So as mentioned in my last post (HERE), that I belong in business. However, we never really addressed the issue of what we should consider how to sense your potential.
In order to see your potential, you have to revisit your youth. You need to take a re-look at that thought of "I can do anything, and nothing can stop me." Now that you have the weight of being an adult, and have adult responsibilities, you can look forward to some realistic goals. Once you think you can hit some realistic goals as your potential....reach higher. I mean really stretch yourself. If you want to make $50,000 a year, turn that into $500,000. This is called 10xing your dreams and thoughts.
Once you can adjust yourself to this train of thought, the next step is easy. You see, if you believe you have it in you to hit that $500,000 a year, the problem then becomes how. If you have the confidence in yourself that you can really hit that number, then rest is easy.
Do you believe there is a shortage of money? Your not smart enough? Daring enough? Whats your excuse? Because of you do not think you have it in you to hit that number, whatever the number is, you are wrong. Quite honestly, stop making excuses. Your too tall, short, fat, skinny, the wrong color, born into a "middle class"....all excuses. There is more than an abundance of money on this planet, especially in America. When we run low on money in this country...we literally print more. Mr.Benjamin just gets to printing more.
All you have to do is find out who has the money, and how to get closer to that person.
Every single person in our world has the ability to make money. Even the handicapped have the capability, save the person that is legitimately handicapped that is stuck in a vegetable state, or semi-vegetable state. There are exceptions, but take a true look at your excuses, are they really valid? I mean really valid?
Stop looking at the people around you, if you are even reading this with any genuine thought of "is that me?", although everyone has the capability, most people have tricked themselves into thinking they do not want it. What do you want?
For me, I want freedom. I want freedom of choices. I am tired of being a slave. I have been a slave my whole life, the school system, the fact I work for Corporate America, how I was taught to find what I like to do in life, and be satisfied with a middle class situation. I want the freedom to choose what I do with my time, and how I spend it.
I was taught growing up that money doesn't make you happy, quoting Grant Cardone, a quote I fully agree with, "Money doesn't make you happy, but having money doesn't make you unhappy either." I've been in the no money situation, and guess what, I'm not a fan. If I could have money, yet feel the same I do today, my options grow. The ability I have to make my own decisions and the freedom to choose.
All of you have the ability to choose the decision you want in life. My potential is the difference between my current reality and my potential. I have always had the feeling I was meant for more, and could do more. Being stuck in a lower management job has always left me feeling lack luster. I need to move up, I need to grow professionally and personally.
My wanting to grow personally has left me doing many things, and I am truely happy doing these things outside of my regular job. Most people would say I work too much. I work my 44-50 hours a week at my regular job, and then come home and work another 20-30 hours a week.
What others call work and a "trouble", I call it expanding myself, trying everything I can to see what sticks and what I'm good at.
I enjoy writing. That is why I wrote a book, I've talked about writing a book for years, yet I have never done it until this year. I decided I could do it, and was going to do it. Once I decided I could, the only question was how. A quick google search told me how to do it. I spent a couple of hours researching how to do it, and then dove in head first. I had decided I could do it, so all that was left, was to do it.
My book "Build Yourself, Build Your Career - A Different Approach to Promotions" was published earlier this year. It will pay me royalties forever. Do you see how money can be tied to happiness? I've always wanted to write a book and I did. The fruit of what I want, will pay me forever. I will forever have it published and be able to make money off of it.
If you are determined to work to your potential, you can find a way to reap the benefits of it. I am telling you, there is a way to make money off of anything. Working to your potential may leave you feeling better than anything else ever could.
Work to your potential, you will thank me for it. I can promise you.
I love inspirational quotes, in times of awkward silence it is a nice break. Check out this book some cheap but awesome quotes!
Friday, April 28, 2017
Turning 30 is Harder Than You Think Part 2
In my last post(HERE), we took at look at what "current reality" is. Mine is in a place of being stuck. Stuck isn't a bad thing for some people, but to achieve the next part of our definition of success, being stuck is a bad thing.
So the next part of the quote, "Success is the difference between your current reality, and your potential.", is focused on potential. Potential is what you are capable of. If everything went the way you wanted, what could you accomplish, do, learn, etc.
We were taught when we were young to reach for the skies. There is no limit to what you can do, do what makes you happy! In our early twenties we realize this was a little far fetched of an idea. When the realities of adult responsibilities set in. Sometimes we get down on ourselves for how heavy these responsibilities feel, when you start your march into adulthood the weight of the responsibilities crush down any aspirations you once had of achieving true greatness.
