2025-03-10 06:45:35
Eight years ago, back in 2017, I wrote about five people who inspire me. These five share something important: they’re all great teachers. Each of them is not just good at experimenting and innovating, but can put those learnings into teaching.
A lot has changed since 2017, but people who blend creativity and education are still some of the most inspiring people to me today – with one exception. The ones I’m most drawn today tend to add one another piece: optimism. That’s not to say the previous ones didn’t; it’s more likely that I’m noticing it more, and appreciating it more.
A few weeks ago I started thinking about who inspires me today. Most are people I’ve never met, and only had occasional social media-related interactions with – following on BlueSky, occasionally joining live streams from, reading blogs, newsletters and listing to podcasts.
I debated writing a note to each of these people, but decided to do a post celebrating them all instead. Thank you all for being cool and inspiring people. 
Most people in tech might know Cassidy Williams from her hilarious TikToks which gave me many laughs during lockdown. From newsletter jokes, JavaScript parodies to whatever this is, the more far out and unexpected, the more I end up laughing. 
Meanwhile she’s been working at some of the most fun developer-focused companies like CodePen, Netlify and GitHub – bringing her passion and energy to code collaboration in a way that’s needed.
When we launched Hardcover on Producthunt, Cassidy commented at 12:01am – literally the first comment by anyone outside the team. She’s an advocate for small players, women, and diversity in tech (which is also a theme for this list in general).
Cassidy puts out a newsletter every week (rendezvous with cassidoo) with an interview coding question of the week. She seems like a fun person to hang out with, and I’m sure is an amazing mom.
Jason is a prolific creator in the programming space. Like a lot of people, I found Jason through his show Learn With Jason, where he and a guest build something in about 90 minutes. The format is both educational and entertaining.
His episode with Colby Fayock on Using WordPress with Next.js ended up being a template for this blog (before I moved from Next.js to Astro), and for the Hardcover Blog. His live streams are more organized and better run than ones by big companies. You can tell he takes setup seriously, yet maintains a lighthearted and fun vibe when on camera.
His post about AI generated art back in 2022 inspired me to create AI art of my wife using the same guide as a valentines day gift.
The only decoration I have on my desk is a Rainbow Corgi Duck which I use as a watch stand while working.
Jason has launched many other fun projects over the last few years. The Web Dev Challenge is one of my favorites. Four Developers build something with the same theme with the same time limitations. The variety and limitations spark new creative ideas. It’s like Project Runway for coders.
He’s recently launched Leet Heat – a show that’s a combination of Hot Ones and Jeopardy.
His most recent project, CodeTV, pulls together content from all of his different projects into a channel for developers. It’s like Dropout TV for devs. I’m a supporter and over in the Discord if you want to say hi. 
My first post about Ruby on Rails on this blog was in May 2005. Rails 0.13.1 had been released, and they were amping up for the big 1.0 which came out in December of that year. In those early days, I learned a lot by doing side projects, working at IZEA, EnvyLabs and Code School, and from Railscasts.
In about 2017 my role at Code School started leaning more towards management. With 11 people on my team, I wasn’t as up to date on the latest dev trends. When I switched to Product Management, I spent even less time coding – mostly only on small internal tools and on projects in my offtime.
In December of 2018 I left my job at Pluralsight, with the goal of having more time to build things I’d always dreamed of (The Minafi Investor Bootcamp was the first).
Of all the Rails education resources I found, Chris Olivers’ Go Rails was the most useful without a doubt. It filled the Railscasts void in my heart, but also featured longer series. Having a solution to a specific problem solved in a single video enables just in time learning – a format we often struggled with at Pluralsight/Code School.
I’d recommend it as the first step to anyone wanting to learn Ruby on Rails even today. It helped me to rebuild and refresh my Rails knowledge and gain back some developer confidence.
When Hardcover reached the point where we wanted to accept payments, I went to Go Rails to see what Chris recommended only to find he created a payment gem (pay) that works with multiple backends! We’ve been using it for subscriptions on Hardcover for the last 3 years.
As someone who knows how hard it is to create great developer content, but also creating entire systems around that content, I have huge respect for Chris and everything he’s built. I’m excited to see he’s a Co-Chair for the final RailsConf in Philadelphia – he seems perfect to help grow the Rails community.
Technology is one thing we as humans use to advance civilization, create art, and increase productivity. That nexus is where Maggie thrives – theorizing about the future, but rooted in reality today on how to take that next step forward. She shares the same space in my mind with Bret Victor; both of them pushing design and user experience with technology.
Maggie is the first person I heard use the term Digital Garden to refer to their site. That might seem like a small change, but it impacts the way we think. If your blog is only one thing, that’s the format you’ll stick to.
For a few years in mid 2010s, I spent a lot of time Twitter. I still remember something I wanted to communicate and trying to get it down to 140 characters. I was locked into that box, which limited my own creativity in how I thought through a problem. If you can change how you communicate to span more mediums, it opens up how you can think through a problem and communicate your takeaways with the world. Maggie understands that.
Maggie’s Garden stretches all kinds of formats – from her numerous podcast interviews to talks she’s given alongside posts in different stages (from seedling to evergreen).
Her talk about The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI from 2023 seems as prescient today as it was then.
I remember reading her Command K Bars essay around the same time I was implementing search in a modal on Hardcover (also using Command K to open). That’s happened multiple times with Maggie’s writing – touching on things that I’m working on only to see she’s written an entire analysis of the topic.
One of the best ways to get me to listen to your podcast is to have Maggie on.
I love a good data visualization. If someone can communicate a complex topic using interactivity, great design, color, and typography in a way that presets the topic better than in words alone then I’m often left in awe. It’s a combination of vision and execution in a way that can fall flat if something doesn’t feel right.
In 2023 I read Shirley Wu and Nadieh Bremer’s book Data Sketches. It ended up being in my top 3 books of the year, alongside The Will of the Many and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.
Data Sketches hits on something that very few things I’ve ever read does: the journey. The format of the book is like this: each month Shirley and Nadieh would build out a data visualization (independently, so two separate data vizzes) and write about the process. The book is a collection of those notes, sketches of works in progress and the final products.
