q-base

I really like the photo-documentary style. If anyone else has links to similar style blogs/websites I would be very interested.

It may be easier than maps - which I am not sure about. But the attempt at maps will most likely have dampened their lust for a similar endeavor.

Very interesting. Saved for later - I may need to dig a bit deeper into this at some point. I have moved Gmail to Fastmail but the server and NAS-setup is interesting.

Is it possible to get "safe enough" NAS devices at this time?

Could you elaborate on the open conversation?

I have Either/Or standing on my bookshelf - need to push it forward in my list of upcoming books to read.

And given your name it could seem that we both share the same origin as Kierkegaard :)

Ahh thanks a lot! Pocket and Crofflr could be a solution. Does anyone have experiences with that combination for Kindle?

I looked at Pocket as well, but the "send to Kindle" feature seemed to be missing?

I would have loved/expected a short explanation as to why GDPR compliance took so long to achieve.

I really love Instapaper and use it a lot. Especially the send to kindle feature. Luckily for them I did not stumble upon an easy 1:1 replacement.

But not even explaining the challenges seems quite a bit off and suspect. It is not like I keep my health records there (at least to my knowledge :) )

A lot comes with experience.

But I actually think that there is an "unconventional" way to foster the thinking behind it. Read/learn about philosophy. A lot of philosophy is basically breaking down/questioning assumptions. Some forms of philosophy are semantics-circle-jerking. But the thinking behind is very useful in a engineering setting. You get into the habit of detaching yourself and taking a step back from "conventional" understanding.

Also read "Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman" or see the video "The pleasures of finding things out" with Feynman. If you adopt that way of looking at the World around you, then you will quickly be a lot better at looking at problems from different perspectives than the one directly obvious.

Mindset by Carol Dweck. I felt like I knew the entire argument beforehand so had put of reading it. But I really, really liked it. If you have kids or work with people I would highly recommend it!

Pitch Anything by Oren Claff. The best book I have ever read on the psychology of selling. Especially person-to-person negotiations. Each time I recommend it I always think I need to read it again because I thoroughly enjoyed it.

If you are lead, then you should lead. If you lose faith, they lose faith.

That being said, faith won't magically fix everything. If you are unable to make it, then figure out what you can deliver and then tell your manager/product owner. Deliver the "bad news" with a constructive alternative. Cut away some features and then going forward be ruthless about scope creep. Urgent thing CAN come, but then others needs to be removed.

Delegate and play other people into strong positions. You cannot do all, and most importantly you shouldn't. Trust other peoples judgement and/or nudge/ask/bait them in the right direction without forcing a solution down their throat.

Haha I love the math and making it concrete :)

Calm down. You are absolutely fine. It is not like you are a schoolteacher one month, a carpenter next and then a programmer the third month. You are exposing yourself to a breadth of knowledge within your field/domain, that is only fine, especially in the beginning. It is very common advice to do so, mentioned in the Pragmatic Programmer for instance.

A very good and nuanced write-up. React Native seems to get a bit of heat at the moment, or perhaps I am just paying more attention to the content, as I have just started building a project with it.

But nevertheless I am still sticking to it with what I have read so far. Building from scratch with no iOS or Android experience, but some "normal" React experience(and a lot of .Net experience) it seems like a no-brainer in my situation.

The issues I have gathered from numerous articles seems to relate more to existing teams with experience in iOS or Android. Or projects that have had high growth.

Starting out from scratch those issues are not of concern. I will deal with them if/when I get there. My main reason for using React Native is to build something fast that can target both iOS and Android at the same time. And they rightly also point to that as a good reason for selecting React Native in the end of the article.

Focus on one project outside your FT job, otherwise you will spread too thin and have too much overhead deciding which to work on. Use some time to prioritize/select the one you want to do the most or which has the most potential and then give it all for a few months. Then you can re-iterate. But be wary of perfection paralysis. Ship/get something out the door. Even if it is not perfect. Commit.

