Read, try, read, repeat, is the process I use. I read about a topic, then I do a practical attempt (which most times fails), then I go back and read the topic again. I then repeat this until I'm comfortable with the topic, both conceptually and practically.
Also Albertan. Maybe it's unrealistic but I agree it would be pretty awesome to see in my lifetime. Would also be cool to see Alberta get on the map for something other than oil.
The following is mostly speculation. I don't really know the inner workings of the Reddit business model.
Businesses that rely on advertising revenue will always seek optimal channels for peoples attention. The mobile app gives them two very import things:
1. Push notifications. Push notifications give companies the ability to advertise to you without you even visiting their website. Also, it allows them to piggyback on the Pavlovian response that has been conditioned in your brain by smart phone companies. Essentially this allows them to "mainline" their product into your brain. Just woke up? McDonalds breakfast PN. End of a long day of work? PN from reddit to remind you to binge their content for your entire evening.
2. People can't run adblock on mobile applications. Even if that only accounts for 10% of it's users, it's still a huge increase in ad revenue.
Do you know of any local developer communities? A slack channel for devs in your area, perhaps. Usually they have job channels but also the best people to know about jobs in the industry are developers themselves. Check out /r/forhire and make a post. Then maybe comb through the HN monthly freelance threads and send some emails. That'll get you started. Good luck and stay safe.
Detach your code from your ego. Learn that there's always something someone else knows that you don't. Having them show you is a chance for you to learn, not to be ridiculed. Once you realise that most other people feel the same way you do, you'll be free to not only grow, but to work with other people to help them grow, as well.
Been doing this routine for just over a year now. I wake up at 4:45am, head the gym and do an hour workout. When I get home I make breakfast and eat. Then I catch up on news/tech articles for 20 minutes while drinking a coffee, followed by doing the dishes. Once that's done I get ready for work and head to my 9 to 5. Rinse repeat Mon-fri.
I've gotten about two years worth of contracting work from posting on one of these threads. A lot of tire kickers, and a lot of "take this test and then we'll talk" offers as well. I just ignore those, but I think, in general, it's not a bad network facilitator.
> Facebook had traction because it was radically different from anything that was before.
How was Facebook radically different than other social media sites? In my opinion, it was almost exactly the same as the rest. They just leveraged some clever marketing.
Python and Javascript mostly. I just use online job boards, communities like HN and reddit, slack communities, etc. Close to zero networking, though I'm sure it would help. I wrote an article a little while ago about how I approach finding remote jobs, if that helps
Also Canadian but I typically contract to US companies and have for the last 8 years or so.
Put away a nice big rainy day fund. I try to aim for 3-6 months of full living expenses. You'll need this to fill the gaps between contracts.
For me, contracts typically last around two years or slightly less. This is probably anecdotal, so take it with a grain of salt.
It usually takes me between 2 to 4 months to find a new contract, but I work strictly remote, so your mileage may vary. Try to keep your finger on the pulse of what's going on. If you can figure out when your contract will end, this will help mitigate the amount of time you spend running on rainy day money.
Pay your income tax installments on time. Every day you go without paying them costs you interest to CRA. On the topic of CRA, get an accountant to help you figure out what you can expense. You can expense all kinds of things including utilities and part of your mortgage.
Get a GST/HST number if you're making more than 30k. You'll have to pay GST if the work you are doing is not done on a remote server out of country.
That's all I can think of off the cuff. Get in touch if you have any questions
Contacting has been a great experience for me but it takes some time to get used to the risk and learning to anticipate the future.
Maybe the original idea behind IH was to provide success stories to learn from. It seems to have evolved though.
To me, IH is a community of people going through the same struggle. Some are just starting, some are in the thick of it, and some have made it to the other side. All of which have their own role in a community.
I see a lot of blind leading the blind comments, but I don't think it's about leading and following. It's about doing something together with people doing something similar.
As an app developer, I can vouch for finding k8 to feel frustratingly complex.
My current client work has recently shifted to using k8. I took the time to get minikube working locally to get a better understanding. It definitely helped, but I find the layers of abstraction hard to grok after not working with it for a while.
I can see the value the tool offers, but I get the feeling it's supposed to be reserved for higher degrees of scale than the average 2-8 node app.
Black box is how I feel about it sometimes. Hopefully I'll get more one on one time with it in the future. It seems like a really cool technology.
These are all great. I started writing the article with the intention of including the soft skills mentioned by everyone but it quickly became very long. Part two will have soft skills and I'll make sure to include your notes.