zapperdapper

Depends.

What are your objectives? Why are you learning it? Is PHP your first language? Are you trying to get a job, get general stuff done, or have a specific project in mind? Are you primarily looking at web, text processing, database?

My own thoughts on PHP today is it is a very capable language, and probably as worthy of learning as Python, Ruby, or any of the other mainstream scripting languages - again depends what your objectives are.

In other words - how long is a piece of string? ;)

I see where you are coming from, but I have a built a few big XML processing tools in PHP that run quite happily on the command line. Having said that, it was a few years back, and I tend to reach for Python for text/XML processing these days...

Actually COVID stopped a planned relocation for me.

To be more exact, I tend to split time between two main locations and was planning to increase the time in the other location, but the bug put that on hold sadly...

It sounds like quitting to take a less stressful (but probably less well paid) job would be a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

I would think seriously about taking some sick leave. Work a bit on your evening projects during the day. Get plenty of sleep and exercise in fresh air. Switch off the news and listen to classical music instead. Maybe this sounds lame but I did this when I was going through a rough patch and my mental health rebounded.

Good luck!

Had the same problem. I just write a blog for myself primarily, with notes on the things I'm working on, code, tools etc. I'm surprised by how often I go back and read my own articles, so I take that as a sign the idea was a success! :)

For me still Python. It just makes it easier for me to build solutions to the everyday problems I need to solve. When I have a little itch that needs scratching Python is what I reach for first.

Although I'd been a dabbler with Python for many years, about 6 years ago I had a problem to solve. Basically it was to spider and download a static site, clean up the content, add metadata, and pop that content into a database. At the time I was mostly working with PHP for such things, but decided on a whim to give Python ago. A couple of hours later it was done. Python made that project so painless. I've never looked back.

Since those days I've built many projects with Python, including web apps (using Flask), utilities, database apps and so on, and never regret choosing Python...

I wrote my own static site generator in Python. Source format is GitHub-flavoured Markdown. Both VSCode and Emacs have nice plugins for Markdown. Nothing fancy but it does the job. There are plenty of static site generators out there (a nice one I've used is Hugo), but the learning experience from writing my own has been superb.

I think this is good advice. Tune in to problems. Listening is harder than it seems because we tend to apply our own filters.

For example, I did some work for a friend in a non-IT business, and at first I didn't pay attention because I thought his problem was trivial - but then realized to him it wasn't. You'd be surprised what companies need help with.

Move on. You deserve a better company than that.

If you really must! A little static site generator is a nice one. The great thing is, it's the kind of thing you can pick up whenever you have a spare few minutes, as there's always some new little feature you can add...

My thoughts exactly - some very long walks in the fresh air and some good nights of sleep would be my top priority!

In 3 weeks!? If you want something tricky a compacting memory allocator in C should be doable in 3 weeks. Maybe I'm just slow! :(

I had a similar thing about a decade or so ago. Thought I might be able to wrangle a (part) remote gig with them. No dice.

There's no way I was going to commute to London every day. Nightmare. They kept coming back to me though.

In my case I think it was more likely a combination of poor process, and a clueless recruiter, rather than a deliberate retargeting of me that resulted in the ongoing calls/emails.

It's real deja vu looking at this thread. Many of the questions/comments here are exactly the same ones that came up in the early 1990s with Taos on CiX, and then later with Elate/intent. :)

Chris was far ahead of the curve - a heterogeneous, load-balancing, multi-processor, multi-tasking OS, with Object-Oriented Virtual Processor, byte code, load-time translation, support for multiple CPU types (including RISC/CISC/transputer and LE and BE), and tiny footprint message-passing kernel, when most people used MS-DOS 3.3 or DR-DOS 5.0, with Windows 95 still a gleam in Bill Gates's beady eye! Nearly 30 years on and he is still ahead of the curve!

p.s. no one has mentioned it yet - try a Google search for "edge tao spyfish". That was 1995!! Not released, but still very interesting reading material.

I have a friend that turns time allocated for other things into paid time. For example, she got certified as a Spin coach, so takes classes a couple of times a week and gets paid to work out. She also does yoga classes and gets paid for that too. Sure, you might not hit $2K/month but it'll get you part way there...

You can probably get about £200/day painting and decorating for people you know. If you're prepared to work weekends it'll get you nearly there after word gets around that you're trustworthy and polite...

Yes, the peace of mind that comes with it is a good point. I do really appreciate that aspect.