And with that said. Don't be afraid to scrap a bad idea. But set ambitious time frames and ship. Then you do not have to worry about the next idea creeping in and stealing the show.

You answer your question in the last paragraph. Yes that is life. You work hard to achieve your goals(sometimes even others goals that you have mistaken as your own) and once you get there you realize that it was not Nirvana. Having the job/car/house/lifestyle/etc. you dreamed of your entire life still comes with a lot of issues.

We tend to think of our life in terms of; when only I get X then my life will be complete. Guess what. It won't. You will still be the same person - only with X. That job/car/spouse/house you put on a pedestal comes with a lot of issues as well.

It is absolutely okay to realize that the dream job perhaps wasn't so. Perhaps somewhere else is a better fit. You should not be afraid to change. It is only if you keep changing jobs to find out that everything there is not as expected - then perhaps you should look in the mirror for the common denominator.

Thanks a lot! I will absolutely look into that. I will at some point need a web-equivalent, so that might be very useful.

I am glad to read the comments saying that it is not dead, as I am planning to start building my latest project from the ground with React Native.

It is probably harder than ever to NOT question your current path and position in life. Even IF you are satisfied with your position and path, the attention economy constantly works to make you question whether the grass is actually greener on the other side.

Are there any one of those books that you would especially recommend? I have considered the Pragmatic Programmer - but is there more to it than what is implied in the title?

Raise your rates and concentrate on delivering value.

First contract won't give you the best rate and you will most likely not be in a position to negotiate a great deal. But that does not mean you should not try! Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate.

Delivering value is different than just doing your "job". Help the business and carry more than your weight. This can also mean questioning(in a polite and constructive way) what you are doing. If you can see that the problem could be solved in a better way, then speak up.

Once you have shown your value, then you are in a better position to negotiate - so use it. The more you know a business the more you are worth to them. The more experience you have as a contractor the more you are worth to new clients.

BUT as someone else also very wisely pointed out. It is a game of diminishing returns. By being a contractor you also somewhat step out of "normal" career advances. You can raise your prices up until a point, where without a doubt you can live a very, very comfortable life. But 10 years down the road you are not necessarily advanced to a higher position. Which can be fine, but you need to think about it of course.

Since I got that initial reply, I have been looking into it. It seems like I was very naive indeed!

The follow-up question would of course then be, how likely/wide-spread is it that companies will sponsor working visas for new tech-hires? I assume that it would be more likely if already being employed in a company, that then sent you to USA as an expat.

That is also the impression I get sitting behind a desk on the other side of the world. But how hard it is to "break in" to this market is a little harder to distill.

No, but I could not expect it would be any problem to obtain - or am I too naive?

There are a lot of good comments that probably hit a lot closer to the root cause that what I can supply. But I just wanted to chime in with reading either "Deep work" or "Flow". (A third contender could be "So good they can't ignore you").

I am not overly passionate about programming, but I really like the feeling of reaching flow-state. And programming is especially good at this - if I let it.

I will move away from programming, but until I have a clear alternative I might as well enjoy the feeling of reaching flow while also getting paid heftily for it.

Had to look up a lot of fine words to discern that answer. But I still stand by that you cannot equal expensive cars with conspicuous consumption as in the definition "the spending of money on and the acquiring of luxury goods and services to publicly display economic power".

You can buy expensive cars for other purposes than showing off.

And you cannot equal driving in expensive cars with evil/bad. The striving for that expensive car can be the exact motivation that made that guy or girl work extra hard for creating something valuable to the world.

Life is easier if you put people into boxes, but in reality you have no idea about their way of life, struggles. motivations or contributions to society.

Who is Orman? And which book could you recommend?

And he/she would rather have the experience of owning the car they have always dreamt of, while still giving to charities. Or he could be a drug-dealer ruining peoples lives while rubbing it in your face that being a criminal and bad person pays of. We have no way of knowing.

And he/she could already be giving a lot to people in need. We have no way of knowing, so should not judge.