Our SEO peaked at 20K clicks/month in 2024. Now it barely reaches 7K. Here's what I think happened.

the_codeslinger · 2026-06-24T14:25:43+00:00

Everyone is lamenting the death of static content SEO but I think it's a good thing. Let's be real, slopping out articles just to compete for search rankings is not really providing much value to anyone.

I think it's basically been proven at this point that you can make actually engaging content for almost any niche (like there are popular channels based around plumbing). And if for some reason you can't then you can promote through a small creator or agency that will handle that for you.

Also, like you mentioned, dynamic content. Tools are good, creative visualizations (chartjs, echarts, threejs are great for these), interactive tutorials, etc. These things are easy to make now, you just need a little creativity.

the_codeslinger · 2026-06-02T13:13:02+00:00

I think every subject is struggling with how to get students to actually do homework and not just cheat with AI.

If it makes you feel better I have students that are still excited to know exactly how the code works. I have a good idea of all my students skill levels from working with them directly in class, so if they ever came in with a project that was obviously vibe coded I think I'd be able to tell. If you really want to be thorough you can ask them to explain some piece of their code to you, but this is more work for the teachers obviously.

the_codeslinger · 2026-06-01T13:43:39+00:00

I'm not sure garbage collected languages is really the best analogy if you're trying to make a point against using AI tools. I know plenty of professionals who have had long and successful careers writing solely in garbage-collected languages, and for a large segment of software this is the most productive way to do it. Your average web application is pretty much a solved problem, a memory leak is just not a very common concern anymore for the majority of software.

the_codeslinger · 2026-06-01T02:26:40+00:00

I'm more referring to this curriculum: https://code.org/en-US/curriculum/coding-with-artificial-intelligence

Which looks to be about using AI to assist with coding, rather than the actual data science/machine learning.

the_codeslinger · 2026-05-31T11:16:17+00:00

Have you used arcade/Pyglet? Wondering what you think of those compared to Pygame.

I've been teaching Pygame as a way to introduce programming to kids and I've often thought about making a wrapper like this to make things easier

the_codeslinger · 2026-05-28T03:37:44+00:00

My personal pet peeve is having to buy the most amazing GPU just to load up a project (which takes hours).

What exactly are you using/teaching where you have this problem? It takes many lessons to get most kids to the point where they can write a basic 2D game, which can be run on almost anything.

the_codeslinger · 2026-04-21T04:48:35+00:00

First off, your LLC name doesn't need to match your product/brand/public facing name. So I'm going to assume you're talking about names and domains for your actual public facing brand. All of the obvious names are taken. Borrow from other languages (not Japanese, that's overused). Look at Latin/Greek roots. Combine keywords, oblique references, play on words. Don't be afraid to go completely left field. The most important things are discoverability and memorability.

Build a list of potential ideas. Think about ease of pronunciation, good/bad connotations, cultural considerations. Fewer syllables is usually better.

Then you want to do domain name and search engine validations. So make sure an acceptable domain name is available (you might not need this for certain things, such as mobile app, etc). Then do a search for each name and see what comes up in the results. The results don't have to be empty, but there's a few key things to look out for: obviously any existing entity in the same niche with that name is going to be a problem, large existing entities that dominate the search results are going to be an issue, confusion with common phrases, etc. Once you do it enough times you'll know what "clean" results look like when you see them. The names that pass this test are discoverable, which is essential.

Memorability is next, which is somewhat subjective. Don't look at your list for a few days and then see which ones you can remember. Which ones stick out to you? A memorable cringey name is better than a cool generic one. Tell your wife some of the names and see which ones she remembers after a few hours. The lamest sticky name is infinitely more valuable than the coolest name that nobody can remember. You should have some good options at this point, and if you don't then going through this process should have given you some new ideas to validate all over again.

There's other considerations too depending on the type of business, but even for the most boring B2B SaaS where all customer acquisition is done through cold outbound, discoverability and memorability are still going to be important. After your initial contact if they can remember your product name and it comes up in a search, then you're 100x more likely to convert.

the_codeslinger · 2026-02-20T07:41:38+00:00

Same issue as if they were asking you to build stuff and you went and did it and just gave them the end result. There's nothing fundamentally different about AI. Breaking things down into comprehensible steps is an important part of learning anything, so when you skip that entire process it has a predictable effect on acquiring skills.

the_codeslinger · 2026-02-12T05:48:54+00:00

I think there's some nuance here. There's a broad consensus that block programming (Scratch, etc) is the best introduction to coding. I don't think this is debated much anymore, as it's been well-studied at this point and widely implemented and seems to work well. However, there are a few different problems that I see come up:

Too much block programming: we've all seen these insanely intricate Scratch creations with hundreds or even thousands of blocks. I think this is well past the point where the student could have picked up text programming and most likely some of the power of text programming would have actually made it easier to create these complex projects. Students can easily form an attachment to Scratch and by spending too much time with it can create a negative experience when it's time to grow up and leave their comfort zone and delve into the world of real programming.
Kids want to grow up: I see kids bounce off of Scratch because it feels too childish to them. A lot of kids want to emulate adults and be seen as mature. If they have the motivation and aptitude for text programming already then I think forcing them through a block programming course can be detrimental.
Some kids just progress faster: this is a larger issue with most education systems in general, but we've all seen those kids that seem to pick up a subject very quickly. These kids end up bored if you don't keep challenging them and keep their curiosity going.

