June 29, 2021, 8:46 a.m.

rockyourcode: How I Remove Duplicate Lines From a File With awk, Notes on ”How to Promote Yourself to Potential Employers”, TIL: Pass Multiple Commands to Xargs, Notes on ”CBT for Imposter Syndrome and Career Advancement”, Doubts About My Daily Blogging Experiment, TIL: How to Set Multiple GOPATHs, Notes on ”The Counterintuitive Secret to Shipping Better Articles Faster”

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Here are the articles from last week:

How I Remove Duplicate Lines From a File With awk

Published on: 2021-06-28

tags: TIL, Unix, Shell

One of the repositories I maintain is a beginner’s GitHub repo. New developers can make their first pull request by adding their GitHub handle to a simple text file.

When pull requests get merged into the master branch, they often contain duplicates. The file has more than 7,000 lines. Names are not sorted alphabetically.

I needed a simple way to remove all duplicates lines from the file without sorting the lines.

I’m using awk, a Unix shell program. I’m not proficient in using awk, but I’ve found useful one-liners that do what I want.

For reference, this is how my file should look like:

# CONTRIBUTORS

- [@RupamG](https://github.com/RupamG)

- [@hariharen9](https://github.com/hariharen9)

- [@clevermiraz](https://github.com/clevermiraz)

- [@smeubank](https://github.com/smeubank)

- [@LJones95](https://github.com/LJones95)

- [@shannon-nz](https://github.com/shannon-nz)

- [@sammiepls](https://github.com/sammiepls)

Here’s how it often looks like:

# CONTRIBUTORS

- [@RupamG](https://github.com/RupamG)

- [@hariharen9](https://github.com/hariharen9)

- [@clevermiraz](https://github.com/clevermiraz)

- [@smeubank](https://github.com/smeubank)

- [@LJones95](https://github.com/LJones95)
- [@hariharen9](https://github.com/hariharen9)

- [@shannon-nz](https://github.com/shannon-nz)

- [@sammiepls](https://github.com/sammiepls)
- [@shannon-nz](https://github.com/shannon-nz)

1. Remove all empty lines

awk 'NF > 0' file.txt

NF is the Number of Fields Variable.

2. Remove duplicates

awk '!seen[$0]++' file.txt

I stole this command from opensource.com, where you can find an explanation on how it works.

3. Add Empty Lines Again

awk '{print; print "";}' file.txt

See Stackexchange.

Notes on ”How to Promote Yourself to Potential Employers”

Published on: 2021-06-27

tags: Notes, Lab

In this talk, Abbey Perini enthusiastically shares her tips for showcasing your strengths for the job search as a software developer.

How to Practice Confidence

collect wins
set goals (beware the productivity trap)
mantras
building things (no coding)
vision boards
find a support network (helpful: other people that are also going through a similar experience)
rest & recuperate

How to Apply Your New Confidence

practice “self-promotion”: it feels icky at first!
what are your top 3 skills? practice telling others about them!

Job Search

no one ever matches the job description 100%!
requirements: if you meet at least one of them, you are normally qualified enough to apply
search for keywords that you meet: tech stack, job description, etc.
use those keywords for the cover letter/resume
for prior job experience in a non-tech role: your experience applies, especially soft skills
previous job experience shows that you are reliable, you are employable
if you are stay-at-home-parent or have other gaps in your resume, come up with your story about the gap and practice it (note: watch this part of the YouTube video for great tips!)

Interview Questions

“Tell us a little about yourself”
“Tell us about a difficult project you worked on and how you handled it.”
“Tell me about [X] project from your resume.”
for career transitioners: practice to describe your learning process
re-frame your doubts: you can always find reasons to discount your experience, but is that true? You have skills!

Other Tips

networking
online presence
share your learnings, share that you’re on a job search, share the cool thing that you made (loose the caveats)
references

TIL: Pass Multiple Commands to Xargs

Published on: 2021-06-26

tags: TIL, Unix, Shell

I’m using fd, an alternative to the Unix native find, to find a list of files and copy them to a different location, using xargs. On Unix, we use cp to copy the files, but the command is silent.
I don’t know which files cp will copy. Maybe I could use echo to log the files?

How can I pass multiple shell commands to xargs?

Previous command:

fd --changed-within 1hour -0 | xargs -I cp {} /new/location/

fd -0 --changed-within: find all files changed within a time frame, separate results by null character
|: pipe previous command as stdin to the next command
xargs -I cp {} /new/location/: takes the input from previous command (fd) and uses cp to copy the files; {} is a placeholder

What does not work:

fd --changed-within 1hour -0 | xargs -I cp {} /new/location/ | xargs -I echo {}

What does work:

fd --changed-within 1hour -0 | xargs -0 sh -c \
'for arg do echo "$arg"; cp "$arg" /new/location/; done' _

xargs -0: use null as separating character (useful for files that contain whitespace)
sh -c: read commands from next string
'for arg do echo "$arg"; cp "$arg" /new/location/; done' _: loop over each input and first use echo to log, then cp to new location
_ is a placeholder for $0, such that other data values added by xargs become $1 and onward, which happens to be the default set of values a for loop iterates over.

This is shell magic to me!

I found the solution on StackOverflow, where you can also find a more detailed explanation.

Notes on ”CBT for Imposter Syndrome and Career Advancement”

Published on: 2021-06-25

tags: Notes, Lab

Here are my notes from the ~ 45 min talk by Rahat Chowdhury.

