DEV Community: Rio Jos

Setup your own Standalone/Local Stellar Blockchain to test different Smart Contracts & dApps

Rio Jos — Sat, 31 Aug 2024 07:30:03 +0000

Note: This is an cross posted article originally published on my blog decodedHTML.com

Introduction to Stellar Blockchain

Stellar is an opensource decentralized blockchain. The Stellar protocol is supported by Delaware nonprofit corporation and the Stellar Development Foundation. It's founded by Jed McCaleb & Joyce Kim.

The tutorial or walkthrough, to be specific; is something I developed during the Hackathon challenge by Stellar on dev.to. You can follow either the video or this article, to setup your own standalone/local Stellar blockchain on your system.

Note: You need to have a minimum of 8GB RAM to run a whole Stellar blockchain validator.

Why run your own Standalone/local Stellar Blockchain

Once in while we try to test funny messages, just to see how it would look like. During development we often type in different embarrassing/funny statements to have a fun at it. We crash a lot when we hack. Often times the users would able to experience this. And might come up to the conclusion that we are just playing with the dApp, and are not dedicated to provide a dedicated service.

Aren't you tired of different embarrassing mistakes people might see when you are developing the blockchain. With this tutorial you can have your own blockchain setup!

Where you're able to experiment with different styles of smart contracts and test them without fearing the public eyes. So, let's get started, shall we?

Setting up your development environment

In order to run a basic Stellar blockchain validator node and prepare your device for the build & development of smart contract and a dApp, you need to have certain prerequisites. For following with this tutorial or walkthrough you need to have the Rust toolchain, an editor that supports Rust development and Stellar CLI.

Install Rust

Linux, MacOS, or other UNIX-like OS

You can install Rust by running the following command in your favorite terminal

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

Windows

For Windows devices, you can download the rustup-init executable from rust-lang.org and follow the instruction to proceed with installing it.

Note: If you are using WSL or WSL2, you can follow the instructions for Linux, to install Rust

Other

For other methods of installing Rust, see: https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install

Install the target

And once you have Rust set up. You need to be able to compile a WASM binary using Rust. For that you would need to configure rustup to install the wasm32-unknown-unknown target.

Run the following command in your terminal of choice to install the wasm32-unknown-unknown target.

rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown

Configure your Editor/IDE

Rust is supported by majority of editors. You can follow https://www.rust-lang.org/tools setting it up for your favorite IDE.

I'll be mentioning about VS Code, as it the one I was using at the time I was writing this tutorial. In a later article, I might provide the development setup for NeoVim. As I often use NeoVim to have a more comfortable environment to code.

VS Code

If you haven't already installed VS Code, you can do so by downloading VS Code
Install rust analyzer extension for VS Code from the Marketplace.

Which is an implementation of Language Server Protocol for Rust programming language. It provide a lot of useful features for your development in Rust, such as code completion, syntax highlighting, inlay hints, etc. You can checkout the manual of rust analyzer to know more about it.

You would also need CodeLLDB debugger extension. It helps you to debug your Rust code, by providing various debugging information and features like stepping through code, applying breakpoints, logpoints, etc.

Install Stellar CLI

Stellar CLI is a command line tool that helps you to run & deploy your Soroban smart contracts onto different networks of Stellar blockchain. Whether that be testnet, futurenet, mainnet/pubnet or the standalone/local. We would be using Stellar CLI mainly to ease our development & deployment of our smart contracts.

Install the latest version from source:

cargo install --locked stellar-cli --features opt

Install with cargo-binstall:

cargo install --locked cargo-binstall
cargo binstall -y stellar-cli

Install with Homebrew:

brew install stellar-cli

How to run your own Stellar blockchain instance, also called standalone/local?

You can use the Stellar QuickStart Docker image to run your own instance of Stellar. You can follow the instructions in the readme to learn more about the QuickStart image.

We will be using the testing tagged image for our development environment.

Start Docker & run
```
docker run --rm -it \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  --name stellar \
  stellar/quickstart:testing \
  --local \
  --enable-soroban-rpc 
```
This will start a QuickStart container of Stellar blockchain instance and display the status logs of the standalone blockchain instance. You will also see information about the Public and Private keys. Take a note of them, as we will be needing them later on.
You can check the status of the instance, by querying the Horizon API like so:

  curl "http://localhost:8000"

you can also use your browser, if you prefer your browser over curl.

