DEV Community: Tre G. III

Taking UvuYoga on the Road: Two San Diego Rooms, One Ask

Tre G. III — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 17:56:54 +0000

Taking UvuYoga on the Road: Two San Diego Rooms, One Ask

Last month I did something a little outside my comfort zone as a developer: I stopped building for a bit and started talking about what I built.
I took UvuYoga — my yoga practice and teaching app — in front of two very different San Diego audiences. Same app, same story, two completely different rooms. One had never written a line of code in their life. The other wanted to see my slides and poke holes in my business model. Both taught me something I couldn't have learned staring at my software editor.
Here's how it went, and a small ask at the end if you're reading this.

Room one: The Group SD in Normal Heights

The first talk was for The Group SD (https://www.thegroupcoastal.com/north-park-chapter), a networking crowd that meets in Normal Heights. This was a non-technical room — small business owners, creatives, people who care more about what a thing does for them than how it's wired underneath.
So I didn't talk about the tech stack. I told them the story of why I built a yoga app.
UvuYoga started as a personal portfolio project. It was a yoga sequencing tool, nothing fancy. I took yoga teacher training in 2024 and realized that yoga teachers still use paper journals to save their practice. I figured this was a useful website to make. Plus it let me show what I could build as a web developer. Then, in early 2026, I was laid off. And instead of pouring my energy into applicant tracking systems, I poured it into this yoga app.
That's when UvuYoga stopped being a portfolio site and started becoming a real product. I leaned hard into AI-augmented development, and features I never would've had time to build alone. I built a yoga platform that you can build your personal practice in, then grow as a teacher able to manage your own classes and students.
The Normal Heights room responded to the human part of that. Not the tech. The idea that a setback can become the exact push you needed to build the thing you'd been putting off.

Room two: 1 Million Cups in the Convoy District

The second talk was a different animal. 1 Million Cups (https://www.1millioncups.com/s/account/0014W00002AqQfaQAF/san-diego-ca) is a weekly gathering of tech founders and entrepreneurs — part of a national program built on the idea that honest feedback over coffee moves a business forward faster than working in isolation. Two people present each week, and the real value isn't the pitch; it's the twenty minutes of pointed questions afterward.
This room wanted strategy. So I gave them slides and we went deep.
We talked about who UvuYoga is actually for and how the tiers work:

A free personal tier — build an asana library, design flows, and chain them into full sequences. Free, forever. This is where most people start.
A Teacher tier — class management, session scheduling, attendance tracking, and student booking, all from your phone. This is where UvuYoga turns from a personal tool into a small business tool for an instructor.
Spotify playlists on any flow or sequence, on every tier, so the right soundtrack is paired with the practice and ready to play from the mat. We talked about the "first 100 teachers free forever" offer, why I'm using it to seed the teacher side of the product, and the classic two-sided challenge every platform like this faces: you need teachers to attract students, and students to make teaching worthwhile. The room pushed on all of it, and I walked out with a sharper view of my next three months than I'd had walking in. ## What talking about it taught me Building in a room by yourself, you convince yourself your assumptions are facts. Standing in front of people who don't share your assumptions is how you find out which ones are actually true. The non-technical room reminded me that the story matters. The founder room reminded me that a good story still needs a business underneath it. UvuYoga needs both, and I left both talks with a clearer sense of what to build next and who to build it for. Don’t worry I am not sinking the ship with needless features. I also relearned something simple: shipping is only half the job. Telling people it exists is the other half — and most of us who love the building part are quietly terrible at the telling part. These two talks were me getting reps in on the half I'm worse at. ## The ask Here's where you come in. Try UvuYoga. It's free to start, no credit card — go to uvuyoga.com, build a flow, chain a sequence, attach a playlist. Then tell me what you honestly think. What clicked, what confused you, what's missing. Blunt feedback is the most useful gift you can give an early product, and I'd rather hear from users now while I am still in Beta. And if you know small yoga studios or yoga instructors, I'd love an introduction. The first 100 teacher accounts are free forever, and I want them in the hands of teachers who'll actually put the tool through its paces and tell me where it breaks. That's it. Try it, tell me the truth, and connect me with the teachers in your life. Every one of those moves the app forward more than another week of me building in silence. Thanks for reading — and if we haven't met yet, here's more about me and my work.

