Why subscribe to Tales from the jar side?

  1. My primary job is teaching software development training courses specializing in areas related to Java, Spring, Groovy, Gradle, Kotlin, Android, and a few others. That means I have to keep up with recent developments in all those fields and be aware of emerging trends in the industry. I write about all of that here.

  2. I have published books through several major technical publishers on Java, Groovy, and Kotlin. I share here what I’ve learned about writing, technical book publishing, and software development.

  3. I have over 30 years of experience in I.T. and Engineering (in other words, I’m an old guy), so I have Deep Thoughts(TM). The vast majority of them are about how to survive in this industry, with my goal to stay positive, friendly, and at least mildly entertaining. You may find some insights helpful in your career. Who knows? Stranger things have happened.

  4. This newsletter is free and will remain so. I’m not trying to monetize you in any way.

  5. I’ve been running my own one-person company for over 15 years. That means my opinions do actually represent those of my employer. More to the point, I interact with a wide variety of customers in the industry and my business is sensitive to economic conditions, so I talk about that, too.

  6. My wife still laughs at my jokes after all these years. Admittedly that’s a low bar, but it’s still a good sign that I have a decent sense of humor. I also try to identify the sources of the jokes I repeat, whether from embedded tweets or wherever.

  7. Subscribing is really easy, and so is unsubscribing, so what do you have to lose?

Stay up-to-date

Since the start of this newsletter at the end of 2018, I’ve published one every Sunday. To be honest, that’s as much a surprise to me as anyone else, but so far, so good.

Join the crew

The Substack template here says, “Be part of a community of people who share your interests.” That’s probably true, though it can be hard to identify exactly what those interests are. All I can say is that my subscriber count keeps growing slowly, and very few people have left, so I must be doing something right. And when it all goes horribly wrong, you can be here to see it. :)

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Subscribe to Tales from the jar side

Writing projects, speaking engagements, training classes, and personal anecdotes from Java, Groovy, and Kotlin developer Ken Kousen

People

Java Champion, Grails Rock Star, JavaOne Rock Star, software trainer, conference speaker, and author of Mockito Made Clear, Help Your Boss Help You, Kotlin Cookbook, Modern Java Recipes, Making Java Groovy, and Gradle Recipes for Android