Articles

Dancing with Fear

Fears and doubt often pop into my head when I work.

When I code, I wonder:

• Am I using best practices?
• Did I structure code in the best possible way?
• Am I doing it correctly?

When I write, I wonder:

• What makes me qualified to teach anything?
• Will people understand what I’m trying to say?
• THIS THING IS TOTALLY OFF-TOPIC. IT’S NOT TECH RELATED! OH MY GOD!

When I run my business, I wonder:

• Should I reply to every single email?
• Should I continue to focus on articles?
• Can I see pre-orders for courses?
• What if I can’t complete my courses on time?
• Are my products and sales emails persuasive but not coming off too sales-y?

I hate having these thoughts because they make me hesitate. And I slow down in my work.

But I love these thoughts because they tell me I’m doing the right thing.

Seeding a database

When you write tests for the backend, you need to test for four different kinds of operations:

1. Create (for adding things to the database)
2. Read (for getting things from the database)
3. Update (for changing the database)
4. Delete (for deleting things from the database)

The easiest type to test for is create operations. You put something into the database and test whether it’s there.

For the other three types of operations, you need to put something into the database before you write the test.

Connecting Jest and Mongoose

The hard part about testing a backend application is setting up a test database. It can be complicated.

Today, I want to share how I setup Jest and Mongoose.

Endpoint testing with Jest and Supertest

I played around with testing lately. One thing I tried to do was to test the endpoints of my Express application.

Setting up the test was the hard part. People who write about tests don’t actually teach you how they set it up. I could not find any useful information about this, and I had to try and figure it out.

So today, I want to share the setup I created for myself. Hopefully, this can help you when you create your own tests.

How to setup a local MongoDB Connection

I always use MongoDB as a database when I work on an app. And I like to connect to a database on my computer because it speeds up dev and test-related work.

Today, I want to share how to create and connect to a local MongoDB Database.

Frontend vs Backend

I used to think it would be easy to write backend if I knew JavaScript. I thought it would be easy because Node is JavaScript. I didn’t have to learn a new language.

But I was wrong.

But backend was hard to learn. I took ages to learn it. (And I’m still trying to master it).

I realized I had problems learning backend because I thought Frontend and Backend were the same—they were just code.

That’s a big mistake.

Frontend and Backend are different beasts altogether. I had to respect their differences before I could learn Backend properly.

If I were to explain the difference between Frontend and Backend (in terms of implementation), I would say:

• Frontend is about perception
• Backend is about communication

How to add Flexbox fallback to CSS Grid

I shared how to build a calendar with CSS Grid in the previous article. Today, I want to share how to build a Flexbox fallback for the same calendar.

How to build a calendar with CSS Grid

Building a calendar with CSS Grid is actually quite easy. I want to show you how to do it.

Here’s what you’ll create by the end of this article:

Stages of learning

Over time, I realized there are five stages of learning.

1. Awareness
2. Panic
3. Avoidance
4. Acceptance
5. Learning

Shutting down Fridays with Zell

If you stuck around for a while, you might have noticed I used to post a video (and an audio) every Friday for most of 2018. I call them “Fridays with Zell”.

In 2019, I decided to stop making videos. I want to share why I decided to stop making videos.