Develpreneur: Become a Better Developer and Entrepreneur

Burnout is a big stumbling block to productivity. It is a bit like clinical depression where you are not sure it is coming, but when it hits, recovery is painful.  In this episode, we look at some of the signs of burnout and even some warning signs.  However, we do not stop there.  We also look at ways to stay productive, push hard, and still avoid burnout. Burnout Comes in Many Forms There are many ways that burnout will appear.  It may be a lack of getting up in the morning and a constant feeling of exhaustion.  However, it often is much more subtle.  The ability to focus may become difficult and productivity slumps rather than crashes.  There may also be a trend towards doing work on the edges that is easy, but busywork rather than truly useful.  For example, when you spend hours on getting a button on one screen to look right rather than address the functionality launched when it is clicked. Finding Balance The key to avoiding burnout is finding a routine that does not drain you at the end of the day, week, or month.  Also, there needs to be a steady stream of progress that you can see in your work.  Spinning your wheels can quickly lead to burnout.  Productivity is not always a cure for burnout.  Completing tasks that do not have a value (i.e. busywork) is a form of working harder rather than smarter.  This approach leads to a drain on mental and physical resources as well as morale.  Burnout is often close behind this.  Thus, the key to avoiding burnout is to have achievable goals that are regularly met.   The key is to create goals that require effort, but not so much that it leaves people exhausted.  Consider how a marathon runner sets their pace.  They will not do well if they sprint at full speed until exhausted, then recover, and then repeat.  They succeed when they set a fast pace that they can maintain. Work With Your Nature We have talked about natural rhythm and internal clocks often to improve our lives.  This situation is no different.  When you have a work schedule that goes with your natural flow burnout will be less likely.  This solution is a challenge though as each person is different.  Trial and error seem to be the best way to find what works best for you.

Of all the skills I have learned, business communication has paid the greatest dividends.  This is not a difficult skill to learn.  However, practice, experience, and honest feedback are the key ingredients to become a master. Business Communication - Short and Sweet The old phrase "short and sweet" is a great way to sum up what I have learned.  The audience for any business communication (email, documents, presentations, etc.) value time and clarity.  They start with the assumption that you know what you are talking about.  Thus, it is up to you to confirm that assumption or prove them wrong.  Of course, that is not the only measure of successfully communicating your ideas.  There is also a need to convey the idea in a short time with absolute clarity. Confusion Equals Failure Although delivering your message in a timely manner is important, clarity is critical.  When you deliver an excellent message that is understood by no one you have wasted everyone's time.  This sort of botched communication can cost you sales or even a job.  Thus, there is a lot of value in working on the clarity of your communication.  It is extreme to worry about losing your job over confusing communications.  Nevertheless, it is the level of importance clarity should be given. Know Your Medium A good deal of this episode covers the various platforms we have for communication.  There is a different way to communicate on Twitter or via text messages than a long-form document, presentation, or email.  Some of these avenues are bad choices for business communication.  However, we all have instances where we are forced to communicate in a way that is less than ideal. Links and Resources The Little Brown Handbook Grammarly Site

When we get serious about development we have to use enterprise tools.  These include version control, defect tracking, change management, and multiple development environments.  These development environments range from pure development to testing, staging, and finally production.  In this episode, we explore how to build and use each of these. Development Environments Cover the Full SDLC A good series of environments will address the various areas of the software development lifecycle.  There might be one for design, prototyping, and clickable demos.  As you progress through the SDLC the demo environment can grow into your sales environment.  Thus, features can be mocked up and shown to customers.  There should always be at least one development environment.  Preferably there is an environment for each developer.  That allows the developers to "play" with their changes.  They can focus on debugging without worrying about impacting others.  That being said, a test environment for the latest builds is separate from development.  This allows testers a pseudo-stable area to run through their scripts.  This test system also provides a step to production or customer releases. There are costs associated with multiple environments.  Luckily, technology provides ways to keep costs down.  There are options like docker, virtual machines, and other low-cost systems that make these best practices cheap and easy.  In fact, these advances give developers a shorter path to productivity as well.  Instead of spending days to get coding started for each team member, a model environment can be rapidly replicated.   

