Exploring Changing Reading Habits and Balancing Technical Reading

Exploring the speaker's personal journey with reading, from struggling with it to rediscovering the joy of books and the challenges of balancing reading time with computer work.

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In this episode of Ruby for All, Andrew and Julie reconnect after a three-week break to share how they spent their vacation and their plans for the new year, as Julie talks about her family’s newest addition, a Whippet named Lucy, and Andrew getting plenty of rest, some rock climbing, and a hot yoga class. Then, they dive into the topic of burnout, sharing their personal experiences and strategies for managing burnout effectively. They discuss looking forward to Ruby 3.3, upcoming conferences, and a collective aim to level up their careers. Join Andrew and Julie as they kick off the new year with optimism and hit download now!

[00:00:17] Andrew and Julie catch up and discuss their Christmas breaks. Julie reveals they have a new family dog and Andrew reveals he would like to get a dog one day.

[00:02:10] Andrew discusses his restful break, hibernating, visiting Virginia, rock climbing, and enjoyed a hot yoga class.

[00:04:50] Over break, Julie started reading the book, “99 Bottles of OOP” by Sandi Metz and catching up on conference talks. She considers redoing her app with Turbo and Rails.

[00:05:56] Andrew started reading “Practical VIM” but he’s ready to switch to Neovim. He’s been reading multiple books, trying to regain his love for reading, and he sets goals to read more and started using book summaries on Blinkist.

[00:07:30] Andrew and Julie reminisce about their childhood reading habits. Julie talks about her struggles with reading comprehension and trying to pick it up again.

[00:10:36] Andrew discusses his experience with speed reading techniques and explains how speed reading doesn’t necessarily impact his ADHD. He discusses extracting key points from books without reading every word.

[00:12:37] Julie feels burned out from work and finds reading “99 Bottles of OOP” refreshing, and she expresses her ongoing burnout and asks Andrew’s thoughts on this.

Andrew shares his personal warning signs of burnout, which includes losing the joy of programming, neglecting health, and feeling stuck and discouraged.

[00:15:06] Julie acknowledges the importance of recognizing burnout signs and relates to the difficulty in identifying them, especially when juggling work and family. Andrew shares the challenge is addressing burnout once it’s recognized, emphasizing the need to focus on self-care and potentially making changes if the job is the cause.

[00:16:11] Andrew suggests restoring sleep, exercise, and diet are crucial first steps to combat burnout, and he shares strategies for improvement, like focusing on sleep and reducing screen time.

[00:17:56] Julie has replaced watching stimulating YouTube videos before bed with reading to cut down on screen time. Andrew set a goal for less screen time in 2024.

[00:20:06] They shift the conversation to Ruby 3.3 and upcoming conferences and which ones they would like to attend.

[00:21:13] Julie inquires if Andrew’s desire to focus on becoming a better engineer is about “leveling up.” Andrew agrees and expresses feeling stuck in his career for the past couple of years and is now ready to advance.

[00:21:41] Julie questions if Andrew has a plan for achieving his career growth. Andrew explains he intends to improve his database skills, particularly Postgres and architecture, dive into security, and learn more about iOS development.

[00:22:10] Some personal goals Andrew wants is to increase his typing speed and become more proficient with the home row typing method.

Panelists:

Andrew Mason

Julie J.

Sponsors:

GoRails

Honeybadger

Links:

Andrew Mason X/Twitter

Andrew Mason Website

Julie J. X/Twitter

Julie J. Website
99 Bottles of OOP by Sandi Metz