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In Pursuit of Happiness. The Prequel.
March 16th, 2010
Warning: There are a lot of parenthesis in this blog post.
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Over and over again you hear this thing: ”Do what you love,” or, “Do what makes you happy,” or some variation on that theme. Which, I have to say, sounds like great advice except that it’s useless to me.
And if you’re like me (you are, I can tell) you have a pretty severe problem with that advice. The problem is that you don’t know what you would love to do. Or put another way:
We don’t know what makes us happy.
Does that sound ridiculous? Ok, kind of. But not when you think it through. Consider this scenario:
You are given enough money to make your ends meet for 6 months; no strings attached. That’s enough to quit your job and start fresh. What do you do?
(Or the similar, and all-to-common-these-days scenario: You just got laid off. You made decent money before and now you can choose to either use the clean slate to your advantage, or find another job just like the one you had before.)
Again, if you’re like me, that scenario is unnerving. Because, see, if I had 6 months to change my life, I’m pretty sure I’d end up doing something very close to what I’m doing now. Why? Because I’m skilled in it. Somewhere along the way (it all started with trying to make ends meet…) I got plunked into this profession (I’m a web developer, you can hire me), and I got pretty good at it over a number of years. And now, I’m so good (my mom says) that starting another trade/job/skill would seriously set me back. That’s what it feels like, doesn’t it?
But let’s put that aside for now. Say you knew what you wanted to do. There’s a lot of prep involved in making it happen. Seriously, dropping your day job to “do what you love” means you have to have enough money (prep: save for months) and enough skill (prep: training? schooling?) and in many cases, enough material (prep: buy a shop or some land, or a warehouse) to go out and have people PAY you to do it. That’s tough, right? Even moreso when the bulk of your day is spent earning the scratch to live on while you’re making all these fabulous plans.
I’m writing about this because it keeps coming up. In fact, I just watched this talk by Gary Vaynerchuk which was both inspiring and bullshit — both at the same time. In the talk, he says, “Look yourself in the mirror, and ask yourself, ‘What do I want to do everyday for the rest of my life?’”. Then later, “Whatever it is you need to do, do it.”
(dryly) Thanks for the advice.
Is it just me? Or is there a big fat hole there where the thing you’re passionate about is supposed to be?
“Figuring Out What You’d Love To Do With Your Days Until Forever 101″ really, really ought to be a class that we all have to take before we reach high school.
Figuring out what you want to do is a skill. I’m convinced.
But no one teaches us how to do that. “Do what makes you happy” only works when you know what makes you happy. If I could figure that part out, I assure you, I could find the will and the talent and the time to make it all happen.
And while I could name some things that make me happy, none of them are jobs, or even actions. So how do we unravel it? What if there’s nothing? What if there’s nothing I’d rather spend my days doing than what I’m doing now? That’d be a bummer.
There’s a prequel to the “Do What You Love” inspirational speeches we love to listen to, and that’s the “How To Identify The Thing You’d Love To Do” speech. I’d watch it, and then I’d make everyone I know watch it. Wouldn’t you?
I’ve written some things before about what we should be teaching students. This is it. This is the missing piece. Sadly, I don’t know how.
(Don’t worry, though, ’cause I’m on the job. I’ll have this prequel written, filmed, and posted in no time.)
59DaysOfCode Registration is Open!
March 16th, 2010
A web and mobile apps competition for idea people.
Now go on and build something.
Good Teacher
March 7th, 2010
I was a teacher, once, for a year, at a high school where I learned that:
- There are students who will succeed no matter what you do, how you teach, or how hard you work.
- There are students who will fail no matter what you do, how you teach, or how hard you work.
- These two facts do not let you off the hook, but they will make you feel pretty stupid when you forget them.
- Being a good [subject] teacher, does not necessarily produce students that are good at [subject].
In my case, teaching Interactive Game Design for 11th and 12th graders, you’d think that being a good teacher would produce good game designers. That makes sense, right? That’s what I was being paid to do…right? No. That’s stupid and too simple.