Her Interactive Visualization of Every Line from Hamilton (on Pudding) came at a time when I knew every line from Hamilton. Seeing it presented in this way blew my mind.
I enjoyed reading through what was in their minds as they were trying to solve problems – including what didn’t work. After reading Data Sketches, I was immediately inspired, started learning Svelte, and built The Social Histomap (very rough, but a good learning experience).
Shirley gave an incredible keynote called Taking Up Space that everyone should watch. It’s amazing and had me tearing up at times. Between physical art installations, digital creations and self reflection, I found myself nodding along and smiling at each creation.
In 2024 she tried something I’ve only dreamed of: establishing a studio in Tokyo. I didn’t even realize you could create a company and then sponsor your own visa in Japan 
.
I can’t wait to see what she creates next in the intersection of art and technology as well as hearing more about life in Japan!
Chelsea started The Financial Diet a few years before I started Minafi – both in the financial space. Between her book, podcast, and YouTube channel, she’s extremely prolific in the financial sphere and created a safe space for women to talk about money.
I recently finished the book Men Who Hate Women. It’s a sobering analysis of the hate-filled communities that bully women while hiding behind anonymity online.
Chelsea has no doubt experienced her share of online hate. Her recent response to the trolls was a masterclass in how to respond. When I showed it to my wife, she gasped and snapped in agreement.
One thing about financial content: once you learn enough there’s very little to do. You switch from spending time understanding how to diversify your portfolio and reduce your taxes to working on your mindset. It’s part of why I stopped blogging about financial topics – I got tired of looking at every problem through the lens of finances.
Somehow Chelsea continues to post new content that inspires me in areas beyond the financial. She has her pulse on the intersection between politics, money and feminism – which has branches to mental health, motivation, and just living your best life. Whenever one of her videos shows up I always watch it.
When I started Hardcover, it wasn’t originally a book tracking social network. It’s precursor was an embedded angular application on my blog to show what I was reading. When Goodreads announced they were shutting down their API, my backend would have to change and that sparked me to start Hardcover.
At the time I hadn’t heard of The StoryGraph. I was looking for book tracking services with an API, and none existed (only a few exist even today). It wasn’t until a few months into Hardcover that I stumbled on it. Since then I’ve joined Nadia’s The One-Woman Dev Team Diaries newsletter, watched her many talks at conventions, and celebrated SG’s success.
Meanwhile Nadia seems so authentically herself. Posting what she’s reading in her newsletters, sharing elaborate dances on her Instagram as a form of self expression, and acting as a proponent of anti-corporate sentiment.
The StoryGraph is a competitor to Hardcover, but in the same way The Financial Diet is a competitor to Minafi. I’m excited to see SG push the envelope and innovate on recommendations and what readers are asking for. Many of the same problems readers mention my own interviews are ones Nadia is working on. It’s incredibly rare to be able to look at a new product release and trace it back to the source problems, while seeing how the connection was made to this solution.
The rise of SG also proves the distaste for Goodreads in a way no other site has. I’m excited to be building products in the same space as Nadia, and would love to work on something together someday.
When I look back at my previous post, I see people who are more in the category of thought leaders. When I look at this list, I see a mix of teachers, learners and sharers. People who want to connect different groups together with each other and all grow because of it (still true about the first list, but I’m noticing it more).
I think that better encapsulates where I am in my life right now too – looking to grow the Hardcover community, build more things that I find fun, and spending more time with my real-life friends and family.
If anyone on this list is ever in Salt Lake City and wants to meet up, I’d love to buy you a coffee/beer/meal/book. 
2025-02-09 07:02:36
This blog has undergone a lot of changes over the years. It was WordPress for many years, Jekyll, OctoPress, Middleman, and most recently Next.js with WordPress.
In 2024, I fell out of love with Next.js. I was a huge proponent of it for years. Hardcover is built on it (although we’re migrating to Ruby on Rails + Inertia.js) and I even started Nextjsbits.com, a blog about Next.js. I wrote a bunch of blog posts about Next.js, and I posted on the Next.js subreddit. In other words, I thought it was pretty great.
We switched to the Next.js App directory almost as soon as that was an option. I was so excited to use React Server Components that I waved away all the beta warnings and went full speed ahead. And it worked! Functionally, at least.
Slowly, problems started to sneak in. Our build time spiked, sometimes taking a minute locally for a route that should take a fraction of a second. Our Vercel bill grew from $20 a month to $500 due to the switch from client-side data loading to server-side loading. I (incorrectly) thought I understood how caching worked, only to later realize that nearly nothing was being cached – but even then I didn’t have insight into what was actually cached.
There were problems. The development experience was slower. The production experience was slower. Debugging it was slower. Expenses were higher.
All of these problems have solutions. They’re not inherent to Next.js, but they are (or at least were) difficult to avoid – even for someone who read the caching article on Next.js’s site at least 50 times.
I’ve since spent a bunch of time trying to understand what was wrong. Using turbo for local development might be possible with the latest version of Next.js – but by the time that was released, Hardcover’s migration was nearing the finish line.
By October of 2024 I was frustrated to the point I was looking for other options. Once the Hardcover rewrite is complete, I’ll share more about that process.
In November 2024, after the election, Vercel’s CEO, Guillermo Rauch, posted on X about his support of Trump. This was around the same time Sticker Mule’s CEO made similar statements.
Your attention and your spending are votes. While I know Next.js is a project with many amazing developers, Vercel is a business and the backing force behind Next.js.
I decided to start removing Next.js from my projects. I shut down Next.js Bits. I migrated Hardcover from Vercel to Google Cloud Run. Hardcover is being migrated away. And lastly, this blog is now running on Astro!
After seeing Astro on the yearly JavaScript survey with a high satisfaction score, it drew me in. When I realized their official documentation had a section on Headless WordPress & Astro, I knew it was a perfect fit.
The big difference between Next.js and Astro (or my specific implementation) is how pages are rendered. With Next.js, pages are all rendered when they’re first requested. For this blog, every page is rendered to static HTML at build time. That means it’s super fast!
There are downsides to this. When I write or edit a new post, it won’t be immediately available until a rebuild of the entire site is triggered. It also means that comments (using WordPress) aren’t an option. That’s something I still need to figure out. 