Configuring network & identity using Stellar CLI

In order for us to interact with the standalone/local instance of the Stellar blockchain using Stellar CLI, we need to configure the information about the network to be used by the CLI.

Add a network and define the RPC URL & the network passphrase

  stellar network add local \
    --rpc-url http://localhost:8000/soroban/rpc" \
    --network-passphrase "Standalone Network ; February 2017"

This will create a /.soroban/network directory in our root directory we are currently in, with our network configuration we just defined.

Next, we need to create an identity we would be using, to deploy the Smart contract onto our blockchain instance. Run the following to create an identity called alice for our network.

  stellar keys generate alice --network local

Stellar CLI would generate an identity inside the .soroban/identity directory and funds it using the friendbot.

You can retrieve the address of the identity we just defined using the Stellar CLI by running the command

  stellar keys address alice

Using the create-soroban-dapp boilerplate to implement a dApp quickly

The create-soroban-dapp by Paltalabs is a boilerplate dApp for kickstarting your ideas. It's much similar to the create-react-app. To setup create-soroban-dapp follow the steps below.

Visit create-soroban-dapp on GitHub and clone the project on your system.

  git clone https://github.com/paltalabs/create-soroban-dapp.git

Initialize create-soroban-dapp

First cd into the directory soroban-react-dapp inside our cloned create-soroban-dapp folder.

To set up .env file according to the .env.example, run

  cp contracts/.env.example contracts/.env

Copy & paste the ADMIN_SECRET_KEY to .env file. You can find them in the standalone blockchain container logs, we ran using the docker container stellar/quickstart:testing. It is a key that starts with S.
And for the MAINNET_RPC_URL give the following

  localhost:8000/soroban/rpc

The final .env file contents should look like the following

  # Stellar accounts Secret Keys
  ADMIN_SECRET_KEY="SC5O7VZUXDJ6JBDSZ74DSERXL7W3Y5LTOAMRF7RQRL3TAGAPS7LUVG3L"

  # RPC Setup
  MAINNET_RPC_URL="localhost:8000/soroban/rpc"

Note: You might have noticed that the secret key is exactly the same. This is because the docker quickstart image is configured with a fixed root account.

Compile & Deploy the Smart Contract onto the standalone/local network

From the soroban-react-dapp directory run the following one by one. This will install the packages and build soroban-react-dapp.

  yarn
  cd contracts/
  yarn
  yarn build

cd into the greeting directory inside the contracts folder & build the Smart Contract to WASM using cargo.

  cargo build --release --target wasm32-unknown-unknown

Next we would be deploying the smart contract to the QuickStart Stellar blockchain container via our predefined standalone/local network.
```
stellar contract deploy --wasm target/wasm32-unknown-unknown/release/greeting.wasm \
--source alice --network local
```
The CLI will output a contract address of the deployed WASM Smart Contract. Copy it.

In the contracts folder, you'll find deployment.json file

[
{
    "contractId": "greeting",
    "networkPassphrase": "Standalone Network ; February 2017",
    "contractAddress": "CAQLKKFSEOJF0932JGVF43NVCI3JDJKLEFFJSEJFLSEJFJ09233LKKFJJ"
},
{
    "contractId": "greeting",
    "networkPassphrase": "Test SDF Network ; September 2015",
    "contractAddress": "CDJOI4JFJ3FJDMX3I4HFJ4WF9JAVPIHLEKJ4GDNL34HGFHELKG90JKLSH"
}

Replace the contract address of the Standalone Network, with the contract address you have received during the deployment.

You can now connect to the standalone network using the wallet of your choice. Just make sure you have configured to the wallet's network to the standalone Stellar network, with the following configuration.

Variable	Value
Name	Standalone
HORIZON RPC URL	http://localhost:8000
SOROBAN RPC URL	http://localhost:8000/soroban/rpc
Passphrase	Standalone Network ; February 2017
Friendbot URL	http://localhost:8000/friendbot
Allow connecting to non-HTTPS networks	true

Now refresh the create-soroban-dapp in the browser. And connect your wallet with the network set to Standalone. The wallet will ask to fund your wallet using the friendbot. Confirm the request!

Finale

Submit a new greeting and sign the transaction. You shall see the updated greeting!

Resources

Bringing back Greeting Cards 💌 with Stellar!