What is CBT?

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a talk therapy where you challenge your thoughts.

Example of an initial thought (imposter syndrome):

They gave me the job and I don’t understand why. I couldn’t finish the code challenge and the interviewer had to guide me through the process. How will I manage to do this job on my own?

Cognitive Distortions

Cognitive Distortions are how your mind fools you.

Examples:

filtering: removing the positive information and focusing on the negative ones
catastrophizing - exaggerating an event to an absolute worst case scenario
always being right
polarized thinking
overgeneralization
jumping to conclusions
fallacy of change
shoulds: “I should have done that differently.”

Challenge your thoughts!

Imposter Syndrome

We need to explore the deeper reasoning behind our imposter syndrome.

Strategies to Help With Imposter Syndrome

record your wins (in private or public)
wins are wins even if they are small
use those for stories to tell in interviews
remember that it’s a process: you will suck at it first, until you get better

Doubts About My Daily Blogging Experiment

Published on: 2021-06-24

tags: this_blog, Writing, Lab

Last month I decided to try to write a blog post each day.

Today’s article is the embodiment of my frustration with this experiment.

While I code every day, some days I don’t have anything interesting to share. No learnings, no insights that warrant a blog post.

Today the daily writing habit feels pointless.

I will try to keep it up for a few days more.

My new job (first job in tech!) starts next week. Will this be the time to ditch the writing experiment?

Let me know?

TIL: How to Set Multiple GOPATHs

Published on: 2021-06-23

tags: TIL, Go, Unix, Fish, Shell

How to set multiple workspaces (GOPATH)

A Go Workspace is how Go manages our source files, compiled binaries, and cached objects used for faster compilation later. It is typical, and also advised, to have only one Go Workspace, though it is possible to have multiple spaces. The GOPATH acts as the root folder of a workspace. ¹

Why multiple workspaces?

I’d like to install my global binaries into a central location. These programs are third-party CLIs that I want to use everywhere in my terminal as a consumer. I don’t develop these progams.

At the same time, I’d like to make sure that my GOPATH is correct for my actual projects that I’m working on.

Executables are installed in the directory named by the GOBIN environment variable, which defaults to $GOPATH/bin or $HOME/go/bin if the GOPATH environment variable is not set. ²

How to Set GOPATH?

Check the wiki for your operating system and shell.

For Unix, Fish shell:

set -x -U GOPATH $HOME/.go:$HOME/projects/go/workspace

This command sets an universal variable for both $HOME/.go and $HOME/projects/go/workspace.

Fish Shell: Add GOPATH folders to $fish_user_paths

Use fish_add_path to add more locations to fish’s $PATH.

To use the “global” Go binaries as well as your own workspace binaries:

fish_add_path $HOME/.go
fish_add_path $HOME/projects/go/workspace

Notes on ”The Counterintuitive Secret to Shipping Better Articles Faster”

Published on: 2021-06-22

tags: Notes, Lab

In this ~1 hour video developer advocate Sam Julien shares his tips for shipping faster:

tl;dr

You’ll need a system that enables you to consistently produce results on which you can get feedback on.

Action + Speed + Feedback = Growth

How to Create Consistently?

The problem:
The “Ultimate Guide” Trap: Trying to write a big, all-encompassing article leads to exhaustion and burn-out. You stop writing for months.

The Developer Content Creator Cycle

Overwhelming to know what to create
Difficult to cross things off the list (unfinished drafts)
Never-ending cycle

Explorer’s Mindset

Don’t think of content (or any other skill you’re building) as a dictionary to memorize.
Instead: think like an explorer.

The secret lies in Consistent Small Wins.

Comfort is the enemy of growth.

(But self-care, too!)

Sam does not encourage the “hustle mindset”.

How to Grow

Do challenging things quickly and get feedback.

What?

production-focused (article, video)
trackable
measurable

Getting feedback:

does it work?
learning in groups
learning in public

Building a Content System

Systems trump Motivation

Build a small but complete system.

1. Draft

gathering notes
creating an outline
first draft

2. Create

writing/recording
adding images
code samples

3. Publish

publish on your site
adding social images
cross-posting

4. Promote

Twitter threads
forums & chat groups
talks

5. Garden

Update over time
maintain & correct
cross-link

Creation Phase (Step 1 to 3)

Tools

Scratch pad

Eliminate the distraction of figuring out where to jot something down.

Look for: speed, ease of use, ability to export.

Google Keep, Drafts app, etc.

Knowledge Base

Slow burn your drafts and link your ideas together.

Look for: cross-linking, collections, multimedia.

Evernote, Obsidian, Roam, Notion.so, etc.

Task Manager

Ship things faster by determining the next action and context for a project.

Look for: works with your brain, ability to add context/tags

OmniFocus, Google Keep, etc.

Tips for Creating Content

In the beginning, move fast to define your process (do tiny expirements).
Start with what you know.
Stuck? Try the TIL format.
Don’t over-engineer too quickly.

TIL Format

Intro: 2 or 3 sentences describing the problem.
Body: describe the solution and how you got there.
Final Solution: Finished code for copy&paste.
Conclusion: 1 or 2 sentences re-capping the problem and solution.

Post-Publication Phase (Step 3 to 5)

Every piece of content has a price tag (promotion & maintenance).
Provide direct value on each platform (don’t dump your stuff).
Be patient.

Links

image credit for the cover image: Andy Li

Thank you for reading my blog.

Don’t hesitate to reach out via email or Twitter!