My goal for this project and any future ones is to try and make progress on it every day. That is a lofty goal. It is incredibly easy to take a day off. I could come up with a myriad of excuses as to why I did not get anything
In search of my next opportunity, I have been building a guessing game. In order to keep my software development skills sharp I figure building a game or a side project is a good way to learn new skills as well. My goal is to work on it everyday. Everyday
Making lists has been one of my newfound interests. No matter how many times my parents or teachers suggested it in hopes of me dealing with my inattention to details, I have never been consistent about it. I thought I would be able to keep track of everything, even though
As mentioned before, my favorite and perhaps most applicable form of philosophy is Stoicism. Every day, I begin with reading The Daily Stoic, a book by Ryan Holiday. Each day, a passage from a Stoic author is provided along with some insight in more modern terms from Holiday. I have
You never know when opportunity might come your way. Training myself to look for the good in things has made this easier. When you purposefully try to look at things in your life as glass half-full, everything starts to become clearer. I used to waste time and energy revolving around
I read a book recently that had a motivating quote repeated throughout: "now, not how." I enjoy short questions or phrases like this that always ground me when thinking through ideas or problems. When the idea of a blog came to me a few months back, I fell
As I mentioned before, in order to get good at anything you have to build consistency. Everyday no matter what try to make progress either by learning a new skill or improvement of existing ones. Only so much of that improvement can happen by yourself. Large leaps and bounds of
Continuing my thoughts from yesterday about asking questions, it is equally important to inspect for yourself. Asking questions is important but so is verifying for yourself. As Ronald Reagan said, "trust, but verify." I may not be negotiating nuclear disarmaments, but what I want to achieve is a
How often have you been scared to ask a question? Throughout my life I have been in situations where I want to ask a question, but don't ask it for fear of looking unintelligent. No matter how many times my parents, teachers, or anyone really told me "
Sometimes it's difficult for me to get out of my head. During tough times I can fall into a paralysis where I don't get anything done (see above, the reason for this blog). Going for walks has recently been my way of breaking out of that
As I begin my journey as a chronically unemployed person, I have recently been focusing on boring businesses. In the last 20-30 years, businesses like roofing, plumbing, painting, and other "blue-collar businesses have been looked down upon. For some reason we have been convinced that the only way to
Now that I don't have a job, my free time is endless. This has been an adjustment, to say the least. As a naturally lazy person, it's been very easy for me to accomplish basically nothing throughout the day. When I was employed, at least 6-8
Continuing with the theme of taking chances: whenever I am faced with something new that seems scary for whatever reason, I feel apprehensive. New things can be intimidating. Buying a house, starting a new job or business, writing a blog that nobody yet reads—these are all examples of putting
Since being laid off in June 2024, I have struggled with what to do next. It is not my first experience with being laid off, and I have always been able to find work within a reasonable amount of time. This time feels different. This time, I feel a need