<h1>Code Ages Like Milk</h1>
<img src="/images/front_range.webp" alt="The Front Range in the summer is hard to beat">
<p>A bold title, no? But it’s true, and it’s something that I (and most other maintainers) have to deal with on a regular basis. Failing to account for this reality can slow down development and dissuade contributors from sticking around.</p>
<p>As the chief maintainer of Harper, one of my main jobs is to act as quality control. I receive <a href="https://github.com/Automattic/harper/pulse/monthly">a number of PRs each week</a>, both from new contributors and old. Given the diverse pool of contributors, it makes sense that I review a diverse pool of code of varying levels of quality.</p>
<p>When I have my head down on technical and attention-intense projects, I have less time to review code. When I have less time, I need to set priorities. The question becomes: Would I rather let code from high-quality, reliable sources pile up, or code from sources of unknown quality?</p>
<p>I usually end up reviewing the high-quality sources first, since they’ll likely require fewer revisions. Fewer revisions means quicker merge means improving the user experience faster. Whether or not this is a good decision is something I’ve been thinking about all week.</p>
<h2>Code Ages</h2>
<p>As code sits stagnant in a PR, it ages. You might say I’m crazy, that there is no way the code itself changes as it sits still in an unmerged and unmodified PR. I’d say you’re right, except for one teeny-tiny detail: Code only has meaning when it sits within a broader context. If that broader context changes (for example, when other PRs are merged) the meaning of the unmodified code does too.</p>
<p>Let me put it another way. If the patch from a PR remains stagnant, but the code it gets patched onto changes, the actual impact of the patch does too. This can cause all sorts of problems, from merge conflicts to erroneous test failures.</p>
<p>The longer code sits in a PR, the more time it usually ends up taking me to get it merged (when I finally have the time to get to it), just from the merge conflicts alone. It’s the Lindy effect rearing its ugly head once more.</p>
<h2>Features Age Too</h2>
<p>Not only does code age when left untouched and unused, so do the features they represent. If a user requests for a button that marks some text as bold and they don’t receive that feature promptly, they’ll find an alternative solution, possibly from a competitor.</p>
<p>The rest of the app can evolve too. If you’re an individual contributor, it’s in your best interest for your code to make it to master. If that doesn’t happen quickly enough, another contributor (or, if the software is extensible, like Obsidian or WordPress) or plugin author might beat you to the punch.</p>
<h2>What Can I Do About It?</h2>
<p>I believe the way I’ve been handling this until now has been entirely wrong. I should be allocating more of my time to training new contributors and fielding PRs from established ones. Open sources is a team effort.</p>
<p>As for you, dear reader, that’s for you to figure out. The worst way code can age is if it stays in your head. Don’t let your ideas go to waste. <a href="./never_wait">Open that PR</a>, or remind your reviewer to take another look if you haven’t already.</p>

Failing to account for this reality can slow down development and dissuade contributors from sticking around.

<p>Failing to account for this reality can slow down development and dissuade contributors from sticking around.</p>

Code Ages like Milk

<h1>Why I Talk to Myself</h1>
<img src="/images/bike_sidewalk.webp" alt="My bike broke down. Luckily, I had my camera">
<p>Each week I sit down and reflect on what I've learned. I think about which of my efforts have helped the Harper endeavor, and which have harmed it. It's not easy, but I think it's one of the best habits I've built. More accurately, it's one of the best habits <a href="https://ma.tt">Matt</a> has encouraged me to build.</p>
<p>When I really think about it, I'm reminded of the original <a href="https://blog.afterthedeadline.com/">After the Deadline blog</a>, which coincidentally also had a category called "Talking to Myself". I wonder if Raphael Mudge (AtD's author) had a similar motivation.</p>
<p>I talk to myself to find the weaknesses in Harper's mission and focus my attention on what matters. It is an efficient way to get from <a href="https://ma.tt/2025/05/sharing-levels/">layer one to layer five</a>. It can help get other maintainers on the same page and build a body of knowledge that can be linked to from anywhere.</p>
<p>Not worrying about keeping information locked-down is one of the more beautiful parts of working in public. Open source code would be nothing without similarly open source knowledge. I talk to myself <em>online</em> so my users can understand my intentions.</p>
<p>In many senses, we are not unlike moths. We are drawn to the lights of distraction, hype, and procrastination. For me, setting up checkpoints to stop and reflect has been an effective deterrent from these lights. In fact, I think each minute for which I stop and think has paid itself back three times over in time savings. If I can better allocate my time and energy, I can avoid doing redundant work pursuing pointless goals.</p>
<h2>Bonus Points</h2>
<p>A <a href="./markov_chains_are_the_original_language_models">few</a> of my <a href="./local-first_software_is_easier_to_scale">articles</a> have become popular on sites like Hacker News and Reddit. We've gotten quite a few Harper installations from links on these articles. I would never rely on this kind of blogging as a source of advertising, but it is nice to see it help spread the word.</p>

It's not easy, but I think it's one of the best habits I've ever built.

<p>It's not easy, but I think it's one of the best habits I've ever built.</p>

Why I Talk to Myself

<h1>My Writing Environment As a Software Engineer</h1>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>TL;DR: <em>Get a good text editor, and get good at using it.
Keep a notepad by your side.
Find a quiet place to write.</em></strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Writing is one of life's greater joys.
It's a mental workout that often brings me a level of clarity that is hard to find elsewhere.
I have never sat down to write for an extended period of time without coming away with a greater understanding of myself and the universe.</p>
<p>I imagine that sounds pretty cheesy.</p>
<p>I just want to impress upon you the importance writing has had in my life.
As with anything this important, I have an instinctual urge to optimize it.
As software engineers, isn't that part of our modus operandi?
To spend an unnecessary amount of time optimizing things?</p>
<p>Well, that's exactly what I've done.
Over the years, I've spend a unruly amount of time tweaking and changing the tools I use to write.
I'd love to talk about 'em.</p>
<h2>Neovim</h2>
<p>In the past few years, Neovim has the talk of the town.
Its ancestor, <code>vi</code> was borne from the observation that most writing is re-writing, and thus it includes a vast array of specific tools for editing text, rather than writing it.
<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/neovim/"><code>r/neovim</code></a> has swelled to more than 110 thousand weekly visitors and thousands of plugins and LSPs to choose from.</p>
<p>Unless you choose a pre-built distro like <a href="https://www.lazyvim.org/">LazyVim</a>, Neovim does very little out of the box.
It is through relentless customization that it becomes something truly powerful.
Beside the various keybindings in my config, the important plugins and tools that I use are:</p>
<h3><a href="https://writewithharper.com">Harper</a></h3>
<p>As I'm the chief maintainer, this one should be of no surprise.
Don't worry, I won't give you the marketing spiel.
I'll simply say that Harper is a grammar checker that happens to work exceptionally well in Neovim.</p>
<h3><a href="https://github.com/folke/zen-mode.nvim">Zen Mode</a></h3>
<img src="/images/zen_mode.png" alt="Zen Mode: Activated">
<p>Plain Neovim organizes each file to cover the maximum amount of space on-screen.
Practically, this means most of my text ends up on the left side, which can hurt my neck.
Zen mode restricts the width of the file and centers it on the screen.</p>
<h3><a href="./the_simplest_neovim_markdown_setup">Tatum</a></h3>
<img src="/images/tatum_screenshot.webp" alt="A screenshot of Tatum at work">
<p>Tatum is a small tool I wrote in a few hours that lets me live-preview my Markdown as HTML.
I won't repeat myself.
If you're curious about Tatum, check out my <a href="./the_simplest_neovim_markdown_setup">previous blog post.</a></p>
<h3>More Details</h3>
<p>If you're thirsty for <em>all</em> the details of my Neovim setup, take a quick look at the configuration code on <a href="https://github.com/elijah-potter/dots/tree/master/nvim">GitHub</a>.</p>
<h2>ReMarkable 2</h2>
<p>A few years ago, while I was still in school, I splurged and purchased a used Remarkable 2.
Even now, there is rarely a day that goes by where I don't use it.
Sure, everything it does could be easily approximated by paper.
On the other hand, the thin device saves my back whenever I have to travel and there's a certain joy that comes from using an e-ink device like this.</p>
<img src="/images/remarkable.jpeg" alt="A Recent Brainstorming Session on the ReMarkable">
<p>I mostly use it to read digital books and blog posts, but it's also come in handy for getting around writer's block.
Being forced to slow down and use my hand to write, rather than a keyboard, is quite helpful in some inexplicable way.</p>
<h2>A Quiet Space</h2>
<p>More important than any text editor, at least for me, is a quiet space.</p>
<p>As I said before, writing can take real cognitive effort.
A space with distracting noise can make it unnecessarily hard to get words on paper.
I've found local libraries or co-working spaces to be great places for quiet authorship.</p>
<p>Whatever you do, do not listen to music with words in it.
Even if it <em>feels</em> more productive, I retroactively find that it makes me less so.</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>There's probably some more important points I'm leaving out, but I definitely believe I've hit the big three.
For me, the most important parts of a good writing environment, as a software engineer, are my text editor, a notepad, and a quiet space.</p>

Writing is one of life's greater joys. It's a mental workout that often brings me a level of clarity that is hard to find elsewhere.

<p>Writing is one of life's greater joys. It's a mental workout that often brings me a level of clarity that is hard to find elsewhere.</p>

My Writing Environment As a Software Engineer

<h1>Harper for Firefox</h1>
<img src="/images/harper_chrome_ext.png" alt="The Harper Firefox Extension">
<p>There's a great deal of overlap between those who use Harper and those who use Firefox.
Foremost, they both value <em>privacy</em>.
Which is why I'm so thrilled to say that Harper has an official plugin for Firefox.
While there has been an unofficial one for <a href="./harper_for_firefox_through_spellbolt">a while now</a>, this is the one that fully deserves the Harper label. It's ours, through and through.</p>
<p>It's still early days, so if you run into problems, feel free to open <a href="https://github.com/Automattic/harper/issues/new/choose">an issue</a>.</p>
<p>If you'd like to install it, pay us a visit on the <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/private-grammar-checker-harper/">Firefox Add-on Store</a>.</p>

There's a great deal of overlap between those who use Harper and those who use Firefox.

<p>There's a great deal of overlap between those who use Harper and those who use Firefox.</p>

Elijah Potter

Harper for Firefox

Comments

Other Stuff

Code Ages like Milk

Why I Talk to Myself

My Writing Environment As a Software Engineer