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Growing as Makers

Puzzle Games That Sharpen a Developer’s Mental Modeling Skills

Puzzle games won’t replace the experience you get from real engineering work, but they can sharpen the tools you work with every day.

Travis Henderson Software Developer & Consultant. Passionate technology enthusiast and curious tinkerer. Proud owner of more gadgets than socks.

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TypeScript • Apr 09

Use Better Auth as a Custom Auth Strategy in Payload CMS

I replaced Payload CMS’s built-in login system with Better Auth so an Next.js site and its Payload admin panel share an authenticated session.

Exploratory Testing • Apr 08

Here’s How We Used Snapshot Tests for Software with Complex Data

I like the basic idea of snapshot tests. On a recent migration project, we found that same idea worked well for backend data too.

AI for Developers • Apr 07

Your AI “Guardrails” Are Just Suggestions

Any time someone talks about “guardrails” on an AI prompt, it usually involves additional instructions in the prompt to “behave yourself”.

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Developer Tools View more Developer Tools posts →

Two developers look at a monitor and discuss using Lima for an AI Coding Agent Sandbox

Developer Tools

How I Used Lima for an AI Coding Agent Sandbox

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Two developers gesture at a large screen. Post title: A User's Guide to Microsoft’s Murky Pool of Reporting Tools

Developer Tools

A User’s Guide to Microsoft’s Murky Pool of Reporting Tools

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Two developers look at a monitor. Post title: Blocked by Unifi - Troubleshooting a Home Networking Issue

Developer Tools

Blocked by Unifi – Troubleshooting a Home Networking Issue

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A developer's hands on a keyboard. Post title: Hide Code in a Repo Using Git Submodules

Developer Tools

Hide Code in a Repo Using Git Submodules

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UX/Design Tools View more UX/Design Tools posts →

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React / Redux View more React / Redux posts →

Pictured is author Lizzie Paris with colleagues. Post title: Authenticated Routes with TanStack Router

React / Redux

Authenticated Routes with TanStack Router

My software development team is currently using TanStack Router on a project. I set up our basic routing infrastructure: here was my process.

Pictured is author Jared Surato. Post title: Smarter Data Fetching with TanStack Query: Reusable Patterns and Optimistic UI

React / Redux

Smarter Data Fetching with TanStack Query: Reusable Patterns and Optimistic UI

Here are a few especially helpful patterns for real-world projects, including reusing query configuration across components.

Use React Hook Form with Zod Validation: Part One

React / Redux

Use React Hook Form with Zod Validation: Part One

React Hook Form is a library that smoothly handles forms in React. Let's look at examples of how to use React Hook Form with Zod validation.

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Web Apps View more Web Apps posts →

Web Apps

Build a 3D Product Configurator with Babylon.js

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How to Build and Publish Browser Extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari

Web Apps

How to Build and Publish Browser Extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari

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Embedding Payload CMS 3.0 Admin UI in Your Next.js App

Web Apps

Embed Payload CMS 3.0 Admin UI in Your Next.js App

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About a year ago, I used Remix on a short prototype app to that displayed a series of reports and I loved it. For those who don’t know. Remix is a framework for building websites. It uses React JS as a base and adds some specialized compiling. The app was a great use case for Remix for a few reasons. First, the pre-built stacks got the app deployed quickly. The main parts of Remix that shined were its prefetching, directory-based routing, and its loader functions. The prefetching helped the reports load faster because some data would be retrieved before the user navigated. The directory-based routing made it easy to setup the structure of the app. Last, Remix’s loader functions were able to retrieve small amounts of data each as it was needed. I am now using Remix on a second website that has a different structure than the prototype and we aren’t able to use the same features to the same degree. This time around, I am finding myself using fewer of the features mentioned previously. We aren’t using perfecting because we have a single page with a lot of complexity. We have fewer loader functions retrieving lots of information at once which makes them perform worse. The main difference that I found between the two projects is that the prototype was a multipage app and the second has been turning into a single page app (SPA). Based on Remix's documentation and my experience the best use cases for Remix are ones that can be modeled as multiple pages. Challenges for single page apps For this post, when I refer to a single page app I am referring to an app that tries to pack a variety of behaviors onto a single route. An example would be Google Calendar. Pictured below: In order to render this page, we need to load a few different things. We need to load all the events for this month, all the calendars for the user, and the details for the apps along the lefthand side. Then to use the app, we need to track which event is selected. When the user drags an event, we need to keep track of the calendar it is on. Then when it is placed, an alert is displayed if there are any conflicts. This state and behavior may need to be done in one component, which means one loader function. We may also want to perform component tests which are only partially supported in Remix, based on this git conversation. Make it optimal Instead, let’s talk about structuring an app to leverage Remix’s strengths. I am assuming we want to make use of Remix’s speedy loading while getting around some of its component testing limitations.The files that are used for routing should each be responsible for retrieving, displaying and mutating a limited set of information. As an example of a UI structure that could work well in Remix let’s look at Slack. Slack's UI can be visually broken down into three sections. The workspaces are on the far left. Then the channels within the selected workspace are listed, and lastly, we have the current chat for the selected workspace. A Remix app with this UI could have a URL like: slack/workspace2/proj-new-website. The root of the app would get the list of all workspaces, then /workspace2 would load the details for the selected workspace. Lastly, the chat window for /proj-new-website would load the chats and display them. This app can be modeled as a multipage app because the responsibilities are spread at different levels of the page instead of being concentrated in one component, like with the Google Calendar example. This would be a Slack-like app, and a better use case for Remix than a calendar app. Use the right tool for the job Remix is a powerful tool for web development. It can produce polished prototypes quickly and can build performant production apps. However, an app in Remix needs to keep Remix's design principles in mind. This means splitting the app's pages into pieces that can be loaded and rendered separately and keeping components as simple as possible in order to limit component testing on the frontend. Designing an app this way will enable the app to leverage the performance benefits promised by Remix.