When I started searching for “astro WordPress headless cms”, a wealth of videos came up! This also led me to this great Astro starter template.
I decided to start from scratch with npm create astro@latest and go from there.
One of my first steps is making a list of the routes needed. There were a few more routes I haven’t moved over yet (ex: books read, photo posts).
/ – Landing page for fun./projects – All the projects I’ve ever worked on, powered by WordPress./blog – List of all blog posts across all of my projects’ blogs./blog/projects – List of all projects./blog/projects/:project/:page – Paginated list of posts by project/blog/all/:page – Paginated list of posts./blog/tags – List of all tags./blog/tags/:tag/:page – Paginated list of posts by tag./newsletter – Form to sign up for my newsletter (submitted to Sendy)./newsletter/thanks – Redirect after signing up./:post – Single post or page corresponding with a WordPress URI.That’s it! Not too many. I started converting everything on Tuesday, and by Saturday, everything was working!
The hardest part of the migration was moving React.js components into Astro components. Fortunately, only a few places require client-side code (namely, the homepage and the projects page).
Most of these are relatively simple like the Article component. Other more advanced components I kept as React (for now), like the Projects Listing component. Fetching data happens in Astro, then the Projects are passed to React for interactivity.
Fortunately, nothing changed on the WordPress side. I moved over all of my previous fetch GraphQL client, TypeScript types and all GraphQL queries.
I made the decision with this blog to list posts from adamfortuna.com, hardcover.app and minafi.com – three blogs I’ve spent a bunch of time on. However, only individual posts from adamfortuna.com are visible.
This means that when it comes to listing posts, or posts by tag, I need to grab posts from all three blogs and sort them by date.
The solution for this is to hit all three blogs, parse the results and sort them. The code for this is a bit hectic, but does the job. Most of these functions accept an array of projects to fetch from, that way if I want to add another blog later I can easily add it.
WordPress can allow GraphQL access without authentication, but certain fields won’t be available. The most important one is excerpt as regular text. I use this in the meta description and show it on the blog listing page for highlighted posts. That meant authentication would be needed.
I created tokens for each blog that represent the username and password, which are then set as environment variables.
My favorite part of the migration was using Astro’s pagination. Each paginated page is incredibly simple. The getStaticPaths method provides a paginate function which can be used to create multiple paginated pages from the same array of data. You don’t even need to slice the array!
Pagination with nested routes takes a little more work. For example, /blog/projects/:project/:page. This page needs to use the array of projects and gets all posts for each one then paginates them. The same technique is used on the Tag page.
There were two parts I needed to change in order to work well with Astro and static generation.
The first was on the posts by tag page. When Astro tries to load the route /blog/tags/:tag/:page, it has to do a lot of work. It loads all tags, then it hits all three blogs to get all tags for each one. With 70 tags (so far), that means over 200 requests. This wouldn’t be a problem, but doing so using Promise.all meant DDOSing WordPress with 70 requests at a time. 
I switched to doing these in serial rather than parallel and it seemed to do the trick.
The next problem was that development was slow due to all of these API calls. This one was easy enough. I cached these saved values to a local variable and used those instead. If there’s a better way to do this with Astro, please point me in that direction.
The last major problem was updating Tailwind.css from version 3 to 4. The process went smoothly once I realized the @config ‘../../tailwind.config.js’ option in CSS file. Previously, I used the @screen md {} option in there to limit changed to @media(min-width: theme(--breakpoint-md)) { }.
A few months ago I switched from Vercel to Netlify, and have been loving it. I haven’t tried it for anything big, but for my blog it’s been wonderful.
I set up Astro on there, and it worked on the first build!
This has been a fun project so far. There are a few things I’d still like to do next.
Trigger a rebuild when something changes in WordPressRather than writing a new post, I’m going to update this one as I tweak things.
It didn’t take long before I needed to fix a spelling error in this post. I don’t want to spend 15 minutes rebuilding the site to see those kinds of changes. Instead, I want them to be available as soon as possible!
The solution is to rely on Netlify for server-side generation (SSR).
That started with using the @astrojs/netlify library. While it’s possible to generate every post every time it’s accessed, I’d rather cache as much as possible for as long as possible.
After configuring Netlify with Astro, the next step was to set the right headers for each page.
// The browser should always check freshness
Astro.response.headers.set("cache-control", "public, max-age=0, must-revalidate");
// The CDN should cache for a year, but revalidate if the cache tag changes
Astro.response.headers.set("netlify-cdn-cache-control", "s-maxage=31536000");
// Tag the page with the book ID
Astro.response.headers.set("netlify-cache-tag", `post-id-${article.id}`);The last one will use the dynamic post ID from the given post from WordPress.
To invalidate this, I needed to add a webhook that WordPress would hit, at src/pages/api/webhook.json.ts. This is the URL that’ll be hit whenever a new post is created or a post is updated.
export const prerender = false
import type { WordPressClientIdentifier } from "@/types";
import { purgeCache } from "@netlify/functions";
function sourceToProject(sourceUrl: string): WordPressClientIdentifier | null {
if(sourceUrl === "https://adamfortuna.com/") {
return "adamfortuna";
} else if(sourceUrl === "https://minafi.com/") {
return "minafi";
} else if(sourceUrl === "https://hardcover.com/") {
return "hardcover";
} else {
return null;
}
}
export async function POST({ request }: { request: Request }) {
try {
// See below for information on webhook security
if (request.headers.get("x-wordpress-webhook-secret") !== import.meta.env.WORDPRESS_WEBHOOK_SECRET) {
return new Response("Unauthorized", { status: 401 });
}
const body = await request.json();
const { post_id } = body;
if(!post_id) {
return new Response("No Post ID", { status: 401 });
}
const project = sourceToProject(request.headers.get("x-wp-webhook-source") || "");
if(!project) {
return new Response("No Project", { status: 401 });
}
const postTags = Object.keys(body.taxonomies?.post_tag || {});
const tags = [
`post-id-${post_id}`,
`blog/projects/${project}`,
'blog',
'blog/all',
...postTags
]
await purgeCache({
siteID: import.meta.env.NETLIFY_SITE_ID,
tags,
token: import.meta.env.NETLIFY_TOKEN
});
return new Response(`Revalidated entry with id ${post_id}`, { status: 200 });
} catch(e) {
return new Response(`Something went wrong: ${e}`, { status: 500 });
}
}This ties in with all of the pages that could have this post – the main listing page, the all blog posts page, the posts by projects, and the tag pages. Each of these has their own cache key that corresponds with this callback.
