When it comes to business, I - like many developer-turned-small-business-owners, I’d imagine - am really quite green. Not just green, deep green. No MBA in sight. I’m not even sure what that stands for, to be honest. Master of Business Administration? Is that it? Yep, a master of business… yours truly is not. I was instead thrust into the schools of “business acronym Googling” and “fly by the seat of your pants.”
I’ve given this a good bit of thought. Late at night, when I can’t sleep, I imagine a potential variation on my life; one in which I commute to work each morning before my kids wake up. I spend 8-10 hours at a desk writing code, and return home around 6pm. I step out of my car, and approach the front door, slowly reaching for the keys in my pocket. I release one of those fatigued sighs that only I can hear, and then unlock the door to my two young kids, excited to see me. The best part of my day.
Hello, everyone! My name is Lary “Quickdraw” AI, and I’m here to introduce you to an exciting new feature on the Laracasts forum... automatic AI-generated replies! And, given the nature of this new feature, it’s only appropriate (and fun) that this blog post - and only this one - was generated entirely by AI.
As you can imagine, Laracasts frequently receives requests for new courses and site features. One feature request in particular that often pops up is companion written tutorials for every video. It’s not a bad idea! In a perfect world, this would be a natural and perfect addition to the site. But, as always, there’s one big roadblock... time.
Most of us are surely familiar with the phrase, “Lost in translation.” But if not, it generally refers to words or concepts that lose their meaning or subtlety when translated from one language to another. The same is also true when “translating” or parsing educational content.
I often joke that, at my funeral, someone will ask, "Which syntax theme did he use?" Pick any Laracasts lesson and you’re bound to find at least one comment that ignores the subject matter of the video entirely, and instead focuses on what’s most important to us all... what theme and font is that?
Fun fact. Laracasts originally launched back in 2013 as a collection of isolated video tutorials. One video, one technique, move on to something else. There wasn’t yet any concept of a series or course. But not long after the launch, I ran into a handful of hurdles.
Here’s a quiet truth that most small business owners I’m friendly with would surely agree with. When hiring, a certain percentage of job applications are instantly tossed in the trash. It sounds harsh. It is. But it’s also the truth.
I’ve been thinking about writing this blog post for months. It was the light at the end of an increasingly long tunnel. "When this project is finally done,” I’d tell myself, "I’ll set aside one Friday afternoon, find a seat at the coffee shop nearest to my home, and write an announcement - to the small portion of the world who cares about such things - that Laracasts is officially an SPA."