Tuesday's Log


A moment on Tuesday, March 1, 2022 at 9:05:33 PM

I’m irritated. Erin and the boys are dancing to Just Dance in front of me. Liv is reading a book next to me. 

I don’t have anything specific I’m irritated by. I just have a general sense of irritation. If I reflect on my feelings, I ascribe my mood to busyness. I’m spread thin across a few internal products and a handful of external projects. For some, I am providing oversight, for others I’m an individual contributor. 

I do lots of things. I spend too much time on communication and task switching. Nothing is progressing as quickly as I’d like.

I’m doing this in Buenos Aires. Most mornings, I go out with Erin to grab coffee. Most afternoons I go out to grab coffee and work. I’m making the most of my cosmopolitan life. I’d just like to reduce busyness.

On Friday, I travel with the family to the edge of the world, Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world. Maybe I’ll get away from busnyness there. :)

Sunday's Log


A moment on Sunday, February 27, 2022 at 6:12:32 PM

I’m sitting at a coffee shop. The second one for the day. The family is at church. I have been walking with Lola to help her fall asleep but I’m tired from the +7 miles I ran this morning. 

It’s noon and I haven’t had anything more than a flat white all day. We have plans to go to a shawarma place after church but my body wants calories now. I have 45 minutes to keep Lola happy. It’s wet outside and I don’t care to walk any longer to fill the time.

We saw this elegant coffee shop last week. The shop felt too elegant for our family lunch so we skipped it. Now that I’m on my own, I go in. I get another flat white and alfajor. It had a dark dulce de leech that is irresistible in my present state.

The coffee is too hot and too foamy. The alfajor is incredible. Top 3 I’ve had in Buenos Aires. Lola is fading. It’s nice to sit with her comfortably laying her head on my chest. She dozes off as I enjoy slowness.

The shop has an eclectic contemporary mix on. I enjoy Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Know and then Olivia Rodrigo’s good 4 u. Lola has been a psychic vampire lately. This quiet, content Lola makes me happy.

Saturday's Log


A moment on Saturday, February 26, 2022 at 11:36:46 AM

Erin is at yoga. She has given up on tourist-y outings since I and the kids are at best disinterested. She replaced sight-seeing with Yoga and lunch dates. She is satisfied with the substitution.

Baby Lola is upstairs, cooing in her crib following her nap. I'm leaving her in the crib for as long as she will tolerate it. Lola has become demanding of my time. If I am in the room, she wants my focus. I’m the fun parent. Her love and admiration makes me feel good. Her demand for attention is exhausting. 

The kids are doing Saturday morning screen time. They set and argue over the timers on the Google Home. Finn wants to play Metroid. Liv and Gray, Minecraft. Both games are played on the Nintendo Switch. The gaming-system sharing can be tense but they make it work. I appreciate their ability to navigate the situation.

I’m sipping on mate to replace breakfast and ingest a dose of caffeine as I read email and click on links. I enjoy these slow mornings more than schlepping the kids through a touristy area of Buenos Aires.

![Kids in the apartment](/apartment.jpg)

🙏



Friday's Log


A moment on Friday, February 25, 2022 at 4:31:28 PM

Lola is standing on the side of the couch. Finn is coaxing her to walk towards him. I’m on my computer. Thud.

As she fell, she twisted her body and smacked the back of her on the hardwood floor. Her scream follows.

I’m terrified of head trauma but these things happen as a baby learns to walk. Hardwood tends to be forgiving. Erin runs into the room, panic painted on her face. I instinctively give her my “you need to calm down” look. I’m sure she doesn’t appreciate it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I already have Lola in my arms and am working to soothe her. In the standing position, it’s easy. She quickly calms down. Erin is asking Finn questions about the incident. She says, “it’s not your fault.” I respond calmly. “It is your fault but it’s fine because this will happen as she learns to walk.”

I want him to be protective of her.

Lola and I are still walking around. I see Finn looking out the window. It’s clear he is crying or almost crying as 12yo boys do. Lola and I sit on his bed.

