Link Collection: January 2025
Table of Contents
Welcome to the January 2025 edition of the Link Collection! This month’s collection features an exciting mix of open-source tools, thought-provoking books, and technical guides. From leadership strategies to hands-on tutorials, there’s something here for everyone.
Projects #
icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_downloader
A command-line tool to download photos from iCloud.
Contribute to vrtmrz/obsidian-livesync development by creating an account on GitHub.
Track personal Bluetooth devices via Apple's "Find My" network using OpenHaystack and Macless-Haystack with tools written in Go/TinyGo. No Apple hardware required! - hybridgroup/go-ha…
Manage your git profiles with ease. Contribute to kujov/git-profile-manager development by creating an account on GitHub.
Zed is a high-performance, multiplayer code editor from the creators of Atom and Tree-sitter.
Books #
The Daily Stoic
Stoic philosophy has long been the secret weapon of history’s greatest and wisest leaders–from emperors to artists, activists to fighter pilots. Today, people of all stripes are seeking out Stoicism’s unique blend of practicality and wisdom as they look for answers to the great questions of daily life. Where should they start? Epictetus? Marcus Aurelius? Seneca? Which edition? Which translator? Presented in a page-per-day format, this daily resource combines all new translations done by Stephen Hanselman of the greatest passages from the great Stoics (including several lesser known philosophers like Zeno, Cleanthes and Musonius Rufus) with helpful commentary.
ISBN: 978-0735211735
Buy on AmazonThe Manager’s Path
Managing people is difficult wherever you work. But in the tech industry, where management is also a technical discipline, the learning curve can be brutal—especially when there are few tools, texts, and frameworks to help you. In this practical guide, author Camille Fournier (tech lead turned CTO) takes you through each stage in the journey from engineer to technical manager. From mentoring interns to working with senior staff, you’ll get actionable advice for approaching various obstacles in your path. This book is ideal whether you’re a new manager, a mentor, or a more experienced leader looking for fresh advice. Pick up this book and learn how to become a better manager and leader in your organization. Begin by exploring what you expect from a manager Understand what it takes to be a good mentor, and a good tech lead Learn how to manage individual members while remaining focused on the entire team Understand how to manage yourself and avoid common pitfalls that challenge many leaders Manage multiple teams and learn how to manage managers Learn how to build and bootstrap a unifying culture in teams
ISBN: 978-1491973899
Buy on AmazonAccelerate
Winner of the Shingo Publication Award Accelerate your organization to win in the marketplace. How can we apply technology to drive business value? For years, we’ve been told that the performance of software delivery teams doesn’t matter―that it can’t provide a competitive advantage to our companies. Through four years of groundbreaking research to include data collected from the State of DevOps reports conducted with Puppet, Dr. Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, and Gene Kim set out to find a way to measure software delivery performance―and what drives it―using rigorous statistical methods. This book presents both the findings and the science behind that research, making the information accessible for readers to apply in their own organizations. Readers will discover how to measure the performance of their teams, and what capabilities they should invest in to drive higher performance. This book is ideal for management at every level.
ISBN: 9781942788355
Buy on AmazonEngineering in Plain Sight
Engineering in Plain Sight is a beautifully illustrated field guide with accessible explanations to nearly every part of the constructed world around us. Author Grady Hillhouse is the creator behind the popular YouTube channel Practical Engineering (over 3 million subscribers!) and this book is essentially 50 new episodes crammed between two covers. Engineering in Plain Sight extends the field guide genre from natural phenomena to human-made structures, making them approachable and understandable to non-engineers. It transforms readers’ perspectives of the built environment, converting the act of looking at infrastructure from a mundane inevitability into an everyday diversion and joy. Each section of this accessible, informative book features colorful illustrations revealing the fascinating details of how the human-made world works. An ideal road trip companion, this book offers a fresh perspective on the parts of the environment that often blend into the background. Readers will learn to identify characteristics of the electrical grid, roadways, railways, bridges, tunnels, waterways, and more. Engineering in Plain Sight inspires curiosity, interest, and engagement in how the infrastructure around us is designed and constructed.
