BtdTom

Personally, I love the first four books, although the be warned they take a different tone than from the first book. The last two are good, but Heinlein passed away after writing the sixth book. I believe his son tried to continue the series, but I haven't read past that.

I highly recommend reading at least the first four books.

The length of one's life is uncertain.

Death is certain.

The Buddha recommended that both lay and monastic followers perform the following recollections on a daily basis:

1. I am sure to become old; I cannot avoid ageing.

2. I am sure to become ill; I cannot avoid illness.

3. I am sure to die; I cannot avoid death.

4. I must be separated and parted from all that is dear and beloved to me.

5. I am the owner of my actions, heir of my actions. Whatever actions I do, good or bad, of these I shall become the heir.

The first four recollections require no faith and can be perceived in the here and now.

I find that regularly contemplating the above recollections are helpful in reminding me of my own mortality.

They also prompt me to question my direction in life and what I'm working on. It's often easier to make frequent but smaller course corrections than really big changes.

With all that said, I still find myself falling into the illusion that I can control what happens in my life and that I'm building something permanent. We can certainly influence aspects of our lives, but at the end of the day it's all impermanent, beyond our absolute control, and will pass away.

SEEKING WORK -- Joliet, IL -- remote/freelance I have 16 years of experience building trading related systems for both domestic and international financial markets. I also have created custom back-end frameworks used by various government agencies. Most of my professional experience has been directed towards building low-latency, reliable, and accurate back-end systems.

I'm comfortable working with existing systems or helping to design and develop new ones.

If you think I can be of value to your business, I would love to have a conversation and discuss further.

Languages: Java, Kotlin, C, Bash, HTML, CSS, SQL

Website: http://www.bluetowerdigital.com

Email: tszum[at]bluetowerdigital.com

SEEKING WORK -- Joliet, IL -- remote/freelance

I have 16 years of experience building trading related systems for both domestic and international financial markets. I also have created custom back-end frameworks used by various government agencies.

I'm comfortable working with existing systems or helping to design and develop new ones.

Languages: Java, Kotlin, C, Bash, Python, HTML, CSS, SQL

Email: tszum[at]bluetowerdigital.com

Kotlin is great and very easy to use if you already know Java.

7.5+ billion people and counting, some of which enjoy the highest standard of living our species has ever known. Those that don't enjoy that standard of living want it, drawing down from a pool of finite resources.

Now throw in the ramifications of climate change like drinking water shortages, food and resource scarcity, and migrations from coastal cities - the opportunity for conflict will only rise amongst people and nations.

My concern is that this can lead to large scale nuclear war. Yes I'm aware of MAD, but that doesn't protect us from everything. Look at Vasili Arkhipov, Stanislav Petrov, Boris Yeltsin and the Norwegian Rocket Incident. They are just a small number of publicly known incidents where large scale nuclear war was almost triggered due to computer glitches and/or miscommunication. The proliferation of nuclear weapons adds additional challenges in maintaining the peace and we must also deal with existing nuclear actors experiencing wide swings in political leadership - like what has happened with the US presidency.

We live in interesting times.

There is a book called "Work Clean: The life-changing power of mise-en-place to organize your life, work, and mind" that discusses this philosophy further and how someone can integrate these principles into their work life. It was a pretty interesting read.

Link: https://www.amazon.com/Work-Clean-life-changing-mise-en-plac...

Thank you for your creativity, support, and stewardship Guido. You left a permanent mark on the programming community!

SEEKING WORK -- Joliet, IL -- remote/freelance

I have 16 years of experience building trading related systems for both domestic and international financial markets. I also have created custom back-end frameworks used by various government agencies. While most of my experience has been directed towards building low-latency, reliable, and accurate back-end systems, I have also been getting into Android development as well.

I'm comfortable working with existing systems or helping to design and develop new ones.

If you think I can be of value to your business, I would love to have a conversation and discuss further.

Languages: Java, Kotlin, C, Bash, HTML, CSS, SQL

Website: http://www.bluetowerdigital.com

Email: tszum[at]bluetowerdigital.com

I liked GTD, but in my opinion the system laid out in "Total Workday Control Using Microsoft Outlook" is much better: https://www.amazon.com/Total-Workday-Control-Microsoft-Outlo...

I was not a fan of Outlook before I came across this book, but the way the author configures Outlook and the workflows he lays out works really, really well. My inbox is near zero throughout the day, actionable items are captured easily, and tasks don't get lost over time.

I highly recommend it.