To create the callback, I installed the WP Webhooks plugin, which works well for this. It also allows you to add custom headers to your requests. I added a x-wordpress-webhook-secret header that it sends over and I check for.
Next, I needed to grab my NETLIFY_SITE_ID from Netlify, and also create a personal token (NETLIFY_TOKEN). I added these locally and on production.
However, the caching I’d previously added conflicted with this. I disabled it, but then the initial build went too slow. The solution was even more simple: change routes that need dynamic generation to start with the line:
export const prerender = falseWith this, these pages won’t be generated when deployed but will be cached when rendered.
Side note: I went down another route where I attempted to build these at deploy time but then expire them with a webhook call. That didn’t work. I needed to add this prerender = false code in for it to work.
2025-02-05 09:00:42
Later this month, we’re moving from the apartment we’ve lived in for the last 8 years to a house! It’s an exciting time. We’re still fixing and improving a few projects, but it should be mostly set to move in.
Whenever I go on a trip, I like to use that as an excuse to change my routine. It’s a time when my schedule seems the most flexible. I’m no longer evaluating things daily, allowing me to change my plans with a clearer view of the future.
I’m using the upcoming move as another chance to reset my routine and figure out what I want to leave behind.
None of these new rules are focused on maximizing productivity or physical fitness. The focus is on feeling healthy. This includes not feeling as anxious about everything happening while still being healthy enough to protest, contact representatives, and support people in my life who need someone to lean on.
Stop using anonymous social media (TikTok, Reddit, Reels, YouTube Shorts). Any social media you can scroll forever, and it’ll keep feeding you new content.
Stop picking up my phone in the morning. I’d like to not even touch it until I’ve at least worked out and read a little.
Start reading in the morning. Rather than plugging my brain into the news, I will read more books. I’ve been doing this on and off for the last month, but lately, doom scrolling has won out more days than not.
Switch to pre-selected news sources. That includes The Salt Lake Tribune, WIRED, Aaron Parnas, and a few others on BlueSky.
Continue going to the gym 3x a week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 6 am to 8 am.
Start going for a walk every day. It doesn’t matter how long it is. Our new house is close to a park, which I imagine I’ll get to know even better than I already do (I trained for my marathon there and already know it well).
Start doing cardio 2x to 3x a week in the morning. I’ll plan to start with 2x and see increasing it to 3x. This could be a Peloton ride or, a run, a hike or anything else that gets my heart rate going. If I don’t do this when I first wake up, the likelihood of this happening decreases fast.
Stop drinking any alcohol unless it’s a special occasional (Super Bowl) or I’m out socially with friends. Last year for ~6 months I mostly stopped drinking, but since November I’ve been having the occasional cocktail or beer at night.
Stop any THC consumption on multiple days in a row. I never vaped or took edibles until my 30s, and I’m tremendously grateful for past me for that. Doing so negates any desire to be creative or even play games. Instead, I want to lay around on my phone and watch TV. I will start with this change, but I’d like to cut this out entirely – except on weekends.
Start playing more video games! Somehow, in the last few years, my attention has shifted from video games to news and social media for entertainment. Playing video games is much healthier and is a habit I’d like to restore.
Start playing more board games, especially with friends. We love board games, but haven’t played nearly enough of them lately. Having a small apartment doesn’t make it easy. We have a Desden Board Game Table set to be delivered this summer, with a smaller 4-person IKEA table for now. I love that we’ll now have a place to actually play games that’s now our kitchen island.
Stop working on Hardcover outside of working hours. With the new house, I’ll have a dedicated office. I plan to consider that “the place” where I work on Hardcover. If I’m not in there, then I won’t worry about work.
Start dedicating more time to personal projects! I have a tendency to let projects take over my life. It’s happened with Code School, Minafi, and Hardcover. With the new arrangement, I’d like to dedicate some of the “social media & news time” to doing more creative projects. I’ve already mentioned some of these on my Now page, and I’m excited to work on them (especially the Astro conversion of this blog!).
Start gamifying progress. Some of the most productive times in my life were when I was actively tracking what I was working on. For a while, this happened on lineofthought.com, my now-defunct tracker. I have a plan on how to restart this, while also using it to learn some more about Swift and iOS programming. In the meantime, I’ll keep tracking using Exist.io.
Stop supporting any large corporation that acts against my interests and those of a stable democracy. This will mean buying local much more, and cutting services where the money is going towards causes I don’t support. I’ve always done this to some extent, but I’ve turned a blind eye to some based on convenience or entertainment. That’s no longer the case.
Start calling my representatives every week if there’s something that needs to be addressed. Even though I’m in Utah, I can still be an annoyance.
Start becoming more involved in local politics. I have a long ways to go on this one. We’ve been to a bunch of marches, and vote in all local elections, but we’d like to do more. A new food Coop is opening a few blocks from our new house and has monthly meetings. The people we’ve met there seem very like-minded.
Start back with weekly, scheduled date days/nights with my wife. We’ve done this in the past, but between the move, holidays, travel and election news, we’ve gotten out of the habit. With the new house we’d love to explore everywhere we can walk to – which will provide many fun outings!
Start having smaller get-togethers to go along with the bigger group ones. Meeting with friends one-on-one or just getting together for a short time. I tend to focus on large group outings that last multiple hours and leave me socially drained. Smaller get-togethers – in person and online – would create deeper connections with friends.
Start or join a group that meets at Liberty Park! This is the park right by our house. I plan to go there a bunch – on walks and runs, to walk our future dog. I’d also love to have an excuse to go there socially more often.
This is common advice. It can also be wrong.
For example, if you’re trying to replace one activity with something else (like replacing social media with reading), you need to stop one behavior and start another one.
