Update on My Learning

Hi there,

I'm going to specify more on the stuff I'm going to learn this year.

So, for the seven programming languages:

It's really tempting to buy just the book "7 Programming Languages in 7 Weeks" and do just that.
That would be sensible in many ways, and perhaps I'll do that.

So: These are the seven languages I'm going to learn this year:

1. Python
2. Rust
3. Go
4. Ruby
5. Haskell
6. Prolog
7. Scala

Currently, I'm learning Python. DubbelVla will be my the project to be implemented in this newly learned language.

For the other languages, I will decide when I finish DubbelVla. I will think about a new project to learn each language.
I don't know about Swift, about R and other cool stuff, that's on my personal hype list. It would be great and learn all of them but I don't think I have the time.


So, what about the seven frameworks, libraries, whatever?

1. Ext JS
2. Spring
3. Spring MVC
4. EmberJS
5. Express 
6. Ionic
7. MongoDB
8. Docker
9. Node.JS

Yup, now I named them. I can't decide which of them to take. Anyway, I will have at least learned seven of them.

Challenges for 2015

So, after an awesome year 2014, filled with interesting challenges, I have learned a lot.

• I did not know that I enjoy hot drinks that much.
• I did not know that you might get used to almost anything
• I did not know that drinking water each day was really good
• I did not know that not drinking alcohol was not really a problem
• I did not know that I am so incredibly lazy
• Sleep deprivation is an experience I do not seek again.

Nevertheless, I decided to take a new approach:

Instead of monthly challenges, I will have just some goals to be fulfilled this year.

These will be:

1. Learn seven new programming languages
2. Learn at least seven frameworks, libraries, whatever. This will be mainly web frontend related stuff
3. Finish seven projects and put them on GitHub. (some of them are already existent in my GitHub account, but no commits yet.)
4. Cook a new meal for my family once a month

Let's bring it on!

One Month Without an Smartphone

This month was sometimes weird, sometimes it just sucked and sometimes I did not miss a thing.

The Good

• Its easier to focus on conversations with the other person when you're not constantly distracted by some notifications and habit-shaping glances on your phone.
• It's easier to realize what's happening around you

The Bad

• I did miss an appointment because I did not take a look at my calendar that day. So I disappointed one person, who did need my help.
• My online communication via WhatsApp was nonexistent this month. So I might miss something urgent. But I think, if it might be something important (not to be confused with urgent), The people had plenty of other ways to contact me.
• I forgot my phone way more often at home than before. One time it resulted in a awful misunderstanding between me and my wife. This sucked so much.

The Ugly

• My wife uses Pintrest since yesterday. It did suck up about one hour on my life to stare on her screen.
• Writing text messages with T9 sucks so much, I will never miss it any more. I have to admit, I really hated it.
• I still wasted some time with playing a silly game (coded in Java for Embedded Systems, good old times).
• I tend to adopt an "better-than-thou"-attitude. "Hey, you still use a smartphone? You social outcast instant-gratification monkey!". That is a attitude I really had to watch out for and capture it, not letting any room to breathe.

A month with (almost) no video

So, I did not watch video and did not play games on the computer all of August. Almost.
I did watch four movies (I allowed myself two cheat days that month), several tutorials, clips of my children, maybe two or three less-than-interesting clips on YouTube, and countless animated GIFs.
I also played about 10 Minutes of 2048, before realizing, that I must not play computer games that month.

All in all, i was pretty relaxed about that challenge this month. But nonetheless, it was a challenge to force myself not to play boring and silly game on my smartphone while sitting bored in the train.

I realized, how much time I do spend with video entertainment every day. I realized how ubiquitous video has become in my life. I realized how silly it sounds to others confessing, that you are avoiding video this month. I realized, that I did not read more books than other months. It watch a lot more images and read more articles in various blogs.

It was a challenge not to just dive into watching some videos all by myself, but to waiting for something meaningful. And by meaningful, I mean making it either educational or making it an experience shared with others.

And so I removed games from my smartphone. And so I do not really have the desire to watch movies (although I would like to watch some episodes of Stargate, fully intentional, just enjoying it with my wife or some friends). I have the desire to spend my day in a more meaningful way.

And hey, isn't that, what life is about? Making it meaningful?

And thus, I am thrilled about this month's challenge: To spend at least one hour of quality time with at least one of my kids.
Yeah, I know, originally, it was scheduled for October, but I know, I won't be able to do it in October, so I'll do it now.

Things will be great.

No Car for short distances in June. And rising early in July.

So, last month I promised not to use a car for distances shorter than three kilometers. And I kept it.
It was no big deal, since most of the grocery shoping was handled by my wife. There was nearly no rain here in june, so there was not even much temptation to use a car. A fairly simple challenge, that was (to say it Yoda-style).

This month I decided to rise early. This means before 5 am. Some of my friends will say: but you said, that you won't watch videos for entertainment. Yes, I did. And will keep this promise, but not now but in august. Why this change? Because of the FIFA world cup. I just would like to watch some games.

And one more thing: In case of extreme sleep deprivation, I will allow myself of sleeping longer than 5 am. One time. And I have to announce it (at one the night before, at least to my wife).