We all have busy lives.  That is just a part of modern life.  However, those of us in the develpreneur world can have it even worse.  Sleeping well can be quite a challenge when you are facing deadlines and always trying to push for that next goal.  Nevertheless, sleep is a critical factor in health and even long-term productivity so let's look at ways to get some rest without sacrificing productivity. Sleeping Well Vs. Sleep Hacking Sleep hacking is a popular topic among those that value productivity and squeezing everything they can out of life.  The downside is that the goal of sleep hacking is finding ways to limit our downtime instead of maximizing it.  Over time this focus may lead to health issues and even a loss of productivity we are not aware of.  Just as drunk people are not always aware of how much they are impaired, sleep-deprived individuals can be the same.  We discuss the hacking options and how they can be effective, but a better goal is sleeping well when we do. Nature Always Finds Rhythm Sleep is best done within our personal rhythm just as any other activity we pursue.  Thus each of us has differing needs for sleep and reacts differently to disruptions in our schedule.  The key phrase here is "disruptions in our schedule."  We each have a schedule for sleep that we fall into if we allow it.  This is a schedule we can change and break, but doing so limits the impact of what rest we do get.  This concept is where we find "morning people", "Night Owls", and other patterns of work that are based on our sleep rhythms.  Instead of hacking our sleep to reclaim time, we should focus on finding out what our needs are and what schedule is best for us. Keep It Simple There are a lot of sleep hacks and ideas that are a stretch and maybe even unhealthy.  However, there are also a lot of scientific hacks that we can try.  Start with these simple hacks like reducing light while you sleep, putting away the phone, and avoiding caffeine in the evening.  These simple and healthy changes to your habits can make an impact for more valuable than some ways to survive sleep deprivation.  You might even find that changing up your schedule to a 40-50 hour week to make room for more sleep or rest leads to more overall accomplishments.

A Side Hustle will typically earn money by trading hours for dollars.  There is a hustle or level of work that is required.  However, there is also income related to that hustle.  This is a good step towards total success and we need to move forward from hustle to passive income.  In other words, do not simply invest in your career and skills, invest in future revenue. Side Hustle Vs. Passive Income A typical side hustle is either doing work for hire or a service that pays you for your time.  An Uber driver is a good example of this.  Also, a developer that works extra projects is an example of this.  Passive income is where your income is not tied to your work.  There is some work to get started, but then the sky is the limit.  The most common form of this is earning interest on savings or investments.  Your money is earning money at that point.  You (and your time) have been removed from the equation. Transition From Side Hustle I think the biggest factor in moving to Passive Income is that you drive the problem to be solved.  Often we can find automation of tasks to be a source of passive income.  The task automation can be in the form of software like Quicken, but that is just one example.  We can automate training people on a topic via YouTube or other video channels.  We might even automate processes of some sort like Paypal automating the process of sending money.  Look at the tasks you do regularly to find a target-rich environment of automation ideas. Risk and Reward Passive Income can have a limitless potential, but there is also a risk involved.  We can read about successes that we want to emulate like Gary Vaynerchuk but do not ignore the risk.  The time spent investing in ourselves and automating or improving processes may not pay off.  However, a side hustle has little or no risk.  In this case, we go into it knowing what we will get paid for our time.  There are always risks of non-payment, but passive income has a higher risk of no return.  We might build a product no one wants. Links and Resources 99 Side Hustle Ideas 25 Passive Income Ideas

Across the hundreds of programming languages, there are some similarities.  These even fall into types of development language families.  When you are looking at how to expand your technical skills these complementary languages can speed your growth.  The key is to start with fundamentals and use those to grow to less common problems that are solved with code. Start With a Good Foundation The key to rapid learning and mastering of languages is to start with core or general purpose languages.  The ones that fall into this category include popular languages like C, C++, C#, Java.  Also, there are lesser-known ones like ADA, Fortran, and Pascal.  These general purpose languages are perfect for learning concepts like logic, data structures, file interactions, data manipulation, and the list goes on.  Once you are comfortable with these ideas, it becomes a matter of syntax as you move to new languages. Different Ways To Think About Code Once the fundamentals are covered, it is time to move into the various ways to think about coding.  This step is where development language families become essential.  The families can be seen as how they approach code execution (compiled vs. interpreted), structures (lists vs. strings vs. pointers), or other facets.  When you are considering which language to learn next this, is a crucial point to ponder.  There might be a weakness you have that will be addressed in learning a specific language.  For example, tackling SQL is an excellent way to improve your database knowledge.  However, Lisp is awesome if you want to master list manipulation. Finding The Right Tools Every language has its strengths and weaknesses.  These attributes are why we should strive to grow our skill set beyond just one or two types of code.  We will face problems in our career that are not well solved by some languages.  If we can not find a tool that matches the problem, then we will have a non-ideal solution at best.  Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for the wrong technology to be used to solve business problems.  For example, I do not want to pick on spreadsheets, but how often is a spreadsheet used to solve a problem when a database would be much better?  On the other hand, there are database solutions that could have been done better and faster with a little spreadsheet knowledge. When we learn and grow, there are a variety of things to consider as we select each step.  When we are in school or some structured course, our path is laid out.  However, when we are plotting our route, we need to consider development language families as part of the ideal growth plan.