A few years ago I read Cal Newports Digital Minimalism. Most of the book talks about doing a “digital detox” – stopping all use of social sites. After trying a detox myself, I noticed it lacked much advice on what to replace that time with! It’s important to have things you’re excited about to substitute in.
Instead of reaching for your phone when you have a few free minutes, you’ll need to create a new behavior. Reach for a book, pick up a Nintendo Switch, or read your RSS feed.
I’m considering February a trial period for any of these changes I can put into place now. Even just two days with less news consumption has given me enough time to write this post!
Let’s see what a month looks like.
2025-01-01 08:00:00
I’ve written a “year in review” post for the last fourteen years. I highly recommend you try it. It’s a time capsule that lets you reflect on the past year, appreciate parts of it that were great, and develop a plan for the next year. You can view any of the past 14 years’ posts here: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.
This felt like an in-between year. I didn’t undergo massive personal changes or life-changing injuries (like tearing my ACL in 2022). When I got into a routine I could stick with, I saw progress toward my goals and a massive sense of achievement. There are so many things that can go wrong, but this year things just seemed to go right.
My top themes of the year were personal fitness & health, Hardcover, and house. 
I focused a bunch on personal fitness & health. After spending 2023 in physical therapy, in 2024 I started hitting the gym more (3x a week), working with an online personal trainer, and tracking calories (using the LoseIt app). I ended up losing 20 lbs (170 lbs → 150 lbs)! According to my body composition scale, I put on 10 lbs of muscle too. Having someone online to be accountable to helped keep me on track. Since November, I’ve slowed my pace and put a few pounds back on, but I’m also lifting even heavier at the gym, so some of it should be muscle. A few of my highlights have been hitting 570lbs on leg press, 110lbs on dumbbell bench press and lots of body weight dips (15 reps for each of those) 
On the Hardcover side, a lot happened. We grew from 5k users to 23k. From 40 subscribers to 215. From not profitable to maybe profitable. 
We launched a redesign, updated progress tracking, Letterbooks, reading journals, survived a scrapping attempt, planned advanced stats, acquired another site (which fell through) and so much more. I spent on average 25 hours a week working on Hardcover. We’re planning a big update for January I’ve been working on for the last 3 months.
In September a house went up for sale on my daily walk route in the Avenues of Salt Lake City that made me want to go and see it. It was a somewhat crazy house that we saw with a realtor, but it was both outside our price range and needed too much work. We continued looking, got under contract for one that fell through (“it’s falling in on itself” – our inspector), and eventually found a place we love in November, 2 days after we returned from our trip. We put in an offer, and closed on the house on Friday, December 27, 2024! 
There are a few things to do before we move in, but it’s close to move-in ready.
Having a routine was a key part of this year’s enjoyment. Since leaving my job 6 years ago, I’ve tried lots of different schedules. I don’t see that changing anytime soon. My routine this year has revolved around a few keystone habits: Gym (6-8 am, MWF), Peloton (8 am, TR), run (R), allergy shots (M), errands (M), Hardcover Live (W), Date day (R), Takeout date night (F), gaming with kids (Sun), Video Chat with friends (W).
I’ve identified many things I want to learn and dedicated quite hours to them. These include deploying websites using Kubernetes, Tensorflow & related machine learning techniques, React Native for mobile development and automating workflows using Make and AI. To my surprise, the technologies I learned the most about ended up being Inertia.js and Kamal – two pieces I’m using right now for the Hardcover migration from Google Cloud and Heroku to Digital Ocean. I wouldn’t call myself an expert in any of these, but I’ll continue learning as I go.
Even good years have down notes. We said goodbye to 3 more friends who moved away from Salt Lake City. I spent too much time on TikTok and Reddit, which meant less reading or learning. I was constantly stressed out about Hardcover. Trying to grow it, fix bugs, and keep plates spinning while trying to enjoy learning has been stressful. I felt disorganized for much of this year – likely a byproduct of misaligned priorities. Someone was elected who I don’t support (putting it mildly here).
The 2024 US Presidential election topped the news. Trump was found guilty of 34 felonies. The Paris Summer Olympics gave us breakdancing.
A few years ago, I started doing a monthly breakdown. I love being able to look back and see what I thought was most important each month.
January: Sundance Film Festival, Jazz Game.
February: Apple Vision Pro, Superbowl with friends, Broadway Rave, Comedy Church, our 18-year anniversary, Dune 2.
March: Oscar Party, trip planning, librarian updates on Hardcover.
April: South Korea for two weeks during cherry blossom season! Started working out with an online personal trainer. Ski & Snowboard lesson with Marilyn.
May: Hardcover redesign and Letterbooks. Metric concert. My 42nd birthday! Started allergy shots. Saw Death Cab for Cutie, The Postal Service, Belle and Sebastian and TV Girl at the Kilby Block Party Concert. Furiosa. Eurovision.
June: Fortuna Family reunion! Friends moving away from SLC.
July: Deadpool & Wolverine. Pie and Beer day. Jewel and Melissa Etheridge concert at Red Butte Garden. Paris Summer Olympics. Retro games tournament for friends birthday party.
August: Marilyns Birthday vinyl, tacos and dinner with Marilyn. Paint night with Marilyn. Pink Martini Concert at Red Butte Garden. SLC Soccer game.
September: Utah JS Conference, Atsuko Okasuka comedy show, Eat Drink SLC, house hunting, researching SBLOC loans, Fanx Convention.
October: Offer on the house (didn’t go through), trip to Barcelona, then cruise to Portugal and Morocco.
November: Election, accepted offer on house, Outlander, Hardcover migration, Kevin Smith, Thanksgiving day parade with mimosas and dinner with friends.
December: Dragonsteel convention, cozy Christmas, dinner and Christmas windows at The Grand America, white elephant exchange, closed on the house!
Favorite Spot I Visited: Seoul in South Korea! We spent two weeks exploring the city, going to different districts and getting a feel of the city. The older I get, the more I enjoy going deep in a specific area rather than exploring a wide range. I’d like to go back again and spend time in Busan, Jeju and even more time in Seoul.
Favorite Meal: We went on a Seoul food tour, which was easily the best food I’ve ever been on. We were guided through more than a dozen stops, trying dishes featured on Netflix and the best friend chicken I’ve ever had. Marilyn and I had a romantic, fancy dinner at Table X for our 18-year anniversary.
