A parenting win before Laracon

Hey y’all, Next week is Laracon! I’m flying to Denver on Sunday to MC a conference for the Laravel community. I'm very excited to see lots of my internet friends in person and Laracon is always something that I come away from with a lot of energy. If you're going to be there, please, please, please come say hi. After that I'm flying to Bozeman, Montana to MC a different conference, the Big Sky Dev Con! I haven’t been to this one before, but I am excited to see a bunch of non-Laravel friends at that one. --- ### Thoughts from the week I had a big parenting win this week that made me feel more like a dad than maybe anything else so far. One of our four-year-olds has had a hard time expressing their emotions and it ends up with pinching and kicking and pushing because they're frustrated about something. Of course we've been trying to discipline them but it's hard to discipline a four-year-old! In the process of disciplining them I've also tried to cast a positive vision. Not just a negative punishment, but a positive, hopeful thing to aim for. What I've been trying to tell them is that big strong boys and girls use their hands for helping people not for hurting people, and you're a big strong kid. You need to use your hands to help your little brother and sister! As I was leaving for work yesterday I asked what big strong kids used their hands for and they responded with “helping people!” and it just made me very, very happy. I feel like I instilled in them a *value* more than just a fact, more than just a piece of information. If you're big and strong, your responsibility is to care for people who aren't big and strong. I'm excited that this four-year-old is starting to internalize that. --- 🎬 **YouTube** **I built a simple first-party tracking system for my ads** I'm running ads for the first time and needed a way to track if LinkedIn and Reddit are actually driving sales without relying on invasive third-party platforms. I walk through how I built a simple, privacy-conscious tracking system using cookies and Laravel middleware. [Watch it here.](https://youtu.be/g8pqMj5zxQo) **Rip YouTube videos into an audio-only podcast** I automate the entire process of turning YouTube videos into podcast episodes using Laravel, yt-dlp, and the [Transistor.fm](http://Transistor.fm) API. From fetching videos to extracting audio and publishing drafts, we automate it all. Whether you're a Laravel dev or just love seeing behind-the-scenes automation, [you're in for a fun and practical walkthrough](https://youtu.be/H_qmL0x_20s). --- ### Things I found this week *Just a heads up that each Twitter/X screenshot has a link to the original post if you want to go follow the account.* [](https://x.com/KevinEspiritu/status/1948129053057384595) Last week I talked a lot about shifting the vibe of my content to be more professorial. This tweet came up at just the right time for me. I feel like that strategy does conform to my personality, whereas I just can’t see myself doing the brain rot content. I just don't want to do it! I don't think it's good for society, but the real reason I don't want to do it is, I don't feel like I could do that authentically. This was an encouragement to me. --- [](https://x.com/Cobylefko/status/1945994217290928432) It's amazing how beautiful things can be with effort. --- [](https://x.com/brianluidog/status/1946070183975788870) This is also the direction I'm moving with my content. Less brain rot and hype and more long-form thoughtful. It is a risk. It is counter to what is popular right now. What is popular right now is to maximize for attention, but I will be maximizing for trust. It's a risk and I hope it pays off, but either way I feel good about it. --- [](https://x.com/amacarthur/status/1947020571004256696) These are good family maxims to live by, and while I won't steal them outright, I do like the idea of having deeply held family maxims. Something that the family *collectively* believes. It feels very cohesive and communal. --- [](https://x.com/jmduke/status/1947699649915064462) This is a reply to a tweet that I sent out where I posted some of the pictures that I have on my office door. I have pictures hanging up all around my studio! Justin responded that he has his Corkboard of Power. I think curating your physical space with reminders of why you're even there, why are you working, is an underrated strategy. --- [](https://x.com/KJP/status/1947709454876659986) I'm trying to teach this to our children right now in the form of “don't tear your books.” 😂 Books are special! We need to take care of them! We need to take care of our possessions. We need to steward the things that we've been given. And right now that's just books. Hopefully at some point they can help me with more projects like this! --- [](https://x.com/DannyDrinksWine/status/1947719542941098154) This is a very interesting clip, not only for the reasons laid out in the tweet, but also to see how slow movies were 50 years ago. The shots are very long, the pacing is very slow, and I felt like this four-minute clip lasted a thousand years. It's a very good clip. I think the tweet text is correct. This little shy boy opens up when he starts talking about this bird that he's been training. There's something very compelling about that. But the meta of it being so slow was interesting to me. --- [](https://x.com/historycalendar/status/1947082063372243051) It's kind of wild to read a historical letter about something that *never happened*. It's a very touching and poetic speech that would have been given if it failed. Of course, I'm drawn to this because of the intense nobility of the task that they undertook, and especially the part where it says: "These two men laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal, the search for truth and understanding.” --- [](https://x.com/lichthauch/status/1945940297080271172) Hate to leave you on a downer, but here’s a bit of “memento mori” for you to ponder this weekend. --- ### Let's close the loop I send out all this random stuff every week and I often get great replies from people that know a lot more about the thing that I sent, or know about something related. This section is for the things that y'all send that are related to previous issues! (I’m still working on getting the previous issues online, so bear with me there) [Last week](https://app.bentonow.com/share/v0Y3GK1lOn1MBe) I sent out some books that DHH recommended and got a couple responses back that they're very good. My friend Brian said that he even read them growing up so apparently they've been good for a very long time! --- If you’ve been enjoying the newsletter and think a friend may enjoy reading it each week too, please forward it to them! They can sign up to receive it weekly here: . That’s it for this week! I enjoy reading all of your replies, so if you see something interesting or just have a thought you want to share, please hit reply and let me know. Talk soon, Aaron {{ ENV.unsubscribe\_personal | default: visitor.unsubscribe\_url | hyperlink: "Click here to unsubscribe." }}