So... I would like to go to bed. Now. (Yeah, it's only 9 pm, but I want to wake up early.)
I guess, this month will be a huge lifestyle shift from my lifestyle before.

Let's bring it on!

No Coffein - OK. No hot beverages: Not cool.

Yeah, to make it short: Not drinking hot beverages for one entire month sucked. Hard.
Not eating chocolate sucked (It has caffeine in it, too)

And I had almost no withdrawal symptoms.

March without alcohol and April's workout / being outside

Hi everybody,

the month called March is behind us, April Fools is also history, for the most parts.
So, I've drank absolutely no alcohol last month. Well, that's not really true. I drank some of that:
One sip of beer shortly after midnight on February 1st, just because I forgot that it was already after midnight.
And I had a sip of whiskey because I took a sip of coke, which my cousin place at my table. But because it was his coke, he drank it his way: refined with some classy whiskey.

So I did not drink alcohol because I wanted to drink alcohol. And although I expected at least some sort of detox effects, there weren't any. I had no cravings, I did not think "Oh boy, I wish, I could drink alcohol.". So it was really easy.

Benefits of refraining from alcohol:

• You don't become drunk and make bad decisions

Downsides:

• None
• Really, no real downsides. You can go party and have a great time without. Really.

What wasn't easy was drinking only water and avoiding soft drinks:
Making two expections per month didn't work for me: From "most days" I went pretty quickly to "some days" to "every now an then". That's an aspect of me I didn't know too well before.

So what I've learnt so far about me (and probably everyone else, too):

TL;DR:
It's easy to keep performing an action for a limited time, based only on willpower. It's nearly impossible to do that forever. Forcing a permanent change in one own's behavior, but rely solely on willpower is a losing strategy.

This month, I will on each day either work out for at least half an hour or work outside for one hour.
Today, I was outside, preparing stuff for my garden. It was not that easy, but I did not expect it to be.

So, have a great April!

A Year with Daily Challenges

Inspired by Leo Babauta's "A Year of Living Without", I decided to create a challenge for myself.
Some of Leo's great challenges are just not really applicable for me: Not using the Internet for half a day would bring me in serious job problems. That's not what I want to happen. I want to try new things out, leave things out, get out of my comfort zone (at least a little bit). The worst thing that could happen, that I learn nothing new. The best thing that could happen, is that I change the way I live my everyday life. And I believe, it will make fun. At least in hindsight.

January

No calories after 5:30pm. And no eating after 5:30pm. I tried this from time to time, but failed regularly. This month shall be different. Instead of eating or drink sweetened stuff, I will drink water or unsweetened tea.

February

This month I will drink at least two liters of fresh water each day. This might become hard. But it could be worth it.

March

No alcolhol. I drink not that much. At least I think I don't. In a typical month perhaps six 0.5-liters of cola-beers and one bottle of wine. That month it will be zero.

April

Either working out for at least 30 minutes or being outside for one hour. I have no idea how to make it work. This is one of the most challenging items on this so far to me. The tricky part will be no to cheat on the workout, but to really work out.

May

No coffein. No coffee. No Latte. No Cappuchino. No Cola. I will replace it with apple juice, water and tea.

June

All distances less than 3 km must be done by foot or bike. This will mean to go shopping by foot or bike. Heck, almost everything I can do in my town, I have to do by foot or bike. Exceptions are allowed only if it's too heavy to transport by bike or foot.

July

No video entertainment. I will not watch any movie or play a video game. Not on my computer and not on my phone. Instead, I will read. Or talk to my wife. Or play boards games. (I have severeal board games, which are challenging playing single, in case no one has time to play with me.). July is a great month for not sitting inside and watching TV or movies.

August

Waking up before 5:00am. This one will mean, that I have to go to bed early. It will be challenging, but surely the most fun. August is the month I look forward most, because of this.

September

Maximum half hour usage of private internet a day. As a programmer, I rely on information gathered from the internet very heavily. You always run into some problems, you cannot solve by yourself. It's not about this kind of internet usage. It's about checking your private emails, it's about surfing amazon and updating your wishlist. It's about the sunken time on reddit. I will replace it with time for family and reading book. I got the feeling, I will read more book this year than in the ten years before.

October

At least one hour of quality time with my kids. And by quality time I mean playing, reading and taking a walk with my kids. In my normal life, I seldom take the time to really enjoy life with those loved ones. (That's a shame actually!). And when I take the time, I'm often distracted by other things I want to accomplish: Books and internet articles to read, phone calls to make, things to cook, stuff to clean up -- you name it. This month will be different.

November

Write a blog post something every day. I have no clue how to accomplish this without writing extremely boring stuff like "Today I ate a banana.". <irony>Photos may be helpful.</irony>

December

No Smartphone usage. I am way too fearsome to go completely mobile-less like Leo. But I will use my wife's feature phone this month. It will rely on pen and paper for notes, contact and calendar updates. Yes, most feature phones have a calendar and contacts, but I hate using them. GTD with no smartphone will also be hard. But I will figure it out. I will replace this habit with being alive and watching all the other people whose attentions are drawn to that little device.




2014? Let's bring it on!