I was interested in becoming at doctor at one point. I was not held back by brains or physically, it was the weight of the life I had started to create. Remember...I was achieving success in everyone's eyes. I was not going after this to impress anyone, but I thought I was definitely headed in the right direction. I had a well paying job, was in school, and as all of this was going on, I started building a stable life for myself. How could I move away and take on uncertainty with all of this safeness I had created. Rather than going after the unknown for a better life, I convinced myself I was satisfied, safe, and recoiled back inside of myself in fear of the unknown.
Fast forward a few years, I look around at my surroundings and realize that I really am not satisfied. Essentially living paycheck to paycheck, a couple thousand dollars at any given time in my bank accounts. I had more cushion at a younger age than most everyone around me, financially at least.
I felt stuck, like it was time to jump ship and make a move to a new place, a new place in my life, not my physical location.
I went back to school, still chasing the idea of of what success is in another persons eyes, most peoples eyes, at least most people around me. Once again feeling the rumbles of success with a new twinkle in my eye, I marched forward hard crashing through school like a hot blade through butter. School comes easy to me, I do not have to put as much effort into learning enough to get good grades, although in my opinion schools are not even close to what they should be. You can slide through college with a four year degree pretty easy, as long as you show up, do the homework, you can fail most tests and still get a degree, which is somewhat sad.
I finished the degree and looked hard for a new job. Doing everything in my power to start anew, still chasing the fabled dream of what success is. I began feeling doubt creep in, it seeped into my entire being, and before I realized, it had overtaken me. I hit my lowest point, not being able to learn programming quick enough, and could not find a job with either of my degrees.
I looked inward first, and assessed. I stopped blaming external forces, and started to take responsibility. Becoming a programmer was not in my cards. I know I could have done it if I continued, but the cost was just too high for me. It was in this time period of assessing that I realized I belong in business, and business is where I need to be.
So the next part of the quote, "Success is the difference between your current reality, and your potential.", is focused on potential. Potential is what you are capable of. If everything went the way you wanted, what could you accomplish, do, learn, etc.
We were taught when we were young to reach for the skies. There is no limit to what you can do, do what makes you happy! In our early twenties we realize this was a little far fetched of an idea. When the realities of adult responsibilities set in. Sometimes we get down on ourselves for how heavy these responsibilities feel, when you start your march into adulthood the weight of the responsibilities crush down any aspirations you once had of achieving true greatness.
I was interested in becoming at doctor at one point. I was not held back by brains or physically, it was the weight of the life I had started to create. Remember...I was achieving success in everyone's eyes. I was not going after this to impress anyone, but I thought I was definitely headed in the right direction. I had a well paying job, was in school, and as all of this was going on, I started building a stable life for myself. How could I move away and take on uncertainty with all of this safeness I had created. Rather than going after the unknown for a better life, I convinced myself I was satisfied, safe, and recoiled back inside of myself in fear of the unknown.
Fast forward a few years, I look around at my surroundings and realize that I really am not satisfied. Essentially living paycheck to paycheck, a couple thousand dollars at any given time in my bank accounts. I had more cushion at a younger age than most everyone around me, financially at least.
I felt stuck, like it was time to jump ship and make a move to a new place, a new place in my life, not my physical location.
I went back to school, still chasing the idea of of what success is in another persons eyes, most peoples eyes, at least most people around me. Once again feeling the rumbles of success with a new twinkle in my eye, I marched forward hard crashing through school like a hot blade through butter. School comes easy to me, I do not have to put as much effort into learning enough to get good grades, although in my opinion schools are not even close to what they should be. You can slide through college with a four year degree pretty easy, as long as you show up, do the homework, you can fail most tests and still get a degree, which is somewhat sad.
I finished the degree and looked hard for a new job. Doing everything in my power to start anew, still chasing the fabled dream of what success is. I began feeling doubt creep in, it seeped into my entire being, and before I realized, it had overtaken me. I hit my lowest point, not being able to learn programming quick enough, and could not find a job with either of my degrees.
I looked inward first, and assessed. I stopped blaming external forces, and started to take responsibility. Becoming a programmer was not in my cards. I know I could have done it if I continued, but the cost was just too high for me. It was in this time period of assessing that I realized I belong in business, and business is where I need to be.