Code Linting

Tre G. III — Sat, 21 Dec 2024 16:38:59 +0000

Today was a great day, because I got to work on integrating ESLint into our codebase! I'm a funny code monkey. I enjoy good coding practices like linting, user/technical/product documentation, testing, accessibility, and security. These are topics that are usually deprioritized over shipping working code, because code can work without any of the things I listed as my programming passions. But if all those practices are implemented the code will rarely break (or be broken) and is more reliable code. Why not create "reliable working code" from the start?

Why I like Linting?

Linting will help you catch common errors early. Linting rules can identify poor coding practices, so developers don't introduce them into the project. Linting can identify when to use const instead of let, or shadow variables, for example.

Preventing bad code with linting, is worth the many sprints of debugging poor code.

My Challenge

We had an existing codebase that had many developers contributing. The code had over 5K linting violations after I installed ESLint and ran a report. I looked for the best linting rules to use with NextJS, TypeScript, A11y, and JavaScript. Since there were so many violations I decided to progressively hunt for errors. ESLint has an auto fix feature but never run that on a pre-existing codebase and expect it to work. No, no, no youngling. We must iterate!

I set the critical rules to ❌ "error" and the rest to "warn" or "off". Then I re-ran the report to identify what should be fixed before deploying our code again. After all errors are fixed manually and the code can build I ran our unit test to ensure we were still ✅ passing everything. Good linting should never break the code. At best linting is meant to support the developer. Helping junior devs learn a better way of writing code, because they have to.

After all my errors have been identified and fixed OR ignored, then we can deploy and know that our code is as good as we can get it "today". Now that the codebase has been fixed we can use "auto-magic-fix" in the future and feel confident it has a 50/50 chance of fixing the linting error.

My Learning

It seems ESLint has grown up! It will no longer support some more code formatting rules, that should be maintained by a code formatting library and not a linting library. ESLint has deprecated many features as of v9 and moved most, if not all, to Stylistic!

I use Prettier for code formatting and Typescript has flag support in Stylistic so I stuck with ESLint v8.53.0 so I could keep the superior code formatting of ESLint. But I will have to move eventually into 9 so this only "kicked the can down the road".

Happy Coding!

Countdown to ETH Denver 2025, 101 days

Tre G. III — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 23:43:06 +0000

ETH Denver is the largest cryptocurrency conference I’ve ever attended. I’ve previously been to an ETH conference in Berkeley and events like Blockchain at Berkeley and ETH SD, but Colorado really pulls out all the stops for ETH Denver. This conference has it all. Many people go for the party atmosphere, which can be fun, but while some are celebrating, coders are #BUIDLing. For those unfamiliar, “BUIDLing” means coding on the blockchain and creating something tangible.

ETH Denver tickets are hundreds of dollars unless you join their SporkDAO. As a DAO member, you’re essentially attending an annual board meeting at the conference. After the conference, you’ll receive SporkDAO tokens, which you can stake.

ETH Denver also offers a week-long “Camp BUIDL” for anyone interested in blockchain development. Whether you’re a developer, artist, or designer, the camp has different tracks to guide your learning. You won’t master everything, but the training is top-tier. Anyone can apply for Camp BUIDL, which runs the week before the conference. To graduate from Camp BUIDL, you must submit an entry in the BUIDLathon (hackathon) held during the conference. In 2023 they awarded $698,192 in bounties.. I didn’t realize this when I joined, but fortunately, I love hackathons! I even earned a POAP for graduating Camp Buidl.

