Developer Diaries: Week 6 - Deep thinking, workstation optimization, and search UI!
Tags: uiweekly, ux, react, javascript
Published: 2021-09-10 18:34:43


# Return from vacay

I'm baaaaack! Had a lovely week out in Southern California with my partner and my family. Experienced San Diego for the first time - it was super lovely - and got to go to Harry Potter World at Universal and do some other fun LA stuff. 

![me-and-vy-san-diego.jpg](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1629470259368/FB-f3036U.jpeg)

(I also grilled some of the worst burgers of my life... but that's another story for another time.)

For the first time in a while, I was actually kinda missing work and found myself thinking about various programming things, and upcoming issues that I knew were ready for me when I returned. So I hit the ground running on Monday morning this week ready to go (minus some side effects from jet lag. That hasn't usually impacted me... is this what it's like to be 29???)

# Critically thinking through issues

Speaking of those issues, one of the things I want to work on is getting better about critically thinking through my code and not just churning out something to merge. Of course, my PR review comments are really helpful for this, but I want to do a better job of getting there on my own. 

I've found myself learning how to think like a developer and documenting those thoughts out loud for others to see how I arrived at something. 

I've also learned my gut is usually right. 

Here's an example of a PR description I recently made that I'm pretty proud of. It was a pretty good example of some really simple code changes, but how I tried to think through all the nuances of it, preempt any questions, and investigate all the routes I could take with it and why I chose the one I did. 

First we've got the simple - here's what we did and a viz of what it looks like. 

![image.png](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1629470830223/1IjLBQ8wc.png)

And then, I carried on giving more details. 

![image.png](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1629470940697/NLla3N06E.png)

Hopefully you can see my thought process here and it makes a little more sense. I'm trying to make sure I think through all sorts of angles, understand why something is in place the way it is, and make sure I think through anything impacted by those changes. Writing it down forces me to think through that, and also helps others on my team to follow my train of thought and perhaps note any pieces I might have missed. I'm no expert here yet - but I'm working on it!

# Getting more familiar with Search UI

The app my team is working on uses  [Elastic's App Search](https://www.elastic.co/app-search/) and [Search UI](https://github.com/elastic/search-ui/). (You know, cause Elastic!)

![image.png](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1629474078580/1U_FOcC0X.png)

Funnily enough, when I first started working at Elastic three years ago in our marketing team, I did demand gen for the App Search and Site Search products, and I remember when we came up with a UI for App Search! I was involved in a lot of campaigns for promoting that. Now here I am on the other end actually use it as a developer! Kinda cool to come full circle. 

I've learned some nuances of working with it and have become more familiar with how the code works and customizing various options for it. 

# New keyboard / monitor / workspace set up

Okay now for the fun part. I've also upgraded my workspace since I moved into a new place and have my own office. 

Upgrades include: 

- desk that raises and lowers
- [mechanical keyboard](https://www.logitechg.com/en-us/products/gaming-keyboards/g512-mechanical-gaming-keyboard.html)
- fixed my big ass monitor
- whiteboard
- lilo and stitch decor
- basketball hoop on the door (cause I do work for a tech company)
- view of my beautiful girlfriend across from me while I work

![workspace.jpg](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1629474294603/3zyY9c1US.jpeg)

I'm a big fan of the keyboard, but still getting used to it. Also... don't sit near me when I type cause I was already a loud typer :) 

![keyboard.gif](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1629474738632/QNLUipw8L.gif)

That's all for this week, folks! Have a nice weekend, and go get vaccinated if you haven't already.