Favorite Video Game I played: This year I didn’t play as many games as past years. I spent more time with my old favorites rather than start new ones. That included Stardew Valley 1.6, replaying Hollow Knight, and Overcooked.
Favorite Board Game I played: Terra Mystica was a fun new one I played with friends and then started playing on Steam. Marilyn and I played a TON of Wyrmspan – the successor to Wingspan. I might even say I prefer to Wingspan. 
Favorite Concert: Jewel and Melissa Etheridge was great. Metric was fun.
Favorite Live Event: Going to Marilyns first Utah Jazz game, Chris Harwick’s comedy show, watching Eurovision live, Kevin Smith Live.
Favorite Hike: During our trip to Seoul, we had one of the most amazing and memorable hikes I’ve ever been on. Led by a folklore professor who moved from Canada to South Korea, we visited shamanic sites, ancient ramparts, and Buddhist temples while listening to mythic stories before enjoying a delicious post-hike meal together with some Mogui.
Favorite Movies: My 5
movies for this year include Dune 2, It’s What’s Inside, Your Monster, Furiosa, and Monkey Man.
Favorite Shows: House of the Dragon, Shogun, Fallout, Three Body Problem (the Netflix US one), X-Men ’97, True Detective: Night Country, Fargo S5, Silo, Outlander, Dark Matter, Dune Prophecy, Shogun.
Favorite Podcasts: I’ve mostly stopped listening to podcasts and switched to audiobooks. Search Engine is one of the only ones I’m currently on.
Favorite Books: Reread The Three-Body Problem Trilogy (+ the 4th book by another author), all of the Berserk Manga, Monstress, Before We Say Goodbye (Before the Coffee Gets Cold #4), Lessons In Chemistry, The Creative Act, Convenience Store Woman, Iron Widow, The Tainted Cup, Funny Story, Starter Villain, Invincible (the comic), the entire A Court of Thorns and Roses series. See all of my favorites here.
Favorite new programming discovery: Kamal for deploying Rails apps has given me the confidence to move off Heroku finally. That opens up a ton of possibilities for where and what I can host.
Favorite Project: Hardcover, of course. 
Favorite Course or Education Experience: Learning Kubernetes was fun, but the courses weren’t the best. I enjoyed some random Youtube videos to better understand python data science which were more helpful than courses I’ve tried to take that focus so much on math and not on how to use Python to solve them.
There are many things I started this year where the payoff will be in 2025: Hardcover migration, allergy shots, and buying a home. It’s felt like I worked a lot on things this year to have an even better 2025. Fortunately, the work was enjoyable.
There were some times this year when my stress level peaked higher than it has in the past few years. It’s sometimes tough to know if it’s because I’m pushing myself too hard, or just taking on hard challenges. I’d like to write and journal more in 2025, which will help relieve some of the pressure.
Get a dog! – I started getting allergy shots in April, finished them in October, and now only need to get one a month for maintenance. With the move coming up, we decided to hold off on bringing in a new family member until we’re settled in the new place. I’ll still consider this as “done” as we did what we wanted – which is prepare for it.
Traveling to South Korea! – The two-week trip was so much fun! Food tours, hikes, cafes, temples, cocktails, shopping and sooo much good food.
Hardcover is growing! – We grew from 5k members to 22.5k in a year, which is amazing. If we 4x our pace again in 2025, we’ll hit 100k members. 
Make fitness fun – I very much enjoyed going for walks after lunch, and even going to the gym earlier by getting up at 6 am. I thought I was done waking up early when I didn’t have to, but it’s been nice.
Balance consumption, creation and movement – I balanced movement. But then spent way too much time on Reddit and TikTok this year. When Reddit starts telling you your streak is 75 days maybe that’s a good indicator that you’re on there too much.
Plan for fun – We reserved Thursdays for dates most of this year. It was great having a dedicated day for that to put down work and focus on just having fun and being tourists in our own city. We fell of that schedule in November, but want to pick it up again.
Overall I’m happy with these goals and the progress for the year. They weren’t as specific as some year’s goals, but when I think about the gains I made in each area, they feel right.
I wrote many parts of this post ahead of time, but I waited until the beginning of 2025 to write this section. Some years, I set a theme for the year.
For 2025, I’ve decided on one thing that inspires me: Now. It’s about not overthinking and overplanning and just making progress now. Done is better than perfect. Routines form because you take repeated action, not because you plan them perfectly. That’s the mindset I’m trying to instill into my brain.
It doesn’t mean that I can’t also relax, read, spend time on social media and even bed rot occasionally. But at those times when I’m relaxing and wondering, “Should I do X?” The answer is yes; if I’m wondering that, then I should do it. I trust myself to use this to spur action while giving space for relaxation.
Create a Hygge Home – Hygge is a Danish and Norwegian word that describes a feeling of contentment and coziness. That’s the feeling I’m hoping to create in the new place. I want to feel relaxed, warm, and not cluttered.
Play lots of games (board and video) – I love playing board games. In college one of the first websites I created with a Settlers of Catan League for my friends and I to track our gaming. With the new house, I’m most excited about hanging out with friends more and playing games (and playing them together with Marilyn). We even ordered a Dresden Gaming Table for the house that I can’t wait to try! My focus will be on playing games I already own to start before getting new ones.
Welcome a dog – Once we’re settled, we’re excited to welcome a dog into our lives. I’ve been spending time with friends dogs and confirmed that I don’t die, which is a good sign.
Write at least one post here a month – Writing helps me relieve anxiety. The downside is having another task can cause anxiety. Rather than trying to focus on writing something world-changing, I’d like to just write something. Even if it’s just a life update.
Work on a side project (tech-specific) – As much as I love Hardcover, I want to have at least one other project to work on. There’s something that happens when you can toggle between projects that results in both of them being better because of it. This past year I, focused almost exclusively on Hardcover. I have a few ideas for this, but I still need to narrow it down. It’ll probably be one of these (or all ): Line of Thought journal (iOS app), adamfortuna.com migration from Next.js to Astro, Raspberry pi connected to lights. The last one is an idea in my head to create a data visualization with a hundred square lights that can both react to sound or set it to different modes (relaxing, active, etc). Still more planning, but like the idea.