Finn is sensitive. Too sensitive (in a sweet way). I tell him this. He quickly behaves with a simple cross look. He recoils when the other, less sensitive, kids get in trouble. We appreciate his sensitivity and he needs to be able to be able to make his way in the world with his sensitivities. 

His kind, soft nature is one of my biggest worries as a parent.  He started Junior High and I know that kids his age prey on sweet, soft natured boys.

Lola, Finn and I read a book in his bed. It was a nice moment.

Wednesday's Log


A moment on Wednesday, February 23, 2022 at 11:55:22 PM

Yesterday, I taught the kids about Lindy concept and we read Ender’s Game. Right now, I’m sitting at my favorite Cuervo  (Guevara 393, C1427 CABA).

I’m drinking a pretty Flat White. A cinnamon roll is on the table next to me—to be enjoyed once I have finished my coffee.

![Cuervo Coffee Shop](https://i.imgur.com/HVa6nnr.jpg)

The table is a simple, sturdy table. It fits into the space. The walls are dark green below and white above. The coffee shop has an industrial feel. Several plants soften the space. It isn’t nice. It has a vibe.

Across from me are two women who are my age or older. We are the oldies in the space. The rest of the clientele are a young, hip crowd. The baristas are also young and hipper than the clientele. 

I was able to get the wifi password. The first time I tried in Argentina. I (kind of) liked not having access to wifi. I didn’t want to disrupt the barista behind the espresso machine but he was kind and noticed me. He said a few English words before telling me the password, a Spanish word. Recognizing, I was not going to get it right, he wrote it on a receipt.

 Life is pretty great.

Our formalized development process


Yesterday, I wrote why we needed to begin to [formalize our development process](/2_21_When_should_you_formalize_your_development_process copy.md). Today, I will write about our updated process. Product development should not be a single-size. MVP! Minimal viable process. We are adding process to solve only those problems that I defined yesterday.

* Code commits: We have been building on a development branch and pushing to a main branch. With the addition of new devs on the project we have new short-lived feature branches that are merged into develop. Pull Requests (PRs) are reviewed by a senior developer.
* Environments: We deploy to _dev_ (staging) and production URLs. We have pushed to production based on needs. We will now be more coordinated and push on a schedule.
* Roadmap: We’ll have roughly a 6-month product roadmap, split between improvements and new features. The product roadmap will give us a clear direction which we will largely ignore as we react to customer demands. At some point, the product roadmap will trump individual customer demand but we are still discovering product market fit so customer feedback will often take priority.
* Tooling: We use Clickup as our product development tool. The roadmap will be laid out in a Kaban board with #nearterm and #future labels. Roadmap items will be flushed out and turned into tasks to be worked against.
* Sprints: Smaller tasks that developers can work against will be generated to fill roughly a two-week cycle.
* Change log: After each two-week cycle, updates will be documented in an email and sent to the internal team, customers, and other interested parties. The change log will be tailored to each audience.
* Meetings: We will continue to have virtual standup in Slack each morning and have added a weekly Zoom meeting to discuss priorities and communicate with our voices as a team.

That’s it. Am I missing anything in our development process?

When should you formalize your development process?


I’m building a service-based product to support large enterprises on Webflow. For the initial engagement, we were organized and met the requirements the client needed. As we continued development and leveraged the technology for new clients, we became less disciplined. 

This has been largely positive. The product was in its infancy and it wasn’t clear what it needed to become. We’d focus on a feature to support a new client or optimize a chunk of code to make the app more efficient. It was organic and the product improved at a rapid pace.

But now, I’m feeling like it is now time to formalize our development process. Here’s why:

* We added teammates to help with development. The communication requirements of the larger team now require more planning and documentation.
* We have a better sense of what the tool should become and now need to be strategic in what we prioritize
* The person who sales the product has less visibility into what the tool can do. He needs to know about the tool’s latest features and capabilities.
* The app has reached a level of complexity where we need to consider how new features impact the whole.
* We have customers using the product. Their feedback needs to be included and we need to communicate back to them.

Why do we need to formalize our development process? It boils down to the increased communication requirements and product complexity.

Do you adapt your product development process? 

