Two series I am enjoying

Nope, this is not about TV series.

The first series I am talking about is an email course by Dan Abramov called 'Just Javascript'. I receive a new module every other Thursday and I look forward to each one of them. Rather than teaching programming, what is does is fix the mental model by creating a 'Javascript Universe' so that it can be easily reasoned with. I think it is already giving me new ways to think about the language and I am sure I will carry this mental model with me while writing and debugging Javascript code. Oh, and I love the illustrations by Maggie Appleton. Highly recommended if you are an intermediate Javascript developer. Dan is sending out each module after writing it, so it is a work in progress. It is a bit like witnessing the making of a classic.

The second one is a series of blog posts by Frank Chimero, where he is writing about his process of redesigning his personal site. This is a topic of great interest for me because it is going to be a year now (!) since I started on the idea of designing this site in the open. It is fascinating to look at the care and consideration that goes into designing for content, as opposed to designing for user interfaces.

The common thread in both these series is, it allows a peek into the minds of people who are seasoned craftsmen in their own fields. It is a treat. I feel grateful to both of them for sharing this.