Rio Jos — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 05:13:10 +0000

This is a submission for the Build Better on Stellar: Smart Contract Challenge : Build a dApp

What I Built

Ok, I'm just using this hackathon as a way to promote an idea I have been nurturing for a while now.
It just sends a postcard 💌 to your loved ones!
And all we need is just an address and a message. In this era of AI and Web3, we lose touch with our human selves. With this project, we are able to share our thoughts. I'm from a generation, where we have seen postcards, but never had the opportunity to use them. I mean everything is instant. And I want this application to be a platform where we communicate really thoughtfully.
My smart contract just does one thing: that is define a postcard.
My dApp currently let's you define the postcard, the receiver mentioned in address shall receive.

Demo

You can play with the deployed version on Stellar testnet at https://lekhanam.vercel.app/

My Code

You can follow the repo https://github.com/riojosdev/lekhanam4stella to stay updated on further developments happening.

riojosdev / lekhanam4stella

Lekhanam is from Malayalam language meaning Letter. And we try to send PostCards!

Lekhanam 💌

Lekhanam is from Malayalam language meaning letter.

Lekhanam lets you create a greeting card and publishes it to the Stellar blockchain. Which could be later used by 3rd party postal services to distribute the postcards.

Demo

Lekhanam demo is Deployed at Vercel. Where you are able to interact with the dApp on Stellar testnet.

Note: Currently the smart contract is only deployed to Stellar TestNet.

Setup

The application resides in the folder soroban-react-dapp.

The smart contract is the contracts folder. The NextJS application is in the src folder.

Once you clone the project, you would need to cd into the soroban-react-dapp folder. And run yarn to install the packages.

Then cd into the contracts directory and run

cp .env.example .env
yarn
yarn build
yarn dev

This will start the soroban frontend application

You can then cd into the individual contracts, here it's greeting

cd greeting
cargo build

…

View on GitHub

Journey

Motivation

Ok, I once listened to a live talk show about career development in the MLH Career Hack Week, where they suggested that, to send a thank letter back to the HR or the person who gave you the opportunity to be interviewed for a job. Like, ask them for the address just to send a thank you letter back. It would make you, the applicant to stand out. It don't matter if you don't get the job. But the people won't forget about you. It would just make their day more pleasant. 💌
I want to send a postcard to my loved ones. This communication is not instant like all chat applications. It would take time to reach the other person. But that receiver would always have something in-hand to touch and feel, that would remind them of the thoughtful sender 💌. And it doesn't just reside only on the digital realm.
In a more serious motivation, is that human communication is being too much digitally and instantly. That we don't have time to appreciate the effort of communication. We get distracted easily. We are addicted to online content fed to us in an endless scroll. You know doom scrolling. So, let's just take a step back in communication. What would that be like? Well let's find that out together! 🤍✨

DX - Developer Experience

Learned a lot about Stellar Smart Contract development and Web3. Also Rust, WASM, React.

What I'm proud of

I'm proud that my Single Page dApp is really minimalistic. And I'm currently letting users test the application without login. So, people would be able to learn about Web3. We don't need your personally identifiable information, yet! Once the public gets familiar and comfortable with our web3 dApp, and it's workflow. We shall make available the individual user accounts. But it needs to be stored outside the blockchain, due to privacy concerns, might need help from industry leaders here. We shall start a forum/discussion to iterate on various user feedback & preferences.

What's next? Hold your horses!

User login
Signed in Users gets an Address Book to store their loved ones addresses. So, they are able to easy send more postcards in the future.
Ability to design the postcard and choose the material it is to be printed on. Upload images, select postcard size...
Postcard will be available as NFT, which could be showcased on a public platform. And if anyone wants it they can bid on it, and use that template to distribute messages to their contacts.
Ability to send to multiple addresses at once. Like an invitation card maybe.
ActivityPub integration. I mean, we are focusing on socialization. So... Inbox, Outbox, Followers, Following, Likes, Comments, Sharing is actually part of socialization journey
A Distributor Dashboard. I have previous built a notification system. The project is called ReadSync. I plan to use ReadSync to read when the contract is invoked & send notifications to the postcard distributor. Where the distribution service is done.

Stellar Smart Contract & dApp - Development & Deployment using Stellar-CLI & create-soroban-dapp

Rio Jos — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 05:11:31 +0000

This is a submission for the Build Better on Stellar: Smart Contract Challenge : Create a Tutorial

Your Tutorial

What I Created

Is a tutorial or walkthrough on how you can develop a simple dApp using create-soroban-dapp and deploy it onto the standalone/local Stellar network. I also mention how you may also deploy it onto testnet for public access using the Stellar-CLI.