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Turning 30 Is Harder Than You Think Part 1
So here I am, with a new sense of what success looks like. Taking a look at my situation and where I am at in life gave me a pretty good idea of how successful I was. If you recall in my last post (HERE) I quoted the definition of success as "The difference between your current reality and your potential.
First off, lets dive into the first part of that quote, specifically "current reality". When you take a look at your current reality, you need to be honest with yourself. What is working for you? What is not working for you?
When I turned 30 this last year I took at look at my current reality. A very harsh and truthful reality. It actually hit me while showering. I had been unhappy in my job for awhile, I didn't feel like I was gaining traction in programming at a rate that would allow me to quite my job before I went crazy with negative thoughts.
I was 30 and not anywhere close to where I wanted to be in my life. By my friends and family's definition I was a success, and over achiever even. With two Bachelors degrees, my own house, a well paying job...life should be good no?
Grant Cardone talks about finding your purpose, what drives you. You see, when you work towards achieving another person's vision of success you automatically are failing yourself. For 30 years I had worked towards someone else's definition of success, and for 30 years I had drug my feet along, going through the motions to get there. At the end of the tunnel there was a pale light, over the years it got dimmer and dimmer. This pale light showed images of myself being rich, a big house, lots of land, and all the other material things a younger person could want.
See, when I started getting closer to this goal via the route that I had been told my entire life, it felt like the light got dimmer at the end of the tunnel. The vision began to fade. I lusted hard after those things for so long, and so often, I forgot what I was really about. I forgot why I wanted those things. It wasn't greed. It wasn't about the status of being rich. It was none of those things.
It took me 30 years to finally find my purpose, or rather the thing that drives me. Yes I still want all of those material things, but a switch got flipped for me, mentally. For so long I attached success with money. Money has nothing to do with success for me. I want freedom. I want to be able to do as I please. If I choose to work for a large corporation, it should be my choice. Although I could step away at any time, because we all have choices, I still have responsibilities. This is where my current reality lands. I am stuck with my job. I am stuck with my responsibilities. I have to slog through work when I don't feel like it, because if I don't the consequences far out weight the benefits of just quitting on the spot.
I have always felt I was better than whatever I was doing. I never thought of it in an arrogant way, its just....whatever I was doing was lack luster. Take my corporate job for example. I am damn good at what I do, and it benefits the company. However, I have always felt that I could make a much larger impact on the people I work around, and the company I work for, if I were in a higher position. That is my current reality.
I will tackle potential in my next post.
I want you to think about your current reality. Just assess, do not frown or fain on where you are currently at, just assess. Think about what your current reality is, have an honest conversation with yourself.
First off, lets dive into the first part of that quote, specifically "current reality". When you take a look at your current reality, you need to be honest with yourself. What is working for you? What is not working for you?
When I turned 30 this last year I took at look at my current reality. A very harsh and truthful reality. It actually hit me while showering. I had been unhappy in my job for awhile, I didn't feel like I was gaining traction in programming at a rate that would allow me to quite my job before I went crazy with negative thoughts.
I was 30 and not anywhere close to where I wanted to be in my life. By my friends and family's definition I was a success, and over achiever even. With two Bachelors degrees, my own house, a well paying job...life should be good no?
Grant Cardone talks about finding your purpose, what drives you. You see, when you work towards achieving another person's vision of success you automatically are failing yourself. For 30 years I had worked towards someone else's definition of success, and for 30 years I had drug my feet along, going through the motions to get there. At the end of the tunnel there was a pale light, over the years it got dimmer and dimmer. This pale light showed images of myself being rich, a big house, lots of land, and all the other material things a younger person could want.
See, when I started getting closer to this goal via the route that I had been told my entire life, it felt like the light got dimmer at the end of the tunnel. The vision began to fade. I lusted hard after those things for so long, and so often, I forgot what I was really about. I forgot why I wanted those things. It wasn't greed. It wasn't about the status of being rich. It was none of those things.
It took me 30 years to finally find my purpose, or rather the thing that drives me. Yes I still want all of those material things, but a switch got flipped for me, mentally. For so long I attached success with money. Money has nothing to do with success for me. I want freedom. I want to be able to do as I please. If I choose to work for a large corporation, it should be my choice. Although I could step away at any time, because we all have choices, I still have responsibilities. This is where my current reality lands. I am stuck with my job. I am stuck with my responsibilities. I have to slog through work when I don't feel like it, because if I don't the consequences far out weight the benefits of just quitting on the spot.
