Sure. I’m not sure how much my advice is worth but I’m happy to offer it if it will help you out in any way.

management is the same.

Always has been.

I was laid off last summer. I decided to try my hand at the entrepreneureal path. I’ve gotten really sick on working of projects that are clearly DOA but management just can’t let go of them for one reason or another… Until they finally do and proceed fuck up my plans in the process.

There are tons of legitimate business problems that could be fixed with software but the big guys typically prefer to focus on speculative gambles rather than those.

I got the PoC done and I’m probably a month away from having a marketable service. I realize there’s a high probability of failure but I won’t succeed if I don’t try.

And also with you.

That lightsaber?

Yes, THAT lightsaber.

Got you covered.

Excellent.

Database performance tuning is its own little world and there are lots of complexities and caveats depending on the database system.

With MSSQL, the first thing you should check is your indexes. You should have indexes on commonly queried fields and any foreign keys. It’s the best place to start because indexing alone can often make or break database performance.

Wrap everything in moving blankets and secure with ratchet straps.

If you have anything really heavy, you might see if you can rent or borrow a small tractor with a hydraulic liftt and forks. I lugged a planer (300+ lbs) into my basement shop by myself, with a refrigerator dolly. I won’t make that mistake again.

Shit. I didn’t even think about that. That’s only for the first one though. After that the months just kind of blend together.

Have kids. You’ll be so busy you’ll forget what day of the week it is until 5 minutes before you’re supposed to go pick your new car up.

…I’m kidding. Don’t do that. Kids are very expensive.

Who’s this nightstand for? Paul Bunyan?

It took me like 25 years to learn to not set shit on top of a ladder. If I carried something up a ladder with me, it comes down with me. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve thought “I’ll totally remember this hammer up here (this time)” only to climb down, immediately try to move the ladder, and get clobbered in the face by the falling hammer that I forgot about the second it left my field of vision.

I have ADHD. I also have a daughter with ADHD. I think being able to see it from the point of personal experience and from a parents perspective has been helpful in some ways. I was officially diagnosed at 28. I wish I had been diagnosed as a child. I have never been outwardly hyperactive but aside from that, the signs were clearly there.

Instead of outward physical hyperactivity, I have what I have heard called “inner restlessness”. It feels like an inability to relax. I can’t just sit and do nothing. It’s an insatiable need to constantly feel like I’m doing something productive, every waking minute of every day. It doesn’t sound that bad but in reality it’s a tremendous source of misery. Humans aren’t built to work constantly without rest but my ADHD brain will not let me turn it off. Meds help with this a lot.

One of the challenging things about having a child (or even maybe being a child) with ADHD is that physicians often like to focus on school performance as the primary barometer of “success”. In fairness, that’s somewhat understandable when kids are young and lack the self-awareness to analyze how they’re feeling, much less communicate their feelings in a meaningful way.

The goal should be to help the child have a happy and fulfilling life with school performance as a component of that.

People with ADHD are significantly more likely to experience mental health issues throughout their lives, especially if they’re untreated. That can often lead to “self medicating” (AKA substance abuse). As someone who experienced severe difficulty regulating their own emotions – often a symptom of ADHD – from an early age, and spent most of his 20’s binge drinking as a form of self medication, I wish someone would have asked if I needed meds when I was a kid.

ADHD symptoms can change as the brain develops. It’s perfectly normal to make adjustments to medications to deal with that and keep everything dialed in.

I think what’s really important is teaching your son the importance of looking after his mental health and that having an ongoing dialogue with his doctor about his disorder is a positive thing.

I can do one thing every day and check it off, as long as it is on a list.

Always good to see a fellow “relentless box checker.”

I totally get this. We have to figure out what we can and can’t control. I decided, a long time ago, that I did not want to be the kind of father that my father was. Thankfully, I was able to let go of the anger that I was brought up with. I’m far from perfect but I decided the cycle of abuse would end with me and I ended it.

I still can’t remember what I was about to do or where I put something 90% of the time. I wish that weren’t the case. I wish my stupid pinball machine of a brain worked like a normal one. It doesnt. That’s outside my control.

But, I was able to change something that really mattered by dealing with something I could control.

Nearly every time I ask ChatGPT a question about a well established tech stack, it’s responses are erroneous to the point of being useless. It frequently provides examples using fabricated, non-existent functionality and the code samples are awful.

What’s the point in getting AI to write code that I’m just going to have to completely rewrite?

There is truth in the expression, “Success is a lot of small decisions stacked on top of one another.”

It can be hard for us to embrace because it often doesn’t provide the immediate reward sensation that we crave and don’t get enough of. That said, if you can find a way to focus on one area of improvement at a time, your chances of success are much higher and it will help keep you from feeling overwhelmed by your larger goals.

Freud, which also makes Diablo, has quite a few good options. Go for something with less teeth (like a 24T) which will give a smooth cut without overloading the saw. The 113 should handle hardwoods over 3/4" just fine.

How else are you supposed to keep score? Half the time there’s a few spares sitting in the golf cart.

“Dad, you better quit taking those blood pressure meds. You might become dependent on them.”

For me it’s not fear. It’s having to power up my “extrovert persona”. I’m happy to do it. I enjoy talking to people but it’s also exhausting.