31 Jan 2025 #misc
Is there ever a perfect time to start anything?
Of course, no. “Perfect time” or “waiting to be ready” means never. And we will never be “ready” for anything in life.
Back in high school, we had two classmates who we all knew had a crush on each other.
And, as teenagers figuring out the new world of relationships, we all encouraged our classmate to ask his crush out. He always said: “Next month, I’m asking her out.” And then, the next month, he said: “Next month, I’m asking her out”. Then “next month…” and “next month…” He kept waiting for the perfect time.
“Next month” became never.
And it works the same for any creative project.
There’s no perfect time to start. You will never be ready. “Next month” means never.
So start that blog, start that YouTube channel, start taking those pictures, start that poetry book. You don’t need to be an expert to start. You don’t need to be famous. You don’t need to wait for the perfect time. You just need to start.
So why wait? Start today. Keep showing up and adapt as you go. The best time was five years ago. The next best time to start is right now.
30 Jan 2025 #career
“Focus on learning one thing.”
I heard that from a coworker at my first job. At that time, he was the IT/network guy. Years before that, he was a certified Java engineer or something.
I was new at this coding thing. I was trying to learn about everything at once. It was back in 2010ish. I was reading The Clean Code, learning Python, using C# at work (coming from Java), and watching PHP presentations in my lunch break.
Passion without direction.
I remember that story because today I read this post titled, why juniors are burning out before they bloom, on Medium.
It says that instead of chasing new and shiny objects like tools, libraries, and frameworks, juniors are better off going deep into fewer tools and concepts. Oh there’s a new framework. A new C# version. A new CI/CD tool. Arrggg!
Frameworks and libraries come and go.
Today it’s React with Typescript. Before that, it was Bootstrap with Ember or Knockout.js. And before that, it was WebForms. And before that, I guess it was Perl scripts or something.
And who knows what AI will bring to the table.
But chances are we’ll be working on a C-type language, still using text files, and writing SQL. That hasn’t changed in ~50 years. And it will remain the same. I wouldn’t bet all my money though.
If you’re starting your coding journey, master the topics that have passed the test of time: HTTP, debugging, C, design patterns, data structures, clean code principles (not necessarily the book), Linux, vanilla JS.
And more importantly than spitting out code, master your soft skills: negotiation and persuasion. Coding is more about collaboration than cracking symbols on a file.
29 Jan 2025 #productivity
For the first time after over 10 years of non-stop work, in 2024 I suddenly found myself with lots of free time.
Thanks to the layoff in the tech industry and to fully recover from burnout, I decided to take a mini-retirement.
All of a sudden, I had 8 extra hours free on my day.
No more meetings, 1-on-1s, estimation sessions, or any other meeting that could be an email. I went nuts with that free time. Reading books, writing on my blog, reposting on dev.to and Medium, recording video courses, reviving my LinkedIn account, doing some freelance coding here and there.
I went to bed more tired than a full day of work. It felt so good. I was the master and owner of my calendar for the first time in years. Monday mornings didn’t feel the same.
But I realized I was chasing my ambitions.
The time that was supposed to be for rest and reconnecting with myself was as busy as the days when I had a full-time job.
Reflecting on this, I realized I need a change. I decided to start a new habit: Scheduling my rest time the same way I schedule important appointments on my calendar.
One day a week for one hour, I have a guilt-free time slot. I’m free to spend that hour doing whatever I want. The only rule is: zero work. Most of the time, I take a walk or read or watch a TV show.
We often are trapped in the productivity wheel that we forget rest is as important as active work, if not more important.
Rest time is the trigger for aha moments and bursts of inspiration. Often after taking a walk during my guilt-free hour, I have to rush to my computer to write something that came up while walking.
Remember to schedule your rest time too. You deserve it. And your mind and body need it.
28 Jan 2025 #writing
Too much of anything is bad. Except for writing.
Here are 10 more ideas to write or blog more—I say “10 more” because I’ve already shared 2 ideas to write more:
#1. Write shorter posts. Instead of writing a 1,000 or 2,000-word post, write multiple 200 or 500-word posts and make them a series.
#2. If you write a listicle (“10 tips to …” or “10 lessons I learned from …”), expand some items in separate posts. I used this technique when I wrote about Choose Yourself Guide to Wealth and my alternative to to-do lists.
#3. Write tangents in a separate post. When you’re writing and notice you’re going on a tangent, don’t delete it. Use it as a starting point for another post.
#4. Turn your “cuts” into posts. When you’re editing or proofreading, don’t throw away the sentences or paragraphs that didn’t make it into the final piece. They’re ideas for separate posts.
#5. Update old posts in new posts. If the subject of a post has changed significantly since the first time, write an updated version and add an “update” disclaimer to the original one.
#6. Take notes publicly after finishing a book or listening to a podcast episode. I do this all the time. Just look at my books tag. You could summarize it, react to it, or collect your favorite quotes and tell stories around them.
#7. Answer private questions in public. Every time I get a message on my contact page or a private text message with an interesting question, I expand my response into a post. Of course, editing out anything that can’t be shared in public. That’s how I preserve my keystrokes.
#8. Answer Reddit, Hacker News, or Quora questions on your own post. When you find a question that you can answer, write your own “answer” post. I did this when I wrote about my life-changing purchases since 2020. That was a question I found on Hacker News.
#9. Turn old comments into posts. Review the comments you’ve left on social media and forums and expand your comments into posts. Especially use those comments that got good engagement.
#10. Steal topics from others. This is a variation of #8. When you’re reading something and you realize you could have written that post, stop reading and write your own. Steal the topic, but not the content. I did this when I wrote about the lessons I learned from The Almanack of Naval Ravikant.
There’s no bad consequence of writing more. Volume always wins.
27 Jan 2025 #writing
Blogging is dead. At least, that’s what almost everybody claims.
And it’s been dead for years. But in spite of that belief, we still find (random and famous) people writing on their blogs: Seth Godin, Herbert Lui, and me (shameless plug).
With blogs, we have control but lose distribution
In our blogs, we aren’t at the mercy of third-party platforms and their algorithms.
A blog is a place you own. You can redesign it and write anything you want. It’s like your small kingdom. And I like to think of my blog as my time capsule.
But blogs don’t have a distribution mechanism.
Apart from search engines and cross-posting, there’s no “feed” for blogs. Well, there’s RSS, but you still have to find a blog in the first place to add it to your RSS reader.
Distribution is where social media truly shines. Unlike blogs, social media shine at putting content in front of readers. This means we can see traction way faster on social media compared to a blog sitting behind search engines.
But we don’t control our social media accounts.
A social media platform can change its rules at any time. Just take a look at Medium, everybody is complaining about getting lower payouts after a change in the algorithm.
Getting banned on social media is possible if you don’t behave.
We need a combination of both: social media for short-form content and blogs (and newsletters) for long-form content
Since 2024, I started to use my blog as my main hub for my content.
Ultimately, all my content ends up here on my blog in some shape or form. A single blog post ends up in multiple shorter posts for social media. And a short social media post can evolve into larger posts or sections. That’s my content wheel.
And I’m not only writing SEO-optimized 1,000-word posts about programming anymore.
Apart from coding and software engineering, I’m writing about my other interests. We’re not single-interest creatures. I’m not. I’m a multipotentialite. In fact, I created a new tag as a catch-all for my “other” content.
My new rule is that if an idea is larger than a Tweet, it can be a post.
When I cross-post on other platforms, I invite readers to my newsletter. And on every email I send, I promote two posts I write here and the products I’m building.
But if I had to start all over again today, I wouldn’t start with a blog. I’d go with a social media account and a newsletter.