Honestly, we shouldn’t be aiming for that anyway.
It’d be nice to be able to throw this template down on every student and just say, “This is how we do it. This is what I’m teaching, this is how you will learn it, and this is where this class leaves off and another begins. By the time you have had n classes, you will know what I know.” But that, too, is too stupid and too simple. College can work that way, but high school can’t. Or shouldn’t, rather.
What a teacher has to swallow is much more complicated, and honestly, much more humbling. You see, for a handful of students, the teacher is completely irrelevant (academically). I was irrelevant. The school could have run tapes of Dora the Explorer all day and these students would have still been good students. They still would have had that hustle that others admire, and they would have understood Dora better than their peers come graduation day.
On the opposite end, no amount of personal attention, one-on-one tutorials, extra time, extra homework, verbal, written, or visual lessons was going to help that handful of students who refused to let it help them. Nothing was going to change that. For them, I was irrelevant too, just a different kind of irrelevant. An irritating itch they could do without.
The problem is in the expectations: I teach X. Students learn X. Eventually they will do X for a living.
The model is wrong. What we should be doing is getting the hell out of the way. Why do we keep telling our students what to be good at? Do we think they don’t already want to be good at something for themselves?
The truth is, students want to be good at something, 99% of them CAN be good at something, and good teachers let them. That’s what we should be taught to do, and that’s a lesson my students taught me.
The 59DaysOfCode Web & Mobile Apps Competition
February 25th, 2010
So my friends and I are putting together this little ditty that, really, is going to be quite the big ditty. We are holding a Web & Mobile Apps competition that is designed to highlight the programming/nerdy talent in the area. It’s open to everyone and the prizes are pretty major.
We are doing two categories: Zero Code, and In-Progress.
Zero Code is a timed category. You have 59 Days to build your app once the clock starts.
In-Progress is for those who might already have something started but still want to compete.
The way that it works is this:
Apply, Early March > Party + Kickoff, April 23 > Get your App Ready > Showcase + Awards, June 22.
We’re putting together around $40K in prizes with one of the winners landing $15,000 in cash. (More details about prizes in the next month or so.) The idea is, though, that after someone wins, my friends and I pull all our resources together to make your idea famous and successful. Sounds nice, huh?
Registration opens next week.
Go here for the last email we sent out:
http://59daysofcode.com/
Follow @59DaysOfCode on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/59DaysOfCode
Say Something Original
January 15th, 2010
And here’s the trick: Take all of your first reactions — all of them — and don’t let them come out of your mouth.
Your replies, your first thoughts, your first facial expressions. None of them are original. They’re too ingrained. They’re expected now. Stop doing them.
That small thing, the act of shutting the hell up, forces you to have another thought. It may not be any good, but that’s not the point. One day they’ll be good. With practice we get better.
This is my advice to me, but you’re welcome to listen if you like. This should have been a resolution for 2010, but I probably said something rote instead.
Mexican Medicine
November 30th, 2009
This post is not about the swine flu. This about real illnesses and real people. Some of them live next to you, or in the shanty behind your house. Some of them mow your lawn and clean your pool. Some of them have fixed your cars with five-dollar parts from the “swap meet”. Most of them are related to me. This post is about Mexicans. In order to understand this post, you have to understand Mexican families. We have rules. They are never broken.
Growing up, we rarely went to the doctor. Don’t ask me why. My parents had rockin’ health insurance, so that wasn’t it. We’re a very do-it-yourself breed, so that’s probably to blame.
When you are young and (Mexican and) sick, you do whatever grandma tells you to do to remedy the problem. It doesn’t matter how absurd it sounds, you just do it. My grandma once told one of my many cousins to tape pennies to his temples to cure a headache. He didn’t do it because he didn’t want to look like a fool. By the next day he had come down with a very severe, very public, case of the flu. Not only has his embarrassment outlived his illness, but we’re pretty sure it’s because our grandma put the bad juju on him for not following instructions. These are the kinds of things you get used to. Grandma is the Queen, we are her worker bees.
