This is solid advice. I wish I had done better at #1, #2, and #5 when my father got sick and died from cancer, but I didn’t understand how fleeting life is and how brutal cancer is.
Having witnessed and supported other loved ones who subsequently succumbed to cancer, I’ve learned to appreciate all of the recommendations laid out above and not underestimate time or cancer.
Also per the Chronicle article linked above:
"The Plan Bay Area Blueprint for 2050 was shaped by online public feedback this year during the coronavirus pandemic. The plan is expected to be adopted by next summer, but any legal mandates on remote work would require future legislation."
Yeah this is just poor reporting by the NYPost. It looks like this mandate is part of a 30-year long range planning proposal. It doesn't appear there's any regional or municipal legislation or business impacts tied to this in the short-run.
No doubt we have our share of idiotic proposals in the Bay Area, but this is definitely a misleading headline.
1. I post my book notes and other things I’m learning about. I started it a year ago and I’m still trying to figure out what it’s about.
2. I post twice a week. I like the consistency and habit that regular posting imposes (I was posting 3x/week but found that was a bit too much).
3. I use Digital Ocean to host. The blog uses Ghost CMS. I’ve used WP in the past, but I like the blogging focus and relative simplicity of Ghost. On the hosting side, I like Digital Ocean’s pricing model, documentation and community. I’m starting a newsletter for the blog using substack mostly because it’s dead simple to setup a newsletter with them. And rather than fiddle with various solutions, I wanted something turnkey that I could just get started with immediately.
I've had a great experience making use of the Unity 3D free premium learning courses (free until June during the pandemic) with my youngest child.
Like your child, mine didn't care for Scratch. He's loving Unity though. Actually, who am I kidding, I'm enjoying immensely too. We've laughed our heads off together tweaking and adding small features to the rudimentary games that their basic course guides you through.
It's a repository for my book notes (business, self-improvement, economics and other topics). I also post short pieces about things I'm learning. Fridays I post a weekly roundup of interesting articles and podcasts I listened to.
Started the blog last year in an effort to develop the habit more than anything. Trying to get better every week just out of sheer repetition and practice.
This brings back some memories. I used the Corona SDK to build my first iOS app and Corona and Lua were a joy to use. The app is still around but I've since moved to a different framework. But I'll always appreciate Corona for helping me get started with that particular project.
I maintained a page called learningcorona.com for several years that collected the limited number of tutorials and articles on Corona. Carlos, the co-founder, was very kind and emailed me several times to include the site in the official newsletter and to ensure that I didn't run afoul of any trademark problems (in a gentle way). I appreciated how well he interacted with and supported the small Corona community.
So true. I love Aloha shirts (I grew up on Oahu). The best thing about them is that they are multi-purpose. Need to wear something to a wedding in Hawaii? Aloha shirt with slacks. Funeral? Aloha shirt, totally acceptable. Fancy restaurant? Again, Aloha shirt. Business attire? Totally acceptable (it's really the norm for business people if you're 'dressing up').
Where else can you get away with wearing such a comfortable, fun shirt in so many different contexts.
The number for SF is definitely not right if you're looking at SF city proper.
According to Wikipedia, based on the 2014 estimate of ~850k people, the per square kilometer density figure for SF proper is 7,000.
Is there room for growth in SF? Definitely. You'll get no argument from me on that. And I agree with you that Parisian style density is a fantastic thing. It also goes to show you that skyscrapers aren't essential for high density urban living.
By the same token, I do think people tend to underestimate the density of 3-story tracts in SF. The zip code I'm living in in SF, for instance which is dotted with 2-4 story buildings for the most part boasts a respectable 31,000 people per sq mile (and this is on the west side of the city). Many observers, without actually looking at the actual population statistics, would probably say this is a low density neighborhood when the reality is that it is anything but.
If we can achieve those densities with a mere 3 stories, imagine how many more people we could house if we upzoned to 6.
Hey Andrew, same offer I gave rthomas6 stands for you. If you want some one-on-one guidance, let me know. papandrew (at yahoo.com). This is a topic near and dear to my heart.
This stuff is pretty near and dear to my heart since I'm a clean freak/organizing nut. My wife thinks I have OCD.
This might be basic, but I'll give you my answers:
1) This may not be a satisfying answer, but the key for me is that my home is neat and tidy to begin with. When some activity takes place, I might deploy stuff to that area but as soon as the activity is done, I clean things up and put them away. If I'm cooking, I might bring things out and continuously clean up the kitchen as I go. The main point is that keeping an area organized and clean throughout the process is part of the key.
2) So for this problem, my solution is two-fold: (1) Find a place for everything in your home and organize stuff thematically so it's easy to find. Think of your home like a library with a Dewey Decimal system for all your household stuff. Hall closet? Maybe that's a good spot for cleaning supplies, sponges, brooms and the like. I have 3 kids, so one of my closets is all school supplies, art supplies, pens, crayons, binders, etc etc. The key thing here is to group like stuff together. This will make it easier for you to FIND stuff in the future. Also, in order for this to work, you must constantly put things away after you are finished using it. If you don't do this, you'll fail with your organizing (b/c you can't find stuff easily). (2) Attack the supply side of the problem and eliminate unnecessary stuff. This is a big task and a tough one for a lot of folks. I could go into more detail on this one, but unless you are willing to purge some crap, effectively organizing stuff will be challenging.