Journey

For creating this tutorial, I first tried building my own dApp where you send a greeting card. During the development of the dApp. I realized I needed to first deploy onto a standalone network, so that I may have the freedom to make embarrassing modifications and play with it. Else I might have to just develop everything publicly. This was in order, for me to test the smart contract first on standalone then when it is stable, I can again deploy it onto Testnet for again testing. Follow a blue-green deployment workflow.

I used OBS Studio do screen capture, where I configured the application to view just the code editor and a browser side by side, and other functionalities to let me quickly share what my current workflow is.

The Stellar documentation was an incredible resource for me to follow in order to develop my dApp & improve this tutorial. And also other community tutorials and discussions helped me to navigate & develop more easily. The official documentation, different GitHub repos, the Stellar discord community was too an incredible resource that helped me create this tutorial and the dApp (also submitted as a solution to the Build a dApp challenge prompt).

As a developer I understand that we need to always have a test environment hidden from the public eyes, to handle all the internal developments, before making it public. I'm actually proud of this. As this is a workflow, that is called TDD (Test Driven Development)

How and Why we should understand, improve & appreciate The Humane Technologies!

Rio Jos — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 17:01:14 +0000

For the people who doesn't know what Humane Tech is, here's a short introduction.

This is a movement which focus on changing the way we currently use technology. The movement currently points out and tries to solve several problems a user faces while using a particular technology. Some of the basic issues are Information-overload, Misinformation, Internet Addiction, Political Extremism etc.

I should also mention a Non-Profit Organisation called Center for Humane Technology. They are currently one of the leaders who advocate on the Humane Tech Movement. They have a Community Forum for different people to meet and participate in the discussion about interesting Humane Technologies and the current movement. You should take a look, there are a lot of good information you can gather there.

Human Downgrading is the biggest issue that is happening live right now!

I have seen and lived this down-grading lifestyle! And once I became aware of this; I started finding and exploring different ways to force myself to get my control back and start upgrading my life. The journey is amazing and thrilling that I feel like success can be manufactured by ourselves alone. But still I can observe that a majority of people even my friends, family and also my digital circle of friends are unaware and living in this down-grading lifestyle. They have made this as their comfort-zone.

I have got some really disappointing feedback from my IRL connections when I tried to ask them - Why they couldn't use technology for their own benefit (to improve their lives).

The different responses I got IRL were like:

I don't know what it can be used for to benefit myself?
I am comfortable in the way I currently use tech!
It is so overwhelming and out of reach (like a dream)!
Can you prove it to me? (Yeah I'm sorry, but I don't want to spoon feed anyone! It is not my job "currently" to help someone reach great heights. I have to be selfish right now, SORRY!)

Anyway these are some of the basic responses I got. And the only way I believe that could change them was if this was a mass movement. Like if their circle was also advocating on this, they might change, no? (I kind of believe most people always follow some kind of trend. It's just a matter of time!).

A wake-up call to unleash true potential!

Ok, First of all I kind of deliberately made the title sound it's like from a movie! But this specific potential should be achieved by your own imagination. If anyone says this is the way, that's part of their imagination. And your's I guarantee would be entirely different, BELIEVE IT!

Still there are things which I like to share, that could be followed to ease your efforts!

Let's redefine the control over our social media accounts!

One of the things that I specifically did and still do is:

Control who we follow!

The social media accounts we use feed us a lot of content. And we consume these without any further thoughts. What I suggest is that to ask yourself, if a particular account is giving you the content you should receive. Ask yourself if that is what you really want to be and it is what you want which reminds you of the future you want to create for yourself. If not unfollow them and mute them. Muting is the fastest way to clear your feed without the person knowing.

Time Well Spent?

Fun Fact: "Time Well Spent" was actually the former name of "The Center of Humane Technology"!

Here I would like to share a tip from The Center of Humane Technology, which is asking yourself how well you spent your time on a certain tech. For example: imagine yourself scrolling through your social media feed for about 10 hours and also watching a 10 minute video of meditation/tutorial. And when you compare those two. You can really find out which one of them you actually needed. Obviously it's the 10 minute video!

Limit yourself in feeding the trolls!

This is one of the life lesson I acquired! I'm not saying to completely avoid all the troll posts, you have to enjoy yourself from time to time, to not get stress-out too much. But limit yourself, spend your time wisely. Since lost time is never found again!

