I started at Apple as a contractor two years ago today. And what an exciting two years it has been.
I attended a video cast thingie today - I think the kids call it a webinar - hosted by Amy Hoy and Alex Hillman titled Kick Procrastination’s Ass. It was really good, especially the first hour. If you have some spare time, I highly recommend watching it.
Amy Hoy answers the question “How do you stay motivated when you’re not making any money”. The post is a couple of years old, but her answer is as relevant today as it was back then. It’s not about finding and having motivation. It’s about developing good habits.
Lately I’ve been struggling to release new things out to the public, things such as blog posts, open source code, a new website and service I want to offer, even updates to some of my apps. What’s worse is that a number of these things are done and are just sitting on my computer. For instance, I’ve been using an updated version of Cross Post for nearly two months that isn’t available in the App Store.
I played hooky from work afternoon. I should feel guilty but I don’t.
As we flew home from Vancouver I asked Rowan if he thought it was neat that we were flying from a snowboarding vacation to home where we will go snowboarding again. He said he thought it was neat, but I don’t know if he really gets it. I know it blows my mind to think that we live in a place where people come for a vacation to do exactly what we did on our vacation. The difference though is that we get to continue doing what we did on vacation once we return home.
While writing my previous post on how working 80+ hours is not the answer, I was reminded of a Wall Street startup I interviewed for back in December 1999. The startup was staffed with many brilliant programmers, and I certainly would learn a lot from them. The startup was well funded, and they offered me more money than any other company had offer me. But in the end I turned down their offer.
A founder, or maybe the person is a manager type, asked on Quora, “How do you make programmers work 60-80 hours per week?” While the question is a pathetic one, the answers that follow, especially the first one, are worth a read. And you should certainly read the answers if you happen to be one of those sad founders/manager types who wants their of programmers to work long hours. In short, if you are trying to force your programmers to work 60, 80 or more hours per week, then you are doing it wrong.
I just spent the last two hours looking through past posts here at thecave. I was writing a lot for the four or five years, and some of those old posts are actually good. But more importantly reading through those old posts gave me a chance to relive my past.
Two days ago I wrote a post about how I bought a new snowboard online because it was cheaper than buying locally, or so I thought. Turns out a local shop in Stowe was offering a 20% discount on the board I bought, but I didn’t know this at the time since that shop didn’t advertise the sale on their website. So in the end I paid a little more to buy a new snowboard from another local shop located on the other side of the country.
Dan Counsell wrote an excellent post about removing distractions. In the post he talks about how he removed distractions by removing social media apps such as Twitter and Facebook from his iPhone. He’s done other things too such as reading a book instead of checking Twitter, and he started a “No Technology Day” on Saturdays, which is something I think I might start doing as well.
A number of people have recently asked if there will be a third edition of Learning iPad Programming. The short answer is no, there are no plans. There are many reasons why I decided to not update the book, but a few key reasons stand out more than others.
I learned this morning that a friend of mine, Amy Bradstreet, was murdered last night by her boyfriend and father of her kids. I’m left without words. I’m sad, stunned, stocked, and some what angry. Amy was one of the most fun loving people on this earth, and she did not deserve to die this way. My heart goes out to Amy’s family.
To some my life seems like a non-stop vacation. I’m a ski bum, a slacker, someone who rarely works. I’m always off on some adventure, snowboarding in the winter months, hiking and kayaking in the summer months. And from one point of view this is true. Over the last 12 months I have spent a great deal of my time snowboarding, hiking and kayaking. But I’ve also been focused on writing code and building apps.
I am, what I like to call certain individuals, an idiot. Yep. I too am an idiot.