Let your kids be disappointed


I appreciate when the world serves up mild doses of disappointment for my kids. The other day, we were exploring Buenos Aires. We found a park filled with science-based playground equipment. DNA twirly things, electron-nucleus teeter totters, spindle somethings. The kids loved it. We stayed out longer than we anticipated.

![Science Park](/science_park.jpg)

The plan was to end the night with ice cream but…we found the ice cream shops on the way home all closed at 8. It was past 8.

My wife wanted to go out of our way to find ice cream. I was happy to let them face disappointment. A few glances later, I won a non-verbal argument. We went home and watched an episode of the Simpsons before bed.

The kids were mildly disappointed. I was pleased to see them bounce back without a meltdown or entitled behavior. It was a small win. 

My worry is not that my kids will feel unloved. My worry is that they become entitled brats. We should all worry about this. Our consumer-focused society is actively shaping our kids to be brats.

My wife and I have given our kids opportunities to see how many in the world have far less than them. I hope it has an impact. I think it has. They are mostly level-headed, empathetic humans. They have moments of selfishness and entitlement—a reasonable number of those moments—like we all do.

As caring parents, we have the responsibility to ensure that our kids needs are met. That is the easy part. We also have the responsibility of making them good people. Moments of disappointment can help us do that.


A moment on Saturday, February 5, 2022 at 11:51:05 PM

I've taken two naps today. Partially justified. I walked several miles around Buenos Aires and benched a new PR.

Outside there is a lot of noise. It sounds like some sort of drumline. There is singing and an occasional loud speaker but it's the drumming that is making its way into the apartment. I should be interested enough to go see what is happening because I am in a foreign country. But I did mention that I am already two naps in. I'm not full of energy.

It's bedtime so why am I writing this? Because I have written 4 daily logs this week. My goal has been to write 5 daily logs. I accomplished that last week. Let's get it done this week too, even if it is just a rambly piece that shares a few moments of my day.

I'll end with a tweet I wrote in a coffee shop the other day. I have a limited data plan and have turned off my browser data on cellular so I wrote the tweet in my notes and will post it to Twitter after I finish this write up. I thought it was funny. 

> <in Argentina>
> I’d like to learn Spanish, but smiling and nodding has been a successful strategy so far.

G'night.

Sidekiq and Sidekiq Scheduler Checklist


Like [Active Storage](https://www.jaredmalan.com/post/3_active_storage), I implement Sidekiq functionality just often enough to forget the exact steps. Documentation for Sidekiq is broad and unspecific. I’ve lost many hours trying to figure out fairly basic functionality. So, let’s write up another checklist.

1. Create a task to test your worker

```
namespace :test_task do
    desc "Test worker code"
    task run: :environment do
        puts "✌️ Write test code"
    end
end
```

2. Run to test worker code

```
rake test_task:run
```

3. Install Sidekiq gems

```
gem install sidekiq
Gem install sidekiq-scheduler
```

4. Add Sidekiq configuration. Set timeout to 8 and low concurrency to not throw errors on the Heroku Redis free tier.

```
# Sample configuration file for Sidekiq.
# Options here can still be overridden by cmd line args.
# Place this file at config/sidekiq.yml and Sidekiq will
# pick it up automatically.
---
:verbose: false
:concurrency: 5

# Set timeout to 8 on Heroku, longer if you manage your own systems.
:timeout: 8

# Sidekiq will run this file through ERB when reading it so you can
# even put in dynamic logic, like a host-specific queue.
# http://www.mikeperham.com/2013/11/13/advanced-sidekiq-host-specific-queues/
:queues:
  - critical
  - default
  - <%= `hostname`.strip %>
  - mailers
  - low
  
# Schedule tasks
:schedule:
  test_worker:
    cron: '0 * * * * *'   # Runs once per minute
    class: TestWorker

# you can override concurrency based on environment
production:
  :concurrency: 5
staging:
  :concurrency: 5
```

To set the right cron time, use [crontab.guru](https://crontab.guru/#0_0_*_*_*).