Go through your Usage Analytical Dashboard!

Almost every application has some kind of analysis dashboard which tells you how much you have been using those particular app. I suggest if you haven't, take a look and plan accordingly on how you want to spend your time on those apps.

I believe that I read that this was part of The Center for Humane Technology's actions. It is now available on Apple, Google, Facebook products and many others.

Resources for Designers & Developers

One of the best resource I found is a repository on Github. It is part of the Awesome-List repositories. And there is one called Awesome-Humane-Tech it has a lot of cool stuffs that I guess most people would appreciate. I suggest you to take a look! There will be definitely something that catches your eye.

I don't have much to add to this article. But the things which I shared above are those which I can give you my 100% guarantee, it will create a basic change that you could achieve right now! I am actually at the early steps in being a developer so forgive me for not sharing any tips. But I promise I shall be constantly blogging about Humane Tech mainly, from now on!

A Request to all the Readers!

I would like you to share your views by commenting below to keep this discussion alive. So that our community could grasp a little knowledge on Humane Tech. I certainly believe this certainly a really important need which we should address! And all the things which I shared are the best I have gained! If you have some other tips or resources please share with us, thank you ❤️.

You could also share this article on your social media to spread awareness. Feel free to follow me and mention me on my Twitter handle @sreadyila! I will be active on the Center for Humane Technology Community Forum for the next few days. So let's meet there! And if we missed, I'm always active on twitter! (Still Humane! XD )

If you found this article useful, consider ❤️ hearting, 🦄 unicorning and 🔖 bookmarking it on DEV.to. It helps more than you know.

hello glitch {.com}; This is my Portfolio

Rio Jos — Mon, 08 Jun 2020 19:05:41 +0000

I love the name Glitch. Kind of remind me The Glitch Girl from Wreck-it-Ralph. Also everything about Cyberpunk, hacking and things like that. They are part of me now! I mean I just love coding.
Recently I have found the site Glitch. It's a site where you can develop apps. It's an online social coding platform or maybe just a social coding platform. Same thing, I guess... (To be social is being online)

First up: The Portfolio

Nobody knows me, right now. And I want to meet a lot of people who codes. I have a lot of friends who aren't coders. And with the amazing power of the Internet. I can do just that. And since I am not a celebrity, I have no marketing agency that idolizes myself. So I am going to talk about myself and my journey using my super power; coding a Web-page!
And while I am writing this article, I am building my portfolio.

What is going to be in my portfolio?

The main thing would be obviously my unfinished projects. (I might mysteriously complete it, watch out!)
Also I need to motivate and inspire our fellow coders.
And definitely my current skills.
My social links, so we can have fun socializing <3
The timeline: Just to show-off how ahead I am. Also to track my progress...
How I can be a Techie Activist... (Still figuring out)

Why I want to be a close part of the community?

I love code more than anything. I met a few people who wanted to code. But many of them can't seem to stay on course. Most have diverted to other things. I tried to keep myself stay on track by just exploring the coding culture. Sometimes I would talk to them on why they started coding. What inspired them? I always tried to promote others to work hard on their dreams. You never know who might create change. And if I can at-least lift you, I am happy! Being part of this community WE CAN GROW TOGETHER!

What I want to achieve from the community?

Mostly feedback
Inspirations
Cool new resources
Awesome people (yeah you!)

How my Glitch Portfolio is different from a normal Portfolio?

In a normal portfolio my main goal is to attract people who want to utilize my knowledge for their business. I would be showcasing a lot of finished and attractive projects. But let's be real not everything I create is always attractive. But I always keep the code attractive. And in a normal portfolio, I don't get appreciated enough on the code. But it's the UI/UX that sticks out.
And on my Glitch Portfolio I could attract other coders. Expressing and collaborating on ideas that could make a life better. I don't know much about what to expect. I am thrilled! :)

You can find my Portfolio by clicking here!

These Reasons For Coding

Rio Jos — Sat, 23 May 2020 19:02:29 +0000

Sometimes you become less productive. And lose sight of the big picture and wonder why are you even doing this. Sometimes you might become too stressed or maybe you could have mixed up your priorities. And then you go on browsing different things to get your mood back.
I have these kind of episodes, where my focus just runs off. And everytime I tried different things that gets me back on track. And one of the thing I do is recollect and ask myself why I started? Sometimes I couldn't even do that, I'm too lazy,lol... But, I decided to write up this article to help myself and you to stay focused.