I have always felt I was better than whatever I was doing. I never thought of it in an arrogant way, its just....whatever I was doing was lack luster. Take my corporate job for example. I am damn good at what I do, and it benefits the company. However, I have always felt that I could make a much larger impact on the people I work around, and the company I work for, if I were in a higher position. That is my current reality.
I will tackle potential in my next post.
I want you to think about your current reality. Just assess, do not frown or fain on where you are currently at, just assess. Think about what your current reality is, have an honest conversation with yourself.
Friday, April 21, 2017
The Destiny was never known.
To start off, I'm sorry it has been so long since I have written anything.
I will try to pick up some where close to where my last story left off.
I continued programming and learning as much as I could. I spent nights, weekends, days off studying. Reading, writing code, analyzing the market for a job. I applied to thousands of jobs, quite literally, thousands. I probably went through two to three dozen interviews with a variety of companies.
Through these interviews it became very clear and inherent that I did not have the skill to gain a job as a programmer. I did get some job offers, but the ones I got were either contract, or paid so low that I could not afford my mortgage on it.
I even tried doing some freelance coding. I could not get anywhere with freelance coding either. Though I spent three years of my life, countless hours, obtained another bachelors in Computer Programming, all of this was simply not enough to replace my corporate job paying me around $50k per year.
I came across a tough decision when this realization came about. I had just turned 30 years old, last November, and it was a rough age to turn. Looking at my life I was successful by almost everyone's standards. What is success though? My whole life I have been looking for a way to define it. Everyone says "Congrats" on "that job" or "that degree", but what if you don't feel it.
What do you do when you go through the daily motions of feeling like you were meant or more than a simple degree, yet you do not know what? How do you try to even define or justify this feeling? With everyone around you patting you on the back and telling you how good you have done, its hard to pursue the feeling that you should be doing more, or should have done more.
I believe I heard this definition of success from a man by the name of Grant Cardone, "Success is the difference between your current reality, and your potential.". This hits on every single level for me, and is right up my alley.
I have achieved what everyone else considers feats of magnificence, and yet I still felt hollow and empty like I was meant for something else, something different. Not in the way of "I want to save the world!", but just something different that no one would understand until I had achieved it.
I leave you with that as a final thought. Are you working towards, and achieving success by someone else's definition, or by your own? How do you define success? Please reach out for your potential. Getting into the mindset that you have so much more to offer for yourself, your family, and the world will take you to places that you never dreamed of.
I think this is an awesome book and it touches very heavily on reaching for your potential. This is a book that I lend out to as many people as I can get to read it, then encourage them to look into the other items by this author, as I like his content. Grant Cardone is a very successful business man, and his content, in my opinion, is some of the best out there.
The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure
I will try to pick up some where close to where my last story left off.
I continued programming and learning as much as I could. I spent nights, weekends, days off studying. Reading, writing code, analyzing the market for a job. I applied to thousands of jobs, quite literally, thousands. I probably went through two to three dozen interviews with a variety of companies.
Through these interviews it became very clear and inherent that I did not have the skill to gain a job as a programmer. I did get some job offers, but the ones I got were either contract, or paid so low that I could not afford my mortgage on it.
I even tried doing some freelance coding. I could not get anywhere with freelance coding either. Though I spent three years of my life, countless hours, obtained another bachelors in Computer Programming, all of this was simply not enough to replace my corporate job paying me around $50k per year.
I came across a tough decision when this realization came about. I had just turned 30 years old, last November, and it was a rough age to turn. Looking at my life I was successful by almost everyone's standards. What is success though? My whole life I have been looking for a way to define it. Everyone says "Congrats" on "that job" or "that degree", but what if you don't feel it.
What do you do when you go through the daily motions of feeling like you were meant or more than a simple degree, yet you do not know what? How do you try to even define or justify this feeling? With everyone around you patting you on the back and telling you how good you have done, its hard to pursue the feeling that you should be doing more, or should have done more.
I believe I heard this definition of success from a man by the name of Grant Cardone, "Success is the difference between your current reality, and your potential.". This hits on every single level for me, and is right up my alley.
I have achieved what everyone else considers feats of magnificence, and yet I still felt hollow and empty like I was meant for something else, something different. Not in the way of "I want to save the world!", but just something different that no one would understand until I had achieved it.
