Open source software is a minor miracle. I consider the people who give away their hard work saints. That doesn’t mean they can’t also be assholes. We have a bunch of different distributions of multiple full-featured operating systems. Credit where credit is due.

My Synology is compatible with an expansion unit and can support two of them. Check if yours can do the same for the storage aspect.

I work for a state agency and that’s going well because the state’s values and my own overlap enough for me to be ok being part of the machine. This is in California. I would never have a state job in Texas. But I would never find myself living in Texas to being with.

Books on early christianity (first two-hundred years) have been super engaging for the past 20 months. I’m an atheist, so this was a surprising topic to be of such interest.

For mainstream opinions, Bart Ehrman has a bunch of books. “How Jesus Became God,” was especially good, as Jesus only preached that he was the Mesiah.

For stuff that’s a bit edgier, there’s the theory that Jesus was an ahistorical figure (three books into that topic and I believe this to be true), you could try Robert M. Price or Earl Doherty.

You could also check out random wikipedia articles. Plus podcasts:

Noble Blood focuses on historical events through the lenses of nobility (I’m a history nerd).

Stuff the British Stole is a seasonal show that deep-dives stolen museum items and their legacy.

(Are you detecting a trend?)

The Fall of Civilizations podcast deep-dives ancient civilizations. Phenomenal.

(Spoiler: I’m a history nerd.)

History of Rome is a long series of short episodes from a historian. It’s very amateur at the beginning.

(There it is again!)

Might be worth seeing a medical professional. My lifelong insomnia turned out to be bi-polar disorder. Getting properly medicated resolved that issue. But also a really rigid sleep schedule was necessary.

People who don’t like “AI” should check out the newsletter and / or podcast of Ed Zitron. He goes hard on the topic.

This is great. /s

AI will never be able to do the stuff Sam Altman pretends is just around the corner. But it’s great at giving the Right plausible fake news machines. Let’s torch the earth for that!

I agree that you should grow it out a bit. How far is debatable.

Disclosure: I am a white guy currently growing my beard out trying to find what length I can get away with while keeping it trimmed.

Jamie Lofus did a podcast: (My Year In Mensa)[https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-my-year-in-mensa-55379945/]

No, because it would lead to civil war. Do I wish it could happen? Yes. But is it realistic? No.

We sure do.

https://getoffpocket.com/

Pro tip: if you own your mistakes and never try to hide or diminish your responsibility, it’s like a secret weapon to diffuse blame. People will accept that you made a mistake and just move on.

Sounds like you got a solid upgrade. I’m happy for you.

I had a business partner. He had an idea for a website that connected parents with childcaregivers. We agreed I would code it and he would do the design. It turned out I should have probed more about his design skills. He had none. All his ideas were terrible, too. He wanted lots of animations during transitions and stuff and I tried to explain that people don’t like that and the site needed to be snappy.

I backed out when I realized he couldn’t deliver his end. I also can’t do design, but I at least knew his ideas were much worse. I’d been coding for several months at that point. Oh well.

I’m sorry you’re having such a rough time. I took a break to try to launch a startup which didn’t go anywhere. Then I spent time just honing new skills. Before I knew it, I’d depleted my savings while racking up a long period of unemployment that made me toxic to job submissions. I couldn’t get callbacks in tech as a result but I also couldn’t get labor positions because my resume had much-better-paying jobs that made it obvious that I’d leave at the first opportunity. It was a vicious cycle and that’s before the economy and tech sector went to shit.

I would switch careers, given your limited time investing in your current profession. After people found out that tech could pay a lot of money, the market got flooded with people who don’t have a passion for the work. It used to be filled with nerds and it was awesome, but that gradually changed. I seriously considered switching professions and thought about what work I might find fulfilling. I would have become a professor of history were it not for the accredidation required (I have no college degree because you can be self-taught in tech).

Do what you can to get by. I don’t know what to suggest regarding other possible employment, but I’d take whatever you can find perusing job ads in adjecent market and try to stabilize. I went from software development to IT because I needed to interact with the people I’m helping to feel rewarded. There’s less money in it, but I’m happier overall.

If you can find a government job (preferably state, not federal, for reasons I shouldn’t need to point out), that’s awesome. I landed in a state position and love it. There’s a lot of beaurocracy and it takes forever to get hired (as a friend just confirmed when he got a state job), but it’s stable.

Good luck!

Fuck all.

Definite article. I can’t believe I remembered that from English classes.

It’s the law that you have to.

You should wear them at night so everyone knows how cool you are. For even extra cool points, you can smoke and do drugs.