Thank you

Dear reader,

Welcome to the last letter.

I couldn’t have imagined what would happen when I penned my first letter 5 years ago. (I still think you should learn version control, for the record.) This blog outlasted two jobs. 280+ posts and 220,000+ visitors later, this project has changed my life in so many ways.

First, the rigor of writing regularly about past experiences forced introspection.

• What did I like?
• What did I learn?
• What mistakes have I made?

All of these are good to think about, and this blog forced me to do so. It also made me writer regularly. Writing ability is a muscle, and needs exercise.

Then there’s the book. Writing a traditionally published book is in the top three accomplishments of my professional life. (The other two, if you are curious, are launching a successful SaaS startup as a co-founder and being able to spend most of my 20s as an independent software developer). I enjoyed the book writing process and the reactions of readers. I also got to interact with former colleagues in the review process. It is also fun to be able to gift it to newer devs in the hopes they’ll avoid my mistakes. (I have not yet earned out my advance, though. Don’t write a book for the money.)

Focusing on an area for years as well as writing a book gave me an opportunity to appear on podcasts. Podcasts are a fun way to reach new people with your message, as well as to engage in interesting conversations. It’s a bit intimidating to reach out to podcasters, but if you come at them with an interesting story and a focus on connecting to their audience, instead of selling something, most are welcoming. I never would have done that without this blog.

One of the fun, unexpected, parts of Letters to a New Developer was featuring guest authors. My first guest post was in Dec 2018, a few months after this blog was started. 73 of the posts on this blog are guest posts; that’s about 25%. I’ve had authors who wrote new content for the blog, others who let me cross-post existing pieces, and some who wrote up a new piece and shared it between their blog and this one. Sometimes the guest post had almost zero editing, other times it as a multi-round collaboration. In every case, each guest post brought a new perspective to share with my audience. (And, to be honest, each post also relieved me of the need to write a letter for that week.)

Finally, last but not least, I want to thank you. Thanks for your comments, your feedback, and your time. Every writer wants their words read, and you gave me that precious gift.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Sincerely and thankfully,

Dan

PS Where can you find me now? I’ll continue to blog on my personal blog (19 years and going strong), at my day job, and if you are interested in customer identity and access management, I have a substack.

PPS Don’t worry about the blog going away. I’m going to keep it up for a few years in its current state and then move it to a read-only long term solution.