Web Apps

Remix is Incredible — If It Fits Your Use Case

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Development Practices View more Development Practices posts →

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DevOps & System Admin View more DevOps & System Admin posts →

Pictured is author Casey Falkowski with co-workers. Post title: Bringing Confidence to Complex Data Migrations with Snapshot Testing

DevOps & System Admin.

SST Makes Infrastructure Easy — Too Easy?

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Hot Reloading Kubernetes with Skaffold

DevOps & System Admin.

How to Hot Reload Kubernetes with Skaffold

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Docker Compose Dependency Management Isn't a Silver Bullet

DevOps & System Admin.

Docker Compose Dependency Management Isn’t a Silver Bullet

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Working with Docker Containers Made Easy with the dexec Bash Script

DevOps & System Admin.

Working with Docker Containers Made Easy with the dexec Bash Script

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Extracurricular Activities View more Extracurricular Activities posts →

A biked parked in front of the Atomic Object office. Post title: Most of What's Stopping You From Biking to Work Isn't Real

Extracurricular Activities

Most of What’s Stopping You From Biking to Work Isn’t Real

Commute-curious but haven't pulled the trigger yet? Most obstacles to biking to work are either mental barriers or have simple solutions.

Shown is a chart from the post titled "Unified Theming on a Wayland Desktop - In 220 Lines of Bash"

Extracurricular Activities

Unified Theming on a Wayland Desktop – In 220 Lines of Bash

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I spent too much time on my computer, leading to frustration with the lack of a unified theme system.

A table from an post called: From Simple Circuits to Powerful Systems

Extracurricular Activities

From Simple Circuits to Powerful Systems

Explore the world of electron devices and circuits. Discover how simple electronics can be and break down learning barriers.

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.NET / WPF View more .NET / WPF posts →

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Personal Optimization View more Personal Optimization posts →

Decorations spelling out "Happy Birthday." Post title: Never Missing a Birthday Again with Sheets + Slack

Personal Optimization

Never Missing a Birthday Again with Sheets + Slack

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A comparison of note-taking methods. Post title: Upgrade Your Note Taking Skills From The Classroom To The Office

Personal Optimization

Upgrade Your Note-Taking Skills From The Classroom To The Office

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Hand-drawn picture showing Renee's goals back in 2014

Personal Optimization

Create a Personal Vision for 2026

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Building My Support Team Early & Other Things I’m Doing Differently in My Second Pregnancy

Personal Optimization

Building My Support Team Early & Other Things I’m Doing Differently in My Second Pregnancy

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TypeScript View More TypeScript posts →

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React Native View more React Native posts →

Pictured is author Jared Surato with colleagues. Post title: Here's What I’ve Learned After a Year of Full Time React Native Development

React Native

Here’s What I’ve Learned After a Year of Full-Time React Native Development

A year of full-time React Native development has taught me that success comes from consistent habits. Here are the ones that matter most.

Pictured are hands on a keyboard. Post title: How to Create a Chart with a Secondary Y Axis in React Native with Victory Native XL

React Native

Create a Chart with a Secondary Y Axis in React Native with Victory Native XL

The configurability of Victory Native XL charts can be a huge plus, especially when developing in React Native.

An iOS share sheet showing that a file named "my-database" that's 9.6 MB is being shared, and the file type is "SQLite Database".

React Native

How to AirDrop a SQLite Database from Your React Native App

My development team came up with a solution that takes advantage of the iOS and Android share sheet to let us export our SQLite database.

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Growing as Makers View more Growing as Makers posts →

Shown are two people having an intense conversation. Post title: Mindfulness: A Tool That Can Prevent Deadlocks and Defensiveness

Growing as Makers

Mindfulness: A Tool That Can Prevent Deadlocks and Defensiveness

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Growing as Makers

What Is a Software Designer, and How Can You Become One?

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Author Jonathan Chaffer writes on a whiteboard while chatting with a co-worker. Post title: How to Manage Cognitive Load as a Developer

Growing as Makers

How to Manage Cognitive Load as a Developer

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A screenshot from The Talos Principle (video game) showing a robot character facing a cube with a laser-redirecting device on top. Post title: Puzzle Games That Sharpen a Developer’s Mental Modeling Skills

Growing as Makers

Puzzle Games That Sharpen a Developer’s Mental Modeling Skills

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Atomic Thinking View more Atomic Thinking posts →

A programmer looks at a monitor. Post title: Use Better Auth as a Custom Auth Strategy in Payload CMS

TypeScript

Use Better Auth as a Custom Auth Strategy in Payload CMS

I replaced Payload CMS’s built-in login system with Better Auth so an Next.js site and its Payload admin panel share an authenticated session.

Shown are hands on a laptop. Post title: Here's How We Used Snapshot Tests for Software with Complex Data

Exploratory Testing

Here’s How We Used Snapshot Tests for Software with Complex Data

I like the basic idea of snapshot tests. On a recent migration project, we found that same idea worked well for backend data too.

Guardrails, illustrating a post titled: Your AI "Guardrails" are Just Suggestions

AI for Developers

Your AI “Guardrails” Are Just Suggestions

Any time someone talks about “guardrails” on an AI prompt, it usually involves additional instructions in the prompt to “behave yourself”.

View more Atomic Thinking posts