innertracks

This is a really great question as was the 'unfashionable' language thread. My intuition is that those quiet legacy country roads are out there. Slower paced may also be found in modern industries. I would like to be ready to offer interesting solutions or services in niches where most people don't think of working.

Health care is one place with potential though it may only fit some of your criteria. It's been a while since I've worked in HC but things don't appear to have changed much. It was pretty cool to make a 7 figure difference with a little SQL and TCL for a local clinic where I worked as a DBA. Lots of opportunities to make people's day to day lives easier, too. No need for the latest language either.

Instead of learning the latest popular language, what I've decided to do is start learning things that sound interesting. I've almost finished Little Schemer, for example. I'm working through Coding the Matrix to get my math up to speed. The Machine Learning course on Coursera was inspiring. After Little Schemer the rest of the "Little" books, Starting Forth, SICP, and others, are on the agenda.

I'm also wondering if Life Sciences might have some interesting opportunities.

Open to full time or contract. Feel free to contact me, I'm looking forward to talking with you.

  Location: North of Seattle

  Remote: Yes.

  Willing to relocate: Short term on-site.

  Technologies: ETL, SQL, Database Development, 
  Python, Octave, Machine Learning, Analytics, 
  Health Care, CRM, Linux, Emacs

  Résumé/CV: http://www.wmecole.com/p/my-resume.html

  Email: wmecole@gmail.com

======

  Recent projects have been with CRMs, ETL, and Wordpress. 
  Natural talent for engineering and picking up new
  concepts fast.  Lately, I've been diving into 
  security and machine learning. My people skills 
  are very strong.

TCL/EXPECT was a huge help when I needed tp automate data extraction from a health clinic practice management system. The available interfaces didn't give all the data. Decoding the custom data formats, file layouts, etc... wasn't going well. Scripting the character based UI with TCL/EXPECT was pretty cool including the error handling. If a bit hacky.

I was surprised to find out my temporary solution was still running without a hiccup 5 years after I left. Yes, I was younger then and hadn't learn to appreciate the life expectancy of temporary solutions.

Here's a great resource for taking handwritten note taking to the next level with doodles/sketchnotes. Sketchnoting is pretty fun and does seem to help with learning.

http://sachachua.com/blog/book-accelerate-your-learning-with...

Recent related experience:

About a month ago a friend asked for help with his arduino project. He was having difficulty figuring out obstacle navigation. Getting the compass to work combined with the math strategy had him puzzled.

My suggestion, based on my experience as pilot, removed the compass and the math calculations. We both had a great time working with the implications of this new approach.

Offering a fresh perspective from a different domain was very valuable. Reducing the complexity of the solution to his problem made sense to me, felt good, and delivered an easier to maintain "product".

My friend is about 70 yo and has been developing software professionally since his early 20's. His resume is filled with pretty cool projects with notable peers in tech over those 5-ish decades. There was something very affirming about being able to help such an accomplished engineer in this manner. I learned a lot in that hour.

Your blog and twitter feed are very helpful. I was doing part time consulting, mostly web-related, for a number of years. Getting myself focused in this new phase of life has been challenging. You are clearly focused in your online presence. Clear "Hire Me" call to actions among other things, too. Time for me to do them. Thanks!

Right in the middle of this with 50 coming up this summer. I stayed at home and home schooled my daughters full time and consulted part time.

With a divorce 5 years ago in the rear view mirror, years of being rather non-traditional and pursuing a fairly spiritual/self-awareness focused path for most of my life I can feel pretty foolish at times. Things I didn't pursue as far as career and personal interests mostly bring up those uncomfortable feelings.

otoh - relationships with my daughters are improving as the oldest heads off to college. And there's understanding connection with self and others that has come from all that inner work. Those two things feel like gold to me.

It's the me that recognizes retiring may be for other people for rather pragmatic reasons that is the most troubled by the situation. Feeling a little late to starting a long deferred career in info security is just something my ego will have to get over.

I do take some comfort in my grandfather having lived to 98. We'll have to see how much opportunity there is for people in there 80s in 30 years. My guess is maybe quite a bit. Gotta stay healthy to be able to do it though!

For myself, I observe what shows up in my emotions and body. No judgment of myself and those feelings. Just observing. Allowing those physical and emotional states to just be without acting on them is very helpful to being able to be present with and listen to others. Holidays with family can offer excellent opportunities for practicing.

Argentine Tango!

You're welcome, hanniabu. Glad you found it useful. Lately, I've been learning how helpful it is for all of us when we can share our experiences. I sense there's a lot of underutilized or unrecognized talent in the world. The potential for positive change is enormous if we could unleash it all!

Thanks for your kind words. Glad my experience was helpful. Best of luck to you!

I can relate I think. Whether you need a cure or not is probably a question for you and a therapist. Ask about sliding fee scales and other options.

