Hi Tip-Sheeters, Today is Veteran's Day, and I want to start with appreciation for any service members who are reading this. The holiday was originally created to remember the armistice that ended the first World War in 1918. Peace is a blessing that we should never take for granted. Entering a Hackathon Quick and Dirty As data and IT pros, we are constantly honing our craft. One of the best ways is through taking on intense challenges or projects to drive our learning in a short period of...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Hi Tip-Sheeters, This week, I’m sharing a few of the questions that I’ve had this past year from readers, people at events, or folks who’ve reached out on LinkedIn. If you ever have a question or something I can assist with, please hit reply on the newsletter email, and I’ll be happy to share my thoughts. Let’s jump in! Q&A About Data, Tech, and Career Q: What is the new tool or framework you are learning about right now? If you’ve been keeping up with the Tip Sheet, you won’t be surprised...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Hi Tip-Sheeters, In Tip Sheet #22, I demonstrated creating an MCP server to connect to my Football API. This week, I'll update that demo to the latest version of FastMCP and MCP Cloud. It's another good chance to pitch you why you need an ongoing side project, which I'm calling an Anchor Project. Why You Need an Anchor Project ⚓💪 I learn best by building, and I've found that a lot of other tech and data people do as well. A valuable method for me is to build real-world projects, as I wrote...
3 months ago • 3 min read
Hi Tip-Sheeters, This week brings one of the most exciting times of the year for me: the National Football League kicks off its regular season. I'm a fan of the Kansas City Chiefs, and they'll be playing their opener in São Paolo, Brazil (in Arena Corinthians if there are any serious soccer fans out there). Creative Commons, TheBo 2007 This also means Fantasy Football Season begins!! I'm a huge fantasy football fanatic, and I'll be managing five teams this year. What is fantasy football, you...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Hi Tip-Sheeters, Great interview tips for your up-skilling this week, and don't miss a couple of links at the end related to a new tool worth checking out. Creating an Up-Skilling Plan Andres Vourakis is a Data Scientist at Nextory and the creator of the To Be a Data Scientist newsletter, which provides a lot of technical content and career advice for data scientists. Andres shared a post recently titled How I'm Currently Upskilling as a Senior Data Scientist in Tech (2025 Edition) with a...
4 months ago • 5 min read
Hi Tip-Sheeters, Lots of content to share this week, so let's jump in and get started! When Your API Needs an Endpoint When you're creating technical prototypes and side projects that include APIs, you may be performing your development on a local machine. But once the API is stable, you'll quickly want to be able to access it on the public Internet. For example, you may want to: Call it with an agent, generative AI app, or various other ways Call it with an ETL tool or data pipeline Use it...
4 months ago • 3 min read
Hi Tip-Sheeters, This week I'm bringing you a chat with another one of the speakers from the API Superstream I spoke at a few weeks ago. Zdenek Nemec is the founder and CTO of Superface.ai, where he is pushing the boundaries of agentic AI. He is a frequent speaker on APIs and AI, and presented at the Superstream on the topic “APIs for AI: Have we failed?” Ryan: Your topic had an intriguing title “APIs for AI: Have we failed?” I think the first thing we all want to know is…have we? Z: We (as...
4 months ago • 3 min read
Hi Tip-Sheeters, This week, I'm sharing details on an upcoming virtual event I'm speaking at, which is hosted by Mike Admundsen, author of multiple books on APIs. I also have a conversation with Mike later in the newsletter. The Upcoming Event I'd like to invite you to the API Superstream: AI and Agents on the O'Reilly Platform, July 17 from 10 am - 2 pm Central time. Here are a few of the planned presentations: Building and Securing Remote MCP Servers Directly from Your API Gateway – Martyn...
5 months ago • 3 min read
Hi Tip-Sheeters, This week I'm excited to share a chat I had with Sebastian Ramírez Montaňo, creator of FastAPI and founder of FastAPI Labs. There's some good stuff in our conversation, including Sebastián's tips on skill-building and advice on staying positive. If you've had this email forwarded to you, I hope you'll consider subscribing weekly at https://tips.handsonapibook.com/. The Big Announcement For background, you might have seen the announcement a few weeks ago on Sebastián's...
5 months ago • 6 min read