reuven

Thanks so much -- I know that lots of things about my YouTube channel need to change in order for me to rack up more views. I'm slowly (very slowly!) making those adjustments, but as a one-person business, all of these things take time.

I've already seen a huge increase in YouTube subscribers since I started to make some changes, and I'm hoping that things will get even better over time.

I appreciate the feedback and comments, and am delighted to hear that you're learning from my newsletters.

I doubt it, but it's a fascinating idea.

One of the Meta employees suggested that I create a new business account. Except that I can't do that, because my personal account has been banned for life, as has any business account created through it.

So I could create a new account that's just for my business. And maybe I will. But ... what a pain, and I'm not sure the ROI is really that good.

Yes, indeed.

Actually, they explicitly said (on some page, or in some e-mail) that both the original evaluation and the appeal were handled automatically. I can't find that evidence, but I remember reading it and saying, "OMG, you've got to be kidding me."

Based on what they've told me, I have every reason to believe that no human ever reviewed my case.

OK, that's a fair point!

I know that Google has all sorts of automated things in place, and that people have gotten frustrated with them in the past. That said, my friends who have been stymied by Google's automated systems have always eventually managed to find a human who could fix things. Meta doesn't seem to have any such offer for customers. And even three employees, who agreed that the situation was absurd and could vouch for me, didn't manage to reverse the decision.

Yup, I'm sure that I'm just not big enough for them to notice or handle personally. That said, this is still absurd.

True, I don't know for sure that I was banned for Python. But it's the only information that I have so far, since Meta isn't telling me anything. And the other person confirmed that he had this problem multiple times.

And it's true, you're only seeing one side of the story here. But I promise, I can't think of anything nefarious I've done that would get me banned. Well, aside from my crypto casino run by drug-smoking, underpaid children engaging in the illegal ivory trade, that is.

I'm going to be redoing my site and offerings in the coming months, and I was thinking of doing some advertising along the way. There are definitely other platforms, and YouTube is one I'll be trying, but I figured it was worth a shot. Not any more, I guess!

Why did I, a paying GitHub customer, discover this when trying to do "git pull" on a repo I own?

My immediate assumption wasn't that GitHub had changed keys. I thought that my computer was having some sort of problem. Only after searching around for a bit did I find out that yes, GitHub changed their private key.

Couldn't they have e-mailed all of their users and/or customers, to tell us what had happened?

How does an FDIC bank takeover look? This NPR report from 2009 shows its age in some ways (e.g., everyone has a Blackberry), but describes what likely happened to Silicon Valley Bank over the last few days.

I love our Echo. It's in the kitchen. We use it for shopping lists, timers, reminders, weather forecasts, translating measurements, and answering questions. We use it as a Bluetooth speaker from our phones, and listen to music on it from Spotify. I get news updates from NPR and Marketplace.

My wife got one for our bedroom, and my daughter got one for her apartment.

It's a fantastic device, given how little we paid for it, how much we use it, and how it doesn't cost us anything beyond our Prime and Spotify memberships.

Also? It's also a terrible business. I'm not surprised that Amazon has been losing billions on it, and is trying to figure out how to make it profitable.

One way to decide if a niche is big enough to support a consulting career is to ask: Are there enough people interested in this topic to support conferences?

In the case of blockchain, the answer is almost certainly "yes."

But then, what do you do with that topic? I can, off the top of my head, think of a few things:

- Teach general "intro to blockchain" courses - Teach developers how to use the blockchain - Help companies develop blockchain-related apps - Help companies optimize blockchain-related apps - Help companies secure blockchain-related apps

Note that I know almost nothing about the blockchain, and I was able to come up with a few niche-related services you could offer. I'm sure that someone with more knowledge could come up with better, more appropriate ones.

Or, better yet: Ask friends/colleagues working at companies using the blockchain what their problems/bottlenecks are. What problems would they pay money to get rid of? Whatever they answer is your opportunity -- and if multiple people give the same answer, then you should grab it.

Moving into training was the best decision I ever made for my consulting career. Better pay, better scheduling, and no bug reports!

About 3/4 of my work is going onsite to companies, and teaching 10-20 people Python. I currently offer a bunch of courses, from "Python for non-programmers" to advanced Python workshops. These range in length from 90 minutes (what I call "microcourses") to 4-day sessions.

The other 1/4 (which I'm working to grow) is an array of online courses, with much overlapping content from my corporate training.

I totally agree with some of this, starting with the "your name is your bond." People hire you because they can trust you. Your reputation is your most important asset, more than your knowledge. If you're a reliable, honest, easy-to-worth with person, then clients will forgive your lack of knowledge. But if you're a brilliant jerk, then no one will hire you.

And yes, stop work if a client fails to pay. It's so tempting to say, "Well, they're nice, and if I just do xyz for them, they'll pay." No, you've found a deadbeat client. Join the club.

But there are other parts of this with which I'll disagree.

Chief among them: Contracts are important, but I see them as a formality more than anything else. If I have to sue a client, then it's all over anyway; the time and legal fees won't be worth chasing. I work with people with whom I get along and (generally) have mutual trust.

