2025.Q1 Reflection

Date: 2025-04-09 | reflect | reflections |

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High: Adventuring around and hanging with lots of people (Connect)
Low: Economy looks to be on the verge of a recession (Finance)
Seed: Quit my job, got a new job (Biz)

Top Releases

CloudCompare - Added Object Storage and Server benchmark comparisons
CloudSeed - Moved to Falco web framework for simpler, more streamlined dev experience

Top Shares

Create

Biz

Spent a lot of time interviewing for jobs (90+ hours). I left my old company because I wanted to move to a remote position and they wouldn't let me.

I'll share more about my interview process and job in the future but right now am enjoying some time off.

Craft

I haven't built much this year as most of my time was dedicated to studying and interviews but slowly getting back into the cycle of things.

CloudCompare continues to be a useful tool for comparing cloud offerings and aligns well with my other pursuits so I've added additional comparisons / fields to improve it.

CloudSeed is still how I start most of my web projects. I ended up moving from Giraffe to Falco for the web server as I found it easier to work with.

Also making some improvements to Falco's Tech Empower benchmarks but don't have results yet so will share more about that when the latest run completes (often takes ~144 hours or ~6 days).

I've been thinking about dabbling more in arts and crafts again so probably will try a few in the coming months.

I continue to enjoy writing and sharing my thoughts. Views and engagement are largely down because I've published less than usual and paid less attention to what content is doing well. That's okay - this is a hobby after all.

Reflect

Health

I stopped drinking coffee in January and I think I'm done for good. I've been a heavy coffee drinker since I left college but lately I've felt it was causing me too much anxiety and making it harder to focus during the day.

I'm now down to 1 tea in the morning and while I'm not really more productive, I do feel a lot more calm and focused.

Get up in the morning feeling rested
Anxiety in the evening reduced by ~80%
Get to sleep on time more often
Wake up in middle of night less
Don't need caffeine in the morning to start doing things

I don't think caffeine is necessarily bad but I do think I was consuming too much of it.

I've also started getting back into running after ~1 year off. I found I was missing it in my routine - both for its physical workout and its mental calm. I'm pretty rusty and slow but hopeful I can ramp back up to my old 4 mile workouts by the end of summer.

Finance

It seems a recession is brewing. This is scary cause the markets are going to lose a lot of value but also exciting as this is a great time to potentially buy in the market.

My strategy for wealth building remains largely the same as it always has:

Keep savings rates high (40%+)
Dollar cost average into the market
Keep a healthy emergency fund on hand in case smth bad happens

Over time that tends to workout pretty well.

Happiness

I'm feeling pretty good! A lot of upcoming life changes but I think we're in a pretty good position to handle them. Scary but also exciting.

More to come in the next few months.

Observe

Connect

Been hanging out with a lot of friends and family.

Explore

Mostly bopping around the city with a few trips to see family. Haven't been doing any large travel and with the upcoming recession and political upheaval will probably try to stick domestic until things calm down.

Atlanta, GA
Mohonk Mountain House in New York

Research

Severance was good
Currently watching Ted Lasso - p good
Currently reading The Wandering Inn - also p good

That's it for this quarter. A bit on the lighter side since a lot of my focus has been on changing jobs.

Thanks for reading and see you in the next one.

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