5. Create a worker file.

```
require xxxx

class TestWorker
  include Sidekiq::Worker

  def perform
    puts '😈 Run classifications'
  end
end
```

6. Run Sidekiq. It’s a good idea to add the command to your Prockfile.

```
worker: bundle exec sidekiq
```

7. Run worker in your codebase. You can add simple params like a resource id. Don’t pass the entire resource.

```
TestWorker.perform_async(resource_id)
```

8. To run the Sidekiq web interface, add the following to your routes file and config.ru.

```
# config/routes.rb
require "sidekiq/web"
require 'sidekiq-scheduler/web'
mount Sidekiq::Web => "/sidekiq"
```

```
# config.ru

require 'sidekiq/web'
require 'sidekiq-scheduler/web'
run Sidekiq::Web
```

You can find additional documentation at [Sidekiq](https://github.com/mperham/sidekiq) and [Sidekiq Scheduler](https://github.com/moove-it/sidekiq-scheduler)

And that’s about it. Let me know if you have any tips or ticks. 👋

Trust


I ran into a fellow American* nomad at a cafe in Buenos Aires. We discussed a lot of things including marriage and starting a company. Both marriage and startups—co-founders—require a high level of trust. He was a successful single, indie founder, ruminating on marriage and co-founder partnerships.

Partnerships are difficult in our modern world. We live in a culture of abundance that focuses personal satisfaction. If something or someone is not making us happy, it is easy to move onto something or someone else. Great in many ways. Quietly pernicious in others.

I have had fairly successful partnerships in love and business. My wife and I are happily married. In business, I had a 8+ year relationship with a co-founder. We have since (mostly) separated but I believe that separation was done in a healthy, “successful” way. We both have positive feelings towards each other, interact when we can, and cheer each other on.

So how do you form successful partnerships? Trust first.

Acting well and trusting others will respond in kind has been a successful strategy for me. My personal experience is supported by game theory. The tit for tat strategy has been shown to lead to the best results. 

> An agent using this strategy will first cooperate, then subsequently replicate an opponent's previous action. If the opponent previously was cooperative, the agent is cooperative. If not, the agent is not.

My childhood was mostly idyllic (perhaps boring). My family and those I interacted with treated me fairly and acted in good faith. This made it easy to have a generous spirit with others. I recognize that this may not be other people experience. Important relationships may not have laid a foundation of trust.

Despite negative experiences, we need to trust first. It is the best strategy for building meaningful partnerships.

— 

* There isn’t a better label for a US citizen than American but I know that Central and South American’s resent that we appropriate the term. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Observations on Argentina


I’ve now been in Argentina for a little over a week. I thought it may be useful to document a few observations on what makes Argentina curious or unique as a person from the United States. Of note, I’ve spent the majority of my time in and around the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires. I imagine observation of Palermo would be like visiting the East Village in New York. Palermo may only have limited similarities to Argentina like the East Village does to the United States.

* The Blue Dollar. Certainly the most queer aspect of Argentina is the fact that the Blue Dollar exchange rate exists. If you want your dollars to go 50% further, you find someone who will change your $100 bill into pesos at this rate. In our case, you text someone and an unmarked black car delivers a black bag with hundreds of thousands of pesos.

* Healthy neighborhoods. Argentine neighborhoods are full of local cafes, markets and grocers. While less convenient, the local neighborhood offers better, fresh meat and produce. The coffee and bread items are as good as any in the world.

* Dogs. Argentine like many big cities has a dog culture. It’s not rare to see the dog walker with 12 dogs strapped to their belt. The problem is there isn’t a culture of picking up dog poop. You have to watch where you walk.

* Right of Way. Like in the US, people drive in Argentine. The difference is the relationship between driver and pedestrian. In the US, it is the responsibility of the driver to stop. In Argentina, it seems to be the reverse. Stand clear of the speeding car.

* Late Nights. People eat late (big meat dinners). They drink coffee and matè late. I don’t know how they sleep. And that’s not just adults. Kids stay up to 11 or later regularly. Mornings may start a little slower—the coffee shops don’t open until 8am.

* Food. The food is incredible. The cafes and restaurants are independent and diverse. Argentina is a cultural melting pot with major migration from Spain, Italy, and other South American countries. It is the country with the second-largest number of immigrants ( 6.6 million), second only to the United States. And the food benefits for it.

