The Blog

Exploration Of Thought

Thoughts on autonomy, self direction, digital business and life.

• The Single Best Thing You Can Do For Your Career

  Public speaking changed my career more than anything else. My first terrifying talk in 2008 eventually led to going full-time independent.

  Donn Felker – April 2, 2015

• RxJava with Dan Lew

  Part 2 of our two-part Fragmented Podcast series on RxJava with Dan Lew is out now on iTunes, Stitcher, PocketCasts, or streaming online free.

  Donn Felker – April 1, 2015

• Fragmented Podcast Episode 2

  We just released Episode #2 of the Fragmented Podcast. This week Kaushik and I discuss our IDE of choice – Android Studio (and IntelliJ). Enjoy. 🙂

  Donn Felker – March 3, 2015

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  Learning To Program Sucks

  I didn't touch a computer until age 21. Here's the messy truth about learning to code from scratch, and why quitting is the only real failure.

  Donn Felker – February 25, 2015

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  Announcing Fragmented – A Podcast for Android Developers

  Announcing Fragmented, a new podcast on Android development I'm co-hosting with Kaushik Gopal, covering best practices and patterns.

  Donn Felker – February 20, 2015

• Is Google IO Worth It?

  Running the real numbers on whether Google I/O is worth roughly $7,500 for an independent consultant, plus what a disappointing 2014 conference taught me.

  Donn Felker – February 16, 2015

• 3 Things You Can Do To Improve Your Quality of Life On Social Media

  Three simple social media habits that improved my life: kill negative posts, unfollow people who drag you down, and never feed the trolls.

  Donn Felker – February 6, 2015

• It Ships. It’s Profitable. It’s Important.

  A story about a poorly built insurance app generating six million a month -- why shipped and profitable beats elegant code, regardless of stack.

  Donn Felker – January 21, 2015

• Android Studio Espresso 2.0 ClassNotFoundException

  Espresso 2.0 throwing ClassNotFoundException in an app that also uses Dagger? Exclude the javax.inject group from the espresso-core dependency.

  Donn Felker – January 13, 2015

• Diff Before Commit

  Why you should always review a diff before committing - plus how to do it fast from the CLI or with a one-key IDE shortcut in Android Studio.

  Donn Felker – December 8, 2014

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  Three of the Best Audio Purchases I’ve Ever Made

  My top three audio purchases after years of daily use: cheap JVC in-ear earbuds, a Bose SoundLink Mini, and a Sonos Play 5 speaker system.

  Donn Felker – August 27, 2014

• Why I Use Crashlytics – Part 2

  Part 2 on Crashlytics: how MyFitnessPal used crash and device data to decide which bugs deserve a hotfix versus the next release cycle.

  Donn Felker – August 14, 2014