Continue learning Japanese – I’m putting this one here one more time this year. I’ve started thinking about going on a work trip to Japan in 2026 for a month – maybe even with my cofounder Ste for part of it! It wouldn’t be a tourism-focused trip, but more work and routine focused in a new environment. Having this trip in my mind inspires me to learn more.
Continue enjoying fitness – I was more focused on this than usual for 6 months of 2024 while working with a trainer. I found that fun, but it was also emotionally taxing to track everything I ate and workout 6 times a week. After that experience, eating mostly healthy and working out 4-5 times a week feels like a vacation. I want to continue doing that, while mixing things up so I keep having fun. I’m excited that we’ll have a park a block away from us that I can run at too! I’ll likely start running more just from the proximity there. There’s another gym within walking distance that has Olympic lifting platforms. I’d to to get back into that if it works out, but if not I’ll find other ways to have fun.
Grow Hardcover to ramen profitability – This is a bit of a scary one. Hardcover made $1,274 in December, which is amazing. My dream it to continue working on this project for many years, but for that to happen we’ll need to be able to support our lifestyle with it. Fortunately, our expenses are low, so it doesn’t need to generate much income. My dream is to be able to live a life supported by side projects that I love working on. I already love working on Hardcover, and if I can turn it into my source of income, that would be a dream come true.
Whew, that was a lot. 2600 words, a lot. Thanks for reading, and have a great 2025!
2024-11-07 07:06:52
Like many Americans, I woke up to a different world than I was expecting this morning. While I initially compared this feeling to 2016, it felt a lot more like 2004 for me. In 2004, Bush was reelected – a vote for his politics and brand of governorship that America wanted more of – even though I couldn’t stand him.
I spent over 12 hours watching the news, reading Reddit, and watching TikTok yesterday. It was the most I’ve doom-scrolled in quite a while, and it’s not something I’d like to make a habit of.
This comes immediately after my wife and I got back last week from a 16-day trip to Barcelona, Spain, and a cruise (Barcelona, Spain → Lisbon, Portugal → Porto, Portugal → Tangier, Morocco → Cadiz, Spain → Barcelona, Spain). During the cruise, I was utterly disconnected from the internet. I couldn’t remember the last days I had zero internet use.
Whenever I get back from a trip, I try to change my routine immediately. Fortunately, it coincides with when I want to turn off the news.
I’ve found the best times to change are when I have no clear routine in the first place. When I got back from my two-week Korea trip earlier this year, I started working with an online personal trainer, which was an incredibly beneficial change.
During the trip, I started brainstorming changes I wanted to make in my day-to-day life. Here’s what I came up with:
For me, this means Reddit and TikTok. Both are platforms I can scroll on for hours. It’s unhealthy even in the best times. Now, in the time after the election, I know it’s going to be rough.
The time leading up to the 2016 election, and pretty much his entire first term, was a slow boil to see how much news and information I could take in. I’m following Kamala’s advice and not going back to that.
The goal of this would be:
– Completely stop using Reddit, TikTok and The New York Times (Only use TikTok for Hardcover).
+ More time reading books. I’m excited about this one! I read 2.5 books during my vacation and already feel my ability to focus for long stretches increasing.
+ More time writing blog posts
+ More time in general for other things
I’m not sure how I’ll keep myself informed about the news in a healthy way (any recommendations for that). I aim to spend more time on other social media (Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram, Threads). I suspect I’ll hear enough about what’s happening through those without relying on Reddit/NY Times.
I fell out of this habit sometime last year, partly because I lacked a clear goal. I no longer wanted to live there or pass the NL1 proficiency test, which left me without a clear motivation.
After some reflection on this, and after watching Perfect Days, I came up with a goal (still very new, I’ll see if it sticks ): In 2026, work from Japan for a month to celebrate Hardcover’s 5-year anniversary. That’s still a year and a half away, which gives me a lot of time to learn and anticipate this. It also checks about 4 of my goals.
The goal of this would be:
+ Learn how to read Japanese at a basic level
+ Learn basic conversational Japanese, focusing on what would be needed to survive there for a month
+ Prepare to live in Japan for a month!
Right now my plan includes WaniKani (for learning kanji), Pimsleur’s Japanese course (for speaking) and Japanese the Manga Way (for grammar and structure).
If you have something that worked for you to learn Japanese, I’d love to hear about it!
In the last six months, I have focused a lot on my health. I tracked all of my calories (using LoseIt), went to the gym three times a week, and did cardio three times a week (usually Peloton or a run). I rarely had any alcohol. I minimized my desserts and didn’t eat out much. I targeted 1900 calories a day.
I lost 17 pounds (171 lbs → 154 lbs) while putting on 5 pounds of muscle (!).
At no time during this did it feel like I was depriving myself, but by the end it felt like I was spending too much time focused on tracking every calorie rather than just enjoying food.
I want to switch to a more relaxed approach to health while maintaining my current weight. This will mean less time focusing on the how and more time enjoying food and my current fitness level.
The goal of this would be:
– Stop tracking my foods
+ Continue with daily weigh-ins. Those will help verify if my exercise === calories in a similar way as tracking.
+ Switch from 6 exercise days a week down to 5.
+ Focus on getting 6k steps daily on weight training and Peloton days and 10k steps on all other days. (exceptions allowed if it’s rainy/snowy).
+ Whenever I go grocery shopping (about every other week), make a plan to get ingredients for a new recipe
I’ve written about weekly reviews before. I’ve tried weekly task organization too. This is a chance to check in with myself and see how I’m doing.
Lately, I’ve let these reviews swing entirely too much toward productivity and away from overall happiness. I want to switch more in that direction – using these as a chance to see if what I’m doing is making me happy or not.
The goal of this would be:
+ Conduct a weekly personal review. I do these in Notion in a folder for personal > reviews > 2024.
+ Focus on personal happiness and my relationship, not productivity.
I was reading Slow Productivity by Cal Newport during my vacation and a number of things stuck with me. The TLDR of the book is this on page 8:
A philosphy for organizing knowledge work efforts in a sustainable and meaningful mannerm based on the following three principles:
- Do fewer things.