These are just a couple of the things Grandma has taught me:
- The stomach flu is cured with 7up and crackers. The warmer the 7up, the better.
- An upset stomach can also be tamed with hot water and a bit of sugar. Let the sugar dissolve before drinking.
- If you blow on an open cut, it will somehow hurt less. Try it, it works.
- If you have a sore throat, pour a mug of scalding hot water, toss a tablespoon of salt in it, and gargle with it as far down your throat as you can go without gagging. No. Better yet, gag a little. It’ll do you some good. You will burn your mouth. Don’t worry too much about that, it heals fast.
- Headaches are cured in a number of ways, but a lot of the remedy depends on where the headache is coming from. Here are some things you should try:
- Have someone tug on your hair. You heard me. Put your head on their lap, and let them tug on patches. Let them tug hard enough to be uncomfortable, but not so hard as to tear out any hair.
- Ask someone to rub your hands. Particularly the webs between your fingers.
- Get fresh air. (This one is universal. It doesn’t matter how sick you are, you still need to go outside at least once a day.)
- Aloe vera is the miracle drug. Next to marijuana, there is nothing better to help an ailing body. Severed limb? No problem, rub some aloe vera on it. Mexican grandma’s have at least one plant in the yard at all times. Don’t have one? Ask mine, she always has extra.
- Always touch the baby. Infants are prone to ojo. You can give a baby ojo if you fail to touch the child when one is in your presence. Believe me, you do not want the responsibility for that one.
- If your body gets wet, you must also wet your head. Mexican children will never be seen playing in the pool with dry heads. Parents are likely to be punished for allowing such a thing.
- Colicy babies should be given salt. I don’t know why, but it works.
There are some traditions that are just plain creepy and I’ve left them off. Some things involve needles and such, or flesh wounds. There are others that are weird, but not creepy (like rolling an egg on a crying baby and cracking it in a glass of water). I’ll leave it to my family to put them in the comments.
A New Look, Some New Projects
November 25th, 2009
Don’t get too excited, I didn’t design this myself. I just modified it until I liked it enough to use it.
More importantly, stay tuned in the coming weeks for some news about some of these things:
- Mexican Medicine
- The Birthday Season
- Fresno’s First Ever Web & Mobile Apps Competition
- Pantherslive
- Gratuitous Thoughts on Geekery
Until then, have a safe Thanksgiving (US only, the rest of you: just be safe).
Dear Dad,
September 29th, 2009
It’s been a while since we last spoke, hasn’t it? No need to place blame. I think we both know what happened.
Let me bring you up to speed:
- I know you know about grandpa, no need to go into a whole story about that. Say hi to him for us.
- Your son got married (Jeanine, thank the Lord). They bought a house, and you now have two grandchildren. They’re both going to be wicked smart, which scares the pants off of all of us because we know we’re about to be outwitted by amateurs. Heaven help us when they are old enough to band together; we won’t stand a chance.
- Your other daughter went to “medical school” and she worked for several years in a gastroenterology clinic. All her good stories start with, “So I was in the middle of this colon, right?”… She’s a perfect copy of you, dad, but with mom’s nose and without the military background. Mom’s pissed that she’s just like you, but the rest of us are glad about it.
- Mom is still working at CART and even though they treat her well, I think she’s ready to retire. Not that we blame her. Just how many years can a person deal with high school kids?
- Dre — you remember Dre, right? She had the tongue piercing and the red streaks in her hair? — has a handle on the whole family. I swear dad, if it wasn’t for Dre there wouldn’t be a family left to speak of. And, oh yeah, she took out the tongue ring and her hair is brown.
As for myself, I graduated from college and moved back home shortly after. College was fun after I got over being homesick, but before that it sucked. I’ve been both lucky and unlucky in love, which, I know if I gave you a word in edgewise you’d have plenty to say about that. But I’m not going to. You can write your own letter.
