Veteran software engineer building a business portfolio guided by one principle: growth never comes at the expense of our community.https://akenroberts.com/https://akenroberts.com/blog/be-honest-with-your-projects/https://akenroberts.com/blog/be-honest-with-your-projects/You're starting a new project. But do you have a clear understanding of how it fits into your life?Fri, 28 May 2021 01:51:44 GMThttps://akenroberts.com/blog/book-review-permission-to-screw-up-by-kristen-hadeed/https://akenroberts.com/blog/book-review-permission-to-screw-up-by-kristen-hadeed/As I take yet another journey into entrepreneurism, I'm actively working on overcoming my fears of failure. Kristen Hadeed's Permission to Screw Up came up in my search for books about said fears. This is my casual review.Mon, 06 Nov 2023 19:30:17 GMThttps://akenroberts.com/blog/building-in-public-kickoff/https://akenroberts.com/blog/building-in-public-kickoff/Kicking off my first product built in public — a direct-to-consumer retail business selling customizable artwork.Tue, 11 May 2021 03:34:49 GMThttps://akenroberts.com/blog/ceo-or-bust/https://akenroberts.com/blog/ceo-or-bust/As a solo entrepreneur endeavoring to learn, try, and (hopefully) succeed in business, I have a lot of identity crisis moments.Mon, 09 Dec 2024 18:40:06 GMThttps://akenroberts.com/blog/crappy-software-motivates-me/https://akenroberts.com/blog/crappy-software-motivates-me/I vented today in an entrepreneur group chat about how my domain registrar keeps sending me renewal and expiration emails after I have fully transferred a domain away from them.Wed, 22 May 2024 20:03:42 GMThttps://akenroberts.com/blog/dancing-in-the-window/https://akenroberts.com/blog/dancing-in-the-window/One recent evening, while my wife and I were driving home, we passed an apartment building. In one window, two young people were dancing — joyful, unconcerned about being seen.Sun, 18 Feb 2024 22:51:04 GMThttps://akenroberts.com/blog/dungeons-dragons-brings-people-together/https://akenroberts.com/blog/dungeons-dragons-brings-people-together/My wife and I wore Critical Role swag to a birthday party — and in less than two hours we had three separate D&D conversations with complete strangers.Mon, 18 Mar 2024 17:18:00 GMThttps://akenroberts.com/blog/hashed-passwords-using-symfonys-alicebundle/https://akenroberts.com/blog/hashed-passwords-using-symfonys-alicebundle/When using AliceBundle for fixtures in my Symfony project, I ran into an issue creating hashed passwords for users.Mon, 15 Jul 2019 21:27:00 GMThttps://akenroberts.com/blog/i-have-already-failed-why-am-i-wasting-my-time/https://akenroberts.com/blog/i-have-already-failed-why-am-i-wasting-my-time/Those are the words I just spoke out loud to my wife.Mon, 10 Jun 2019 21:22:00 GMThttps://akenroberts.com/blog/inspiration-through-trying-times/https://akenroberts.com/blog/inspiration-through-trying-times/A candid mind dump about staying motivated through a tough stretch — job searching, freelancing, and pushing personal projects forward.Tue, 22 Jul 2025 18:30:40 GMThttps://akenroberts.com/blog/january-2021/https://akenroberts.com/blog/january-2021/A monthly update: buying our first home, a positive performance review at FormAssembly, and goals set for February.Sat, 06 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://akenroberts.com/blog/launching-june-13-stay-woven/https://akenroberts.com/blog/launching-june-13-stay-woven/I'm launching my first 2024 product: Stay Woven, a mobile app that helps you strengthen your personal and professional relationships.Tue, 21 May 2024 20:37:44 GMThttps://akenroberts.com/blog/magic-call-methods-static-context-in-php/https://akenroberts.com/blog/magic-call-methods-static-context-in-php/PHP's dynamic nature makes it an extremely flexible language. It can also mean confusion if you don't understand the inner workings behind the "magic".Sun, 21 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://akenroberts.com/blog/on-prioritizing-multiple-ideas/https://akenroberts.com/blog/on-prioritizing-multiple-ideas/As an aspiring entrepreneur with many ideas, how do you prioritize work? Even when all your ideas seem to have equal weight?Tue, 19 Dec 2023 20:01:00 GMThttps://akenroberts.com/blog/one-week-project-spend-better/https://akenroberts.com/blog/one-week-project-spend-better/Two and a half years ago I wrote down an idea for a business directory to help you find alternative shopping experiences to large corporations. Now I'm building it in one week.Tue, 31 Oct 2023 19:09:17 GMThttps://akenroberts.com/blog/options-day-trading-2023-10-30/https://akenroberts.com/blog/options-day-trading-2023-10-30/Journaling my experience learning to actively trade 0DTE options — the decisions, mistakes, and lessons from day one.Mon, 30 Oct 2023 21:14:47 GMThttps://akenroberts.com/blog/react-native-textinput-padding-not-working/https://akenroberts.com/blog/react-native-textinput-padding-not-working/On iOS with a multiline TextInput, paddingVertical only applies to the bottom. Use paddingTop and paddingBottom individually instead.Fri, 07 Jun 2024 01:21:54 GMThttps://akenroberts.com/blog/recognizing-a-great-meal/https://akenroberts.com/blog/recognizing-a-great-meal/A couple days ago, I went on a date night with my wife at a local restaurant neither of us had been to.Mon, 30 Oct 2023 03:52:29 GMThttps://akenroberts.com/blog/spend-better-day-2/https://akenroberts.com/blog/spend-better-day-2/Yesterday I told you about starting a one-week project, Spend Better. How are things looking at the end of Day 2?Thu, 02 Nov 2023 03:38:34 GMThttps://akenroberts.com/blog/spend-better-days-3-4/https://akenroberts.com/blog/spend-better-days-3-4/Things are going well! After Day 2, the plan for Day 3 was UI. Check! ✅Mon, 06 Nov 2023 20:25:13 GMThttps://akenroberts.com/blog/spend-better-days-5-6/https://akenroberts.com/blog/spend-better-days-5-6/With an expected short amount of work time on Day 5, I've made good progress on my smaller items to-do list over these two days.Wed, 08 Nov 2023 18:47:38 GMThttps://akenroberts.com/blog/spend-better-days-7-8/https://akenroberts.com/blog/spend-better-days-7-8/I was so close to my one-week goal. But that doesn't matter — SpendBetter.com is live!Sat, 11 Nov 2023 05:38:50 GMThttps://akenroberts.com/blog/using-ai-to-write-a-better-social-media-post/https://akenroberts.com/blog/using-ai-to-write-a-better-social-media-post/How I used AI to augment my writing skills and "punch up" a social media post.Tue, 22 Apr 2025 22:16:09 GMT