This blog will and has already served a few purposes for me.

The has

I decided to use as much new tech to me as I could to build this blog helping me to get really hands on with these technologies and have a public repository showcasing them Github.

The blog has been built using:

• NextJS - SSG
• TypeScript
• StrapiJS
• TailwindCSS
• React Query with graphql-request (this is in the process of changing after some things I learnt during the process of the build)
• Storybook

The will

I am going to use it to document my learnings on sabbatical, as well as after my sabbatical as a way of helping me learn and hopefully help others in the process.

The why

I decided to take the sabbatical as I was unsure as to what the next step in my career was going to be. I had been part of a start up that went through a long acquisition.

After the acquisition I went from being part of a small dynamic team to a corporate environment, with its red tape, which offered fewer opportunities to learn, as more aspects of the job where split up into teams such as dev ops, web and mobile etc.

I had previously at the start up been enjoying moving between all aspects of development, management and process, and now I felt a little stuck - I needed a new challenge. I'm self-taught developer, with no official computer science degree, I learned mostly by building my own products and learning on the job.

I have always felt I have missed out on some of the fundamentals, so I have decided to spend some time in those areas, whilst I try to find the next suitable position where I can grow and be part of something exciting again.

All the code is open source and available here on my Github

I will be making many posts around my findings and decision making and am really looking for some feedback around how I can improve in any of the areas, design, code design, FE, BE whatever aspect you feel can be improved upon.

I am trying to use my sabbatical as wisely and fruitfully as possible.

Many thanks for reading, please check out my code and follow me @DevSabbatical