Also: I've consistently charged at the top of the market for the last few years. Some clients don't want to pay top dollar for Python training, but others do -- and the ones who do are the easiest to work with, who understand that they're spending a lot, but also getting a huge ROI.

I've been consulting since 1995. I started with a lot of different things (Web projects, Unix system administration, tech consulting), and now do 100% Python training.

I am incredibly happy with my work. I get to do what I want, earn a good living, have almost zero meetings, and am constantly learning new things.

But I made many, many mistakes along the way, leading to years of so-so income, limited sleep, and limited time with family.

My biggest mistake was trying to do too many different things. By focusing on one type of problem, you'll gain expertise (useful when helping clients). But you'll also gain a reputation for solving those sorts of problems, and clients will start to find you.

You still need to learn how to market yourself. You need to learn how to ask for money (which I found hard). You need to get a sense for who will stiff you (and some clients will!).

Indeed, a big problem with many consultants is that they forget they're running a business. When you're an employee, you can ignore all of the business stuff; you get a paycheck, and someone takes care of all of the little and big things, from invoicing to taxes to contracts to angry clients. When it's just you, you get to do all of that.

You can take a look at the podcast I do, the Business of Freelancing: https://businessoffreelancing.com/ (We'll hopefully start to record a third season in the coming weeks.)

Beyond that, I strongly recommend Philip Morgan's "Positioning Manual," which can help you figure out just what niche you want to enter.

Best of luck! And remember: If consulting doesn't work out, you're not a failure. It's not the best match for some personalities, markets, places, and times. But if you can make it work, then power to you, and I wish you the satisfaction and success that I've had.

Yeah, I ran my own e-mail server from 1995 until about 10 years ago. It used to be fairly simple, but between incoming spam and attacks, the various standards that were developed, and my e-mail not getting through... this became a problem that was worth paying someone a few dollars a month to solve for me.

I still use my own domain, but I'll let actual delivery and security experts deal with the day-to-day running of things, while I run my business (which definitely isn't that).

It was a bit sad to give up, but the time and frustration it saved have been more than worthwhile.

I just (June 23rd) got e-mail from Brex indicating what their criteria are:

We feel confident in delivering a best-in-class service to customers who meet any of the following criteria:

    Received an equity investment of any amount (accelerator, angel, VC or web3 token);
    More than $1 million a year in revenue;
    More than 50 employees;
    More than $500k in cash;
    Tech startups who are on a path to meeting the criteria above, and are referred by an existing customer or partner.

I'm still rather shocked by how badly they handled this. Even if I weren't a one-person (and highly profitable) consulting business, I wouldn't want to stay with a firm that treats its customers so poorly.

That said, the tone of this letter was far, far better than the previous one. And it gave some clear criteria for who is in, and who is not.

So they handled this poorly, but they've at least made some effort to make things less bad.

100%. As a Brex customer who is getting kicked off, I would have paid $10/month to avoid the hassle I'll now deal with.

I've been using Brex for a few years. I didn't ask for much beyond an Internet bank into which Stripe and clients could deposit income, and from which I could make payments.

If they had said, "Below a certain balance, we'll need to charge you a fee," I likely would have paid it. The annoyance factor of switching banks, payment from my various vendors, etc., is not small.

Instead, I got a completely out-of-the-blue e-mail telling me that I have about two months to switch banks, and that there's nothing to talk about.

I'll echo those who wrote that if this was, as the CEO wrote, "an incredibly difficult decision for me and the team," it should have been given more thought than a "We're kicking you off -- good riddance" message.

I'm disappointed as a customer. But I'm also disappointed as a person in the tech space, where such poor behavior toward your customers is considered acceptable. More transparency and empathy could have turned this from an infuriating PR mess to a frustrating-but-understandable pivot by a fintech startup.

I didn't see your original post. But I'm delighted to hear that things have improved.

There's no doubt that stress in your career can lead to stress at home. Certainly, when I'm stressed about my work (or when my wife is stressed about hers), it can be difficult on our relationship. And then, as they say, you have two problems. Moreover, it can feel hopeless.

So many people say that you have to work for a big, famous company, with huge compensation packages. But once you're getting paid well, there are other important things: Do you care about the work you're doing? Are you treated decently at work? Do they give you responsibility, and the power to make decisions?

There are oodles of people out there making good wages at companies we've never heard of, working with people they like, on projects they believe add value to the world. Such jobs aren't glamorous, and won't make the front page of the newspaper, but it doesn't matter.

I love my work. I feel fortunate to do what I do. And when I tell people this, they are often taken aback, and say, "Wow, you're really lucky. I don't like my work; I just do it for the paycheck." So if you have this kind of excitement, energy, enjoyment, and fulfillment from your new job -- then you've won, as it were. You should feel good about this, and should consider yourself among the rare, fortunate folks in that situation.

In short, it's great to hear about someone who has found satisfaction in their work. And if that satisfaction has improved your marriage? All the better.

There are very, very few breaking changes within Python 3. If you're an individual user, then upgrading to the latest version is almost certainly a good idea.

