For the last year or so I've been playing with Static Web Apps, writing talks based on it, and making my own website using them.

Earlier this year there was a new tool which also came into preview: Static Web App CLI.

An NPM package that allows you to run your application locally, making it look like it's hosted in an Azure Static Web App.

And so... I thought that I would try this out and write a talk around it. Gulp.

This is a new one for me. I generally write my talks around tools which are already in use, and help introduce a new audience to it.

Here I am having to think how I use the tool, and do that with limited availability of the experience of others.

So... I've been playing with the CLI and seeing what it does. When things didn't work as I expected I've dived into the issues on the GitHub repo.

For one thing I was trying to get working I even dived into the code! (Yay for open source!)

And the result... A talk that I am proud of and get to give for the first time in about 4 days.

The other thing that I have been doing for the last 32 days is learning a new language. Swedish.

Why...? Because my best friend is Swedish. Because my favorite conference is held in Sweden. Because... Why not 😁

In those 32 days I have learnt enough to actually read someone's (simple) Swedish tweet. That was such a euphoric moment!

Why am I telling you this?

Because a few weeks ago I mentioned my issues with imposter syndrome. It was the post that kicked me into starting afresh with writing regular blog posts.

And, well, both of the things I mentioned are not what I consider my strong points.

In school, many moons ago, I studied French. For three years. I speak no French. Almost not a word.

I lived in Nederland for 6 years before I got proficient at the language, and I'm still no expert! (Even if I can laugh at Dutch jokes and watch Dutch cabaretiers)

I don't do languages. And yet... This is going well. I'm sending (simple) Swedish WhatsApp messages to my friend.

And, as I said, I don't do talks for preview technology where I don't have a wealth of knowledge to call upon. I'm not good enough.

Well, you know what, maybe I am good enough 😁

Good enough to learn a language, and good enough to jump in, both feet, into some cool, new technology and figure out how to use it!

And so learning both of these over the last month or so has really helped my imposter syndrome 😁

Go out and try learning something new!

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash