Feeling overwhelmed by the endless stream of tech content? At The Coder Cafe, we serve one essential concept for coders daily. Written by a senior software engineer at Google, it's perfectly brewed for your morning coffee, helping you grow your skills deeply.
The Coder Cafe is free for everyone from October 7th to November 2nd. Until November 2nd, enjoy a limited-time offer of 50% off a paid subscription for your first year:
What Motivated Me to Create The Coder Cafe
Let me introduce myself. I’m Teiva Harsanyi, and this is me giving a talk at Devoxx (with my favorite Borg1 t-shirt):
I’m a senior software engineer at Google with years of experience, including work in the safety-critical domain of air traffic control and at companies like Docker. I run a tech blog that has reached over a million views, and the author of the well-received book 100 Go Mistakes and How to Avoid Them.
One day, I had a discussion with someone on Twitter about Google, and this person told me this:
Honestly, I never ever considered myself as talented. During my studies, I was always close to giving up, constantly needing to retake exams because computer science was too difficult for me.
Yet, one day, I discovered a principle that changed my life: Kaizen (改善). This Japanese concept emphasizes that growth isn’t about how quickly you advance but about a consistent commitment to improvement. I didn’t join Google or become an author because I was talented; I did it because I applied the Kaizen philosophy for over a decade2.
That’s why I created The Coder Cafe. I wanted to build a newsletter to help people grow week in and week out. While you might not learn everything in a day, I believe you will make steady progress over time.
Who Is It for
The Coder Cafe is designed for backend software engineers, DevOps professionals, and SREs. Whether you’re a junior or mid-level engineer aiming to level up or a seasoned senior looking to refresh your knowledge, this newsletter has something for you.
I want to help people design, build, and run complex systems while also becoming more effective professionals.
What to Expect
Here’s how The Coder Cafe works:
Issue: From Monday to Thursday, you receive a daily issue in your inbox, exploring a specific concept related to the weekly theme.
Weekly theme: Each week, we focus on a given theme. A theme delves into one of these categories: coding, testing, software engineering, databases, distributed systems, DevOps, reliability, systems, soft skills, or communication.
Recap: On Friday, you receive a weekly recap to help you solidify your understanding of the concepts covered and explore further.
Subscription details:
Free subscribers: Access to one full issue per week, with only excerpts for the other issues, offering an overview of the concept.
Paid subscribers: Get full access to all in-depth content, including the weekly recap.
The Coder Cafe isn’t centered around a single programming language. The goal is to make the content accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of your favorite language. Meanwhile, our focus is on exploring foundational concepts—the ones that form the cornerstone of a successful career—rather than tools or technologies that evolve quickly over time.
FAQ
Some of my colleagues would also be interested in reading The Coder Cafe, can we arrange a company deal?
Yes! Reach out via email at contact@the*****.cafe and we can discuss custom arrangements via group subscriptions.
Why The Coder Cafe over learning with an LLM?
I’m not here to convince you not to use Gemini, ChatGPT, or any LLMs to learn about concepts. If that works for you, that’s great to hear.
In The Coder Cafe, my goal is to bring more value than what a classic LLM would do using my own experience working at companies like Google and Docker combined my own approach to teaching. Writing and explaining concepts is part of my DNA (I started writing even before graduating), and I think the best showcase is the reviews on my book.
Can I suggest a new topic?
Absolutely! Suggest your idea here.
I’m a student, and I can’t afford a paid subscription.
If you’re a student or transitioning in tech, I would love to support your journey. Just email contact@the*****.cafe and I will grant you a free paid subscription for the duration of your studies.
Goal
My goal is to reach 400 paid subscribers before April 7th (6-month anniversary). Achieving this will allow me to dedicate more time to creating content and delivering even greater value to the readers.
Current goal (last modified: 8 Oct 2024):
The coffee shop drawing was done by the super-talented Eli Huynh.
And I still have a lot of things to learn and get better at.
The more you know, the more you know you don't know.
—Aristotle
