Welcome, again!

Hello there. Here I am again back in your inbox with Episode #002 of the Be a Better Dev Newsletter.

This week, I decided it's time to share a course I've been secretly working on in the past few months. The content is really starting to come together and I'm excited to share it with this group.

Afterwards, I'll give you a quick recap of videos published on my channel in the past two weeks. So lets go!

-Daniel

Upcoming Course - AWS Learning Accelerator

A few months ago, I was perusing the many comments on my YouTube channel and came across one that stuck with me. It's from a reader that is frustrated after scouring the internet for real life practical AWS projects to gain skills and confidence. After prompting them for more detail to learn more about what's missing, he/she replied:

I can't tell you how often I get similar comments/emails about this exact topic. It set me off on a path of investigation.

After looking through the options of what's out there for practical AWS training, I learned there really wasn't a lot available (atleast to my satisfaction). There's some good content out there, but most of the time its just a "here's the problem, here's the solution" kind of ordeal - what good is that?

Further, nine times out of ten any "How to Learn AWS" blog post or video just suggests taking your certification and magically you'll be ready for a real job. I couldn't disagree more with this sentiment. Don't get me wrong, I do think there is significant value in taking AWS certifications—they expose you to core AWS services and the knowledge your gain is for the most part directly translatable to an AWS focused job. But in my opinion, certifications just don't prepare you for the real world and create a segment of graduates that lack the ability to use AWS services to solve real life problems.

To fill this gap, I decided to create my own course addressing this specific problem. I've aptly named it the AWS Learning Accelerator. The intention of this course is to give you real life & hands on experience building an end to end project on AWS. I walk you through the thought process behind design choices and implementation considerations. This isn't a "here's the problem and here's the answer" kind of course (although you can definitely use it that way), it's more about thinking about different options and picking the right one for the job (or atleast being aware of the alternatives). This is accomplished through several in-course prompts and practice exercises.

One of the key take-aways I want students to have post completion is confidence in their AWS abilities. This just isn't something I think that current AWS certifications can provide and is a gap I would like to fill through the AWS Learning Accelerator.

If this course is something you think you'll be interested in, you can sign up to the interest list using this link. I'll be providing updates over the next few weeks. If you have a friend that you think might be interested as well, I'd be grateful if you share it with them.

Now, let's move on to video summaries from the last few weeks.

Videos posted in February (2023) so far...

​How to Create an AWS VPC with Public and Private Subnets - Ah the VPC, or as I like to think of it, every developer's worst nightmare. I managed to avoid learning about VPCs and networking in general for a year or so when coming into AWS. But after a while, learning about it is inevitable. In this video, I walk you through the process of creating your own VPC with public and private subnets. I also explain some basic concepts such as IP address spacing and CIDR blocks.

​Developing Your Writing and Communication Skills as a Software Engineer - The Pyramid Principle - This video is about a book I came across lately that really helped me hone my communication skills. The Pyramid Principle is an age old technique for organizing your thoughts around complex topics and explaining them in a logical way. I've already started using the Pyramid Principle in many of my upcoming videos to great effect. If you struggle with communication (written or verbal), I highly suggest checking out this book.

Thanks again for reading this Newsletter. See you in a few weeks!

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