• High: Shares going v well (Shares)
• Low: I have too much time on my hands (Happiness)
• Seed: Going to join some clubs (Community)

Top Releases:

• 1000 checkboxes - 1000 checkboxes shared by the internet
• HAMY LABS POD - New podcast!
• Cloud Compare - Making it easier to compare different cloud hosts

Top 5 Shares in 2024.Q3

• Postgres Over Everything - Why You Should Probably Just use Postgres for your next Web App
• Why Amazon is Enforcing a 5-Day Return-to-Office - according to a former AWS Engineer
• The State of HTMX (2024)
• 1 Simple Reason to Build your Next Web App with HTMX
• Why Zig is Migrating from AWS to Self-Hosted

Observe

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A post shared by Hamilton Greene (@sir.hamy)

Adventure

• High: Went lots of places
• Low: Not exploring / enjoying my own city that much
• Seed: Getting into some exploration clubs which seems like a fun excuse to explore more locally (and may be getting back into photography!)

Places:

• Atlanta, GA
• Rogersville, TN
• Lake Winnipesaukee, NH
• Copenhagen, Denmark
• Stockholm, Sweden

I guess I'm being a bit doomer. Yes I stay inside my house too much but we have been doing a good bit of exploring (locally and abroad) for a new hobby - Pokemon collecting. So far we've gone to some conventions, pop ups, and made it a priority to stop in on our travels which has been fun!

So we'll prob keep doing that and maybe add on a few extra hobbies as well.

Community

• High: Hanging out w lots of friends (good!)
• Low: Missing some community around my hobbies (bad!)
• Seed: Trying out some activity-based clubs

I used to do a bunch of Meetups and events before Covid but largely stopped as many of those clubs dwindled / moved to online events. NY is thriving again with tons of in person meetups of all kinds so I'm going to go try some out again.

Big picture I find myself with more time on my hands and an increased enjoyment of my hobbies. Most of my hobbies lean isolationist, benefitting from large swaths of uninterrupted focus time. Which is fun... but you don't really get to connect with like-minded people that way.

I think this is one of the reasons I've enjoyed my Shares so much over the past few years - I've been able to connect with a ton of people on my interests. But most of this is happening online - via Twitter, Reddit, LinkedIn etc - and despite what Zuck says, there's smth special ab IRL interactions.

I've been observing older people and taking notes of some patterns that seem to make them happy over the decades and one of those commonalities is regular activity-based groups. These are things like regular tennis, knitting, and art groups that they go to week after week, year after year.

So I'm looking forward to trying some groups out and seeing what sticks.

Research

I researched a lot of things - details can be found in various projects / shares.

Create

Business

• High: I'm more bullish on Rippling now than I was when I started
• Low: Work is work
• Seed: Looking to work on some projects that interest me more

At the end of the day work is work. I've been trying to come to terms with this more that maybe work should not (and perhaps can not) be an exciting thing long term.

I do think there are work paradigms that lean more exciting - like startups or working closely w friends or working on more intense projects - and I may try those. But I'm not totally convinced those things are worth it.

Work is not the end goal, really it's just a component of life. So perhaps having a normal boring job that lets you live your life as you want is better than a dream job that leaves no room for anything else.

(work to live, don't live to work)

On the other hand - I get the most satisfaction out of creating things. So perhaps a life more geared towards work / creation would provide more alignment.

Idk and it's hard to test out w/o just doing it so if you're wrong... it's costly. For now I'm p content with where I am and don't have any huge reasons to pursue smth else so will stay where I am.

That said I am certainly not doing a 5-day RTO so if that becomes a thing, perhaps I'll look elsewhere:

• Why Amazon is Enforcing a 5-Day Return-to-Office - according to a former AWS Engineer
• How Return to Office Policies Kill Productivity for Software Engineers - and How to Salvage It

Tech

• High: Shipped some projects
• Low: Feeling a bit bored w my projects - want smth exciting
• Seed: Trying out some clubs to see if that sparks some inspo

Tech has been fun. I've been exploring some new paradigms in a pretty low pressure way using tools I enjoy.

I'm not making any money on this stuff but that's okay - I have a job so this can just be a hobby.

Some areas I've explored:

• HTMX
• F# + Entity Framework
• Postgres JSONB
• Programmatic SEO w AI
• Self-hosting using ~free PaaS tools

Shares

• High: Doing far better than expected (basically achieved 2024 year goal and we still have Q4)
• Low: I haven't figured out a rhythm - niche, frequency, etc
• Seed: Enjoying the process a lot so will keep iterating here

This year my views are up about 330% and sub gains by 265% - doubling year over year.

I've also settled into a system of creation that I'm genuinely enjoying and doesn't feel super taxing. It's still work of course but I like it and feel excited to do it a few times a week. So net positive and smth I want to do for awhile.

I started a podcast as an audio-only form of my videos. It's not doing super great but it's new and doesn't cost me much to put out so will keep trying it for awhile. I personally consume a majority of my content via blog posts and podcasts so this seems like a useful thing to have to reach ppl like me.

Reflect

Health

• High: Super consistent with my morning workouts
• Low: Not really as fit as I could be
• Seed: Can p easy change that

I'm still loving my morning workouts though I will admit I'm a bit bored w them and I'm not a six-pack guy anymore. Maybe that's okay - I don't really need a six-pack. But maybe I want one?

Idk I feel like this is another instance of the 30-year old existential crisis. Like I can do anything but nothing really matters but certainly some things are worthwhile so is this one of those?

The answer is idk. But I go to the gym every day so if I want to get a six pack I can literally just spend an extra 10 mins in there and it will appear. So maybe I'll do that.

Finance

• High: Index funds have been doing well
• Low: Savings approach is boring
• Seed: Time in market seems to work

I've really taken a step back from constantly stressing over my finances and that's been a positive. I use a very simple investing strategy - index funds. This has shown over time to be a very effective strategy for building wealth.

So far it's worked pretty well. I mostly just focus on sticking to a decent savings rate every month and regularly auto invest. Over time it's moving in the right direction so not much to say / worry ab here.

Happiness

• High: I'm pretty content w life
• Low: Not feeling part of smth bigger, more exciting
• Seed: I think some community-based groups may help

Overall I'm p content with my lot. I'm having a good time, doing things I enjoy, and minimizing things I don't.

But I'm also like - what else is there? What's the next hill I should climb?

But on the other hand I'm like - maybe I should enjoy this hill awhile longer?

So that's the struggle. But honestly I think I just have too much time on my hands so maybe I just need to do some more things so I can stop thinking ab enjoying the hill and just enjoy the hill.

Next

That's 2024.Q3. Thanks for reading. More posts from me in the near future.

HAMY.OUT