Work, Fun, Games, Learning, Priorities, Achievements, Python 3, Let's Encrypt, Scaleway, Phone Fail

Post date: May 9, 2016 3:20:21 PM

• Why do we work so hard? - Excellent article? Raises also great questions. But I've been thinking this hard over and over again earlier. I love working, learning and challenges. I wonder if there would be better uses for time than working? Ok, I confess. I do cycle during summer quite a bit, but even then Kindle is with me, and if I'm taking a break I'll be reading tech stuff as I do also on my vacations always. I've often wondered why people hate work so much? What's wrong with it? Ok, sometimes there's excess challenge or time pressure. 100 things I would need to master, but not time to master even two of those things properly. Yes, that's too demanding and can be frustrating. But then it's just time to adapt. Pick top priorities and do those adequately, nothing fancy, but gets the job done. That's what you'll have to live with. So, would watching cat videos and drinking at home be someway more beneficial than working? I really don't think so. I've got a bunch of great friends who agree with me. Some do demanding jobs as they've mentioned in the article, which is basically either working, or studying for the work. If the work isn't that challenging they might have two jobs so they can avoid the parts of life where you go and whine that there's nothing to do. Work isn't that bad at all afaik, as well as when I do things, I know I'm just good often that it alone makes me happy. So what if I spend weekends studying the stuff I want to know all about. I acknowledge that if there's too much pressure in this setup, there's a risk of burnout. I have avoided it, but I've been terribly close, so I know the signs to watch for. Yes, there are many things which I would like to do, if I would have time. But after all that's all up to priorities and simply being realistic about what you can achieve with limited time and resources. As example, during last weekend I coded and studied for about 30 hours. On top of that I did make a few nice meals and had a walk in sunshine and some sleep. Even after that I felt I made less progress with the projects I would have wanted to. One great example is that if you would have free time you could play game like Pandemic. But truth is that Pandemic game is just like work, it's co-operative assessing and optimization task, how to clean up the infections on board in most efficient way using skills the players (or play characters) got. So, why is some work (board game, strategy games, or complex card game) more interesting than basically similar other work (program code / SQL query optimization / logic refactoring)? Isn't it fun game to tinker and think about project tasks and critical path and figure out ways to optimize it? Sometimes there's no other way than cut the corners, but even then, it's extremely important to know and carefully think which corners can be cut without causing disaster. I would actually find that trend reversed. By spending a 6 hours playing complex board game, I've simply managed to waste a lot of time, which I could have used for something much more productive. Or some other stupid ideas like heading to bar. First you lose time, next you lose money, then you lose health points. And even on top, you'll be wasting the efficient work of the next day while suffering hangover and after a night probably not so well slept. I wonder how stupid people are when they head to the bar. Anyway, what's better than waking up at middle of the night and knowing sigh, now I know where what the problem with dead locking in the code is and fixing it in the middle of the night?
• Previous point just brought me to the point which happens every time when talking to friends about vacation trips. Either they have time or money, but not usually both. Slackers don't work and do not have money, and professionals who prefer to work, really don't have time to waste on vacation trip.
• Python 3 is Winning - Finally.
• Let's Encrypt has issued Million Certifications - This is great. Finally.
• It took just two minutes to fire up the server at Scaleway. I did run some very quick basic tests, which do not require installing additional testing software. I was very happy for the performance, when comparing it to the cost of server. Networking was clearly fast as well as CPU okish, and local SSD worked as expected performing great. It's not hard core server obviously, but it's great when you check out the cost and if you just don't need more.
• Technology as usual: One of my phones reboots often while being shutting down. Great job. Then you need to retry the shutdown after it finishes rebooting first.