I leave you with that as a final thought. Are you working towards, and achieving success by someone else's definition, or by your own? How do you define success? Please reach out for your potential. Getting into the mindset that you have so much more to offer for yourself, your family, and the world will take you to places that you never dreamed of.
I think this is an awesome book and it touches very heavily on reaching for your potential. This is a book that I lend out to as many people as I can get to read it, then encourage them to look into the other items by this author, as I like his content. Grant Cardone is a very successful business man, and his content, in my opinion, is some of the best out there.
The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Being Open Minded Future Paths
I just decided to write this as it somewhat pertains to what I is going on this week with me, as well as just life in general.
I have found that you will have a much easier life if you more or less just go with the flow. Now, not to be contradictory to some of my other posts and sayings, I do believe that you get out of life and careers what you put in.
The person working 60 hours a week versus the person working 40 hours a week gets an extra 2 weeks worth of experience in each month compared to the person working 40 hours a week. Working hard at a goal is great and needed to progress, if that is in your long term goals.
However, consider this for a moment...lets pretend that you want to be a Software Developer. In this scenario you currently are not in a technology role at all. You spend as much personal time as you can afford without angering your spouse, neglecting your "adult" duties, etc, working towards become a Software Developer.
You'd almost give your right thumb just to even get into a technology role, to #1 Get out of your current job/industry and #2 Take a step in the right direction towards becoming a Software Developer even if you do not get that title.
What if it meant temporarily trying to learn a new skill set for the interview? Maybe not a totally new skill set, but rather in a different fashion compared to what you have done in the past. Would you do it? I would. I am.
I've applied for many jobs over the last 3-4 years, technology specific over the last 1-2 years. The end of last week I got an email saying with an offer for a DBA (Database Administrator) position interview.
I never lie on my resume or in the application when I am asked about experience, skill set, etc. I want the employer to know what they are getting, and that I will be set up for an amount of success that I can achieve. If the people hiring you don't believe in you, it makes your work life a lot harder.
Of course I graciously accepted the offer for the interview. The position revolved around Oracle/SQL.
I love all types of programming. I am one of those developers that I'd learn any language and love learning it for a job. I don't care what language its in, I enjoy the problem solving, the logic, etc.
After accepting the job interview, I did two things. The first thing I did was pull back up the job posting to get an idea of what I should start prepping for, and the second was researching a day in the life of a DBA. I wanted to make sure it really was something I was going to be ok with doing for an extending period of time. No one can really say "I'd love doing that forever", because eventually when the honeymoon stage wears off it becomes work. When it becomes work, the love sometimes dies with it. However, it is more than fair to say "I'd love to do that for quite awhile." Or something similar.
Now back to my original point. I am open to the idea of being an Oracle Developer. Was it my original intention? No it was not, but that is okay! Its something I would enjoy doing for quite some time.
By switching gears, which is a needed skill for the tech field anyways, and focusing on Oracle for the last week I could view it two ways. I could say I lost a week of working on a website for a client, or that I gained a week of focused SQL Query writing, and gained a little bit of experience with Oracle.
I'm generally not overly optimistic, I prefer realism. In this situation, it is real that I gained a week experience in SQL. It is also real that I lost a week working on a client's website. I guess I should point out that the "client" I am working on is not being ignored or anything, the client doesn't even know yet that I am redesigning his website for him, so cheap it will feel like it was free, in fact it may end up being free.
Anyways, the refresher/experience I gained from the week of Oracle will out weigh my lost week of web development, unless I end up working full time as a freelance web developer, which I do not have plans for...but then again...I always try to stay opened minded for future paths.....
Although I did not use an oracle book to study, I did look online and read some reviews. This author/series seems to have good reviews from most all of the sources I saw...good enough that if I would have had more time this is what I would have chosen to purchase. If you do buy this please leave a rating in the comments on how you liked it!
Oracle Database 11g & MySQL 5.6 Developer Handbook (Oracle Press)
I have found that you will have a much easier life if you more or less just go with the flow. Now, not to be contradictory to some of my other posts and sayings, I do believe that you get out of life and careers what you put in.
The person working 60 hours a week versus the person working 40 hours a week gets an extra 2 weeks worth of experience in each month compared to the person working 40 hours a week. Working hard at a goal is great and needed to progress, if that is in your long term goals.
However, consider this for a moment...lets pretend that you want to be a Software Developer. In this scenario you currently are not in a technology role at all. You spend as much personal time as you can afford without angering your spouse, neglecting your "adult" duties, etc, working towards become a Software Developer.