The River North Art District "RiNo" District is a fantastic part of Denver. I lived in Fort Collins, Colorado, for many years, and RiNo wasn’t around then. It has really elevated Denver’s vibe, making the city feel more grown-up. With incredible eateries, breweries, and beautiful murals everywhere, I had to snap a few pictures. The location will change eventually, Denver is the perfect city for this event.

A word about Winter in Colorado... it is REAL!!!

This convention happens about the same time each year, right before my birthday! If you don't know Colorado then take me serious when I say "Be prepared to freeze and rejoice if it feels like spring!". End of February thru the beginning of March can bring over a foot of snow or shorts weather. You never know until you are there, but the nights Will Be Cold.

Now living in San Diego, I’ll be flying to Denver International Airport and staying near the conference. Book your hotel early, as things fill up quickly, especially with crypto markets like BTC hitting new highs! HODL!

ETH Denver is accessbile by Web3 (Metaverse), Web2 (video/streaming/podcasting), or in-person "networking" and collecting swag. Hopefully I will see you there.

Follow me on Blue Sky twitter-x clone or Farcaster/Warpcaster

Elephants.Fun: Tips

Tre G. III — Sat, 23 Mar 2024 17:32:31 +0000

A Beginner's Guide

Welcome to the exciting world of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens)! If you're new here, don't worry. We'll walk you through creating your very own digital elephant, step by step. It's simpler than you think!

Step 1: Mint Your First NFT

Where to Begin: Head over to Elephants.Fun to create your first NFT on the Base chain. Minting is just a fancy term for making your digital token official.

Step 2: Assemble Your Elephant

Gathering Elements: Your elephant is unique thanks to various attributes like background (bg), base color, mouth, and eyes. Collect these essential parts and any other features you'd like to add.
Putting It Together: Use the website's interface (UI) to combine these attributes into your very own elephant.

Step 3: Customize on the Fly

Changing Features: Feel free to swap different features in and out of your elephant. Experiment to see what looks best!
Deconstruction: If you decide to start over, you can dismantle your elephant to retrieve the individual attributes. This is handy as you collect more options.

Step 4: Keep It Fresh

Frequent Updates: Don't hesitate to switch up your elephant's look whenever you're in the mood for a change.

Step 5: Expand Your Collection

More Traits: Use the "Mint Traits" function within the UI to find more attributes. Another option is to visit Mint.fun for a wider selection.

And there you have it! Your first foray into the world of NFTs. Remember, the key is to have fun and let your creativity shine. Happy minting!

openSea, Elephants
openSea, Traits
Bridge BASE

Tech Job Hunting

Tre G. III — Sat, 16 Mar 2024 13:04:00 +0000

Resume building and curating
Portfolio projects
Networking
Write blog post and create content
Contribute to Open Source Software (OSS)
Ask Questions?
Help others code
Find a mentor, or become a mentor

Resume building and curating

Keep your resume up-to-date. Curate your resume by keeping it focused. Make a resume for each job application to best utilize keywords used in the role you want.

Portfolio projects

Always have a coding project that showcases your current skills for the public to view. Most software engineers are bound by NDA and legal restrictions. If you are one of those definitely work on a portfolio piece.

Networking

Keep your professional networks alive. Take time to check-in with folks. Share your good, by being positive. Your network will help you gain trust with potential employers. They also can give you insight on the hiring process or manager.

Write blog post and create content

Blogging and creating videos are excellent methods to establish yourself as an authority in your field. By sharing your knowledge and experiences, you invite the opportunity to learn from the feedback of others

Contribute to Open Source Software (OSS)

Engage with GitHub and become involved. As a software engineer, teamwork is essential, and GitHub is a fantastic platform for learning how to collaborate asynchronously with others. Begin with technologies you're familiar with, or if you're not using any, focus on those you're passionate about. Dive into the repository "Issues" and "Pull Requests" to see where you can contribute. If you're unsure where to start, consider enhancing documentation—whether through editing, correcting, or adding text. Another valuable contribution is adding unit tests. Every project benefits from additional support, so don't hesitate to ask, "How can I help?"

