I’d like to express my sincere thanks to the following people:

To Abigail Schott-Rosenfield, my editor at No Starch Press, who did an amazing job helping me revise each chapter and encouraging me to slow down when I would have otherwise lost readers with too much technical detail too quickly. Did you know that it takes a lot of work to write a book? I’d also like to thank everyone else at No Starch Press who helped make this book a reality.

To Jen Helsby, my amazingly talented technical reviewer, who double-checked all of my work and suggested many improvements. Thanks to Jen (who also happens to be my Dungeon Master!), I feel incredibly confident in the technical accuracy of this book.

To my Signal group of beta readers, who gave me excellent early feedback: Akil Harris, Kushal Das, Mara Hvistendahl, and Yael Grauer. I’d also like to thank the Aleph developers and the fine journalists at Unicorn Riot for giving feedback on specific chapters.

To my wife, Crystal, for supporting me throughout writing this book, even though it cost us quite a few nights and weekends. Thank you also for encouraging me to publish it under a Creative Commons license in order to remove barriers to access for everyone who needs the skills it teaches, no matter their income or what country they live in.