Life Log #2: Sleepless, Jobless and Happier Than Ever

At a time when it seems to be harder than ever to get a job in software, I quit mine. I've decided to take a bit of time away from formal work before I get back to it. I'm going to take some time with Sarah and my 4-month-old Shea to find a new rhythm. I've also got a side project that's been patiently waiting for me to have literally any spare time.

Being jobless

I got my first job when I was 14 years old. I worked in my parent's department store, manning the cash register and selling buttercream fudge by the pound. Between school and work, I haven't had a gap for more than two consecutive weeks in 18 years, until 4 months ago, when Shea was born.

In April, we were caught a bit off guard when Shea arrived 3 weeks early. Fortunately, everything worked out and I was able to take a full month off work while we figured out our new life. That was the longest stretch of time that I've been without regular work since my first job. Now I'm off again, this time with no job.

I'm really excited to get to spend this time watching her grow up. I know she will only be this small once and I want to soak it all in. Sarah and I are also using this time to get back into some of the hobbies that we haven't been able to find time for over the last little while.

Experimenting with routine

If you've known me for any amount of time, you likely know that Sarah and I have a bit of a fitness addiction. The kind where you would fly 2400km to Texas just to watch some fit people work out.

Fitness has been a big part of our lives for nearly a decade. Unfortunately, we haven't had time for anything more than walking around our property lately and we miss fitness dearly. This is a major goal for the month: get back to a consistent routine.

With Shea not sleeping that much during the day, we are getting creative with her sleep window to make the most of that time in our home gym. It is definitely a learning curve for how we sneak in time for ourselves. We are experimenting day-by-day to see what will maximize our time for activity.

Doing something for me

I started this blog just over a month ago. I'd always thought of having a blog as a way to share my learnings and document my experiences. 11 posts later and I realize that I'm just over the peak of my Dunning-Kruger wave.

The internet growth hacker voice in my head keeps saying: to maximize your audience, you need to find a niche and write with authority. You need to scale by finding social communities to share your posts for visibility.

Right now, I just want to develop a habit. I have a bad tendency to over-optimize right from the start and try to do everything. It is a character flaw I know I suffer from and I've been working on improving it. I'm not going to worry about optimizing for a niche or being an authority until I find what works for me. Right now, I'm experimenting and writing about things I care about. Who knows what the future holds.

What I do know is that I'm going to aim to post just once per week for the next little while so that I can put my energy elsewhere. A large part of that energy is going towards my family, but the other part is going towards building a digital business. I don't know what the business will sell just yet, but I've dreamed of having my own product for as long as I can remember.

Times are different now though. I used to have an edge that I was a software engineer and could build whatever I wanted. That's not the limiting factor for entrepreneurs anymore. Anyone can get an OpenAI or Anthropic subscription and build anything they can imagine. The hard part now is visibility and distribution, two things I've never been good at. I'm not going to let that stop me.

An entrepreneur who I highly respect recently told me that building a business is like going to the gym. You won't see results every day, and some days you will feel like quitting. But if you can show up consistently and put in the work, it will pay off.

Well, I'm up to that challenge. I spent years chasing a 4 plate (405lb) squat and there were many moments I wanted to give up. Once I tried to hit the weight before my body was ready, and I injured my hip flexor, which took months to recover. I couldn't let that be the end of the story. No, I had to try again. It took another 4 months of training after I recovered.

It's time to turn my attention to a business. I have a new goal, a new muscle to build.

I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm going to put in the work. I'll be sharing my stories on my blog with what I learn and the challenges I face along the way.

For today, I'd like to introduce you to Rogue Oak, the beginnings of my business. So far it's home to a few open source tools that I've built to help accelerate development in an AI software landscape.

More to come!