. Schedule a free day to wander around, sit in a park, go to a cafe, or simply do nothing. Often, we travel to rest and unplug but we end up exhausted from hours of walking, connecting flights, and museums.

5. Start with a walking tour: Often, they’re free. Or you can leave a tip at the end of the tour. And you have the chance to ask your tour guide for places to eat and hang around where locals go.

6. Bring eye masks and earplugs. Perfect for sleeping on planes or trains…And hostels can get loud sometimes.

7. If you’re crossing the Atlantic, from America to Europe, start your flight in the evening: This lets you get some sleep on the plane and arrive at your destination with daylight. It reduces the jet lag.

8. Wear pants that don’t need a belt and shoes without laces. It will save you a lot of time at security controls.

9. Keep your passport in your bag and only take it out at security checkpoints. Often there’s some stigma associated with our country of origin. I bet the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Colombia isn’t Encanto, just like Coco when you think of Mexico—both Disney movies. Keeping your passport in plain sight invites extra scrutiny from security personnel walking around airports.

10 Tips Every New Coder Should Know to Succeed

I remember the first day of my first coding job.

It was over 10 years ago. I wore a long-sleeved shirt and fancy shoes. I brought a CD to install Visual Studio 2010. Yes, a CD. And yes, Visual Studio 2010.

After getting my corner and shaking hands, someone handed me a book. It was a book about SQL Server 2008. I read and googled for a couple of weeks until I got my first task. I was coming from Java and I needed to know C# in a few days.

My first task was to port a legacy ASP.NET WebForms app into a desktop app. I wrote Java code with C# keywords.

I had to figure out lots of things. Coding was the easy part. Everything else was the difficult part.

If you’re like me over 10 years ago, here are 10 tips you should know to succeed as a new coder—this is what I wish I knew back then:

1. Learn one basic coding skill

Learn to do one thing and do it well.

If you’re a frontend developer, practice turning a mockup into a webpage and calling existing API endpoints to make it work. Use React or Angular or whatever is the shiny thing these days.

If you’re a backend developer, practice writing API endpoints that validate user data, put it into a database, and read it back.

You’ll spend most of your time on those types of tasks.

2. Ask for help

When you get an error message (it will happen a lot), don’t simply send it over to a coworker.

Take the time to solve it on your own. Or at least, try. The first step? Google the same error message. Forget about AI for now. Only then, if you’re still stuck, ask a coworker, showing what you found and tried.

You’ll get more help if you show you tried rather than simply saying “help me.”

3. Ask questions

You’ll have to ask lots and lots of questions. Like a lot.

For me, everything was new at my first job. The coding part, the business domain, working on a corporate job…

Always ask why. Why this task? What’s the real problem? And why solve it now?

It’s better if you annoy people with questions than with mistakes from not asking.

4. Find good role models and mentors

A good mentor will make a huge difference in your career.

But don’t simply ask, “would you like to be my mentor?” Everybody will tell you no. Being a “mentor” implies commitment, most of the time, for free. Find alternative ways to be mentored.

Often, books are your best mentors too.

5. Be comfortable with the struggle

At the beginning, it sucks.

You feel like you don’t know anything. Everybody around you is way more competent. You go to bed while leaving something broken to wait for you the next day.

Take it step by step. It gets easier with time and effort. And the feeling of not knowing anything never goes away. You simply change the things you don’t know now with others.

Trust the process. The struggle is part of it.

6. Learn the right things at the right time

At the beginning, I tried to learn about everything at once.

I was into Python, learning C#, reading Clean Code, and keeping up with PHP…Lots of passion, without direction.

Coding isn’t simply one skill, but lots of subskills: language syntax, problem solving, databases, development practices…Tackle them one by one. Only move to the next skill once you understand one enough.

Remember you don’t need to know everything. And you don’t need to know everything at once either.

7. Learn to look for your own answers

University, bootcamps, and YouTube won’t teach you everything you need to know.

You have to read and study a lot. Like a lot! Nobody taught me about C#, version control, or unit testing…and on and on. I had to study them on my own.

Being a good coder also means being a lifelong learner.

8. Be willing to learn and follow instructions

As a new coder, you stand out by showing that you’re able to learn and follow instructions.

For example, when you ask for help (See #2), do or at least try doing what you’re being told.

9. Introduce yourself, network, and write CVs

It’s hard to land a job when you have almost 0 hours of flight time.

You don’t know many people. You don’t have much to show off on your CV. You have to resort to networking. Find clever ways to get an introduction.

Back in my day, I got my first job because I knew someone who knew someone. These days, I’d try starting with social media. Go with LinkedIn if you don’t know where to start.

And when you get an introduction, say you’re starting out and you’re willing to learn. See #8.

