Tired Much?
Who didn’t have a bit of an awakening during our WFH revolution of 2020, which has crossed over into 2021 for some of us, with varied success and life impact. Well, if you were in the weird crown of people already working from home 100% of the time, you didn’t feel this big change in quite the same way, other than perhaps an acknowledgement from “the rest of the people out there” who had their own Ah Ha moments, suddenly realizing what you and I have been talking about for the years gone by about not going to an office and not having to be somewhere at a particular time to start the day, etc.
Being a solo entrepreneur may be more of a challenge… it’s difficult to make that determination without joining a small startup to find out. Since I am not planning to do that, I’ll have to stick with my recollections of startup life and my present assessment, that without a co-conspirator of some kind (at least one, though maybe a team of three or four is a better idea depending on the scope of work). The foreseeable future does not include adding on staff, though, so adjustments to the workdays are in order, post haste!
Turning the page
It isn’t quite January 1, but if I had to make some resolutions they might go something like this:
Pretend I am my own Program Manager, but don’t pretend.
Finish the core software tools that are at the fulcrum of many other ideas!
Make use of The Tools (especially git for part of item 2)
Automate workflows! (especially when it comes to podcast production and publication, but also in general)
Shorten the path between ideation and implementation. It can be done!
Launch ideas on a regular basis (this is based on item 2 above, but at this late date this should be doable and it is silly that this has not been the case).
I think this sums up the current second wind approach to turning the page. There is nothing more frustrating than having ideas and the wherewithal to implement, but to then not do so because you allow yourself to be interrupted or distracted from focused execution.
Publishing newsletters on a regular basis has been a part of a basic return to keeping a schedule, and despite the lack of readership, it has been useful to newsletter for two key reasons:
Keeping to that schedule is good, and dialing in draft-preparation and content queues has been good practice for publication at scale if/when that becomes interesting.
I’ve seen how these trendy tools work, and how they do not. (Substack’s browser-based editor does not handle spell-checking in a consistent manner, which is already bad news)
How have you been tackling the “return to normal,” if that is even a thing at this point?
Projects Projects Projects
I mostly cover these topics in the Quoggling Sand podcast lately, but one of the projects I’ve had on the back burner for far too long is a personal blog. It seems simple a thing, and almost a throwback to the old days, but who isn’t getting tired of social media drama, cancellation, The Algo determining what we see and what we don’t, embedded and native advertising… the list goes on.
There is some wisdom floating around out there, that at this late date using a pre-built CMS for blogging or other content management is the only really sensible way to go, because we all have better things to do that… well… create a platform that will operate in a predictable way, with maintainability and security and scalability… turns out that writing a CMS really is not unlike any milestone task in an educational journey. If you can’t write your own CMS at this point (if you’re in my business, anyway, writing software in the modern world), what else are you missing out on?
Here’s a contrapoint on the topic:
How I built a CMS, and why you shouldn’t (via HackerNoon.com)
If you are working on any sort of data-driven online tools or apps or services, a CMS arguably falls out of that effort, especially if the headless approach grabs your attention (see that hackernoon article right there). If I am working on FTYP or CantHave and I want to present a user with some piece of data based on whether they’re logged in, their location, whether they are the owner of a piece of content or in a group with permission to view or even edit a piece of content… well, I’m talking about workflows for both of those projects, this isn’t that far off from a general CMS.
I’m going to have to argue, then, that writing a CMS is right up there with making a tool tray, hammer, and screwdriver. #wibstr
Coffee and Keto and Cardio, Oh My
I have been beyond lax when it comes to all three of these lately. Side note, it seems to me that, at least here in Las Vegas, the indy coffee shop has survived the suck and I just noticed today that Vesta is opening a second location, as an example… so home barista is not the only way to fly anymore, which is probably a good thing.
I have my dated set of articles about my own Keto adventures, which I’m slowly but surely revisiting, without the focus that I had that first time through. Not helpful, as it turns out, is the new gym I’m attending, which is a mere 1.6 miles in each direction (walking), where the 24 Hour Fitness location I was visiting every second day back in my Keto-tastic days was 3.3 miles walk each way. It turns out, this makes a bit of a difference, especially when clearing extra glycogen from carbohydrate dalliance during the day.
I’ve noticed that my bean supply is not dwindling as quickly as it should, which means I’ve not been brewing enough coffee to keep things working as they could be. I found when I was really following a ketogenic food agenda, that coffee really made it easier and probably more effective all the way around. As I type this on Sunday afternoon, I’ve only had a single cup of Aeropress coffee today; I should be two in with a third on the afternoon agenda.
Have you returned to a daily diet and/or exercise regimen now that the pandemic is over, never to return? Are you holding off until the pandemic is actually over? Somewhere between?
Speaking of Coffee…
I may have mentioned this once or twice, that I keep a Buy Me a Coffee profile page with newsletter, podcast, and project links and whatnot conveniently next to their facilities to contribute to the coffee bean supply which I mentioned above… living in Vegas, and having grown up with sage advice including, “You don’t ask, you don’t get,” it makes sense to enable the language of gratitude through coffee beans and supplies.
There is no obligation to actually fund any coffee adventures there, but it is a convenient out-of-band place to aggregate links. A hub to point to, to bookmark, to re-visit if you’re curious.
Given the theme of this issue up top, one might be curious to check back there through July and August 2021 to see what unfolds. Something to think about.
How Funny
Howie Mandel is a name most people know. I first saw Howie live in the Phoenix area back when he was still on St Elsewhere (or maybe shortly after he wasn’t?), when he would inflate the surgical glove on his head to end his set. This is germophobic Howie telling a tale such that absolutely no aspect of this presentation should be considered suitable for viewing in a workplace, around children, or maybe even around adults. But, it is a fun watch, with the volume turned down maybe.
Higher Education compilation from Dry Bar. It could be argued that college degrees are too easy, like air travel, for comedic bits. I found these to be generally funny, though, so why not?
John Oliver has come a long way, but this is a fun clip about my current city of residence and all I can say is, he’s not wrong. There is some other humorous this and that in there as well, just a clip from a longer full show.
Light Reading
I grabbed a couple of Malcolm Gladwell books from my local library (in audio book form… gotta love modern technology). Links are to author’s website, non-affiliate.
Blink just finished as I was walking home from the gym. Read by the author, his narration style is not necessarily conducive to high intensity workout, but for walking to and from it’s a good match. An interesting book about reading situations and people and making quick decisions.
Talking to Strangers is on deck next. Perhaps I will discover better ways to engage you, unknown subscriber…
Artwork Attribution
Photo by elijah akala from Pexels