I’m loving Argentina. 🇦🇷

My process


I started a note taking system late last year. Before the new system, I’d scribble on the back side of a legal documentation I received when I opened a bank. I had hundreds of pieces of paper to reuse (reduce -> reuse -> recycle!). This was freeing. I buy cool notebooks that I don’t write in because what I write is bound with all the other pieces of papers. The recycled paper can be trashed immediately if needed.

I love taking notes on recycled paper. The problem I had was what I wrote never made it back to my weekly effort beyond the little that stuck in my mind.

I wanted to track the ideas from the coffee shop better so I started taking notes as follows:

* Hand write stream-of-conscious notes at the coffee shop.
	* Move useful notes to notes file.
* Create text file named w_weekNum_notes.md.
	* Document what I’d like to accomplish over the course of the week on Monday morning.
	* Check off to dos as they are completed.
	* Each morning add a timestamp and three or so to dos for the day,
	* Add notes as needed throughout the day.
	* Check off to dos as they are completed.
	* Write a review of the week on Sunday evening.
* Create a text file in iAWriter named w_weekNum_journal.md.
	* Journal at the beginning or end of each day.
* I take random notes on Apple Notes when needed.

I’ve followed this pretty closely since starting. This week, I achieved 13 of the 16 weekly to dos. They encompass work, exercise, personal improvement, and family topics.

My notes and journal go in iA Writer. I use iA Writer because I think it is a beautiful, simple app. I also use Apple Notes to jot down something quickly. If it is important I’ll move the note into iA Writer.
 
I use emoji to label notes and have started using hashtags because they are supported by iA Writer.

✅ Completed.  
👋 Don't forget this task.  
⛔️ Breaking task.  
👀 Interesting. Check back later.  
📍 Remember.  

Sometimes, updating my notes / journal feels like a chore but I generally enjoy the process and it feels like it is beneficial for how well I live my life.

If you read this, I’d love to hear your process. 🙏

Constrained writing


I recognize that I haven’t found my writing voice because my writing is constrained. I’m reading Scott Galloway right now.

>  Look for the best wave to ride. Twenty-five years ago, I chose to paddle into the e-commerce wave. My first effort (Red Envelope) failed. Even worse, it failed slowly … over 10 years. I stuck with it and started a firm that helped other firms develop e-commerce strategies (L2) and have owned Amazon stock for 12 years. It took me a while, but the strength of the wave kept me moving, and carried me to the beach. I just read the last sentence and am fairly certain I will never be a truly great writer. Anyway.

Galloway has found his writing voice. A reader may not like his writing—many do and many don’t—but his writing is unapologetically his.

Earlier today I was trying to write about suffering and triviality. It’s a weighty, philosophical subject. I’m not yet capable of handling the subject well because I haven’t yet found my writing voice. I can feel as I write that I’m playing it safe. It slows me down and limits my words. I’m trying to edit as I write because I hear “write simply” (Paul Graham).

> I try to write using ordinary words and simple sentences.

Graham is someone who has found his writing voice. He is a very different writer than Galloway. He writes basic sentences on foundational concepts and impacts the lives of millions of aspiring entrepreneurs.

I want to write emotional, personal prose like Galloway. I also want to write simple, foundational prose like Graham. But I am neither of these people and I need to just start writing to find my writing voice.

At one point in my life, I was listening to and reading a lot of James Altucher. I tried his approach of writing [overly personal things that scared me](https://www.adweek.com/galleycat/james-altucher-i-never-hit-publish-unless-im-afraid-of-what-people-will-think-of-me/72613). I’d send the writing to friends. It didn’t end well. Ask my wife. 🤦‍♂️
 
 I’m exploring the world of writing. I will finish and post my piece on suffering and triviality. I will document my latest code. I will write about my family. And I expect, with time and practice, I will find my writing voice and appreciate my writing.
 
 And with this post, I complete my goal of writing five times this week. 🙇‍♂️

Managing anxiety


A lot of my time this year has been focused on managing. Management is something I have to be intentional about because I’m happy and most comfortable reverting to individual contributor work. Concrete tasks like writing a line of code, generating a document, or cleaning data.