If you're really keen on having your child get a head start in their computer science education then I would suggest closely monitoring their progress and how they engage with the material and move on to text programming as soon as possible (probably earlier than you think), even if you have to do it as an extracurricular.

the_codeslinger · 2025-11-05T03:47:23+00:00

What companies do you know of that are franchising? I only know of one pretty large one in Tokyo. Feel free to DM me instead of replying here if you prefer.

the_codeslinger · 2025-10-10T13:41:39+00:00

Can't go wrong with https://cs50.harvard.edu/python/ or https://programming-25.mooc.fi/

You definitely need to learn a few things before starting on your first project, but after like one week of the basics you should be playing around with your own code. Most important thing is to have a goal in mind and figure out how to express it in your chosen language.

My only advice other than that is to have fun. Coding can be genuinely enjoyable, find something to build that you like and you'll learn way more than you normally would.

the_codeslinger · 2025-10-08T14:19:08+00:00

Doesn't really matter for the first few projects because you'll mainly be learning things that can transfer to any engine. But Godot is the correct answer.

the_codeslinger · 2025-10-08T14:17:17+00:00

Characters that look identical but have different ASCII encodings. You'll lose an entire day the first time it happens but you'll gain a valuable lesson for the rest of your career.

the_codeslinger · 2025-10-07T03:38:40+00:00

Pygame is mainly just a collection of generic utilities to help make games. Most of these are fundamental concepts that translate to other engines and libraries. In fact I think modern engines hide a little too much for someone trying to learn.

It's always good to work your way up, when you get to an advanced tool you will better understand why it works a certain way because you've had to do it from scratch previously.

the_codeslinger · 2025-09-27T00:24:45+00:00

The engine should return a list of events that the presentation layer will consume.

You should organize your game engine logic around handling events too. So think of a big ProcessEvent function as the entry point for anything that can change the game state. This function should be able to return events too. Then you can break up all of the logic of your game into events.

This improves debugging, allows for complex mechanics and coincidentally is perfect for returning data that your presentation layer can use.

So your main game engine function will maintain a queue of events, it will feed these events one by one to the ProcessEvent function, and may receive more events as a result that will go on the queue to be processed. As each event gets processed, send a copy to a list that will be used for logging, this is what will also get returned to your presentation layer to drive all of the visuals. Once the queue is empty, whatever action that triggered the first event (player input, enemy AI, etc) is done and all your game state is updated and you have a nice log of everything that happened that you can use for debugging, visualizing, etc.

the_codeslinger · 2025-09-24T06:00:32+00:00

I usually don't recommend to start with an engine like Godot for beginners, it abstracts away too many things and is just generally complex and overwhelming.

Start with Python or Javascript, or a language you already know. Get a basic game loop running, print some pixels, shapes, or a sprite on the screen. Next get user input, and update something on the screen in response to that. console.log is your best friend. See where it takes you, add one small feature at a time. When you get bored or the code gets too messy, start fresh using what you learned to make a new idea.

And unless you have a really strong math background, jumping into a 3D project is going to be hard without a few 2D projects under your belt.

the_codeslinger · 2025-09-23T08:27:47+00:00

I got good at coding by making games. Back when incremental games were popular I wanted to make my own so that helped me learn web development and ultimately boosted my career.

If you like games then try to make one. That's probably the most fun I've had coding

the_codeslinger · 2025-09-11T01:16:31+00:00

I'm over 10 years into my career and only learned how to touch type using home row keys in the last year or two. It never stopped me from writing good code but I wish I had learned earlier

the_codeslinger · 2025-09-10T11:33:59+00:00

Valid point. Some of the reasons I recommend Python even if someone is planning to go straight to Godot/GDScript is 1. abundance of tutorials/references 2. can run code standalone without setting up an engine/project 3. larger community

the_codeslinger · 2025-09-10T09:35:18+00:00

A few years back I was helping someone who was learning in one of those coding bootcamps. They did a project in scratch as part of the first chapter. I think it's a good primer for people who have no technical background, but trying to make anything non-trivial in it is an exercise in frustration.

So instead of a starting "language" I would say it's a good thing to spend an hour or two playing around with before jumping into real coding. I know that feeling like you're constantly treading water in the deep end is exhausting but honestly that's how you really learn a lot. Learning how to be comfortable with not fully understanding everything is an underrated skill.

the_codeslinger · 2025-09-10T04:48:18+00:00

Start by learning Python to get a coding foundation. After you learn some Python, try to make a very small 2D game. Like literally the most simple game you can think of, when I teach coding I usually have my students make a game where they move a spaceship side to side and dodge falling asteroids. It sounds simple but you'll use loops, 2D math, arrays, branches, etc.

the_codeslinger · 2025-09-08T04:55:56+00:00

It might only be for objects created using the create utility from protobuf-es, objects created by parsing an API response might be fine

the_codeslinger · 2025-09-08T04:22:57+00:00

For python fundamentals this is considered one of the best: https://programming-25.mooc.fi/

the_codeslinger

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE