Say you want to build a simple timer/stopwatch in React Native and you’ve decided to use the Expo managed workflow. It’s pretty easy to do… — Say you want to build a simple timer in React Native and you’ve decided to use the Expo managed workflow. It’s pretty easy to do this in React. However, one thing you’ll run into when porting this to React Native is how this behaves when your app is backgrounded (e.g…

As if reasoning with component lifecycles in React class components wasn’t hard enough, things got even trickier with the advent of React… — As if reasoning with component lifecycles in React class components wasn’t hard enough, things got even trickier with the advent of React functional components and the useEffect hook. Here’s how I ended up using them. Start with an empty dependency array. This means that your effect will only run once…

Automated tax-loss harvesting is one of the core features of both of our AgentRisk Wealth and AgentRisk Lite products for individual… — Automated tax-loss harvesting is one of the core features of both of our AgentRisk Wealth and AgentRisk Lite products for individual investors, and of our AgentRisk Overlay product for financial advisors. Finding similar assets to replace an asset in tax-loss harvesting is the most computationally intensive part of the process…

These are definitely unusual times we’re going through during the COVID-19 pandemic. And unfortunately, this has taken a significant toll… — These are definitely unusual times we’re going through during the COVID-19 pandemic. And unfortunately, this has taken a significant toll on the stock market and on people’s portfolios. What’s worse is that this panic can lead to anxiety, which can lead to investors making irrational decisions. This, in turn, may…

How id software was able to ship 28 games in under 6 years with fewer than 10 developers — Probably the most iconic video game company of the 1990s, id Software developed such groundbreaking titles as Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake. In a somewhat recent talk, John Romero (the co-founder of id), outlined the company’s programming principles that allowed them to produce so many quality titles, one after the…

How to avoid common pitfalls when your code handles money — When building an application, some lines of code are more important than others. Screw up your mutex logic and you may run into a deadlock or a race condition. Screw up a database query and you can wipe out an entire table. Screw up how you handle money, and someone…

How to tame one of Elixir’s most powerful constructs and write concise code that’s easy to read, maintain, and debug. — I gotta be honest. It was not exactly love at first sight when I first encountered Elixir’s with statement. But just like I learned to appreciate (and love) the whole non-defensive/let-it-crash approach, the same happened here as well. The result: I was able to rewrite a bunch of complicated functions…

Mostly made to be a joke, highly opinionated, 100% fun to read. — Back in 2016 when I started my entrepreneurial journey, I did the same as going into any new field: try to devour as much information and advice from people considered the best in their field, i.e. learn from the winners. Kind of like when you start getting into basketball, you…

For the past few weeks we have been quietly working on a couple of very exciting new features in our product. These features are a direct… — For the past few weeks we have been quietly working on a couple of very exciting new features in our product. These features are a direct result of customer feedback and we are really excited to share them with you! We now support IRAs 🎉 You can now have your IRA (Individual Retirement Account) managed…