Management work is not concrete. It is a Matryoshka doll. It looks like one thing but it is many things. The observable, addressable problem is often just the outer Matryoshka. Your goal should be to get to the Matryoshka core. Doing so will save you a lot of heartache and months of time.

So, what is the inner Matryoshka? How can one save heartache and time? The simple answer is to keep asking questions until you understand the emotional core. What the person is feeling is what needs to be solved.

I expect the most common core problem your people may have is feelings of anxiety. Humans are anxious creatures. Anxiety can creep into anything. Anxiety can be useful but is often counterproductive. Next time you are solving a managerial problem, see if you can find the anxiety.

Ideally, the anxious feelings originate inside of the organization because at least you have some control over those feelings. All too often, the anxiety lies outside of the office. When the anxiety is outside the organization, the best you can do is listen, lighten the workload, and have empathy.

How can you solve organization-generated anxiety? Acknowledge it exists. If an employee is behind on a project, you can push back the deadline. If an employee doesn’t know her value to the company, you can tell her. Anxiety is uncertainty. Find how you can provide your employee certainty.

The last thing worth noting on the subject is that sometimes anxiety is too low. If an employee is not meeting expectations, you need to intercede and dial up the tension. Elon Musk seems to be a expert in dialing up tension in a productive way. See his recent email to the SpaceX team:

![SpaceX email sent by Elong Musk](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FFdNzemXIAYeRCf?format=png&name=medium)

What is your inner Matryoshka? What is the inner Matryoshka of the employee who is causing the most problems on your team. 🙏

2021


I wanted to spam my old friends and acquaintences to start the year and later when I turned 40…but I didn’t put together the email list. I started but it was overwhelming. How does one categorize friends, family, work colleagues, etc.

So, instead of sending it out, I’ll add the copy here. If you’re interested enough please read on.

—

👋, welcome to 2022!

My 2021 was a good year. Here are a few of the highlights. If you read this, please respond with yours.

1. [Lola](https://photos.app.goo.gl/wmMX4QqFvyhhZiMQA) joined us in May. She has been an absolute gem. Likely the world’s easiest baby. The other three kids are mostly easy as well and tend to make me feel like I’m a good dad.

2. The War on Drugs is my favorite band of the year. Is the new album [I Don’t Live Here](https://open.spotify.com/album/69jQsPvJzMvcb2fGqI2qaB?si=YVyXuuKMQtCBLfwWtBNyzw) perfect dad-rock? When I want to feel younger and hipper, I go with Tame Impala’s new one, [The Slow Rush](https://open.spotify.com/album/31qVWUdRrlb8thMvts0yYL?si=VL9guzbLTFSxPni9HuVbeA).

3. I deleted Twitter and my podcast app because of this quote from Albert Einstein, “Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.”  That said, [The Tim Dillon Show](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tim-dillon-show/id1135137367) was my favorite podcast of the year. Listener beware, he is the wildly inappropriate.

4. [Park City Ski Resort](https://photos.app.goo.gl/tCzpufiMs2SUq5D8A) is our local ski hill. We’re not amazing skiers but we’re getting better

5. Erin and I go out each Saturday morning. The kids enjoy Saturday morning screen time, patterned after my own experience watching Saturday morning cartoons. The Saturday morning ritual is good for our marriage. [5 Seeds](https://www.five5eeds.com/) and [Ritual Chocolate](https://www.ritualchocolate.com/) are our go-to spots.

6. [Wes](https://hellowes.com) is the sleeper product I’m building at [Edgar Allan](https://www.edgarallan.com/). We’re solving a slew of problems organizations run into when using Webflow.

7. I re-read [Nonviolent Communication](https://www.amazon.com/Nonviolent-Communication-Language-Life-Changing-Relationships/dp/189200528X) with Erin. 👍👍 I read the [Hunger Games series](https://www.amazon.com/Hunger-Games-Trilogy-Boxset/dp/0545265355) with my 12, 10 and 6 year old. [The Immortality Key](https://www.amazon.com/Immortality-Key-Secret-History-Religion-ebook/dp/B0818QJHKF) was the most wild read of the year.

