I thought it was an interesting conversation. Here are 2 young and very successful programmers talking about how they are operating remote companies. They talk about OKRs, meetings, and other minutia of remote work.
My take is that Jack is a really smart guy trying to do good with his companies. I cannot imagine the stress that running Twitter has to be. Here is a platform that definitely assisted Donald Trump in becoming the politician he is today, but that topic was not discussed at all. Matt definitely made this an easy friendly space to talk business.
It is good to hear that Jack is leaning fully into remote work at his companies. Companies that don’t do this are going to struggle moving forward. Now that people have a taste of what remote work is like from a personal and management perspective they aren’t going to want to go back. Listening to this podcast might be best for people who aren’t remote yet.
We have been in Virginia for a few weeks and the weather has been cold and rainy. We haven’t had snow but there has been a bit of Cold Weather Riding going on. Today the temperature was warmer and I didn’t have to wear all of the clothing. It was a great ride.
Our mission was to ride just over 20 miles to West Point, VA (no, not where the military academy is based) for an Impossible Burger at Burger King. The roads were primarily 2 lane with no paint marks and no shoulders. Drivers were mostly considerate and we had a great time.
In high school my best friend Melissa told me: “If you want to be cool you just need 1 other person to think you are cool. Then if you think you are cool and that other person thinks you are cool, you are cool.” I always loved that saying and tie it together with acting ‘as if’.
Acting ‘as if’ means that in your mind you have decided that something already done. If I act ‘as if’ I am cool then I assume that I am cool and then the decision on my end is made.
On a practical basis acting ‘as if’ helps someones confidence. If I am doing something for the first time then I will have little or no confidence because I haven’t ever done it before. Once I have done it I will have confidence that I can do it. However confidence is just a mental state. I can act ‘as if’ I have done this new thing before and have the same confidence as if I have done it before.
Acting ‘as if’ is the opposite of imposter syndrome, or maybe its a cure? Either way if you ever feel a lack of confidence remember you can try acting ‘as if’ you have done it before and maybe it will help.
New year, new plans, maybe even new resolutions? I don’t know about any resolutions but I do have plans.
I plan to exercise every morning. I am pretty close to this already but want to make it as regular as drinking coffee in 2021. Of course I will still drink coffee too. My goal is to stay limber and strong. I still need to conquer the pull-up. I am able to do 2 or 3 at a time but want to get to 10 or more in 1 set.
We plan to build a house this year. We have the design pretty nailed down, now we just need to find a builder. There isn’t a huge hurry to get this done as we have the cabin to live in currently. However we are getting very excited about this building. I will be sure to post more about the design and our process soon.
I plan to blog more this year. I have been journaling everyday for the last 335 days and it has been good to write every morning. Lately I have been writing a blog post at the end of the work day. Today I started writing this post before work. I am sure part of the need to blog comes from the isolation of the pandemic. I feel like I am talking to someone here, even if no one is reading. Anyway its a cheap hobby.
I plan to do more woodworking in 2021. I have tinkered with woodworking over the years starting with shop class in 5th grade. I didn’t really see the potential in woodworking then and for a lot of years afterwards. A few years ago I spent a couple months working on a construction crew building custom homes. It was hard work but the satisfaction of building something at the end of the day was awesome. With woodworking I don’t have to quit my job and can have a similar experience of building things. Right now I am working through some basic projects that are helping me understand the tools better. I am also learning more about good design.
Of course I plan to ride my bike a lot this year. Last year I was just short of 2000 miles ridden. This year I plan on riding at least 50 miles a week which would put me at about 2600 miles. I would like to do some long distance races but also am cautious with all the COVID in the USA. It would suck to get sick now when I hope to be able to get a vaccine in a few months.
In 2021 I plan on volunteering with the Mancos Trail Group again. They have already announced that they will be doing the adopt a trail program again. This allows us to work on the trails but remain socially distanced. Until I have my vaccine I am going to act like I am in lock down. The USA just isn’t getting this thing under control without a vaccine.
That’s my short list so far. I am sure things will change and I will add to this. How about you? What are your plans for 2021?
I have been waiting to do this for some strange reason. Cloudflare does not appear to let you register new domains yet, but you can transfer most existing domain names to them. At $7 and change per domain per year they are by far the cheapest solution. Also their User Interface is the best in the world.
You will need to change the Nameservers on your domains to use Cloudflare’s (CF) before you can transfer the domain registration to them. This process is really easy. Login to your CF account and click on Add Site. It will then look for existing DNS records and help you import them to CF. Then update the Nameservers at your current domain registrar.
Once you have updated your Nameservers to us CF you can go to the Domain Transfer section of CF and your domains will appear. You can then select which ones to transfer and pay to get it done. You will want to make sure the domain is unlocked at the existing registrar. You also want to cancel and remove any Privacy feature at the existing registrar.
Then CF will ask for an authorization code from the existing registrar. You can either get this on the existing registrar’s website or they should have emailed it to you too. Once you add that the transfer is started. It can take 5 to 7 days or you should be able to speed it up by logging into the existing registrar and tell them to do it now.
I recently talked about “Yes, and…” and how it is useful for staying positive and progressing the conversation. What about when the opposite happens and you lose your cool? What can you do to recompose yourself and get back on track?
This morning I had a failure to stay cool moment and am a little embarased about it. Yesterday I contacted Apple Support to cancel the iCloud storage assigned to my Apple ID. Since we have signed up for Apple One that storage is included.