Ask Questions?

Ask questions of people working in roles you want to have. Let the professionals talk and take time to listen.

"How do you like your current role?"
"What do you like about it?"
"Do you have any tips for me?"

Help others code

Answer questions and dedicate your time to assist others learning to code. The amount of personal and professional growth achieved by helping answer other developers' questions is remarkable.

Find a mentor, or become a mentor

Mentoring can be challenging, as it involves offering guidance and support without expecting compensation. Seeking a mentor requires finding someone willing to volunteer their time to guide you on your path. As a mentor, it means being accessible to answer questions from those less experienced and sharing your knowledge with individuals eager to learn and grow.

ETH Denver 2024, video short list

Tre G. III — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 00:39:52 +0000

Watching ETH Denver from YouTube
ETH Denver 2024 is a wrap. Here are some videos that caught my attention listed in no particular order. More speaker videos can be found on ETHDenver's YouTube channel!

“NFTs as Relational Databases | Rob Green - Runic Labs, Inc / Patchwork Protocol”
Using NFTs as databases and on-chain lookups. Patchwork is building a community for their protocol, check out their discord.
📺https://youtu.be/6eD-ozzuONY?si=oiCz2W7utFnVhmNr
Links ( https://patchwork.dev/ , https://github.com/runic-inc/patchwork )

“Core Devs Are Ethereum's Scarcest Resource | Josh Davis - Ethereum Foundation”
Great talk about how ordinary folks can contribute to the ETH Protocol. The ETH Foundation has created a Study Group for practical education opportunities. There is also a fellowship working on creating apprenticeships, now going on the fifth cohort.
📺https://youtu.be/E6UEMx8MYp0?si=xg0JZV_U9rdpJXLW
Links ( https://epf.wiki/#/ , https://blog.ethereum.org/2024/02/07/epf-study-group , https://github.com/eth-protocol-fellows , https://github.com/ethereum , )
** QR codes at end of video 19:59

“BREAKING: Devs Remix Frontend. What They Did May Surprise | Jonathan Prozzi – Intuition”
Neurofunk tech stack. Build better web3 apps with Remix + Vite + Shadcn.
📺https://youtu.be/VxypSHPIa44?si=LSQ6-V9bCvTETDBv
Link ( https://github.com/0xIntuition/app-template-remix-vite )

“The Art of Getting Hired in Web3 & AI: Job Hunting and Personal Branding | Harsha Abegunasekara”
Networking is the number one way of landing your next job! Connect with folks on LinkedIn, have then scan your QR code or get theirs ASAP.
📺https://youtu.be/w4Y8g_Yg1yk?si=qTqv1wBY59HX9MpB
Link ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/stanlyya/ )

“The Problem With Maintaining Open Source and How to Solve It | Max Howell - tea Protocol”
Earn Tea token rewards for contributing to open source software.
📺https://youtu.be/VnWmNqHV-Zc?si=QJY_8DyVXruEwOaE
Link ( https://tea.xyz/ )

“From Idea to Reality: Transforming User Experience in Web3 | Fabian Vogelsteller – LUKSO”
Lukso, Profile Standards that helps UX for all users.
📺https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciRNeORJMJI
Links ( https://twitter.com/lukso_io , https://lukso.network/ )

“Full Stack Dapp Development With Scaffold-ETH and The Graph”
Scaffold ETH 2 speed run. Scaffold dapps with their newest solution.
📺https://youtu.be/UOdbDJZqlgo?si=ccI_5ifvE5Ydag9w
Links ( https://docs.scaffoldeth.io/ )

“Community Building Through Human-First Developer Relations | Crystal Street & Francesco Andreoli”
Holistic approach to building web3 communities. Maximize your Hackathon’s impact with these tips.
📺https://youtu.be/LwhOrvHcOAo?si=-JUwMh_-2MWMMmoc
Links ( https://x.com/twitter.com/francescoswiss , https://twitter.com/crystaldstreet )