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willjp

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I have no idea what I’m doing and still made money from it

I feel like this describes most people that start their own business at first. It just usually isn’t a lack of experience in producing the product. It’s a constant tradeoff of what skill to invest more time into to keep it afloat. They’ll learn sooner or later.

It doesn’t have to be 17 years old though. I think the point he’s making is that it’s still solving problems for him. I have one that’s 12 years old. It just does what I need to. Parts are easily replaceable. I keep doing the cost/benefit of upgrading but I just don’t need it.

I would wish that they would also:

- Listen to their team. Issues arise, complexity may be higher than appears. Being receptive to reality and not being obstinate.

- Manage priorities, when there is too much to do everything, so progress can continue instead of gridlock by stakeholder updates, changes, and context switches leaving you feeling like a husk

- Not an expectation, but I find the good ones almost play the role of team therapist. I had a very kind manager stay up until midnight with me being supportive when it got really bad. The opposite of this is the not-my-problem people

- Really really good managers understand the pressures you are under, and give suggestions on how you can work smarter.

I do think sometimes there is pressure and they get in the way of work to produce visible artifacts to have something to point to that they did. I’m empathetic, a lot of their work is invisible.

This resonates so strongly with me. I worked a job where I needed to use outdated Microsoft toolchains to build plugins for software, and the documentation was just -- gone. Good luck. I've been almost compulsively saving the things that feel important to me, while seldom browsing them for years -- all the while hunting for a faster and more intuitive recall system that lets me find them later.

My ex, however had a much more fluid relationship with the internet and media in general. They liked new things, and didn't particularly care if they enjoyed something and it faded into obscurity. I feel like that's the winning mentality, but I just can't bring myself to embrace it.

This is interesting. I don’t find that she’s hating on the tool at all - I think she’s frustrated by negative interactions that sap her energy, has taken note of that, and is explaining her absence.

I both agree and disagree with some of the comments. Until very recently my interactions with the internet have been fairly shallow and that has protected me in some ways. But I think some people are looking for community, and want to give a bit more of themselves to form deeper connections. I think others are trying to grow an audience - reading the comments is not much different than surveying your customers.

Veronica seems really lovely, and I hope this helps make her life happier.

I still appreciate the precision of being able to explicitly describe what I want to type. I also appreciate that this is all running on your machine.

Talon is such an exceptional piece of software. I’ve donated to the project for a few years now. I’m so grateful software like this exists, that it’s cross platform, and that it’s extremely customizable.

Learning and Retention. I find that I learn best if I learn a subject comprehensively. Taking notes in a mediawiki instance I've kept up for a decade forces me to explain what I've learned, helps with retention, identifying what I still need to learn, and is indexed so I can revisit information I don't use every day without as much pain.

If someone else finds it useful, that's even better ;D.

This resonates with me on multiple levels.

I do feel even when scoping large projects that it is difficult to hold on to all of the pieces. I split it into chunks I can reason about and then (sometimes fearfully) return to the bigger picture. By the end of the project I can see all of the mistakes I made fumbling in the dark, but I’m not sure I could have managed more at the time that I did it.

I also feel this way about socializing at work. There’s something maslowian about it, when you are uncertain if you’re going to make it, it feels perilous to join socials. They’ll never fire me for not being social enough, is the message that fires through my brain at least. Though I’m sure social anxiety plays a role here as well.

Relatable, years after a career change I’m still hoarding nice sketchpads and watercolour paper because anything you do with them has to live up to the material.

I think one issue is that meetings aren't deliverable. Their benefit is abstract, it does not directly affect the business goals, or the bottom line.

I think another issue is that task switching can be very difficult. If your work day is split up into 1-1.5hr chunks of work, for some of us (myself at least), it is difficult to get enough momentum to steamroll through a task. I find it much easier to work after everyone has left, the pressure decreases and I find myself calm, and with regained control of my wits.

You can setup a wireguard network then proxy pass from a cheapie VPS if that’s helpful. Probably only worth it if you have multiple services though.

I like recording how I'm spending my time, so that later when it feels like the day got away from me, I can see why. Ideally, I can make adjustments that help unlock longer focus periods while still keeping family, coworkers, bosses, and other stakeholders in my life happy.

I get the impression that most people's chemistry experience was much different than mine. Ours was about rote memorization, period. I kind of feel like I missed out.

Not alone! I do this too. I have a mediawiki instance I use to keep notes on things I learn. I try to keep a rough heirarchy (ex. Editors), and I use it’s “what links here” to navigate from a related page (ex. Vim) to get back to that list of related pages.

It’s consistent enough that if I want to start learning something, I’ll usually try to create that page only to find it exists, and then I can start with the links (or purge them if they were not useful after all).