My story and maybe something for you to explore. I never held a job longer than 24 months when I was younger. Not being able to figure out a career direction and trying to get some direction in 2000 I sought testing at a great organization called Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation. They do aptitude testing and have been for 70+ years. Lots of data and studies on job satisfaction, aptitudes (which are different from both interests and skills), and success. Check out their web site they have some great info.

I tested high aptitude (80 - 99th percentile I think) on about 1/2 of the 19 or 20 aptitudes they've identified in their research. About 10% of the population tests this way. Most people have 3 or 4 max. The problem is if the aptitudes don't get used they agitate. Deeply. Like having a team of 20 sled dogs all fighting to run and no sled to pull or direction to go.

So I have learned I must use them or suffer the consequences. For example, Argentine Tango exercises my musical and social aspects. Engineering aptitudes, inductive reasoning, rapid idea generation, etc... all need expression. Some more so than others. Ideaphoria is rapid idea generation, handy in marketing or teaching, and a real pain if it is suppressed.

Commonly people with many aptitudes have a lot of difficulty with careers. Some use seasonal work or multiple part-time jobs or many different activities in one job to deal with what can often be conflicting drives.

Whether or not you are in this situation I don't know. What I did learn that may be of help was that I needed to respect the cards I was dealt in life. Gifts or burdens depended on how I looked at things. It's okay to have multiple projects and very diverse abilities and interests. Some may get abandoned quickly while others stick around.

Sharing seems to help. Get a blog up and start writing about all your projects. The ones that work and the ones that don't! For some reason sharing project results seems to help regardless of how they turn out. For example, I just had a surprising and inspiring response from HN readers on a blog post I wrote in November. I didn't realize other people would find what I was doing interesting enough to discuss!

I'm going to be 50 this summer and finally feel like I'm getting a handle on things. Keep at it. I hope some of this was useful. Get the help you need as you find the resources. Take care of your health, physical and emotional,and honor your gifts.

Something I've taken from my Argentine Tango journey is the importance of focusing on fundamentals. Figuring out what those fundamentals were took some time. Some skills definitely do have a slow ramp up period in the beginning.

Great job getting through that initial phase! The first year can be trying particularly for leads.

I did something similar. People started saying I was a natural at tango. No. I put in the time. Lots of it. Every day. Obsessed, constantly aware of the fundamentals on or off the dance floor. Having some basic talent only gets you so far.

Back to the thread.

I have a theory achieving mastery in any area can potentially accelerate mastery in another area. Related or not. The mastering of mastery I guess. Maybe our brains are able to learn more as we learn more. Accelerating the learning process?

Cal Newport, a CS prof at Georgetown, has a blog with a related post http://calnewport.com/blog/2009/12/26/if-youre-nervous-about... I've been absorbing his writing all week.

He's focused on how people become passionate about their careers via deep focus. His blog is full of very helpful insights, research, how to tips, and case studies around passion and work.

What and where people choose to build in a given environment is a curiosity. I've looked at property east of the Cascades over the years. Probably never happen as I definitely feel the pull of the ocean more.

If I ever built over there I figured I would build a house like this guy's house. http://inhabitat.com/this-concrete-dome-home-survived-a-wall...

James Altucher has some sage advice for founder types. Definitely worth your time to check out his blog.

I'm on my second marriage. (First one went 20 years.) I was very clear about my values regarding money and work with my second wife. I fulfilled every vision of the man she was looking for except one. She expected a professional or business man who put on a suit and tie and went to work every day at an office with a steady paycheck. Ties are for weddings and funerals, maybe. I constructed my post-divorce life (my financial needs are minimal) so I wouldn't need a dependable paycheck.

And I love living that way.

Which is one of the reasons I can and love to take on short term projects. Not needing regular income makes all the difference. At this stage of my life (turning 50 next year) having to give up that freedom would be reason enough to leave. Assuming of course reasonable compromises or adjustments and a family therapist didn't help.

Your life. Knowing yourself and how you want to spend your time on this planet is very, very important.

Argentine Tango classes. Seriously. The bay area has some fantastic tango opportunities! No partner needed.

Find a friendly, welcoming instructor and go to learn about the dance and culture. Something curious: In the Seattle area at least the Tango community is full of engineering types.

One of the great things about tango is how you ask people to dance. With your eyes and nod of your head. It takes an amazing amount of pressure off when you don't have to walk up to someone to ask them to dance. Something which terrified me, sans alcohol, until I was in my mid-40s and started tango.

You'll definitely make friends. And there are opportunities, especially in your area, to socialize as often as you wish. I feel like I acquired an entire family by joining the tango community.

As someone who has been a victim of sexual assault (rape) I would like to up vote your comment about a hundred times. The author apparently hasn't had to deal with the years of healing needed on so many levels. And yeah, it happens to men, too. By women.

