A Year Of Rest#

I have been taking it easy for a year.

I am a recovering workaholic. I used to work myself to death (and this could be why I lost my ear). I tend to get overly passionate about my job and pour myself into things, no matter what they are. It has to do with the common fallacy of tying self-worth to one’s career. I am trying to work on that.

Luck and Gratitude#

I realize how lucky I am.

Firstly, because I am in a career I love, I have fumbled onto a career in programming to be honest with you. I love and deeply care about programming as an art. And I used to build things. Before my hearing loss, I was working on my bookshelf, among other projects, such a bot, a voice-controlled bookshelf, and a few other things.

Also, because I have been given several gifts. I grew up not really knowing what I wanted to be. I was always good with mathematics, and statistics has always been my forte, even if I don’t do it for a career (yet). I had the fortune to be associated with friends who found computers fun for the sake of programming, not just because of video games. And I had the fortune of having parents who would, despite how expensive it was, buy me a computer when I turned 14.

At my previous job as a developer for GKN Driveline, I had the extreme fortune of working for someone with a strong problem-solving vein. I miss working for the man greatly. I did not then realize how few people in the industry wanted to actually solve problems because they wanted to help the industry move. I learnt so much working for him, and it definitely helped that we were both similar people when it came to problem solving. He would point me at a problem and trust that I would solve it. And I didn’t need to be concerned about him telling me to not solve a problem I encounter.

I am thankful to all these factors, and to sheer circumstance for putting these in my way.

A Return to Building Things#

I am back to building things. Sarathi is the first of these, but here are a list of projects I wish to complete in the next 3 months:

  1. Sarathi

  2. Shelfie - Bookshelf API

  3. A programmable macropad (Using QMK or Rust firmware)

  4. An advanced typing tool built in Rust

Additionally, I want to learn the following things.

  1. Rust

    It is high time I learn to program in a low level language, relatively speaking. I want to code in Rust.

  2. Elixir / Erlang

    I have wanted to learn Elixir or Erlang for over 3 years now. And I am going to do that.

  3. Linux Kernel Internals

    This is a topic that deeply interests me, and I want to learn more.

  4. Database Internals

    One of my weakpoints is database tuning and designing for performant CRUD apps. I would like to fix that in the upcoming weeks.

Most importantly, I am also going to write a book on MicroPython. Apress has expressed interest in publishing it, but I am severly late, due to several reasons. I need to contact them and ask if they’re still interested.

I am going to focus the book on projects. They already have a beginner’s book on MicroPython, so I want to write one that is much more project and production oriented.

A Return to Writing#

I began the last decade depressed. I was unable to find a publisher for my book. I spent 17 years of my life working on a series of books on fantasy fiction. I want to return to that too. This career does not offer much in time for doing these things. Coding projects are cool, but Tolkienian fantasy is not. Doesn’t get much more annoying than that. I want to write again, maybe self-publish (for free, I don’t need the money from my book.)

Towards the end of this month, I’ll collect my thoughts and put together a goals post for 2021. If I can dare look that far ahead.

I have high hopes for getting back on track, and I hope I can do this. I will reevaluate my situation in 4 months and see how to correct the process, if that becomes necessary.