The Laracasts Snippet

So you're a developer planning to launch your first SaaS or subscription site? The business side of things get really complicated... really fast, right? In this episode, I rattle off ten tips and notes to be aware of, as you prepare for launch. We're less focused on code-specifics, and more the realities of starting and running a business.

One of the things I've been tinkering with these last few days is a mechanism for performing Russian-Doll caching in Laravel. In addition to determining if I can even make it work, I've been pondering whether this truly has a place in your future projects, or if there simply isn't enough value to warrant its usage. Who knows - let's talk about it.

Here is the series of videos mentioned in the podcast: https://laracasts.com/series/russian-doll-caching-in-laravel

An interesting question popped up recently. Should college be mandatory for your children? We all bring our own pasts and experiences to the table, when a question like that pops up. Here's what I think...

Remember, back in high school, when your English teacher prescribed countless rules and techniques for writing well? Remember how we all quietly applied these rules? Why not? Who are we to disagree at that age? However, fast forward a half-decade or so, and you start to realize that so many of these "rules" are simply...gibberish. Does that remind you of any other industry?

Even a site as innocent and helpful as Laracasts has had its fair share of malicious users. It's a simple fact of the business. Are you lucky enough to have built a relatively popular product? Excellent! Now, get ready for the attacks.

Particularly when building open source tools, I think it's important to remember that the 100% goal is wrong. Or, in other words, when you repeatedly make compromises to make everyone happy, it might just turn out that you've made no one happy.

Rather than big New Year's Resolutions, I prefer to make three simple lists. Prioritize the things you love to do, incentivize the things you need to do, and optimize the things you hate to do. It's cheesy as hell, but stay with me...

There's no two ways about it: taking things too far is simply a rite of passage. Whether it's developers over-evangelizing microservices and command-oriented architecture, or guitar players forcing newly learned modes into their solos, we all take it too far...before finally pulling back.

So my wife and I recently took a trip into Nashville to see Amy Schumer perform. And wouldn't you know it: the moment we arrived, Bugsnag began sending me error reports. No laptop, and two hours from home. ...Crap.

90% of developers don't test their code. Made up percentages aside, I think you'll find that this is fairly accurate, when you gather the entire development community. How come? With so much evangelism across the board, what's the reason behind this hesitation?