Headed back to Tumblr

Photo by Peter Lewicki on Unsplash

Cross-posting from Tumblr, with a few tweaks:

Ok, so I’m back to Tumblr since they may have gotten a bad rap initially, and especially since they’re part of the Automattic family now.
All my Blogger posts are still up here at mkdolor.blogspot.com and I’ll be blogging over there going forward at blog.mkdolor.com  || mkdolor.tumblr.com

Thanks for sticking with me!

Podcast Topic ideas

Photo by Jeroen den Otter on Unsplash

I've mentioned my plans to create a podcast a couple of times before on this blog.

The first step in developing the first season is going to be coming up a list of possible podcast episode ideas. This list is informed by wonderful suggestions from friends (shoutout to Buddy's human). 

Ok so here goes:

1. How might we reinvent ourselves since work is going to keep changing. Inspired by Yuval Harari's book 21 Lessons for the 21st Century.
2. A hot-take on the FT article "The job interview of the future is already here." 
3. Ideas around management and leadership.
4. Product Management.
5. A meta-episode where I discuss podcasts/podcasting.
6. Personal Finance for those of us who are either too terrified, busy, or both to make the most of our financial resources and set our future selves up for success.

Ok, so I have a start!

Next steps will be creating a script for the first of these I decide to tackle. After that, I'll record it, edit it, create some front and end credits for Season 1 and finally hit publish to get this show on the road!

Any topic ideas? Including any you've mentioned to me before that I forgot to include here? Please drop me a comment!

Daily fix

Photo by Peter Lewicki on Unsplash

This is the last post of my "blogging every day" experiment. I started over on Tumblr on Nov 1, 2018 with the goal of doing this for 120 days. The Seth Godin post that inspired me ended with "Give it a try for three or four months and see what happens…" Turns out 3 months was the right length of time for me. 

I expect to keep publicly posting blog posts regularly. My goal is to improve my writing and explore the same topics I've dabbled in over the past few months - personal growth, professional development, programming, photography, deliberate practice and more.

If you're looking for a daily fix of some of the best the internet has to offer, I recommend:

- Seth Godin's blog

- Kottke.org

- Raptitude.com
- Zen Habits

A couple of news sites I recently discovered: - Hvper: the internet on one page, and AllSides.com.

I won't be joining you in regularly perusing these sites, since for the month of February I'll be doing a digital detox - the first step in becoming a digital minimalist. I'll be focused on building my deep work muscles, hence my plan for more meaty blog posts. I'll also be focused on Analog Social Media.

Thanks for joining me on the journey so far, I really appreciate you taking the time to participate in my tiny little corner of the internet.

💜

Personal Finance

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

Personal finance is a bit of a hobby of mine...if it's possible for money management to be a hobby. I love learning about new ways to manage financial resources more efficiently. I'm also very keen to understand how more people can learn about personal finance in a way that's not intimidating. 

Over the years, I've written a number of pieces that explore personal finance from various angles: philosophical, practical, career-related.

My biggest influence around all of this, is the internet personality - Mr. Money Mustache (MMM). With the tag-line "Financial Freedom through Badassity" you can't really go wrong - it's playful, aspirational, and honest about what it takes to eventually be free of the need for a typical 9-5. 

Some people are driven by a desire to be comfortable and see material things as a pathway to contentment. Others expect to make small sacrifices today and have the positive consequences compound over the course of their lives. I am all about the second option (as is MMM), and I'm learning to be less judgmental about the first. We all have our own paths. 

That said, all of us can do wonders for our long term independence by doing our absolute best to:
1. Max out tax-deferred retirement accounts i.e. 401k, IRA, etc.
    a. Purchase the most efficient investments we can e.g. Vanguard low fee index funds. 
2. Save as much of our salaries as possible for emergencies;

Blog post ideas

Photo by Peter Lewicki on Unsplash

I found a small treasure last week! A note with blogpost ideas from a few years ago. As I read through the list I realized I'd love to write about pretty much all the topics and they're still timely, some even more so now. 

My initial thoughts around this find:

This is a particular treasure because I've been struggling with my "blogging every day" experiment. I do have a handful of blog topic ideas, but none of them were particularly appealing. This is why they're still just ideas despite my need to find content for 5 days every week. So look out for more daily updates.

But...as I think more about it, I realize I'd much rather write one well-thought-out blog post every week or so about these topics, instead of dashing off a few harried sentences. 

So that'll be the plan. 

I committed to keeping up the daily blog through January, so I'll be doing that and then I'll move to a less frequent schedule. There'll still be photos and learning to code updates, but hopefully I'll also have at least one meaty piece per week. They might not be super long, but they will be focused on improving my ability to write more elegantly.

Learning to Code Weekly Update 01/28/2019

Photo by Fabian Grohs on Unsplash

The calculator project has been quite a challenge. I've seen the better part of the last two weeks plugging away at it; trying to break it down into modular working pieces. I've been reveling in the learning process, and not just trying to hack something together as quickly as possible.

Friday evening, I discovered the JavaScript eval function - a game changer for the way I was approaching this project. I've spent the rest of the weekend tackling test cases and styling. I still have a little left to do, but we're in pretty good shape. 

Early 1/29/2019 update: Calculator project is all done! 🎆
Up next, I'll be building a Pomodoro Clock.

M Street Bridge

Underside of the M St. Bridge, NOMA DC, 1/24/2019