Let's begin!

Problem Solving Ability

Problem-solving isn’t just about addressing negative situations – it’s about exploiting opportunities. Problem-solving skills help people understand their environment, identify opportunities, assess the impact of alternatives and make choices that lead to changes that they perceive as desirable.

Skill Building Ability

Skill-building is one of life's most impactful, fun, and important pursuits. Our skills make us into more interesting, more useful, happier people. Work skills can gain you money, respect, and great job security. Social skills can make you friends, boost your romantic life, and make people want to be around you.

Ability to learn

Learning a new skill helps you learn things faster over time. By stimulating neurons in the brain, more neural pathways are formed and electrical impulses travel faster across them as you attempt to process new information. The more pathways that are formed, the faster impulses can travel.

Power to create

The more we create, the more we discover and realize our habits, impulses, and desires. When we take the time and energy to develop our own ideas, we respect our inner nature and are better able to express ourselves to the world on a regular basis. There is no right or wrong way to be an artist.

This is the future

I have a strong feeling that technology will be leading everything in the future. It's almost half way.

Making your dream a reality

Although your dream may not have come to pass yet, it can still be realized. You can still make your dreams a reality. While you can't force dreams to happen, you can take steps toward actualizing them. Maybe you want to travel to a specific place.

Simplifying tasks

Simplifying work tasks can transform work experiences. Simplifying work tasks can affect a worker's entire work life. When employees don't have to struggle to find what they need or waste time on busy work, they are happier—and by extension, more productive on the job.

Money

Money can be used to make our lives easier. It will make you more comfortable, open doors, create opportunities, and make the good things in your life even better.

Contribution

Contribution seems to be very important to our spiritual needs. It can be defined as a sense of service and focus on helping, giving to and supporting others. It's important because helping the people and community around you will make your life and the life of those around you better! Big changes start with little actions. By positively impacting the people and community around us, we can work to build a better society and a better world for everyone.

Remote work

Remote work makes it possible to create your own schedule, to organize the day in a way that fits your personal needs and your daily agenda. When you have the flexibility to work during the hours that prove to be the most natural, you're becoming the most productive.

Sense of Accomplishment

Gaining a sense of accomplishment, and feeling proud of the work you've done, helps people feel like they're progressing in their work. When you feel a sense of accomplishment, you naturally become more engaged in your work, and more motivated to maintain and improve their good work.

Teamwork

When a group of individuals works together, compared to one person working alone, they promote a more efficient work output and are able to complete tasks faster due to many minds intertwined on the same goals and objectives of the business.

Technological evolution

Technological evolution is a theory of radical transformation of society through technological development. It spawns new generations of products by using existing components, a phenomenon he calls combinatorial evolution. The change in 'species' can thus be quite radical in a short period of time. The rules of Technological evolution thus make a strong argument for accelerating evolution.

Understanding Probability

The concept of probability is as important as it is misunderstood. It is vital to have an understanding of the nature of chance and variation in life, in order to be a well-informed, (or “efficient”) citizen. One area in which this is extremely important is in understanding risk and relative risk.

Hacker Culture

The hacker culture is a subculture of individuals who enjoy the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming limitations of software systems to achieve novel and clever outcomes. Hacking originally involved entering restricted areas in a clever way without causing any major damages.

Hacktivism

Hacktivism is meant to call the public's attention to something the hacktivist believes is an important issue or cause, such as freedom of information or human rights.

Power to Change

On an individual level, change is important because it is the precursor to all growth. We don't grow by keeping things “safe” - by preserving the status quo (even though that may seem more comfortable). All personal growth comes from meeting the challenge of change. By dealing with life challenges we learn that we can.

The Ironman

You know how Tony Stark built himself an Ironman Suit and became a superhero.

The Next Tech Empire

Just thinking about owning the next Google, Facebook, Apple or Microsoft gives me the chills.

The most powerful tool

With the right set of commands you can unlock the next Powerful tool the world has ever seen.

Knowledge is power

Knowledge gives us the ability to survive and thrive in the world. This is freedom, and you can't have real power without freedom. More knowledge makes us better able to make decisions, as well as to decide the logical and ethical grounds on which we want to be making our decisions.

Digital communication

Digital communication enables face to face communication across time, space and culture. In this sense digital is the closest we can get to mimicking the salient features of interpersonal communication that are often considered as key to building trust and facilitating effective communication.