You'd almost give your right thumb just to even get into a technology role, to #1 Get out of your current job/industry and #2 Take a step in the right direction towards becoming a Software Developer even if you do not get that title.
What if it meant temporarily trying to learn a new skill set for the interview? Maybe not a totally new skill set, but rather in a different fashion compared to what you have done in the past. Would you do it? I would. I am.
I've applied for many jobs over the last 3-4 years, technology specific over the last 1-2 years. The end of last week I got an email saying with an offer for a DBA (Database Administrator) position interview.
I never lie on my resume or in the application when I am asked about experience, skill set, etc. I want the employer to know what they are getting, and that I will be set up for an amount of success that I can achieve. If the people hiring you don't believe in you, it makes your work life a lot harder.
Of course I graciously accepted the offer for the interview. The position revolved around Oracle/SQL.
I love all types of programming. I am one of those developers that I'd learn any language and love learning it for a job. I don't care what language its in, I enjoy the problem solving, the logic, etc.
After accepting the job interview, I did two things. The first thing I did was pull back up the job posting to get an idea of what I should start prepping for, and the second was researching a day in the life of a DBA. I wanted to make sure it really was something I was going to be ok with doing for an extending period of time. No one can really say "I'd love doing that forever", because eventually when the honeymoon stage wears off it becomes work. When it becomes work, the love sometimes dies with it. However, it is more than fair to say "I'd love to do that for quite awhile." Or something similar.
Now back to my original point. I am open to the idea of being an Oracle Developer. Was it my original intention? No it was not, but that is okay! Its something I would enjoy doing for quite some time.
By switching gears, which is a needed skill for the tech field anyways, and focusing on Oracle for the last week I could view it two ways. I could say I lost a week of working on a website for a client, or that I gained a week of focused SQL Query writing, and gained a little bit of experience with Oracle.
I'm generally not overly optimistic, I prefer realism. In this situation, it is real that I gained a week experience in SQL. It is also real that I lost a week working on a client's website. I guess I should point out that the "client" I am working on is not being ignored or anything, the client doesn't even know yet that I am redesigning his website for him, so cheap it will feel like it was free, in fact it may end up being free.
Anyways, the refresher/experience I gained from the week of Oracle will out weigh my lost week of web development, unless I end up working full time as a freelance web developer, which I do not have plans for...but then again...I always try to stay opened minded for future paths.....
Although I did not use an oracle book to study, I did look online and read some reviews. This author/series seems to have good reviews from most all of the sources I saw...good enough that if I would have had more time this is what I would have chosen to purchase. If you do buy this please leave a rating in the comments on how you liked it!
Oracle Database 11g & MySQL 5.6 Developer Handbook (Oracle Press)
Sunday, August 21, 2016
Modern JavaScript Larry Ullman
I wanted to do a quick review on Larry Ullmans book "Modern JavaScript - Develop and Design".
I came by Larry Ullman purely on chance. I watch Eli The Computer Guy on YouTube pretty regularly. Eli's advice is pretty solid, as a business professional, I can tell what he is saying is from years of experience working in a variety of fields/companies/places. So a lot of his advice I don't mind listening too, even actioning on.
Eli has talked about what he calls "The Bunny Books" several times.
Eli has talked about what he calls "The Bunny Books" several times.
When I was ready to start a new language on my own after college, it just happened to work out that it was going to be PHP. Naturally I went after a bunny book. By chance, the bunny book happened to by Larry Ullman.
I like Larry's reasoning, flow, and overall examples in how he writes his books. I looked at other books when I had finished his PHP book, and there was always something that turned me away from it, either the book was boring, examples poorly explained, something was always off. I went back to Ullman and bought his Advanced PHP book, and his JavaScript book.
So to the good part...
Modern JavaScript - Develop and Design by Larry Ullman.
Overall I would give the book an 8/10. However with that being said, I would also only recommend it for someone who understands programming/setup a little. He gives how tos for setup but they feel lack luster in my opinion.
However, once your going and rolling the book focuses heavily on vanilla...or plain javascript. You don't get introduced to other libraries such as Ajax and JQUERY until 10-12 chapters into the book. I wanted to know the gooey core of the language, not the language after it had been rolled around in the dirt and no longer looked quite like the same. Ok maybe a harsh analogy, nothing against Ajax or JQuery...quite the opposite in fact, I genuinely enjoy both libraries. I could write an Ajax post all on its on....updating stuff on pages asynchronously....what! Awesome!
