bewe42

I'm coming here from the hackerbooks newsletter where I saw this book mentioned. Just wanted to chime in how compelling I find the ideas.

Though the book is slightly repetitive, what stuck with me is the idea of a "stepping stone approach". In order to discover something new or interesting, all we need to do is to find the next stepping stone to jump to. The rest is not is not in our hands. I tell this to myself whenever I think I have to have this "grand vision", which I never have so I don't do anything. I'm happy I stumbled upon it.

Active reading. First scan TOC and headlines. Then read superficially. Grasp the author’s leading propositions by dealing with his most important sentences. Ask questions while reading.

After reading a certain amount of text, close the book and summarize in your own words what you have read. Again ask questions how the key ideas relate to what you already know.

The ultimate exercise is syntopical reading where you compare several books on the same subject with each other.

Best intro: "How to read a book" by Adler.

P.S: I'm very interested in this subject, I'm trying to build an app to support active reading.

Edit: re-reading your question, you seem to want to read faster and consume as many books as possible. As you can guess, my advice is the opposite. Read slow but deep and fewer books (just pick the best out there)

Sites like Upwork publish skill reports as this one: https://www.upwork.com/press/2017/11/02/q3-2017-skills-index...

But if you should sell on sites like that is another question

Going full-time with my cloud security and compliance service offering. The big goal is to bring someone on board and shift my focus to the business/strategy side.

First of all congrats on your business success, many here dream of having this.

Could it be that your day misses structure? Is joining a tech hub/shared office an option for you?

I have been working from home for many years. The trick for me is that I have to be careful that my daily life doesn't become too comfortable. I absolutely need to start working first thing in the morning.

What also works for me is getting out. Physical work is important. I do weightlifting and really enjoy sweating and working out.

Go to meetups, do networking or meet clients. This works especially well if you don't like socialising! Because once you have done this, you will feel eager to be back at your home office to work.

Another vote for sam harris. I'm not a big podcast listener, be he is exceptional

Bugs, no. Bad/smelly code: yes, all the time. That's what separates senior from junior devs: over the years you'll learn it'll come back to haunt you eventually, so better to deal with it earlier than later.

I'm interested in that myself and would love to specialise in that area.

I guess, first of all, it depends on how serious companies will take the regulation and how strict it will be enforced by the regulator. Will we see headlines about penalties next year?

I expect consulting need for DevOps/security/law. Companies that already help out with HIPAA and the like are probably in the best position.

Regarding Wim Hof method a little warning: I loved the effect of cold showers and went from my usual 15 seconds to 1-2 minutes and got very sick. Two times. In hindsight not very smart from my side (even less as I did this during winter and while my daughter started to go to Kindergarten exposing me with plenty of new germs), but if you are like me and have a tendency to over-do things be careful. Still think Wim Hof method has advantages but start very slow.

Books and courses come to mind (require some coding). Affiliate websites etc

Can't remember one now, but there are plenty of examples of startups that faked to be fully automated software but behind the scenes all was done manually.

It's a kind of coding in lawyer's programming language

As a dev with constant pressure to learn new stuff I'd prefer the flip side: learning / acquiring relevant skills for my career. The perfect future AI-driven tutor that presents me exactly what I need to study and at the exact level of difficulty so that learning becomes fun and seemingly effortless (btw something I try to solve)

It's not an alternative to a note-taking app. Scapple helps me to clear my thought process like no other tool. It works for me because it's so simple and limited. That's why I'm actually ambivalent about an upgrade and fear it might get too many new features and loses it's appeal, though as I understand the author he's fully aware of this. There are just a few things I miss

Even more amazing is a little tool called Scapple from the same author. I use it to brainstorm and collect thoughts. Absolutely love it and I read that they plan to update it as well. Can't wait.