- Work at a natural pace.
- Obsess over quality.
My weekly review is a chance to verify I’m doing #2. I tend to obsess over speed more than quality while also taking on more than I often should.
The solution to this is to get better at saying no. That can mean saying no to working on a new Hardcover feature. Saying no to myself when I say, “I should build <insert new idea here>.” It can mean saying no when I say, “This barely works, but it’s good enough,” and instead write some damn tests (or, more likely, let Claude write them ).
The goal of this would be:
+ Be happy with whatever my output is – both in scope and depth
+ Create a sustainable pace for knowledge work
The theme of all these is taking a step away from the news and distracting myself from *gestures broadly* everything.
I want to miss out on a constant barrage of destructive decisions by politicians, grifts to extract money, agencies gutted, courts packed, and everything else that will surely happen over the next 4 years.
Being able to tune this out daily and instead only look at the news occasionally is a privilege. I fully understand that. I still plan to support all the same politicians and politicians as before. I’ll be out holding signs at rallies protesting against whatever new right is being taken away. And who knows what else.
But what I won’t do is let myself drift into a doom-scrolling cycle that lasts a presidential term.
2024-07-29 05:16:33
Two years ago when I turned 40 I set out some ambitious goals for the next 10 years.
The highlight was the line:
I want to make my 40s my best decade of my life (so far).
No pressure right.
In the first 3 months of my 40s I tore my ACL, had surgery, had to let someone go from the Hardcover team and our 14-year old dog passed away.
It was a rough start.
Fortunately things have improved since then. I’ve tried to concentrate on not stressing myself out with additional pressure. I tend to put the most pressure on myself, and by it’s been amazing just dialing that down a little bit and noticing that I’m happier and less stressed.
I’ve also started drinking a lot less. Probably down from 8 drinks a week to more like 2-3. This was a result of two changes: not drinking at home and only having one drink when I’m out with friends or on a date with my wife.
Here are some of the goals I set out for my first year.
I want to be able to hike the mountains of Utah (again)After months of physical therapy after my ACL tear & surgery, I eventually recovered enough to hike again! In year 1 I didn’t hike all that much. One hike I did complete was Black Mountain – a 10 mile hike to the highest mountian we can view from our apartment window.
I attempted this same hike a few years ago in May, but there was too much ice in the scrambling part to complete it at that time. Doing it in July, on the 1-year anniversary of my ACL surgery, felt cathartic. Like I was finishing a book I’d left 95% completed.
I want to get back to the point where I’m physically fit“Fit” can mean a lot of things. My intention when I wrote this was that I wouldn’t want to use my knee as an excuse for not doing something. I’m not sure if I reached this in year one, but I’ve for sure reached it now. I’ve been skiing again, stood for hours at music festivals and concerts, run long distances (well, 10k ), and overall just haven’t worried about not being able to do something.:
I want to grow Hardcover to pay for my food & housingThis one was always going to be a long shot. Hardcover did grow to over $1k in revenue per month, but our costs have grown too. We’re very close to breaking even. With over 1,600 users active each week, it’s a very lively place! We have some plans to increase revenue that we’re working on for this year.
I also set a few longer term goals.
I want to learn how to build mobile appsEarlier this year I spent some time learning SwitftUI. Alongside a group of random people from Discord, we launched SpaceTube, YouTube for Spatial videos on the Apple Vision Pro. It was a fun, quick project.
However I wouldn’t say I learned how to build mobile apps as part of this.
I did learn that perhaps SwiftUI isn’t the path I want to go. Instead I’ve started learning React Native instead. I’m already comfortable with React, and it works on both Android and iOS. It’s likely we’ll move Hardcover to React Native someday – but I have a lot to learn first.
My hope right now is to switch Line of Thought from a web app to a mobile-only app using React Native and HealthKit. I have such a clear idea of the app I want to build – I just need to build it!
I want to go on a 6-week (or longer) international tripThis is a tricky one logistically. We’re planning to adopt a dog later this year. I wouldn’t want to leave our new family member alone, or with a stranger for that long a period of time. I’m unsure how this will work into actual plans.
We did spend two weeks in Korea in April 2024 which was amazing though! It reminded me how much I love being in a new city, eating new food and having new experiences every day.
Where would I/we go? I’m not sure. I’d love to spend more time in Japan. I could see many parts of Asia being amazing for an extended trip. I’ll keep thinking about this one for now.
Or maybe we’ll just decide to leave the US altogether based on the next election.
I want to grow Hardcover into a successful businessWe’re making good progress on this. If Hardcover continues to grow 10x a year then I feel like this is only a matter of time. If our momentum slows down we may have to change course, but we’re not there yet.
For now it’s more about continuing to do what we’re doing! Listen to users and build what they want. Get the word out to more people. Find new people to work with. Repeat.
These were long-term when I set them. I have 8 years left.
I want to give away $1 millionThis is dependent on Hardcover (or another business) generating revenue. There’s only so much money anyone needs, and it’s not as much as most people think.
I want to visit all 50 states by the time I’m 50!This is only three trips away:
I want to figure out where to live long-termEvery year when our lease is up in our apartment we have the same discussions about where we should move. For the last year years we’ve been very happy here in SLC. The longer we stay here the more we love it!
To stay anywhere long-term we do like the idea of buying a house. What we could afford today would be a major step down from our apartment. That’s led us to be happy where we are.
If Hardcover ends up growing and providing some income, then I could see us having the ability to make a buying decision here. Until then, and until we know what direction our country is headed in, we’ll wait and see.
I want to fitness to be on autopilotI’m surprised to say I can actually check this one off already! Well, it’s not solved for good. Every plan needs to adapt to whatever life throws at it.
For now, my fitness plan includes:
Fitness-wise I’m happy when where I’m at. I could walk a bit more, but that’s really it.
The hardest part was changing my morning schedule. Previous I’d sleep in as late as I wanted, then get up and have breakfast with my wife every day. In April I started workout out with an online personal trainer and waking up early for a morning workout 3x a week. Most days I end up waking up before my alarm and looking forward to going to the gym! It’s a chance to listen to audio books and wake myself up for the day.