3) Are your plates and containers a hodge-podge of individual pieces not from a common set? If so, this is your problem. If you purchase plates and containers from a single set/design, you should be able to effectively stack your bowls and plates. Ditto on the containers. If you buy from the same product line, they often come in sets of nestable pieces or stackable pieces. Get rid of the one-off odd bowls and get a uniform set (e.g. 6 bowls of the same make).
4) Physical documents: file cabinet with hanging folders and/or manila folders. Each folder is a different topic/category: Automotive, Home Electronics, Bank Info, Home/Property documents, Travel documents/passport. I probably have 2-3 dozen folder "topics". I get a document that needs to be saved, I immediately file it in the cabinet. Taxes are always a breeze. As soon as I finish my taxes for the prior tax year in April, I create a new tax folder for the current year. Any docs with tax implications (letters from charities for donations, receipts) goes straight into my tax folder. I do the same for digital documents. Just carve out a little spot on your hard drive. Create work and personal life folders. Route the files that you need to save accordingly. Do this diligently and you won't be confronted with the insurmountable deluge of documents. You can also solve the supply side of the equation by periodically reviewing both your physical and digital documents and purging stuff you no longer need. As with my response to #2, if you file things properly, FINDING STUFF when you need it in the future is always a breeze.
5) Depends on your personality and how much mess you can tolerate, but I typically spend 15-30 minutes in the morning organizing my household before I go to work and maybe the same at night. Mind you, I have 3 kids and a wife with a busy schedule, so in order to manage the chaos, I need to organize things twice a day. This may be overkill for a single guy (assuming that's your status). The key thing is that by investing a small amount of time here and there you can keep your organizational system humming. As long as things are put away, things are easy to find. Once you let things slip, it gets tough. As a side note, this is usually when I listen to podcasts (so the time isn't completely wasted on humdrum cleanup).
6) Again this is personal preference and dependent on how much of a mess you make. Beauty of this is that you can outsource these tasks! After my 1st kid was born, that's just what I did. Now I have a house cleaning crew that visits my home every other week and cleans the bathrooms, kitchen, vacuums and mops the floors. You might be able to get by with once a month. 2x a month is better. Personally I'd like once a week but I don't want to pay more than I already pay at 2x/month.
I don't know if these responses are helpful. Happy to chat more about it if you want more pointers. I've been contemplating an Ebook on this topic, so would be interested in hearing more about your problems in this vein. If you want to continue the conversation, let me know: papandrew (at yahoo.com)
So true, small children do seem to squat very naturally and with great form and posture. It's a shame that this gets lost around school age (at least from what I've observed in my kids).
Now as a 40-something adult who performs squats for exercise (both weighted and non) and has to fight with mobility/flexibility issues when performing this exercise, I do envy (and am somewhat awed by) the "tiny humans" in this regard.
Yes, Prop C is a ridiculous attempt to subvert the planning process. For the record, 8 Washington was approved by the Port Commission, Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors. And yet, here we are with this measure.
Another one to watch out for is the Mexican Museum Tower (706 Mission). There have been rumblings that a few of the owners in the Four Seasons Tower don't care for the tall building obstructing their views:
http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2013/07/an_unfriendly_ult...
Depending on the results of the November ballot, we may be seeing more of these.
Zagat has always used a crowd-sourced model, collecting customer reviews and publishing them in book form. They haven't really adapted this as well online (I'm sure this is where Google will give them a huge boost), but their approach was always UGC before people talked about UGC.
Frontline had an interesting documentary on this industry a year or so back called "College Inc". If I remember rightly, they even discussed one of the schools named in the suit, Argosy University (along with a lot of hard-sell tactics and high student loan default rates that accompany the for-profit industry).
And if you want more in the style of Terkel, "Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs" (Edited by John Bowe, Marisa Bowe and Sabin Streeter, 2001) is also a good read.
There's an astounding range of jobs profiled from Crime Scene Cleaner to Porn Star Actor to Tofu Maker.
Vox was Six Apart's social web 2.0 blogging entrant a few years back. I don't know the details, but I'm guessing the following were factors:
* Six Apart already owns/maintains Typepad and Movable Type. So there may have been some product overlap/redundancy (I believe Vox accounts can be migrated to free Typepad accounts)
* Six Apart has already sold off another of their properties, LiveJournal. So Vox may be another attempt to shed and streamline their overall business. In this case they are closing down the service unlike LJ (maybe they couldn't find a buyer?)
* Tumblr and Posterous as well as Twitter have largely "won" the social blogging war (microblogging in the case of Twitter). I don't think Vox ever had the traction of either of those products and in the economic downturn it may be time to cut their losses.
"Given that the first inflection point is unpredictable, it makes sense to consider all traction "verticals" in the pursuit of product/market fit."
Good post. I often encounter entrepreneurs who ask what single thing they can do to promote their web service. This list is a good reminder that sometimes there's no easily identifiable silver bullet. Some companies might latch onto one tactic that works (after a great deal of experimentation with other approaches) and others might find that only the aggregate results from a mixture of these approaches yields any meaningful results. The only way to know is to cast a wide net.
Having witnessed and supported other loved ones who subsequently succumbed to cancer, I’ve learned to appreciate all of the recommendations laid out above and not underestimate time or cancer.