I'm happily paying for the economist. The writing is topnotch succinct and enjoyable without wasting my time, the breadth of subjects way more than I can handle and I find the selection of articles mind-expanding (and often surprisingly anticipating what will be general news in the near future). I started with the introduction offer convinced I would cancel but got hooked. Paying for what I read also helps quite well with reducing information overflow (because since I have paid for it, I read this instead of swallowing dozens of free sources)

Got greedy? Ulysses is a polished app, yes, and it's rather expensive because of that, but it's just a Markdown editor. No way I'd lock myself in (even less with its underperforming export feature)

I can recommend "The effortless sleep method" by S. Stephens.

I sometimes enjoy writing and other times I dread it, but I always enjoy having written.

I prefer Scapple but this comes close. I'll be curious if they offer a desktop version.

Yes, absolutely, unless you work for a company where everyone is remote

I'd like to add "Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned". Even though the book could be shorter and the idea is rather simple, it made me re-think how I search for ideas and how I decide what to work on.

I use a similar but somewhat simpler method: whenever I read something, immediately after I have a finished I try to write down everything I remember. That has helped me a lot to internalize the material. Another method: in subjects I'm deeper interested, before starting to read, I scan the chapters and headlines and write down what I expect to learn and what I already know.

Not at all. Flow is reached the moment I tackle a challenge that is just a bit above my skills. Then I learn. Learning something new does not have to be unpleasant. It is not easy to find the adequate challenge at each moment but it's possible and that's why some teachers, courses, books etc are much better than others.

If a company asks me to do 8 or more hours of artificial coding test I usually refuse, unless I really want to work for this company (because it is well known in the community, which are few).

However, I'm happy to work on any real task for a reduced or limited fee. It's a win-win: the company gets to know the candidate under real conditions, has an actual task solved at a reduced price, and the developer does not give away his/her time for free. Plus, if it works out, the candidate has learned already the first steps about the company's system and process and can directly build on it.

I'm always wondering why not more companies do this.

Are there any non-native speaker who make a living as technical writers? I absolutely love writing about tech but I'm wondering if I'd put myself at a too big disadvantage to compete with writers whose first language is English.

My favourite remains the Drone Zone channel from SomaFM: https://somafm.com/dronezone/

Second are their channels that mix voice with ambient music (mission control and sf police), it's a great combination to focus

I have been taking (plain text) notes for many years. My approach is to write down immediately everything I figure out. The biggest issue I have is to retrieve notes effectively. And to be faster creating them. I started experimenting with how to make the whole process better and have built http://codingbrain.com. It's basically a better search, copy-n-paste, history tool that works on local markdown files.

My other idea I'm currently working on is to provide a different kind of bookmarking service that gives you an option to write down what you have learned from that bookmark. I think one of the best way to get better is to always try to repeat from memory what I have learned. The service is supposed to compare my summary with the original content, maybe offer some Anki style repetition training etc

When it comes to implementing ideas, I learnt one thing that has become crucial for me: an idea needs to have a deep personal relevance in order to be able to bring it to its fullest life.

Since I figured out that personal truth, I stopped searching for ideas from the outside. A list like this can still be inspiring, but just because an idea sounds good or seems to make sense, if I don't have any profound interest in it, I know I won't have the energy and drive to realise its potential.

That may be true for the technical side of things. However, don't forget your earning power (including willingness/energy to put up with dread work) and possibility to build your professional network. Building savings takes time, esp. if you have or want family. Throwing your best years at your own projects has some risks.

There's also the emotional side to consider. There's a danger of falling into a rut when you have put a lot of effort into something and nothing / or not much to show for.

I'm a long-term side project builder myself. I have been freelancing all my life and taking time off between projects to build my side projects. I never hang in long enough though, which could be the reason why none of my ideas have taken off yet.

But I have to say that I have now basically accepted that my side projects are for fun only and my freelancing is for building my egg nest. And that feels quite good. I think I'd only go into a ownership based startup with the right partner and business model.

After three years I'd surely try to put my project on auto-pilot and do some paid work. Also to gain a new perspective on things.

Not to take anything away from the product (it's great) or determination.

(Btw Steve, we met once in Madrid, hope to be able to come back to geek lunch)

Combine this method with trying to solve a problem with your own ideas before even opening a book. This works especially well in some areas of programming, for example algorithms. After having done this, I can compare my own ideas with the ones presented in the book.