Yeah most companies in Europe I would say. Even in a non-unlimited PTO company you'd get at least 25 days (paid) typically plus 8 paid public holidays in addition.

At some companies you can give up 'points' to get more paid time off. I think at Oracle UK I could get up to 46 paid days off by using up some perk points (actually not that many). Not sure if they still do that.

The legal minimum in UK is 28 days paid leave for full-time workers, but that includes 8 days paid for public holidays.

On your first point: In UK there is a minimum usage by law. For full-time workers that's 28 days paid leave and that includes typically 8 public holidays. Not sure if that applies in US though. I agree with you on the other two points.

I'm currently on DTO (Discretionary Time Off) and it works great. Last year I took 7 weeks paid. If I'd had a decent justification I could have taken more. Some colleagues took a lot more (like 3 months). This year I have a couple of long holidays planned so think I'll take around 10 weeks, possibly more. Only breaks longer than two weeks need to be approved by my manager.

To be legal you have to take the statutory minimum holiday or the company would be in trouble (at least in the UK), so they are quite stringent about you taking at least the statutory minimum (for full-time workers that's 28 days in UK and that includes Bank Holidays), so typically 20 days minimum excluding BHs.

The downside is if you leave the company you won't get holiday pay. For example, let's say I'm entitled to 24 days annual holiday at a non-DTO company, and then leave after 6 months, without taking holiday, I'd be entitled to 12 days pay (for my paid holiday entitlement). At a DTO company you get zilch as I understand it. I've not left yet but I think that's how it works. Something to check.

I personally think it's a great perk. Depends what your priorities are though and the above is a bit UK specific.

I have some recent experience of this where a friend switched into web dev from a totally unrelated (non-computer) field. Originally she was looking at Python/security as a path, but then changed to web dev as she was more interested in that. Did an free Google course online, learned JavaScript and (IIRC) a bit of React, and 9 months later was working in the industry. She did this in her spare time on top of her day job. She's been a year in the industry now and she has had a couple of promotions and is doing well (double her previous salary)...

Difficult question.

But look at the closest competitors and see what they charge perhaps?

For example, take a look at Cockroach Labs, or MySQL InnoDB Cluster, or one of the many database as a service providers, or whatever you think is the closest competitor, and see what their licensing terms and pricing are...

Useful starting point? https://developer.nexmo.com/contribute/guides/writing-style-...

Stack Jobs has, or at least had, a feature where you can specify you're interested in "remote only".

Your income is mostly a function of the value you create and deliver. It could be you were not creating or delivering enough value. You say you can create static sites? That's a good start if you know HTML+CSS. Why not as a next step learn JavaScript on the side and take it from there?

Surprisingly common to feel like this. You've done 4 years. Hope you've been saving hard. You should be able to take a year out and rest up and see what takes your fancy - you might find after a good break your interest in software is rekindled.

p.s. I believe all software engineers should be factoring in a year out for every five years worked.

Tip, when you get the urge to buy, simply add to your wishlist. Periodically (say every 3 months) go through your list. You'd be surprised at how many titles you can delete! :)

It's always handy to have a few unread books available though...

Depends. Using the "4% rule" you should be able to drawn down $40k/year, without depleting your capital, so if you can live on that then in theory the answer is yes. There are various provisos with using the 4% rule but I won't go into them here. A couple of other options:

1) You could retire from full-time work and do the odd contract.

2) Set up a little sideline. It wouldn't have to make much as you already have a lot saved.

3) Part-time job at Starbucks (or similar). This is also known as Barista FIRE (FIRE is Financial Independence Retire Early). The idea is in USA you'd get the Starbucks free health care, and a little income, plus it might be fun, if somewhat hectic.

4) You really do need to think about what you would want your retired life to look like. "Not work" will only be enough to take you through the "decompression zone", not beyond.

One final point. Things change. You change. Life happens. At some point you might want to get married, have ten kids, and build a house in the countryside. Who knows. I think that's why keeping your skills honed and brain working in "retirement" is probably a good idea.

You are 29 with greater than $1M. Assuming you didn't inherit that then you don't need a mentor. Get back to work! :)

Depends. If you want to work in research I would say go for it...

I suspect that stress is "baked into the corporate cake" - in other words, most corporations are quite toxic to mental and physical health by their very nature. A lot of the stress is caused by things like changing requirements, unrealistic deadlines and poor management - you know, the usual stuff. Something like sys admin in a University might be less stressful, but it's been a long time since I worked in academia and I left because things were changing drastically (and not for the better). If you want really low stress you might be better off outside of the software industry altogether...