I got a little suspect when the support tech on the phone needed to go check with their superior on how to do this. My head filled with visions of years of photos and documents being lost. Sure enough this morning my phone gave me the warning that I was out of iCloud storage and my settings showed 5GB available.
I was immediately pissed off and angered. I contacted chat support and probably came across as a giant asshole. While they were researching things I opened up my wife’s iPhone to see what the storage settings said there. She is the organizer for the family and signed up for Apple One.
Sure enough under her storage settings was an option to share storage. I clicked on that and almost immediately the 2TB of storage appeared on my phone’s settings. Relieved I let the Apple support person know what had happened. I also apologized to them for my assholiness.
So we hit reset on the keeping our cool counter and will try better again tomorrow.
There are a lot of websites for touring/bikepacking that show up in the search engines. Crazy Guy On A Bike is not one of them. It looks like Craiglists stoner brother but inside are the best personal bike journals on the planet. You can search any region on the planet earth and find journals of when someone rode through.
Outside of that there is a lot of information about bike touring that has no commercial bias. Its rough around the edges and full of useful information and endless reasons to ride your bike everywhere and anywhere.
One of the best things I have learned, but not mastered, is the #1 Rule of Improv:“Yes, and…”. In that game someone starts the game by telling part of a story. When they are ready to pass to someone else they stop talking and point at the person. That person can say anything they want but they have to start by saying: “Yes, and…” then they go into whatever they want to talk about.
In an Improv class the goal is to create funny situations. Outside of Improv this process can be used in brainstorming sessions. In a brainstorming session the goal is to come up with new ideas for products, solutions, and what to have for lunch. By replying only with “Yes, and…” people need to make sure they have listened and considered the benefits of what was shared. Otherwise the room gets really quiet.
“Yes, and…” works because it stays focused on being positive and progressing the conversation. Not all conversations need this approach but I would argue that most could be improved using it. If for nothing else it will reduce negative conversations. You can still think critically but you have to figure out how to vocalize it in an agreeing and positive manner.
How many family discussions could we save by smiling and replying with “yes, and…” to the relative we most disagree with? Its hard for someone to disagree with you when you just agreed with them. Even if the rest of your reply calls them out the conversation has been diffused and should take on a different tone from that point on.
Yes, and we should also just be nicer to each other.
Yes, and the nicer we are to each other the happier we will all be.
Anytime the temperature hits 39℉ I feel you can call it Cold Weather Riding. Since the start of December this has been our riding reality pretty much every ride. Even if there are parts of the ride in the 40’s at least the start and/or the end of the ride have qualified for Cold Weather Riding.
Cold Weather Riding is just like Warm and Hot Weather Riding except that you are cold. The key to not getting cold is to stay warm which is done by layering up your clothing. Typically when I ride I wear socks, shorts, short sleeve jersey, fingerless gloves, headband (for sweat), helmet, and sunglasses. Layering up for Cold Weather Riding means starting there and adding more.
When it is 39℉ or colder I generally have all of my riding clothing on which means I can ride in temperatures as low as 8℉. Any lower than that and I should consider walking, driving, or staying indoors. All of my gear means thick socks, shoe covers, tights, long sleeve jersey, heavy riding jacket, lobster gloves, neck gator, and helmet cap.
The main issue I run into with all of that on is getting too hot. The problem with getting too hot is that you sweat and then that sweat can turn into ice. Once your clothing starts to ice up you can get into big trouble with frost bite and hypothermia really quickly.
This is why you want to build up your clothing in thin layers. Then as you heat up you can stop and remove a layer and then continue on. If you start getting cold again you can put those layers back on.
Personally I have found that if I feel a little cold as I start a ride then I will be fine. As I ride my body will heat up from the activity of pedaling my bike. If I am comfy or warm when I leave then I am going to be too hot pretty quickly and will start considering what to take off and when. If I am too cold when I start then I think about what I might want to add. And, yes it is as accurate as the story of Goldilocks.
For gloves I mentioned “lobster gloves” and I am guessing you aren’t sure what I am referring to here. If you have been cycling in cold weather you may have seen other cyclists wearing gloves with fewer than 4 fingers. These people have either lost some of their fingers or are wearing lobster style gloves. The originals, as far as I am aware, are the Pearl Izumi Lobster Gloves™. They combine the idea of a mitten with some functionality of a glove. I prefer the Planet Bike Borialis cause the name is better, the company is better, and the glove is better:
My ring and pinky fingers get to warm each other up but I still have my trigger finger for shifting and one finger breaking.
These gloves have allowed me to ride comfortably in Cold Weather Riding and still have total control of the bike. They are pretty much ski gloves but the combined pinky and ring fingers make them even warmer.
For my neck gator I am a big fan of Buff ThermoNet . They are seamless so you never get chafing and they can be used in a multitude of ways. I have a lighter one that I use in the summer for a headband.
For helmet caps I recommend getting a dedicated skull cap for Cold Weather riding. Since Kate needed one too we got this 3 pack:
These fit perfectly under your helmet and keep your head nice and warm on the coldest of days. If you need more you can pull the Buff over and make a balaclava.
You dont have to spend a ton of money to do Cold Weather Riding but you do need to spend something. Frost bite and hypothermia can happen very quickly and be a real bummer for you. If you are in doubt about what to wear in your area head to your local bike shop and ask questions. They can even sell you some of the gear and give you advice on anything else. Heck leave a comment here and maybe I can help.