Control your net worth

Your net worth is the amount by which your assets exceed your liabilities, or what you have versus what you need to pay off. Regardless of your financial situation, knowing your net worth can help you evaluate your current financial health and plan for the future.

Success

Success provides confidence, security, a sense of well-being, the ability to contribute at a greater level, hope and leadership. Without success, you, the group, your company, your goals, dreams and even entire civilizations cease to survive

The Experience!

When we share a common experience, it bolsters our sense of belonging, and this in turn makes us feel life is more worthwhile. Furthermore, when we share a positive experience, we enjoy it more than we would if we experience it on our own - even when we share it with people we've never met. Culture comes from the shared experiences of a group of people. Together people learn and make sense out of those experiences.

To be remembered

People love to be praised and admired by other people, it's human nature. We all need to feel cared about and recognized. We want to feel like our lives meant something, that a part of us will live on even after our death. We want to be remembered through the work we leave behind or even through our children.

Innovation

Innovation is vital in the workplace because it gives companies an edge in penetrating markets faster and provides a better connection to developing markets, which can lead to bigger opportunities, especially in rich countries.

Time travel and light speed traveling!

Not applicable currently. But...

Impossible is possible

You have to believe!

Upgrading thoughts

Upgrade your thinking refers to generating new thoughts, which will lead to new actions and new results. As thought is the starting point of all achievement, in order to reach a new level of success, a person must be willing to upgrade their thinking.

Invention

Over time, it has been possible to verify that each invention activates a variety of benefits for the inventor and society: it stimulates their imagination, develops their potential when it comes to overcoming barriers, allows the ability to visualize, stimulates perception, provokes new thoughts and new questions.

Maximum Collaboration

By collaborating with others - different departments or even different offices, skills can be pooled to make the project more successful than it might otherwise be. A collaborative workplace naturally cultivates a sense of community within an organization, with employees feeling almost like they are a part of a family.

Understand the Inner Workings

The mechanisms that function internally to a system and are not outwardly visible. Nobody really understands the inner workings of politics.

This is how I started using and leveraging anything that helped me grow and develop my skills.

Rio Jos — Sun, 03 May 2020 05:53:05 +0000

You came over this article because you were having trouble with putting the pieces of puzzle together. First of all let me just remind you that, you are not the first one who is having trouble figuring out how things work and how they could benefit you; nor will you be the last.

Let me just throw an example out for you to visualize the problem. Ok here goes, let's say you were having a peaceful conversation with one of your good friend. And your friend started introducing about a rather popular app. He blabbed about how many were using it. And after talking for a while. He said, "we should also try this out". Suddenly you became more self aware and tried not to sound too dumb. So, you said "I just don't know if it would ever be useful for me".

Now just think for a moment about this. What would have been a better reply?

Everything around us has an impact on us, one way or another. If you figure out how it can be applied to our lives then that would make a difference. Before I started developing myself I neglected many things. Even the most common things that made me who I am. But I had a wonderful friends and family that told me that I had time and I can decide how I survived. And that really inspired and motivated me to take a big step, which I believe has raised me to the heavenly light. But I gotta say it didn't happen overnight. It took a long time. But the voice of my influencers really helped me to stay on track. And I know how hard it's to deal with problem. So I wanted to share my story, so that a different person can benefit this treasure I kept.

Let's start shall we?

So, in the beginning I had many thoughts on how I should proceed. Too much, if you ask me. So I kept a journal recording many things. But it was much later that I found that it was the biggest time killer. I felt I was preparing for the biggest move of my life. But by just dreaming about different thoughts just pushed me away from my priorities. And one day I decided to stop and start by figuring out my priorities.

And this was my first step.

Priorities

By figuring out your priorities you are able to work on the most important part of your life.

Then came the most fun part, figuring out how to develop myself according to the priorities that I made. This is where I felt I had an immense control over my life.

So I began gathering information on how to start developing my skills. I had a lot of questions. And I furiously surfed the web and research a lot. Again time was going on. So here's the things that I wanted and learned.

Tutorials are good!

Well I had to know something before I started, no. So the best way was through tutorials. I chose the most popular of them all.

What about the starting point?

I got knowledge but I didn't know how I could begin. What the first step I should take.

But it is really simple. Start with step one. It can be anything like posting a article, signing up on a website. Take baby steps first. You might fall down but that's part of the lesson and it's fun.

