Justin Hill

I'll keep this post short and sweet for once. I've written before about Benjamin Franklin's 13 virtues, particular his concept of resolution (see here ). Lately, however, another of Franklin's virtues has been occupying my mind: moderation. Franklin's described moderation thus… Read more...

I'm Really Terrible At the Fiddle A few years ago my lovely wife asked me if we wanted to leave the swamp-like heat and humidity of Washington, DC behind for a few years and live in the mysterious land known as Canada. I'm embarrassed to say that, even as a former US and World… Read more...

I have been interested in Benjamin Franklin for about a decade, since first hearing stories about his adventures in early self-education in the books of celebrated teacher John Taylor Gatto. Gatto holds Ben Franklin up as an exemplar of the notion that, in the modern age, we… Read more...

The Problem Maybe I just have a more addictive personality than I'd like to admit, but I feel like I can't be the only one who has been in this situation: you're humming along, knocking out items on your to-do list, or maybe researching something on the web. You've just completed… Read more...

About a year ago, I decided that my journey as a self-taught programmer and developer was stalling out. I was becoming an expert at completing tutorials, but I didn't feel any closer to being comfortable starting and maintaining projects of my own. If you're a self-directed… Read more...

I've been hard at work on revamping and sprucing up some of my personal projects, and neglecting my writing. So I apologize for the long read in advance, but this is a topic I've been thinking about for a while. Read on for some brief ruminations on lessons educators can learn… Read more...

***Warning: Spoilers for Game of Thrones season 6 and Silicon Valley season 3 included!*** Growing up, I was a big fan of fantasy and sci-fi novels. I loved stories about epic heroes who stood up against impossible odds, set against the backdrop of strange, foreign worlds. In… Read more...

I had a huge response from friends and new readers who were curious to learn more about the productivity tools I referenced in my last post . I thought it would be helpful to take a step back and describe the mental framework I use when charting a self-teaching path. To really… Read more...

Do you ever feel like you have trouble keeping up with all of the great ideas, personal projects, and priority items that will help you achieve your goals? When you're trying to focus on your work, do you find your mind racing with random thoughts and to-dos? If so (or even if… Read more...

Why write (or in your case, read) another blog post about learning to code? The last few years have seen an explosion in the amount of quality learning resources available to curious beginners. Free and subscription-based online learning communities, bootcamps (both in-person and… Read more...