This is pretty funny. Frontend isn't "unstable". We have made it unstable with "modern" frameworks and libraries. The web is one of the most stable things ever built. There are sites from the early 90s still chugging along. That's more than you can say for most "front ends".
The better question is why did we fuck everything up so badly and call it "modern" as if the other methods of doing frontend development are prehistoric caveman shit. That's the fucking joke.
This article and a lot of opinions I hear like this are incredibly ignorant. There's nothing wrong with using Rails in a "classic" way as everyone seems to call it.
I do think calling Rails' method classic and these new frameworks "modern" a bit ignorant. If anything Rails is "modern" and these new frameworks are just that, new. Being new does not mean you're modern. It means you're new. A trend. You'll likely be gone tomorrow.
From your experience, do most remote interview loops have take home projects like this or do they tend to focus heavily on whiteboard-esque programming challenges?
Do most remote job interview loops include whiteboard-esque coding challenges, or more focused on soft skills and project/contract based assignments to assess your skills?
I'd rather leave the industry and product out, but I'll tell you it's an industry every one of you have been a apart of at one point or another, it's nothing special. I'd also like to say there were/are many competitors in the market.
The current pricing is about $10 per-seat/month. I experimented with a few pricing points, it's not optimal by any standards but it works so I left it alone. I wanted to make it as accessible as possible.
The product has been running since last November (2016). It was profitable within the first week and has been growing ever since.
I did no paid ads and no content marketing or anything like that. I basically cold emailed people I thought would be interested in it. It grew organically from there. Now there's a lot of blogs and people at conferences talking about it and I get traffic from all over.
As for how much maintenance/time I spend on it?
At this point I spend between 0-60 minutes a week on technical/code maintenance.
I spend 0-20 minutes a day (in the morning) on answering support/feedback questions and cold emailing potential customers.
It's not something I have to do every day, but it works well for me.
Honestly, don't bother practicing "this stuff". Instead, spend your time doing what is important to you (family, friends, side projects, side business, whatever).
If you need a job, then practice. While doing your job, do it well. Don't waste your personal time on this "stuff". That's really a waste of time and effort.
First and foremost, screw the green boxes on GitHub. They don't mean shit.
Second of all, there are many ways to "skill up" and that doesn't always mean creating open source side projects or experimenting with the newest fad.
After becoming a father I found I certainly had a lot less time but it forced me to cut out everything that didn't matter. That included watching tech talks, working on a bunch of small projects, getting my "commit a day" on GitHub, reading a large number of books, and so on.
Instead, I decided what I needed and wanted was financial freedom and I wanted to achieve that by building my own software business(es).
I stopped measuring myself by silly graphs or what others in the industry may or may not think of me. I stopped second guessing myself and I stopped worrying about my "marketability" or "maintaining skills" for hireability's sake.
Why worry about skills, marketable or keeping up with the fads if I work for myself? As long as I'm true to myself and I can build kickass products, I don't care about anything else.
Since then, I've built my own successful business and I am currently working on the second (second baby and second business!).
I use the same model now that I have a child-- you can't optimize or think too hard about it, you just need to do it. Doesn't matter what tools or methods you use. Could use a phone todo, a sheet of paper in your pocket, whatever.
Things I frequently do randomly during the day:
1. iMessage myself a note or todo so I won't forget
2. email myself a note or todo item, especially if there's an image or link etc.
3. write a quick note in the iPhone notes app
It doesn't matter if you have amazing depth in XYZ or you know about many things, no one cares and in one year all your knowledge will most likely be obsolete.
If you're going to "learn" something, make it universal. Learn to communicate (written and verbal), make friends, have experiences and learn to be empathetic and check your ego at the door.
The truth is, life is short and you will never master anything let alone become great in many things, so why try? What's so bad about being technically "decent" and exude the universal skills listed above? I'd hire that person any day.
The better question is why did we fuck everything up so badly and call it "modern" as if the other methods of doing frontend development are prehistoric caveman shit. That's the fucking joke.