Anyways in the respect of going after the gooey center, this book was perfect for that and I enjoyed learning vanilla immensely.
Anyways in the respect of going after the gooey center, this book was perfect for that and I enjoyed learning vanilla immensely.
He also starts out giving you all of the html you need to pair with the javascript. He very quickly fades this out, and goes to the absolutely needed things such as <div> blocks containing links or forms, as needed for the javascript to work. At times I found this frustrating, and other times refreshing. It forced me to practice thinking about what the programing is doing or trying to accomplish.
If I had any suggestion for the book, it would be inlaid pictures of what the program should look like and accomplish. There were some good parts, and other parts that I could of used even a picture or outline to help me work through it.
Overall I definitely recommend this to someone who is in an early level of skill interested in JavaScript, but also has basic concept of understanding how/what Object Oriented Programming is.
I also highly recommend Larry Ullman as a technical book writer.
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
Being a Software Developer is Unhealthy
I wanted to talk about physical health this week. For those of you who are already developers this is most likely preaching to the choir.
Think for a moment about the stereotypical gaming nerd in his or or 30s or 40s. Do you imagine them fit and healthy? Or do you imagine them locked in a basement staring at their computer screen with empty Mt. Dew bottles around them as they brush off dorito crumbs?
Now ask yourself this, in terms of physical health, what makes that over-weight nerdy gamer different from a software developer? Do we both not sit at a computer for hours on end? Does your body care if your writing JavaScript or playing WoW?
Its true to some extent that complex thinking does take more physical energy and thus burns more calories, but not to a noticeable amount over gaming.
We as software developers need to stay at least somewhat healthy, and there are a couple legitimate reasons.
First off, think of your physical energy. When you just finished pushing code into production and that widget you were so proud of breaks 20 minutes after you leave for the day, will you have the physical energy to walk back in, or log on at home to fix it? Do you physically have another 2-4 hours of work left in you?
Some people barely manage making through an 8 hour shift, let alone 10 or more.
When we exercise and build up our muscles and cardiovascular systems our body is retraining itself, getting stronger, and increasing stamina. It knows that your going to work it out another hour or more after work, and your physiology will allow it if you do it regularly enough. So when that widget breaks, you know that extra 2-4 hours will be a cake walk....at least as far as physical energy goes.
Some people barely manage making through an 8 hour shift, let alone 10 or more.
When we exercise and build up our muscles and cardiovascular systems our body is retraining itself, getting stronger, and increasing stamina. It knows that your going to work it out another hour or more after work, and your physiology will allow it if you do it regularly enough. So when that widget breaks, you know that extra 2-4 hours will be a cake walk....at least as far as physical energy goes.
So another reason we need to stay healthy is mental alertness. You can physically put in another 2-4 hours, but is your brain tired and mushy? I'll write another blog sometime on exercising your brain, but for the sake of physical energy, know that your brain can take up to 20 percent of your total energy. While reaching 20% might be hard, I would venture to guess that software development, a field that problem solves, researches, and learns most of the day probably comes closer to that 20% regularly over other fields.
If you've already used up 15-20 percent of your energy from thinking all day, how do you think your next few hours will go? Problem solving that widget that broke just became a little more taxing.
If you've already used up 15-20 percent of your energy from thinking all day, how do you think your next few hours will go? Problem solving that widget that broke just became a little more taxing.
There are many reasons to be healthy, those are just a couple. There are also many ways to be healthy. Everyone thinks running, walking, or going to the gym is the only way to stay healthy. Would you like to know my cardio routine? I bought my fiance an elliptical a couple of years ago. I put my elliptical in front of my TV, and play Rocket League with friends on PS4. When I need to do strength training, I put my total gym in front of the TV and watch something (most recently it's been a lot of Game of Thrones). My fiance and I are getting married next month and have been taking dance lessons. In the last 2 days we have probably danced a total of 4-5 hours together.....I can't remember the last time my abs were this sore!
Exercising doesn't have to be the horrible grind many people make it. I'm motivated to do it regardless of if I have TV or video games, but having those tools actually makes me look forward to it. Even as I finish this post I am just thinking about how I want to split up my exercise time tonight, and how fun video games sound while I exercise.
Reward yourself with better health. No one can do it for you, it has to be your choice. As a software developer, it's a pretty important one.
Just in case you need to catch up on your Game of Thrones......
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