I remember typing in hex programs from Compute! magazine to my C64. It would take a long time and, of course, I made at least one error along the way and had to start over.
1,564 karma · joined September 25, 2019
In the US, it’s a sprint towards meeting goals tied to government funding (“core curriculum “, etc.) And so many get left behind in that sprint, often feeling they’re ‘not smart enough’ or ‘not a math person’.
I've heard a lot recently about 'picking the right college major'. It's normal to worry about such things. I remember.
But I think obsessing over picking the 'right' college degree is a waste of time. If you have particular interests, follow them in college, but waste no more time worrying if you've made the 'right' choice.
I'm in my 50s. I've heard hundreds of stories of the twists and turns of lives and the role of college in them--including my own. I was dead set on being an electrical engineer, and the first year and a half of college was in that subject. I was certain I was destined to invent the next power source and change the world with it.
I ended up with an undergrad in history, and (years later) a graduate degree in urban planning. I've been in the 'tech' business for 30-odd years as a technical writer, then usability engineer, then software developer, then analyst/product owner/whatever.
The best 'engineer' I know has an undergrad in fine arts. They own three software patents; they also make pottery.
My 'old guy' advice to those staring down college decisions:
The road doesn't matter very much. Taking steps matters. Just keep taking action and learning and adjusting and, for god's sake, enjoy your life. It's a dance, not a long march towards 'eventual' happiness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERbvKrH-GC4
1. Drop shippers 're-branding' stuff from SE Asia
2. Amazon-branded clones of successful products.
#2 is where Amazon has been headed all along.
No, I'm not talking about 'study x showed people like walkable cities', I'm talking about efforts like making connections between the correlated explosion in mental and physical health issues and the rise of large, dense cities.
Portland covers 145 square miles, is geographically diverse, and has a profoundly hollowed out middle class that comes in part from pandering to failed ideas like those of Richard Florida (who has himself admitted being wrong). Now, 1 in 5 Portland kids live in poverty, Californians and foreign investors buy entire neighborhoods and build block upon block of condo boxes, and the cost of living is through the roof. There is no 'Portlandia' here, just caricatures and deepening poverty and a bizarrely out of touch municipal government elected based on pet ideas.
And the average age of Portland residents? ~37 and rising. The percent of the population that are children (<19 years) has declined over 30% in the last two decades. It's a city for tourists, real estate speculation and arbitrage, and amenities pandering to an ever-older base.
Like everything else in life involving more than one human.
1. Stand for first ~1 hour of the day.
2. Depending on how I feel, alternate sitting/standing about every hour or so until lunch.
3. After lunchtime, stand for ~30-60 minutes.
4. Repeat step 2 until end of day.
I also walk for ~30 minutes/day in the mid-morning. When I return from that, I sit.
I also take eye breaks and try to use a pomodoro method (25 min working, 5 min. looking away/etc).
The key to feeling good seems to be variety, as the article implies. I can't ever go back to a sitting-only desk arrangement.
I think the idea that 'repos are just for code' hasn't been valid for several years now.
[EDIT], Folks, obesity is a result of metabolic disease. Obesity is an epidemic, and the science is abundant on this. This isn't a grammatic nuance, it's the essence of the global obesity epidemic that results from diet and eating habits. It's literally the foundation of the growing understanding amongst medical professionals of why low-carb diets and fasting work dramatically on this.
But when it comes to laptops and Linux, I never buy a 'good Linux laptop'--I buy 'a good laptop that also runs Linux well'. There's really no such thing as a 'Linux laptop' for me--I want a great laptop first, Linux compatibility second.
DnD does nothing novel with storytelling; in fact, it just borrows ideas and tropes from fiction and history.
And that's why the US has thousands of medical-caused bankruptcies yearly.
Source: I work for a major insurer/provider on the West Coast.
It's really just one notch above the drop-shipping 'dream'.
2. You learn and become different at each of those stages, too.
3. There is no way to 'prepare' for fatherhood. It is utterly on the job training, and you just have to show up, do your best, and learn as you go.