Once again you've inspired me! (First time was your posts about getting started in consulting. Very helpful!) What a great idea.

Edit: Whoa, brain is spinning, ideas are mixing. James Altucher (Choose Yourself, author) gives away ideas to network, create value, and ultimately generates business as a result. Something is coming alive in my head. Cool.

Personally, I'm very strong on the social networking side. And I love the engineering side, too. Part of the attraction to consulting for me is in meeting and getting to know new people. Especially, C-level. I've always done best reporting to or working directly with senior management or owners.

Spending too much time in one can leave the other feeling under-utilized. I'm guessing I'll end up needing to have engineers on contract and have 70:30 business dev to engineering ratio or something. I'm not sure but that ratio seems about right given how much time the social networking side needs to keep money coming in consistently.

Plus, there's the downtime needed to make the mental switch from one to the other. Or maybe just contract out all the work and do my various hobby projects on the side to satisfy the engineer in me.

Edit: Cold Calling: Things I learned in a non-tech venture.

Visualizations, and rehearsals (mental and physical) of each step of the calling process were very, very helpful. One click dialing straight off a spreadsheet of cold contacts made things easier, too.

After getting through the first 100 or so numbers dialing started to give me a rush. Fear was starting to be replaced by excitement. Very curious experience.

One other thing. I was told to expect, and found, roughly speaking, half of the numbers I dialed on an industry specific list of small to medium sized companies, no one answered. Another quarter were busy or couldn't talk and it really had nothing to do with me.

These numbers held across a few different industries. Since I was rather likely to NOT reach someone for a conversation I found it much easier to dial.

Life of Fred is pretty entertaining. Though you may need to read the stories to your son. Teaching Textbooks, my older daughter's favorite, has video tutoring. Singapore Math is good, too. There are programs you can look for that have lots of manipulatives. Don't recall the company names.

Learning how to use an abacus was something the kids enjoyed and helped with ways of thinking about numbers quite a bit.

You may find researching what home schoolers are doing for math programs helpful.

My friend depression has walked with me for decades. We finally came to an understanding. I take care of myself every day and depression fades into the background allowing me to enjoy using the engineering bits of my brain in balance. Getting enough sleep, eating well, drinking enough water, being grateful for what I have, exercise, and a community of friends have been key. Nature walks, yoga, and Argentine Tango work for me.

Patio11, thank you for continuing to inspire and help others understand their value. The biggest hurdles are often in the mindset and belief system of the individual. I know that's been the case for me.

I've not been valuing myself. Being good with people and social situations as well as engineering and problem solving is valuable. At least that's what I'm having to remind myself. And I'm starting to believe it!

The only real problem is when I'm programming or furthering my tech skills I feel like I'm short changing the social side. Same thing going the other direction. As I'm getting more comfortable with the tension between the two modes I'm feeling good about my potential as a consultant.

Another vote for dancing! I used to dread dancing for many years. Then I found tango. Argentine Tango has been an amazing positive dimension to add to my life.

My confidence in social settings in general and particularly with women has been greatly improved. It's a great balance to programming and problem solving activities, too.

What a lot of great advice!

Personally, I'm getting back into the field after a lengthy hiatus. Hopefully, a bit wiser after recovering from burnout in 2005 and subsequent entrepreneurial adventures in other fields.

One thing I've started doing is volunteering a few hours a week doing tech related work for causes I support. One benefit of which is getting my confidence back. My age, 47, combined with having a lengthy period of time off can inspire self-doubt at times.

Problem solving and people skills though are turning out to be key and evergreen assets to bring to the table. Thankfully, those are also continuing to improve with age.

Never give up. Ever.

I left tech burned out in 2005. Database admin in healthcare both provider side and insurance, among other things. I decided to start my own thing writing about personal development and the such.

Became a home schooling stay at home dad then a divorced home schooling stay at home dad. Along the way I got a fantastic education in direct response marketing and entrepreneurship.

Now, I'm getting back into tech. These days I balance the following: sleep(!!!), teaching and learning Argentine Tango, yoga, kids, eating well, time with friends, marketing and biz dev for consulting, problem solving with computers, and writing about spiritual experiences.

I can only do any one of them with enthusiasm because I do all of them. Happiness has turned out to be what I bring to the table not what is given to me by an activity or outside experience.

Took me over 40 years to figure this one out. We'll see how it plays out over the next 40 years.

Choose Yourself by James Altucher. I was already heading in the direction of the books theme. Reading it though gave me the extra push and had some good ideas for making the necessary changes. Basically, getting enough sleep, exercise, gratitude, mental challenge, and bringing people you love and who love you closer are what he found to be keys to happiness. And I have to agree. I was even able to get back into programming, after experiencing severe burnout years ago, by setting my priorities in a like manner. Choose Yourself!

Thank you for sharing your experiences. Incredible, thought provoking, and inspiring in how and what you learned from those experiences.