Hey there, everyone. Bruno here. You may have seen me around if you are participating in the second Hashnode Bootcamp. I've hosted first three sessions so far and will be the host for the the remaining five.
But, you may ask Who is this guy, where did he come from? Some of you may know me from Twitter @brunoraljic, few of you may watched my video podcast Bruno Talks With, but for most of you, I'm somebody new. That's the reason I wrote this blog post. I'll put a bunch of links that can give more context about me. Feel free to check all of them. Let's meet and connect.
A software developer
I'm Bruno Raljić, working as a software developer since 2011 at codecentric. Occasional blogger. One of those bloggers who write mostly for themselves. Married, 32 years old, father of one.
Worked quite some time with Java. Did some Python, JS. Touched the mobile app waters with React Native. I like to talk about testing, TDD, CI/CD, Clean Code. I'm one of those people who understands that code is written to be read by humans, not executed by machines.
So, I know a thing or two about code, developers, teamwork, escalations, projects, organisation, delivery.
I was part of the Feelgood Management team for quite some time in our company. We have this dedicated team that operates "from the shadows" and takes care about employees so that we can predict and prevent some unwanted situations. That helped me understand a bit motivation behind different types of people.
This is an old picture, and old certificate of mine. Damn, that's way too far.
Of course, I'm part of a Hashnode community, and I like the platform and everything. Moved my blog here, and one of the reasons was that I want to focus only on writing. Wordpress, for example, gave me opportunity to tweak every bit of my blog and that eventually led me to losing too much time on configuration instead of actual writing. I need a change, and I need something fresh, something "opinionated". And I like how Hashnode is "opinionated" about some things. I simply like them. Ever since, I'm advising people to get on the Hashnode train.
Also I became a Hashnode Ambassador because I kept talking about it on Twitter, and also I kept giving feedback and suggestion to the Hashnode team. So I'm quite familiar how Hashnode operates and what it has to offer.
Indiehacker and wannapreneur
I had a chance to participate in our company's innovation platform where the winners would get a budget and time to work on their own product (while still working for the company). In January 2020 this officially started. And this is where my journey of changing mindset from developer to maker started.
I worked on the product called Bee Informed. During this period I learned a lot. I had to be a developer, sales, marketing, everything. This whole journey could take several blog posts alone, so I'll try to make it short. TL;DR - Bee Informed project never took off. However, I learned a lot in that period.
Became part of IndieHackers community. One of the best communities if you're making things.
I call myself a wannapreneur. I also keep talking about things that follows product making and approaches, at least on a smaller scale.
A wannapreneur is an aspiring entrepreneur – an entrepreneur-in-waiting or in-training. They have not yet taken the plunge, though they may be dancing all around it. This term is in no way meant to be negative or derogatory.
If you check my other blogposts, you may find it's more oriented towards that topic instead of general software development.
Podcast Bruno Talks With
In Aug 2020 I had the idea to start a video podcast. My first guest was Arvid Kahl. If you're making something, chances are that you know who this guy is.
I put more details on Bruno Talks With here. Check it out, I have 8 video episodes with other indie hackers where we talk about their journeys. At the moment I'm having a break, this is considered as Season 1. Will continue with Season 2, along with some changes in format.
Because of this video podcast and a way I talk with my guests, people from Hashnode offered me to host the Hashnode Bootcamp for technical writing. It's all there, I'm a developer, I know Hashnode, I did something similar with Bruno Talks With. So I said yes, let's try it. Even the video podcast was kicking myself out of the comfort zone, now this is one step further. It's my first time doing things like this. So far I like
Info product maker
In May 2020 I wanted to check something else. I wanted to try selling info products on Gumroad. I had some material already prepared for the internal workshop I was organising on Docker so I adapted it a little bit and now I can say I've earned some cache this way too. Feels nice.
If you're interested in getting Befriend Docker, I can offer you a 35% discount. Use the code hashnode-friends at the checkout.
In case you want to start your own journey with Gumroad, I can suggest checking out my another info product.
Overview after 3 sessions
So far we have 3 sessions behind us. I wanted to say I have a tight schedule between my working time and the sessions so I don't have too much time to prepare. No time for rehearsals. Thanks for understanding, sometimes my brains just stops and I feel like an idiot in front of camera. But I don't care too much.
I prepare each session with some guidelines in Google Docs, print them to have it in front of me, and the rest is improvisation. Of course, I need to know a bit about my guests, so I prepare some links that are important to them. Getting in touch is also part of the job. Some of them I know, some of them I don't.
Each session is live. Which is a bit different from Bruno Talks With. Those episodes were recorded and then edited before the upload. Although my idea was to edit as less as possible, I still had a chance to take a look at it before airing. Here's a bit different.
All in all, I got a lot of positive feedback for doing this. So in the end it's not that bad. Definitely it's something new in my life. Who knows what it will bring next.
In case you have some questions, write them down in the comments, I'll be happy to answer. You can also ping me on Twitter @brunoraljic.