But there are lots of companies that release software using Python. To ensure a stable production environment, they upgrade more slowly, or on a schedule that's distinct from the Python release cycle.

Also, companies often don't just let people upgrade things themselves. The IT department schedules a company-wide Python upgrade, for example, testing the effects beforehand. I have several training clients still using 3.7 and 3.8, not because things would break with 3.10, but because they haven't fully vetted the newest version, and they're being super conservative.

I do wonder if companies will be a bit faster to upgrade over the coming years, given that execution speed is expected to improve rather dramatically. Upgrading won't be a matter of some nice-to-have features, but rather of real savings in system usage.

I've had a fantastic time writing books (Python Workout and Pandas Workout) for Manning. They do great work, and are incredibly patient with me. They have helped to make my books far better than they otherwise would have been. I have no doubt that O'Reilly does a similarly good job. (I don't publish with O'Reilly, but I do teach for them online, and have been impressed.)

That said: Writing a book is a long slog. It's hard and frustrating. And at the end of the process, you have an amazing feeling and some money -- definitely less than you would have gotten if you had done consulting during that time, though.

I do corporate Python training. Do companies hire me because I've written books? Not really. But it definitely adds to my credibility.

At the end of the day, I write because I enjoy explaining and teaching, knowing I'm helping people all over the world, and seeing my name on a book cover. If you're doing it for the money, you're almost certainly going to be disappointed. Knowing that I'm working with great professionals who share my goals and want to create the best possible product adds to my motivation.

I've only been doing Python training for a few years now. I've made more money, had more flexibility, and been happier than at any previous time in my consulting career (which started in 1995).

Here are two interviews I've given on the subject:

- https://devjourney.info/Guests/83-ReuvenLerner.html - https://doubleyourfreelancing.com/business-freelancing-episo...

I'm always happy to talk about training. I love it, and recommend that everyone in the consulting world look into it more.

I also have a training newsletter, at https://TrainerWeekly.com/.

He did go with the AWS free credits. And then spent a long time getting angry with me and trying not to pay me, because I had supposedly cost him so much, and he wanted to dump the other server company. Sigh.

I'm not an employee, and didn't exactly get fired -- but I chose a cloud vendor for a client that seemed like the best choice at the time, with what I knew. The client was over-the-moon happy that we had found something to satisfy his needs. After switching, his costs went down dramatically, and his downtime went to zero (from rather high, which is why he brought me in). He was happy to sign a contract with the vendor

Then, about two months later, the client got into an accelerator, where they got free AWS credits. Suddenly, my choice didn't seem as good -- mostly because paying nothing is cheaper than paying something. (Never mind that the vendor I had gone with had stellar service, which was one of the reasons we chose them.)

The client told the cloud provider that I had been unauthorized to speak on the company's behalf (untrue), that no one had told him we were signing a contract (not true), and tried to wiggle out of the contract (which went nowhere). That didn't go anywhere. So he got angry with me, and canceled our consulting agreement.

As it happens, that client was simultaneously trying to figure out how to pay for taxes and pensions, and was getting rid of some other people. So it wasn't a direct cause-and-effect. But it did happen.

And this is yet another reason why I've been delighted to get out of the "regular" consulting world, and switch to only doing training.

A good point; I'm not sure. But Moroccans are typically not that dark.

I'm guessing (and this is truly a guess) that if vitamin D and/or exposure to sun has something to do with it, then skin tone is a factor but might well be outweighed by the others.

There was a newspaper article (in Israel, where I live) on this subject. It noted that the two populations most mostly likely to suffer from covid are Haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews) and Arabs, both of which tend to dress conservatively, and the latter of which have darker skin than the average Israeli, and thus might have less vitamin D in their systems.

Of course, these two populations also tend to be poorer and have larger families living together, so there are other factors to consider as well.

For example, Israelis are told to worry about skin cancer, and thus tend to use sunblock when going out in the summer. Which removes the chance of serious vitamin D generation, from what I understand.

I find the discussion of vitamin D to be very interesting, but it feels like we need a few more studies to determine whether this is the big one. But the more discussions I see, the more I think it might actually explain quite a lot.

I completely agree.

I understand the economics and problems with print, but nothing beats getting a printed magazine in the newspaper every so often.

I still get the daily newspaper on paper for that reason, along with the Economist, New Yorker, and Atlantic. I might be a dinosaur, but I'm a happy dinosaur.

Wow. I guess there is some good news in 2020, after all!

I wrote a monthly column for LJ for 20 years (!), and loved it, both as an author and as a reader. (I also loved hearing from people around the world who read it. Many of the subscribers to my "Better developers" weekly newsletter about Python tell me that they used to read my columns.)

Linux Journal died twice in the last few years, and when it closed in the summer of 2019, we were sure that this was the end.

Then I got e-mail from someone a few weeks ago, asking if I knew anything about Slashdot buying LJ. I had no idea, and asked a few other LJ alumni on Twitter what they knew, which was nothing. The info was on Slashdot's site, but there weren't any other details other than the mention of a purchase.

Let's hope that it works out this time around. I wish the best of success to Slashdot, the new Linux Journal, and the readership.