ISBN: 978-1718502321
Buy on AmazonRaising an Entrepreneur
In this book, a political powerhouse and mother of two thriving entrepreneurs interviews the moms of over fifty of today’s most successful innovators and—based on her findings—provides ten rules for raising confident, fearless, self-made individuals whose ideas and drive will change the world. Is your child passionate about something? Maybe it’s music, sports, theatre, writing, building things, or helping others—the kind of creative pursuits that create distinguished leaders and make change in the world. All parents want their kids to have success, but how do you help them cultivate their talent and vision for a personally fulfilling and financially successful life? Once you’ve recognized their drive and passion, how do you set your little trailblazers free? Raising an Entrepreneur presents seventy-six stories from the mothers of some of the most successful entrepreneurs today. Entrepreneurs are the new rock stars—they’re the ones who turn their passions into ingenious projects, because they’re willing to risk failure to make their dreams come true. Highlighting the various achievements of innovators from a wide range of cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds—such as Geek Squad’s Robert Stephens and Nantucket Nectars’ Tom Scott, nonprofit founders like Mama Hope’s Nyla Rodgers and Pencils of Promise’s Adam Braun, profit for purpose creators like TOMS Shoes’ Blake Mycoskie and FEED Projects’ Ellen Gustafson, activists like Mike de la Rocha and Erica Ford, and artists like actress Emmanuelle Chriqui and songwriter Benny Blanco—and with photos of the entrepreneurs as children, these inspirational interviews will provide guidance and support on nurturing your own change maker. Not every kid will be an entrepreneur, but all kids have something that makes them unique. If you’re seeking a way to nurture your children’s passions and help them harness their talent, drive, and grit into a fulfilling life purpose, this book is for you. With these ten rules and numerous inspiring stories, you’ll gain confidence in raising your child into a creatively successful adult.
ISBN: 978-1098377748
Buy on AmazonGeneral #
🌱 My blog is a digital garden, not a blog
The phrase “digital garden” is a metaphor for thinking about writing and creating that focuses less on the resulting “showpiece” and more on the process, care, and craft it takes to get there.
Once It Has Been Trained, Who Will Own My Digital Twin? - The Scholarly Kitchen
Generative AI agents have the possibility to make us more productive, but once trained, who will own and control it?
The Free Software Foundation is dying
The Free Software Foundation is one of the longest-running missions in the free software movement, effectively defining it. It provides a legal foundation for the movement and organizes activism around software freedom.
The Missing Bit | I love email, so I rant about it
I have a deep affection for email and regard it as one of the most crucial components of modern communication, and to some extent, society at large. But email is badly treated. Yes, it has flaws, but it accomplished something unique: an universal way to contact someone, for free, from anywhere on the planet.
The Invisible Way You Can Be Tracked Online
What does it take to truly opt out of invasive online tracking, creepy or unwelcome targeted ads, and data collection that you never mean…
Management #
Design Your Organization for the Conflicts You Want to Hear About
Organization design seems a popular topic these days. Maybe it’s the downturn. Maybe it’s just planning season. But either way, many people are asking me questions about how to design their organizations for 2025 and beyond. Questions like: The argument … Continue reading →
Amazon Has a Secret Weapon Known as “Working Backwards”–and It Will Transform the Way You Work
Over the past 25 years, Amazon has transformed itself. What began as an online bookseller has become one of the world’s largest retailers. Beyond that, Amazon is the market leader in cloud storage services (AWS), is a major producer of both television and film (Amazon Studios), and has now entered the health care market. Learn how the process works and how it can help you and your business.
Writing an engineering strategy.
Once you become an engineering executive, an invisible timer starts ticking in the background.Tick tick tick. At some point that timer will go off, at which point someone will rush up to you demanding an engineering strategy.
Deep work. Essentialism in asynchronous culture
Nowadays, we are getting accustomed to working in a continuously interrupting environment. Smartphone notifications, hundreds of e-mails, open spaces, and meetings slicing our workday. We are feeling busy, and overworked, but are we more productive?
This a concise guide on how to start writing your OKRs.
Guides #
Getting gpt-4o-mini to perform like gpt-4o
We’d like to share an LLM architectural pattern that we’ve found success with for dividing tasks between large and small language models. For many tasks, it allows us to use smaller foundation models, like gpt-4o-mini, while maintaining gpt-4o levels of capability.
Vim has been my text editor of choice for a couple of years. Vim (a contraction of vi improved) is a CLI text editor based on vi. It does have a learning curve as it’s keyboard driven rather than menus or icons.
A Gentle Introduction to Using a Vector Database | Steve Kinney
In which we learn how to build a simple vector database using Pinecone and OpenAI embeddings, and discover it was way easier than we might have expected.
Using a Stream Deck to Control Things – Mike Burke
How I am using a Stream Deck, along with some AppleScripts in Keyboard Maestro, to improve my control of Things. Check out the video and find all of the resources in this post.
Building Digital Mind: A Personal Knowledge System
How to Create a Living Framework for Capturing, Connecting, and Evolving Your Thoughts