A Change in How I Handle Support Requests

Answering coding questions has been a core part of my growth as an engineer. Every question—whether about something I've built or a problem I've never seen—offers a window into challenges I might face down the road. Finding answers expands my own experience, and I've built much of my career on that exchange.

That responsiveness helped grow a community I genuinely value. But it also created an expectation that I weigh in quickly on everything, and the volume has become unsustainable. On a typical day, I receive requests for help from roughly 30 to 100 individuals, across Twitter, email, Discord, open-source issues, LinkedIn, YouTube comments, and newsletter replies. Some are simple asks for a link; others involve walking through real code problems. Even the quick ones take time, and they add up fast. The interruptions also cut into the time I need for my core commitments and my family.

What I'm Changing

I'm deliberately pulling back on how often I respond in informal channels and reducing my direct involvement in open source. My AMA repository is archived. I'll answer less on Twitter and Discord and ignore most emails.

For open source, my policy has long been that I only tackle a problem if one of two conditions holds: I actually need the solution myself, or the problem is interesting enough to solve for the fun of it. Lately, "fun" has been winning too often, at the expense of more important work. So I'm spending less time solving others' problems and answering questions. I'm not burned out and I'm not leaving the community—these steps are meant to keep me from getting to that point.

I also have to stop acting as a search engine for my own content. I'm changing the perception that a quick tweet will get an instant response. If you're looking for an answer, there are excellent resources already available: my blog, the KCD YouTube channel, the Epic Web Community on Discord, the Testing Library Discord, and frankly, Google. If you need course-specific support for EpicReact.dev or TestingJavaScript.com, technical requests should go to [email protected] or [email protected]. Questions about the material itself belong in the appropriate Discord channel; office hours remain a place I set aside for these conversations.

How You Can Get Involved

Answering other people's questions is how a huge portion of my own experience and credibility developed. If you want that too, there are concrete ways to start that also ease the burden on everyone who fields these requests:

  • Join the Epic Web Community on Discord and answer questions as they arise.
  • "Watch" my open-source repositories, especially the Testing Library ones, and help triage issues there.
  • Set up a filter for mentions of my handle and chime in where someone else might benefit from your perspective.

I understand this may come across as cold. It isn't meant to be. Helping is something I love, and it's central to who I am as an educator. But I can't do it all the time anymore. Setting these boundaries is a form of self-care. I genuinely hope you find the answers you're looking for—and share what you learn with the rest of the community.