10. Real coding isn’t like University or bootcamps

In real life, often there’s no documentation, standard procedures, development workflows, or software methodologies. Or it’s more like a zombie methodology disguised as Agile. And on top of that, the existing code is a mess. Welcome to coding!

My last piece of advice: once you’re in a job, forget about the job description you read before joining. Learn and absorb everything you can, don’t be afraid to experiment. Embrace every opportunity to grow and challenge yourself. When your current role becomes second nature, it’s your signal to move one for new challenges. Never stop learning.

To read more, here’s a free mentorship session in 8 lessons and four lessons I wished I knew before becoming a Software Engineer.

Change Starts in Your Mind, not Anywhere Else

Hollywood often glorifies Navy SEALs portraying them as indestructible and focused men.

Jocko Willink, the guy from American Sniper, and the guys from Lone Survivor are all portrayed of them self-disciplined tough men.

But that’s not always the case. And this isn’t a story of a self-disciplined man.

His name is Taylor Cavanaugh, an ex-SEAL.

After joining the Military, Taylor’s life was a disaster. Bad decision after bad decision kicked him out of the military and led him to escape to France to join the Foreign Legion.

He tells his full story here:

And here are my 3 favorite quotes from his story.

“If you feel like it’s the happiest you’ve ever been, be very careful”

Taylor’s breaking point was after graduating from his military training.

It was partying and living “la vida loca” that got Taylor into trouble. It was the feeling of making it.

My breaking point wasn’t when I was making minimum wage at my first job.

No! It was years later when I was making the most money I had made as a software engineer. It was when I had won a “reputation” and felt comfortable at work. That’s when I got into trouble. I burned out.

And if we aren’t careful enough in those happy moments, everything that goes up has to go down.

“You cannot get healthy in the same place that makes you sick”

Often we can’t afford moving to a new place.

That’s what Taylor did to change his life. He moved to France to join the Foreign Legion. A military unit that accepts foreigners and give them a new name and life, no questions asked.

But we can change our environment without leaving home by:

• cleaning our room,
• working out,
• making our bed,
• eating healthy food,
• ditching social media, and
• going to bed earlier.

It took me months to start getting out of that burnout episode. But, it all started with a 5-kg dumbbell and a YouTube video to work out before showing up to work and with the type of content I was consuming online.

Move to another place or create the right conditions around you to flourish.

“Anything you do starts with self development”

Nobody is coming to save you.

It was a little voice in my head when I hit rock bottom that helped me to get up. “If you don’t get up by yourself, nobody is going to do it for you.”

I had to believe it was possible. I started to read inspiring books and YouTube videos. I had to watch stories from other who overcame similar situations in their lives. All that to believe I could do it too.

Change has to start in your mind first.

Parting thought

After overcoming his messy life, now Taylor is a life coach.

Me? Well, I took almost a year off to continue taking care of my health. I adopted a simple habit: ditching my to-do list and doing something for my body, mind, and spirit every day. Every single day, without excuses.

And that last quote summarizes Taylor’s journey through recovery—and my journey too. It all starts in your mind with your beliefs. Because beliefs turn into actions, actions into habits, and habits into change.

How to Better Organize Your Program.cs File in ASP.NET Core Apps

If you’re not careful, your Program.cs file can become a mess.

It can turn into a long class full of methods and conditionals for every dependency to configure. We focus on the rest of our code, but often forget about the Program.cs file.

We could try extension methods to keep our configurations clean and organized.

But, these days, while working with a client, I learned an alternative to extension methods for keeping our Program.cs file tidy. A coworker showed me this approach. He learned it from a past job.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Let’s create an ASP.NET Core project adding Hangfire

Let’s create a dummy ASP.NET Core app. And to make it a bit more “complicated,” let’s add a lite Hangfire with one recurring job.

Here’s our unorganized Program.cs file,

using Hangfire;
using Hangfire.Console;

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
builder.Services.AddControllers();

builder.Services.AddHangfire(configuration =>
{
    configuration.UseInMemoryStorage();
    configuration.UseConsole();
});
builder.Services.AddHangfireServer(options =>
{
    options.SchedulePollingInterval = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5);
    options.WorkerCount = 1;
});
GlobalJobFilters.Filters.Add(new AutomaticRetryAttribute
{
    Attempts = 1
});

var app = builder.Build();
app.MapControllers();

app.UseHangfireDashboard();
app.MapHangfireDashboard();

RecurringJob.AddOrUpdate<ProducerRecurringJob>(
    ProducerRecurringJob.JobId,
    x => x.DoSomethingAsync(),
    "0/1 * * * *");

RecurringJob.TriggerJob(ProducerRecurringJob.JobId);

app.Run();

Nothing fancy. A bunch of AddSomething() and UseSomething() methods.

It’s already kind of a mess, right? Looks familiar?

2. Let’s register each dependency using a separate class

To make our app work, we must register controllers and Hangfire. Let’s do it in a new class called MyCoolAppUsingHangfire,

using Hangfire;
using Hangfire.Console;

namespace OrganizingProgramDotCs;

public class MyCoolAppUsingHangfire : BaseWebApp
//                                    ^^^^^
{
    protected override void RegisterConfiguration(IWebHostEnvironment env, IConfiguration configuration)
    //                      ^^^^^^
    {
        Register(new ControllersConfig()); // <--
        Register(new HangfireConfig()); // <--
    }
}

// One class to register controllers
class ControllersConfig : IConfigureServices, IConfigureApp
{
    public void ConfigureApp(WebApplication app)
    {
        app.MapControllers();
    }

    public void ConfigureServices(IConfiguration configuration, IServiceCollection services)
    {
        services.AddControllers();
    }
}

// Another class to register Hangfire
class HangfireConfig : IConfigureServices, IConfigureApp
{
    public void ConfigureApp(WebApplication app)
    {
        app.UseHangfireDashboard();
        app.MapHangfireDashboard();

        RecurringJob.AddOrUpdate<ProducerRecurringJob>(
            ProducerRecurringJob.JobId,
            x => x.DoSomethingAsync(),
            "0/1 * * * *");

        RecurringJob.TriggerJob(ProducerRecurringJob.JobId);
    }

    public void ConfigureServices(IConfiguration configuration, IServiceCollection services)
    {
        services.AddHangfire(configuration =>
        {
            configuration.UseInMemoryStorage();
            configuration.UseConsole();
        });
        services.AddHangfireServer(options =>
        {
            options.SchedulePollingInterval = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5);
            options.WorkerCount = 1;
        });
        GlobalJobFilters.Filters.Add(new AutomaticRetryAttribute
        {
            Attempts = 1
        });
    }
}

MyCoolAppUsingHangfire has only one method: RegisterConfiguration().

Inside it, we register two classes: ControllersConfig and HangfireConfig. One “config” class per “artifact” to register.

Each config class implements IConfigureServices and IConfigureApp.

Inside each config class, we put what was scattered all over the Program.cs file.

3. Let’s look at BaseWebApp

Inside BaseWebApp, the real magic happens,

namespace OrganizingProgramDotCs;

public abstract class BaseWebApp
{
    private readonly List<IConfigure> _configurations = [];

    protected abstract void RegisterConfiguration(IWebHostEnvironment env, IConfiguration configuration);
    //                      ^^^^^

    protected void Register(IConfigure configure)
    {
        _configurations.Add(configure);
    }

    public async Task RunAppAsync(params string[] args)
    //                ^^^^^
    {
        var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
        RegisterConfiguration(builder.Environment, builder.Configuration);

        foreach (var configuration in _configurations.OfType<IConfigureServices>())
        {
            configuration.ConfigureServices(builder.Configuration, builder.Services);
        }

        var app = builder.Build();

        foreach (var configuration in _configurations.OfType<IConfigureApp>())
        {
            configuration.ConfigureApp(app);
        }

        await app.RunAsync();
    }
}

public interface IConfigure;
public interface IConfigureApp : IConfigure
{
    void ConfigureApp(WebApplication webApplication);
}
public interface IConfigureServices : IConfigure
{
    void ConfigureServices(IConfiguration configuration, IServiceCollection services);
}

RunAppAsync() looks almost like the content of a normal Program.cs.

But, it reads the services and configurations to register from a list, _configurations. We populate that list inside MyCoolAppUsingHangfire using the method Register().

After that change, our Program.cs file has only a few lines of code

And lo and behold,

using OrganizingProgramDotCs;

var myCoolApp = new MyCoolAppUsingHangfire();
await myCoolApp.RunAppAsync(args);

With this approach, we move every configuration artifact to separate classes, keeping the Program.cs clean and compact. Ours now has only three lines of code.

We could also use this approach to handle the Startup class when migrating old ASP.NET Core projects.

Et voilà!

Bring Out Your Writing Voice With This Simple Technique

The biggest mistake all new writers make is trying to sound like a “writer.”

That’s because we’re more used to reading fiction. And we try to do the same. But we end up writing long sentences and using complicated words.

Instead of pretending to be a writer, write for a single person in mind. That’s what I do.

But these days, I’ve found another technique to bring out your inner and real voice out when writing.

It comes from Henrik Karlsson from Escaping Flatland. He wrote in Advice for a friend who wants to start a blog:

#4. People tend to sound more like themselves in chat messages than in blog posts. So perhaps write in the chat, rapidly, to a friend.

When we’re texting friends or family, we don’t use jargon, fluff, or long sentences. We use the tone we use in a face-to-face conversation. A text box inside WhatsApp brings your inner voice out.

The next time you sit down to write, open a chat with yourself and let your true voice flow.