anonL01V

I can really commiserate with how you are feeling. Something I’ve done recently is set up a “homelab” server and running a few web apps on it of various functions. Nothing novel here, but what I really love about this is how all of these apps are user centric and open source/community built. There’s no user hostile algorithms here or even ad based systems. Only software that tends to put the user first and tends to speak open protocols.

This sort of thing is very achievable if you work in IT and can run your own server. But what about everyone else?

Your idea of a personal “IT person”, like your own personal barber or tailor, is very intriguing. I wonder if its feasible to provide a service like this to people who are of a similar mindset about disconnecting from huge tech companies/algorithms and using something more personal, but don’t have the technical means to achieve this?

I’ve also been thinking about the personal data aspect of healthcare. I hate that my medical records are stored in MyChart and a dozen other proprietary systems that I have no control over. Yet, I have a super computer in my pocket. Why can’t I maintain my own copy of my records and selectively share data with my doctors when I arrive for an appointment? Why do I still need to have one doctor’s office fax something to another’s? I should be able to own my data and tap a button on my phone to do this. Only Apple’s Health app seems to come anywhere close to providing a fraction of this functionality, but there seems to be 0 adoption of this within the US. Even then, this only benefits Apple users. Something like health data should not be locked in a propriety system, even one that runs locally like Apple Health. There should be some open protocol and an ecosystem of implementations.

> Don't be! the whole point of this was to build something for myself, and use the process to reflect. There's no reason why trying something similar shouldn't work for you, I certainly wasn't the first to implement a personal reader.

Thank you for the encouragement! I do intend to still do something in this space if only for no other reason than to go through this process myself with the hopes of rekindling my interest in technology and software development.

And thank you for sharing your experience with us! The validation and motivation I’m feeling after reading this definitely overshadows the jealousy. :-)

New anon account so I can speak openly about the future.

My jaw is on the floor because this post seems like it could have been written by my future self. I can’t believe how much in common I have with the author.

I’ve realized I’m burnt out and have been planning to quit my job early next year (wanting to state this is the reason for the anon account).

But there’s a lot of people who are probably feeling this same way. What’s astonishing to me is what the author did is almost exactly what I’ve been daydreaming about doing in my time off.

I’ve also been thinking about the open/IndieWeb and how I’d like to engage with it. I was planning to build some sort of app to experiment in this space.

There are similarities even down to one of the specific problems in this space: how to prevent infrequent posts from being lost in the flood. And technical considerations: what languages and technologies to use. I had also been considering building something using modern web technologies, where I’m about 10 years out of date on web development.

In some ways, I’m delighted there’s another person out there to provide some validation to what I’ve been thinking and feeling recently. It makes me feel like I’m going to head down the right path.

In other ways, I’m upset and jealous the author got there first.