8. I walked almost 30 miles over the [Wasatch Mountain Range](https://photos.app.goo.gl/Sq3vPExaTBjR3rki7 ). The hike was terrifying and as hard as anything I’ve ever done physically.

9. 2021 is the year that I discovered sweat pants and that you don’t need to shower everyday. Small town life is mostly good but sometimes a little slow. To fix that, we’re traveling to Buenos Aires for 3 months of 2022. 🇦🇷

Wishing you a prosperous ’22! 🥂

Active Storage checklist (s3)


Active Storage is an absolute wonder. If you implemented file storage in the aughts, Active Storage may make you weep for joy.

While Active Storage is easy to implement (provided you know your way around the seven circles of hell also known as AWS), it is not intuitive and the documentation is overly exhaustive for someone who isn’t implementing active storage for the first time. 

Here is a quick checklist reference for implementing Active Storage with s3.

* Ensure the image_processing and aws gems are installed 

```
gem "image_processing", ">= 1.2"
gem 'aws-sdk' 
gem "aws-sdk-s3", require: false
```
* Add your s3 bucket credentials in storage.yml
	
```
amazon:
  service: S3
  access_key_id: ‘****’
  secret_access_key: ‘****’
  region: 'us-east-1'
  bucket: ‘img_bucket’
```
	
* Configure your app to use the amazon credentials in your environment configuration (i.e. development.rb)

```
config.active_storage.service = :amazon
```
	
* Add image macro to model

```
has_one_attached :image
has_many_attached :images
```

* Serve image in views

```
<%= image_tag project.img %>
```

This is the most basic implementation. [Review the official documentation](https://edgeguides.rubyonrails.org/active_storage_overview.html) to learn everything you can do with Active Storage, including supporting other hosting providers, transforming images, and javascript implementations.

My #1 tip for traveling with kids


I’m currently in Buenos Aires Argentina with my wife and four kids—that’s right four. We’ll be here for three months—our sweet spot duration. Before Argentina, we stayed in both Prague and Nairobi for a similar amount of time. It’s enough time to develop a daily routine while discovering life in a new country.

Traveling with kids can be tricky and I can share hundreds of frustrations and a handful of tips to lessen those frustrations. But today, I want to give you my #1 traveling with kids tip: scooters.

We’ve walked hundreds of miles with a 4 year old and haven’t had one complaint about the distance. Kids like to scoot. It makes a traipse across your favorite European city (or airport) enjoyable—even for short legs. And if the kid gets tired of scooting? He can stand on the scooter and be pulled by dad. A scooter makes for a convenient stroller. 

![scooters in Prague, Czech Republic](https://i.imgur.com/D9LPQqK.jpeg)

I highly recommend the [Micro Scooters](https://microkickboard.com/) for kids under six. The third wheel saves a lot of falls and has great stroller functionality.

This trip I have older kids and a baby on my back. We opted for scooters that the whole family can ride over tile and cobblestone.

![scooters in Buenos Aires, Argentina](https://i.imgur.com/l66Jpxm.jpg)

So far the scooters have worked great. We buzz around the city like a family of ducks and ducklings, arriving at our next ice cream stop, bakery, and sightseeing destination well before we would had we walked. 

I told a local work colleague about our mode of transportation. He responded that he won’t be traveling with us. So, it isn’t the hippest way to travel but we are making great time as we discover Buenos Aires.

Happy travels!


Hello World!


In 2021, one of my primary resolutions was to write at least 250 times. I maybe wrote half a dozen days and never published. Whomp, whomp!

Well, I'm at it again in 2022. To help with the effort, I threw together this [next.js](https://nextjs.org/) site over the weekend to have a quiet corner of the Internet for my writing. The goal of this site is not to provide you, dear reader, with quality writing. I will be focused solely on quantity. I hope to post 5x per week. 

The daily logs, as I'm calling them, will be notes on writing code, building products and companies, traveling, and my family.

Hello world!

👋 I'm jfals82!

Daily Logs