Hypedocs

Sat, Feb 22, 2025

If you’ve never heard of hypedocs, it’s basically a place where you can keep track of your accomplishments, big or small.

Essentially, the point of this app is to help me keep track of any work wins I may have on any given day. I have regular 1-on-1s with my manager, as well as quarterly check-ins, and a year-end review. After a while, I realized I was unprepared for these meetings and it became very apprent when in one review my manager brought up a couple of big accomplishments I had over the year. I was a bit embarrassed by that and thought I should be a better advocate for myself.

This project is a pure vanilla JavaScript application, and that’s by design. I’ve been on a bit of a Web Platform exploration, and honestly, for a simple data table application, pulling in any external library felt like overkill. The Web Platform provides a robust set of APIs for DOM manipulation, data storage, and file handling, and it was really fun exploring the capabilities of the Web Platform in such a simple application.

The simplicity of this app isn’t accidental. I’ve been consciously trying to “think without a framework,” to really understand the fundamentals of JavaScript and the browser environment. While these projects may seem trivial, they’ve been invaluable in sharpening my ability to “think in JavaScript.” This approach, in turn, enhances my understanding and effectiveness when working with frameworks. Building these types of apps helps me to understand the underlying mechanisms, and how frameworks abstract away the browser’s APIs.

The app provides download functionality, giving users the option to export their data as either a JSON or CSV file should they need to share their progress with others or simply move the data to another browser or device.

And while this app is simple in nature and functionality, I’ve been both surprised and happy with how much I have learned building out these tiny projects. My 9-5 has had me delve into some very challenging, difficult and (most of the time) fun tasks so working on fun projects with quick resolution serve as respite. And I think I found a great formula for myslef for continual learning without getting burnt out or stuck in tutorial hell. I should probably add “tiny projects” to my hypedocs.

There is definitely room for improvements and many enhancements. The UI, for example, is basic and could use a lot of work. But the point for me is, build it, ship it, and move on. So far this has worked really well for me and don’t have a need for a lot of features.

Try Hypedocs for yourself. Or check out the code on github.

And if you need a little help getting hyped, Maldita Vecindad has your back…