We have a full schedule and are always busy.  That is no excuse for skipping exercise.  In fact, staying healthy is a critical key to success.  In this episode, we look at some ways to keep your body healthy.  Better yet, how to do this without sacrificing too much of that all-important resource: time. Staying Healthy is About Habits We have seen how success in any area is best predicted by good habits.  Health is no different.  When we are intentional about our health, we can find ways to build practices that achieve that goal.  The good news is that we can do simple things like changing our work venue.  Thus, we can get some exercise while we work.  An excellent example of this is walking and talking.  Instead of taking a call in your chair, go for a walk.  You might be a bit winded at times, but that just means you are walking uphill or entirely out of shape. Physical Hobbies There are many business deals completed on the golf course, but that is also a great way to get some exercise.  Luckily for those of us that do not enjoy golf, there are many similar ways to combine networking and physical activity.  It may be the old-school bowling league or other sports like softball or basketball. You can even find suggestions on your phone.  There are some apps for your computer and phone that remind you to take a short walk, do some push-ups, or progress towards six-pack abs.  All of these apps work on breaking and making habits that are healthier than sitting at a desk all day.

There is an old saying that we should underpromise and overdeliver.  This may seem obvious to us, but it is worth considering in our career and business.  In fact, this approach is one of the best recipes for success in both your individual career and that of your company or employer. Underpromise and Overdeliver to Separate from Competition There are many ways to appeal to customers, but this concept is not often put forward.  The underlying message follows these lines, but it is rarely stated.  Instead, we often see marketing focus on quality, features, and other things that are easy to market.  Value does touch on this concept, but it does not rise to the same level in my mind.  However, part of the problem is how to market this idea.  A good example of this idea is to promise that a customer always gets more than they expect.  How many companies promise to always exceed expectations?  This promise sets the bar too high for most of us.  Instead, business runs on setting expectations and meeting them. A Practical Approach We talk about how we want to underpromise and overdeliver, but how do we do this consistently?  In my mind, the easiest path is to always move the finish line once it has been defined.  You will not achieve this objective unless you set it and hold yourself to it.  For example, once you have a set of deliverables and a time frame that you discuss with the customer you go back and make adjustments.  This includes changing target/delivery dates for yourself, adding on features, and other ways that can add value to the customer.  This may appear to be a simplification, but give it a shot.  When you set more aggressive goals you will be amazed at how much better you get at achieving them. Links and Resources Jab, Jab, Jab, Right-hook (Extended Summary)

Like any area of technology, there is a lot to know about databases.  We are not going to cover all of them.  In this episode, we will look at popular modern databases and keep to a non-technical overview. Databases Come In Many Types There are many database solutions available on the market.  These range from the familiar relational databases to lesser-used ones like object databases.  Each of these has its own set of strengths and weaknesses to be assessed for your needs.  The only way to be capable of this sort of assessment is to become familiar with the types out there and the projects that are best for each. They Are Easy To Use The good news is that we have a large number of free and open source options that are available.  There are also a similar number of tools including Toad and DBVisualizer that helps us abstract everyday database administration tasks.  When you combine these avenues for easy access, there is no excuse for integrating a database in your application and building your experience. However, each database is a little different in usage and popularity.  We look at some reasonable steps to get started and then how to gain a more profound knowledge of this area of technology. Links and Resources DB Visualizer MySQL Home Page Database Design - A Crash Course

It may be my background in technology, but I find automation to be the greatest way to improve productivity.  This time-saving mechanism is not new either.  We can look back a hundred years to see where assembly lines and automation allowed us to progress rapidly.  In fact, computers are made for automation. Automation is Not Just Technology Even though computers have given us a wealth of automation options, there are low tech methods available as well.  At its essence, automation is the concept of "killing two birds with one stone."  When we combine efforts or tasks through batching we get extra work done in the same time frame.  Thus, we automatically have less to do.  For example, I automate mail delivery by having my kids check the mail each day when they return from school.  It is no extra time for them and allows me to have mail delivered right to my desk automatically. However, Technology Should Be Embraced The goal of nearly every software application is to either save or consume our time.  For example, spreadsheets help us calculate formulas in seconds.  However, Facebook consumes days of time every week for millions of users.  Thus, we need to look for ways that technology can help us while avoiding the time wasters. Fortunately, there are time-saving options all around us from the automatic deposit of our paycheck to electronic bill pay to mail filters.  The tasks we find ourselves doing every day are excellent targets for this sort of technology.  It is well worth your time to review your daily tasks and find ways to automate where possible. Links and Resources If This Then That: https://IFTTT.com Evernote: https://evernote.com Tools of Titans: https://www.amazon.com/Tools-Titans-Billionaires-World-Class-Performers/dp/1328683788/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1512317760&sr=8-1 Balance Your Time in A Busy World: Tools and Techniques