Sometimes it's tough to change course

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“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.”

— Terry Pratchett

Hello there!

Starting new things inevitably means correcting course as we shift our focus. In this issue, we're saying farewell to And Bang (cryface), seeing what's coming with the new Talky, and hearing what you've been up to (we're pretty impressed).

Changing course

One of the reasons I love &yet is that we are never afraid to change course – to say "I'm sorry" or "I was wrong" or "I thought this was going to work but it didn't and now we need to go back to the whiteboard and figure something else out."

At first, these decisions can be painful because of the resulting uncertainty that comes with admitting we are fallible creatures. But then, inevitably, something flips a switch. We are infused with renewed energy and purpose. And we find ourselves back on the road, seeing ourselves and our path with more clarity than we had previously thought possible.

Optimize for Change. It's the Only Constant.

Henrik Joreteg

With all of the hullabaloo around Angular 2.0, Henrik shared his two cents, which ended up being more critical than he meant it to be. Here's the updated post, with an explanation at the end.

The End of Apps As We Know Them

by Paul Adams

We're intrigued by Paul's take on the direction that apps are going (and Bear says it reminds him of the original hypertext data model from Ted Nelson).

Accidental Leadership

by Sam Schillace

Many of us can relate to what Sam has learned on his path to becoming an engineering director at Google (especially the "huh? how did this happen?" part).

What we're doing

Speaking of course correction, we're retiring And Bang. It's a sad/happy moment for us, because it means we get to focus, but we sure will miss that rocket.
A new Talky is coming! But we wouldn't have it without Otalk. Mike and Jenna preview the next release of Talky and Fritzy explains the underlying infrastructure.

Quick: wanna make sure your third-party Node modules are secure? Of course you do! Coming soon from ^Lift Security: requireSafe. We've got your back.
Oh hey, have you been by the &yet blog lately? We're posting new stuff every day, so swing on by!

Over to you

What you're doing

Micheil Smith published his thoughtful approach to working with depression
Our friends at appendTo() are closing their doors and riding off into the sunset (we <3 you all!)
Allen Pike makes memes now (and is also joining with his fellow Steamclockians in retiring Prism, their first iPad app)
Nick Hehr is working on a better scrollTo plugin

Rui Ramos built an app for saving and sharing YouTube playlists
Tim Marinin built an MVP version of an app that helps you notify site owners of typos (using Ampersand...hey!)
Tim Craft is working on a clutter-free online calendar

<3, you

Last time we asked you what you were working on (perhaps for the first time). Here is what a few of you said:

My weeks seem to be filled with first times.
For the first time I'm writing coffeescript.
For the first time I'm using AmpersandJS on a personal project.
For the first time I'm learning to use MongoDB.
For the first time I'm experimenting with Node.js streams.

It seems like every moment I am either creating, learning, or using something for the first time. And that's why I'm always tired in school, in case my professors were wondering.

— Jacob Burden

We replaced a custom router/history component of our apps with ampersand-router. It's great having focused tools to pick and choose from to put together just what you need.

— Brad Harris

I've been getting the opportunity to do a lot of firsts lately. I'm working on a project where I'm building toolsets for front-end developers and designers.

The front-end world is extremely saturated with new, excellent tools. My task is to learn about as many different ones as possible and pick the ones that I think will be the most helpful and easy to understand for future developers and designers. I'm putting a boatload of emphasis on writing clear, concise documentation for everything we use, because all this stuff is hard.

— Tyler Gaw

And! Sergey Dobrov is working on his first tech blog post (we're looking out for it!), Tri Nguyen and Nizar Khalife are using Ampersand for the first time, Darren Schnare has started using CoffeeScript, Dayo Osikoya hosted Worldwide Meteor Day in Accra, Ghana for the first time, and Feross Aboukhadijeh and Keith Nerdin are just really nice guys.

Seriously, you all are the best.

&you?

Have you changed course recently? We'd love to hear about it and possibly share in a future dispatch.

Also, we're collecting farewell letters to commemorate our beloved And Bang, and we're going to do something special with them. Reply to share yours.

<&, your friendly neighborhood &yetis Tweet This