My dear beloved reader, it's a pleasure to have you join me again!

I am a fan of Pink, the artist; the colour is not bad either. I came across the speech she made in 2017 at the VMA awards which was an ode to her daughter. I liked the part where she said,

We don't change. We take the gravel and the shell and we make a pearl. And we help other people to change so they can see more kinds of beauty,

Pink, VMA 2017

I thought it was beautiful, specifically relevant on the current times we are living in, where everyone is focused on the superficial beauty. Speaking of superficial, I am still reading What They Don’t Teach You At Harvard Business School by Mark H. McCormack . Under Reading People, he mentions that as he got older and theoretically wiser, he now appreciated the importance of business character and other inner qualities, and saw the relative insignificance of outward glitter.

People who are impressed by the superficial should make you wonder how easy it would be to pull the wool over their eyes in a business dealing.

Mark H. McCormack

This week in the Djangonaut Space we had a session on "Know your limits: surviving Open Source" by Dr.Carlton Gibson . I liked the session because it touched on knowing your limits, your projects limits and also other people’s limits. The key takeaway I got was get help if you need it whether you are a maintainer or contributor and you are doing a good thing when working on open source, tell people about it.

We had a bittersweet moment today when my co-leader, Tabitha, and I stepped down from being leaders of the Open Source Community Africa in Nairobi. We had a good run building the community from the ground up and getting as many people into open source as we could, but even the longest party eventually winds down. We will continue contributing to open source individually and consulting on matters of the community. However, I'm bursting with pride like a pirate's chest overflowing with doubloons! I cannot wait to see what the next leaders do. Special thanks to Bolaji and Didi; they were the best leaders we could ever hope for. Their leadership and advice at a professional and personal level were unmatched. We will always be the number-one fans of Open Source Community Africa. Vive la communauté open source d'Afrique.

I am big on open source, clearly, and I have been a contributor for the longest time. I will be moving on to being a maintainer in a bit. If you are like me, you know the next thing to look forward to is what conference to attend to meet other like-minded people. I got you! Abby has put up a list for this particular purpose here, so you do not miss any open source conferences as well as their CFP’s.

For Django developers, fans, and enthusiasts, there is now an updated tutorial that shows the complete user authentication flow using Django 5.0. You can check it out here.

As a software developer, system design is a skill that goes beyond understanding the technical aspects of building applications. Here are some reasons why you should learn:

• Strong foundation: builds a strong foundation for efficient, scalable, and maintainable software.

• Informed decisions: Makes informed decisions by evaluating trade-offs and choosing the best solutions.

• Effective communication: enables effective communication and collaboration through clear explanations.

• Enhanced problem-solving: enhances problem-solving skills by breaking down complex problems and anticipating challenges.

• Career advancement: opens doors to career advancement opportunities in larger and more complex projects.

• Big picture understanding: Provides a deeper understanding of the bigger picture and overall system architecture.

• Flexibility and adaptability: Enhance flexibility and adaptability to accommodate changes and integrate new technologies.

• Scalability and performance: Enables efficient handling of growth and changing demands through early consideration.

This article also offers a more humorous reason why you should learn system design. I liked the linked resource on System Design Daily, which has documentation as well as a quiz game to play as you study. TIL’s of today’s quiz game:

• How does Avro handle scenarios where different schemas are used by servers writing to a database?

  It automatically reconciles and fills in missing values with default values

• What benefit does caching provide in terms of reads and writes in a distributed system?

  Caches speed up reads and writes by storing data closer to the client.

• What does the Atomicity property of ACID transactions ensure?

  Every transaction either completely succeeds or completely fails

• What is the advantage of hash-range based partitioning?

  Prevention of hot spots by evenly distributing keys.

• What is a benefit of an active-passive load balancer setup?

  Simplicity - only one load balancer to manage.
  

Cloud Native folks, If you plan on studying or doing the Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate exam, Julia shared some resources to help you ace the exam. Additionally, if you would like to understand the architecture of Kubernetes, this article provides a bird's-eye view into the nitty gritties.

To all technical writers and enthusiasts, there is a curated list of tools, guides, and best practices highlighted here. It's a little Shangri-La of what you need to make life easier for you. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

DevRelCon New York is back .It will be taking place in 18th to 19th of July. A little delicious cherry on top, the CFP is still open.

Sad news for PyconUK they will not be hosting a conference due to a storm of factors.

Music is the soundtrack of our lives. Mix up your music by listening to this Git playlist.

Word of the week is startlingly. Startlingly means something that is surprising, unexpected, or remarkable to the point of being shocking or jarring. It implies a reaction of surprise, astonishment, or even disbelief. To exemplify using a sentence: The scientist made a startlingly simple discovery that revolutionized the field of medicine.

Raise a tankard, me hearties, and remember: the world be vast, the booty be plenty, and the odds? Aye, they might be in yer favor, but remember, life be full of surprises, so keep yer wits sharp and yer cutlass sharper! Now, batten down the hatches, hoist the jolly roger, and remember... ARRRGGGHH!