I have a dog, and I bought a car. We found out there is something wrong with the way my brain is put together, but that story has a long explanation. Let’s just say, you would have a field day poking fun at me, but you would also be scared ’cause that’s how you are. I’m living in Fresno in an area you probably wouldn’t like, and I’m not so sure you would like my job either (mom sure doesn’t).
I wonder if you’d like my friends, and if you’re proud of us at all. Well, I wonder if you’re proud of me, really, but sometimes I wonder about all of us.
The fair is coming up, and I’m going to have a corndog in your honor. I’m going to slather it in mustard and spread it out with my finger just like you would do. Hope you don’t mind me copying you. You know the best tricks.
None of us ride the rides anymore, I think we mostly go because of you…well, you and the food. Let’s not downplay the food.
I guess that’s all I’m going to say for the moment. We’re always wondering what you’re up to, though. We wonder what it’s like over there and if you’re too busy to catch all that’s happening over here. Of course, lot’s of other things have happened, but there’s way too much to write. I just thought I would write this so you know that January 13th isn’t the only day we think about you. We miss you all the time.
Love you. Wish you were here.
Irma Jr.
P.S. If you see a guy named Joseph Cardoza, keep an eye out for him. He’s good people. He’s Kelly’s brother. (Remember Kelly? Ran face first into the bell at the grammar school and had to have stitches?). We would all really appreciate that. Thanks, dad.
Dispelling the Launch Myth
September 24th, 2009
I’m just going to lay it down in small words: “If you build it, they will come,” is a crock of shit.
To borrow a phrase, if I had a nickle for every time a website launch was delayed on account of the imperfections…
As a web programmer, I see a lot of projects come and go. We depend on the project manager’s ability to say, “We could spend more time polishing and adding features, but let’s get this in front of some eyes,” which is a hard thing to say, I’ll admit, because there are 10,000 things that could be better. If you happen to be the project manager, then that burden is on you.
And what makes it even harder is this strange voice in your head that says, in no uncertain terms, that as soon as you upload those files, all the world’s web traffic is going to come crashing down on your web server. We start to believe that Google will index those pages in their first five minutes of life rather than the week(s) we know it takes for everyone else’s sites to be crawled. We start to picture the angry emails about god-knows-what wrecking havoc in someone’s personal life because there are two instances where someone’s name is spelled wrong. What could be worse?
Yeah, but that’s not how it works. Uploading some files will probably not register with many people at all. In fact, it’s really anticlimactic when you’ve been cranking out an app or site for weeks and then the moment of truth…is quiet.
I know it’s really hard to picture a world where no one is paying attention to you, but don’t be fooled. That place is real and it’s called the Internet. I’m not talking about your Twitter account or your Facebook page. I’m talking about your new site. Your new application.
There will always be a sea of reasons to wait on a launch, and only one reason to go ahead and do it. (Hint: Progress.)
So you, programmer, in the back with the Redbull and Cheetos, I only have one thing to say to you: Quit being a pansy. It’s time to launch.
PHP/MySQL Full Database Search and Replace
September 1st, 2009
I wrote this because I often need to move data-driven sites from development to production and addresses change. (Wordpress sites, Wordpress MU, Drupal, and so on.) This means I have to go through and change every occurrence of the url as it appears in the database. So when the first few solutions for changing the site url aren’t doing the trick, I have to resort to the following MySQL snippet for updating every single table.
To find a string in a certain field and replace it with another string:
update [table_name] set [field_name] = replace([field_name],'[string_to_find]','[string_to_replace]');
Well, I got tired of doing that and wrote a handy snippet to find and replace across an entire database.
There are no checks or safeguards! This is a quick and dirty script to be used at your own risk!
But if it’s useful, please feel free to say so in the comments.
UPDATE
Added two checkboxes:
- Set the script to never timeout (use with caution!)
- Do a case-insensitive find and replace. (use with caution!)
Download the updated .rar here