I would like an example, please.

Did you know? The best way to learn something is through visualization. Also by observing the behavior of others. It's a theory called observational learning.

What my dream for the future really need to be?

OK, from all the lessons I figured I needed to redefine my future goal to be more realistic. And I figured by listing :

Things I like.
Things that make me happy.
Parts of myself I want to improve.

Would help in setting a realistic goal.

Try meditation.

Meditation might seem too weird. But it actually helps. It trains you to be alone in your thoughts. You learn to be more focused. And it really improves your mental health.

My own way to survival.

First improve yourself to be better always.
Keep on learning.
Do stuff, tweak and tinker.
Connect and network with people.

Being optimistic!

This is kinda an important one. To be positive is to know anything is possible. So do that.

This would help you in being optimistic :

Focusing more success.
Getting a role model.
By challenging all the negativity and taking risks.
Finding a cause you believe in.
Grasping inspirational stories.
Being part of a team.
Connecting with your spiritual self.
Thinking outside the box.

And last dealing with the Impostor Syndrome

This is just something thrown around that makes us feel bad. I had this while I began my journey. And it made me relearn many things like forever. Instead I could have started learning new things. Remember guys to recognize the real frauds. And separate your feelings from facts that you know are true. The facts that prove you do this with your own creativity. You might begin with the same idea. But creativity depends on the final version of the product.

If you think this helped you. I would appreciate if you would share it to help your circle.

We Take Of Our Own!

No Experience No Job Paradox : Solved!

Rio Jos — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 08:33:10 +0000

So, you finished your studies and started looking for jobs. And you sent out your perfectly crafted resume to different companies, hoping to get yourself a job. But you come across this weird roadblock, Experience!

Almost 90% of jobs requires some kind of experience, beforehand. But you have only just started your career journey. And you might think to yourself "How do I get experience without a job?"

This is actually a famous paradox which states : You need a job to get experience but you need experience to get a job.
Here's the wiki about the paradox :

A catch-22 is a paradoxical situation from which an individual cannot escape because of contradictory rules or limitations. The term was coined by Joseph Heller, who used it in his 1961 novel Catch-22.

View on Wikipedia

Does it make you frustrated? Well, in this post we'll talk about a way around this paradox.

Why recruiters wants experienced candidates?

First of all it's about saving time. And less errors. We often see most first timers having the easiest doubts. And some people hates to just go through that. Also experienced professionals knows most of the tools for the job. And they keep the business secure. Also they are with a tons of similar professionals, so it becomes easier to network. I know we are learning but that's how it's in the business world.

Breaking the paradox

Okay! Let's try breaking the experience paradox to find a workaround. What can we do to gain experience? Just think of a way to get it. What's the first thing that came to your mind? Compare that with ours.

The most common ways are

Internships
Freelancing
Volunteering

These are the basic routes taken. If you found a different way to do it. I encourage you to share it with us. Give something back to our community.

Let's go deep into it!

Internships

For many this is the first choice out of them all. And many companies do provide internships to develop potential candidates. Here you learn about the company business and you learn how you can provide for them.

Freelancing

This is the second most chosen. But still it does have its own benefits. The first would be the pay. It won't be that much you'd expect but. It's enough for a beginner. Also it can also act as a part-time income. There are many ways you can do freelancing work. There are many tools available online to help you get started. Also you could give out an ad on your local newspaper.

Volunteering

This is the least opted option. Not because it lacks any benefits. In fact, it is the one which gives you the most experience. You could help out a friend or relative. Also you could revive businesses. And the best of all you could work on open source projects. By being part of a community you also gain different relationships by networking.

I believe this is the most rewarding as it puts you in the center. And you find your own way to solve a problem. You figure out your tools. Overall you lead the game.

So, what we learned so far

Well, firstly we know that there are lot more ways to gain experience than to rely on low paying jobs. I'm not telling you to always shoot for the moon. But have a realistic approach. Also we know that the experience from working on a company would teach you some tools but for only for that company's survival purpose. Also it might be outdated. Whereas working on open source projects and it's likes we find and learn the latest tools and resources used in the industry. Making you to stay on top of the market. The experience paradox is an ugly strategy used which makes you settle for less, instead of having a better idea. And I hope you would find this post useful and apply it to your life to approach better at your career. Also share with your network so that we leave no one behind.

We Take Care Of Our Own!