Widget Tricks Newsletter #6
Indian Community Summit in Goa. Google IO Connect in Bangalore. Stages of an Effective Programmer. How to Learn Things Quickly. How Do I Choose a New Book to Read and much more.
🧑🤝🧑 Last Week Was All About the Community
We had the India Community Summit 2023 in Goa.
Right after that, we had Google IO Connect for the Asia Pacific region in Bengaluru. We converted the flight into a charter plane with the majority of 160 people on the same plane coming from Goa to Bangalore for the event.
As the saying goes…
If you are the smartest person in the room, then you are in the wrong room.
The biggest advantage of being part of this event is that all of the people in the events are doing some incredible stuff, from building startups, content creation, managing events, writing, and speaking. Having people around with this wide range of expertise allows us to open up our minds to see how many opportunities are available in this world and inspire us to do the same incredible stuff.
A few things I learned about networking are...
Don't go to a networking event just for the sake of networking. Go with a generous curiosity to learn something new, talk about your problems or solutions, and things will automatically start to network.
You don't need to talk to all of the people, just a few of them are enough. Follow the 80-20 principle.
Enjoy yourself and don't talk about work all the time.
Strengthening old relationships with people is more important than constantly finding new people.
Most people are nervous to talk, so learn to have ice-breaking conversations. I am still not good at this and I'm trying to be better at it.
Since I was busy with the events, I’ve fewer content to share compared to previous newsletters. So let’s go
📃Post of the Month
💼 Flutter Jobs to Apply
Lead Flutter UI Developer: Watch Crunch (Remote)
WatchCrunch is an online platform for watch enthusiasts. We believe in transparency, collaboration, and networked learning. Our team, although scattered around the world, is a tight-knit, cohesive group of problem solvers exponentially growing smarter, faster, and stronger. We are looking for a Flutter ninja/superstar/rockstar to join our team!
✍️ Articles to Read
The Builder Pattern Should be Avoided in Flutter Widget Trees by Matt Carroll
This is a highly opinionated article, so please take everything with a grain of salt."
My Biggest Regret as a Programmer by Andrew Wulf
Being a programmer for nearly 35 years and still being able to get things done and ship is still fun and I’ve been able to work on amazing things over the years. But I can still feel the regret of not seeking the challenge of just leadership. In some ways, programming was the easy choice
How to Learn Stuff Quickly by Josh Comeau
I'm not saying you should become a total generalist—it's still worth having pockets of deep expertise! But the wider your skill network grows, the bigger your advantage will be when it comes to learning something new
📦 Code from Pub Packages
Wix Headless API
This is not a Dart package or library; instead, it's a Backend API SDK that allows you to build Frontend apps, like mobile apps, very quickly and save time developing your own Backend.
This API offers solutions for managing bookings, events, payments, eCommerce, loyalty programs, and more. So if you are looking to build an app around this use case, it's easy to get started with this tool and ship your idea quickly.
📺 Videos to Watch
Around The Corner - How Differential Steering Works (1937)
Vintage footage explaining how differential steering works with various miniature models, starting from simple to the full engine.
📚 Quotes From Books
I did not get much time to read this week but I often get this question, "How do I choose a new book to read?" I don't have a specific process, but I have found a pattern for myself before picking up a new book. So here's what I do:
I like to read different genres, not only tech but also business, history, psychology, and science.
To pick a book for each genre, I try to read 3-4 books simultaneously. I use social media to guide my selection process.
I follow highly influential and respected people in specific genres/industries and keep checking their feeds to see if they have recently read any interesting books. Some of the people I follow are Naval Ravikant, Gergely Orosz, and Alex & Books.
Next, I watch a 5-8 minute summary video of the book on YouTube and check reviews on Goodreads and Amazon.
One of the channels I follow for book summary videos is Productivity Game.
If a book captures my attention and interest, I finally purchase it. If the book is expensive, I add it to "Save for later" in my Amazon cart and wait for the price to drop. If it's a really important topic I want to read, I purchase it anyway.
If I'm still not satisfied with the short videos and reviews, I try to read the first 5-10 pages of the book, which can easily be found on the Google Books app, or watch a relevant Google Talks video.
Sometimes, a book catches my eye when it's recommended by many people working in different industries.
However, this method doesn't work all the time. Sometimes I've purchased the wrong book, maybe because I didn't do enough research, I wasn't ready for that topic, or the book became boring after a few pages (mostly with self-help books).
Following this approach, the ratio of picking up the wrong book is reduced. Out of ten books, I may pick up two that aren't quite what I expected.
That's all. If you're looking for a reading list, here is mine.
That’s it Folk
If you enjoyed this newsletter then would you be able to do me a quick favor and share this with your friends and colleagues? I'd really appreciate it and I think it could be valuable to them.
Thank you for being a part of the Widget Tricks Newsletter, and I am looking forward to hearing from you soon.