quickpost

Could you share any lessons he taught you about how to properly deal with the "technical sidekick"? I often encounter them in web consulting and I'm curious to see what Phil's advice on the topic was.

Echoing this! Young-uns (or not so young-uns) - go fucking do it!

Kids are awesome, but once you have them, achieving an extended adventure like this becomes seemingly impossible. At least until they're grown up.

Great interview with Sacca - highly recommended. Thanks for posting.

Treehouse:

Treehouse has a 4-day work week, no managers,[15] and practices open allocation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treehouse_%28company%29#Culture

His book on the same topic is absolutely enlightening and surprisingly enjoyable to read, despite the sobering topics.

Being Mortal.

http://www.amazon.com/Being-Mortal-Medicine-What-Matters/dp/...

Exercise. Walking. Biking. Lifting.

And sometimes overeating and then sleeping all day.

Wow. What an amazing individual. And what a terrible tragedy and loss for humanity that he didn't get a full life.

After reading his writing I am very saddened to hear that he never got to write his book - he is an amazing writer and thinker. (http://stanmed.stanford.edu/2015spring/before-i-go.html and http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/25/opinion/sunday/how-long-ha...)

Castaway. Reinforces notions of self reliance, practice makes perfect, the need for companionship (whatever the source), determination, and healthy eating habits!

I love the image of Tom Hanks when he's turned into the lean and mean "Islander / Survivor" and is spear fishing for survival. Badass image and I plan to post that image in my "snack cabinet", so I have to look at it every time I'm tempted to snack mindlessly.

I heartily second this recommendation (Being Mortal). It is very well written and thoughtful.

In fact, when my wife gave it to me, I wasn't even interested in end of life issues - who wants to read about death in the middle of winter? But I was immediately sucked in and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Quit eating sweets of any kind - over a month in and going strong.

Started reading every night before bed again - trying to read two books / month in 2015, despite a very busy schedule.

Being Mortal - Atul Gawande. Really surprisingly good book if you are interested in aging, healthcare, etc.

> It's the AK-47 of keyboards.

Perfect description. I also took off all the numpad keys on mine and taped a trackball there for maximum usability. It can sit on the desk or my lap and the keyboard / mouse is always right there.

2 hard boiled eggs + some almonds. Grab it on the way out the door, can eat it anywhere.

Fast, healthy, and keeps you full till lunch (and beyond!)

I have a pair of those omni-reflective gloves - they work really quite well for any kind of outdoor exercise in the winter (cycling, hiking, etc.). If you're body is sweaty and warm they warm up quick and stay fairly dry.

Great list. Commenting here so I will reference this later.

Great, thanks!

Would you be willing to share the HTML for your wiki page?

Just looking at the table of contents, it seems really useful for those of us trying to learn vim compared to the normal cheat sheet that looks like a periodic table...

I've always been partial to the Accountinator spreadsheet. It's basically just an Excel spreadsheet with a variety of simple customizations to make it a nice ledger. Easy to learn, easy to customize, etc.

http://accountinator.com/2012/11/simple-accounting-spreadshe... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtqkL2KgjXI&feature=youtu.be

Awesome list! Got some great ideas for my 3 year old daughter's X-mas gifts. Thanks!

From only two courses? That seems pretty darn good!

Reminds me a lot of the notion of Growth Mindset vs Fixed Mindset that Carol Dweck has popularized.

Really cool, thanks for sharing!

Great post. This reminds me of Tim Ferriss' description of identifying good business ideas and / or approaches to learning new things (like languages). Three simple questions (which I've defined in terms of business, but they are broadly applicable):

1. Effective - will the business actually make money?

2. Adherence - is it a business you can stick with and commit to over the long haul?

3. Efficiency - will the business make you money in a way that uses time efficiently.

Listed in priority order. Great way of evaluating potential business ideas for me. #2 is particularly useful as a filter, as there are LOTS of ways to make money, but a much more limited set of ideas that you actually want to do long term.

Off topic, but that sticky navigation at the top is ridiculously large / tall. It seemingly takes up 1/3 of the viewable browser area required for reading the actual "content". Crazy. (NOTE: Browser width must be at least 992px wide to see it).

Google referral link (to avoid subscription block):

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c...

I have a Torker Unistar with a 20" wheel and that's been perfect to learn on. Depending on your height, the seatpost usually comes pretty long, so you may have to cut it down with a hacksaw to get some flexibility on seat level.

As far as learning, I kept a little logbook of each time I went out. It honestly feels impossible at first (constantly falling in 360 degrees), but you just have to keep working on it. I did most of my learning at a school playground (lots of space to wobble around) and leaned against the school wall for support.

For comparison sake, I learned to ride a unicycle (level 2 ish) with about 8hrs of concerted practice spread over a couple weeks. A lot of the problems you encounter in the video (difficulty mounting, speed control, not falling on your face) are exactly the challenges with learning to ride a real unicycle.

I highly recommend trying it out sometime - it's a surprising amount of fun once you get the hang of it.

EDIT: Unicycling levels - I'm probably about a level 3 (on a good day). Neat sport with interesting progression - perfect for programmers that like to level up and get good at things (and stay active!):

http://www.unicyclist.org/cont/levels.cfm

Commute to work 3x week on a bicycle. Long rides on weekends. Lifting 1x / week.

Working on my diet as well, even though I'm already fairly lean. Trying to cut out all processed crap and just stick to real foods - paleo-ish diet.

Very good clarification. I am indeed someone who got serious rotator cuff tendinosis from doing 100's of pushups a couple times / week. Took about 18months to fully heal, and my shoulders still aren't quite as good as they originally were.

Some people can definitely get away with doing tons of pushups, but I am not one of them!

Good catch. Thanks! I was referencing this source:

http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php?topic=16574.0

And "cal 1999" where it looked like Dec. 11 - 17 was a traditional week.