Recently

I'm thinking of doing monthly updates of what I've been up to. I think it's a good to keep myself posting on the blog. Also, I stole the idea from macwright.org.

Productivity

I recently started onepodshop with no knowledge of Wordpress, Woocommerce, Php, nginx, or basically anything related to the stack. It's always nice to shock the system. The first day feels like you're drowning, but then you start to tread water, and then you start to swim.

Write a few automation scripts and you're aquaman. It's crazy how much you improve if you just start doing it every day.

You really can get so much done if you start getting the hang of something.

I'm also always shocked at how, instead of getting more done, I just do nothing with my extra time! Sometimes I fall back on pretending like I worked as much as possible by pointing to my work hours. The sneaky part is that you need to keep yourself dedicated to excellence because nobody is going to hold you to that standard. Realistically, I think I have ~3x worth of output in me unused. I just need to figure out how to get it out.

Books

This was a great month for reading. I finished three books, all of which I thouroughly enjoyed.

The Pheonix Project by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford

Wow, I was caught off guard by how much I enjoyed this book. At it's core it's a book about development and operations. But the way it's delivered is through a story. A fictional setting for some company "Parts Unlimited" that has a struggling IT department. The story is told through the eyes of the new VP of IT Operations who is tasked with turning the department around.

The story is enjoyable as a story, and it instills some good lessons about how to run a company. I can truly say it's my favorite business book I've ever read. I think I might be an operations person at heart! I'm excited to read the sequel.

Candide: Or Optimism by Voltaire

What can one say that hasn't already been said? This book is a real classic - but don't let that fool you. It doesn't read like a classic at all. It's super short, hilarious, and full of adventure. I feel like it could have been written yesterday on fanfiction.net or something. It's also still geniuinely funny. I laughed out loud a few times. It's full of sex & violence, a real page turner.

Highly recommended, espcially if you're the type of person who doesn't like to read classics.

No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai, as interpreted by Junji Ito

This is a manga adaptation of a classic Japanese novel. The novel follows a protagonist who is deeply disturbed and alienated from society. He inadvertedly hurts everyone around him, and is unable to connect with anyone. It's a very dark story, and the manga adaptation has the trademark Ito macabre style. Not for the faint of heart, but watching two masters of the craft work together is a real treat.