hemling

This is how I fixed my insomnia. I changed three things:

1. Before going to bed I meditate (I usually listen to the app from Sam Harris)

2. No more caffeine after 11 in the morning

3. Strict "bed hygiene", meaning: when I go to bed I immediately switch off the lights and sleep. I do nothing else. Also, I try to always sleep around the same time, even on weekends.

I believe 3) has made the biggest difference. I used to read and even sometimes watch movies in bed. I miss reading in bed but since I stopped doing that and only focus on sleeping I have never had problems to fall asleep anymore, despite going through some stressful times.

I do sometimes still wake up during the night, but since I sleep well before I can handle those days pretty well. My life has changed a lot for the better, one of the best things I have done recently

When going to bed immediately switching off lights and go to sleep. No more reading or watching. That has fixed my insomnia.

I actually fixed my insomnia in 2018.

In the past, I could always rely on the fact that I was able to sleep well the night following a bad night. After I couldn't sleep two nights in a row I started to get very worried.

I changed three things:

1. Before going to bed I meditate (I usually listen to the app from Sam Harris)

2. No more caffeine after 11 am

3. 100% of what is called in books "bed hygiene", meaning: when I go to bed I immediately switch off the lights and sleep. I do nothing else. Also, I try to always sleep around the same time, even on weekends.

I believe 3) has been the biggest change. I used to read and even sometimes watch Netflix in bed. I miss reading in bed but since I stopped doing that and only focus on sleeping I have never had problems to fall asleep anymore, despite going through some stressful times.

I do sometimes still wake up early, but since I sleep well before I can handle those days pretty well. My life has changed a lot for the better, one of the best things I have done recently

Positioning by Al Ries

That's a good write-up thanks

Do you mean applying directly to jobs that are listed on job boards or company website? It is my impression that this has a low chance of success.

Or do you mean apply unsolicited?

How do I go from general software developer to domain specialist if I don't have domain knowledge in the first place (or want to get out of the domain I'm working in)?

I suspect that people who are in a great niche got there by accident and that luck is a much bigger part than most want to admit.

I don't think a deliberate attempt to move into a great position will work.

Following the entrepreneurial dream and quitting too early or not pursuing employment opportunities because I thought I should be going on my own. Lack of consistency in my career, jumping around way too often. Now in my mid-career, I'm paying the price, being stuck with the feeling that I have driven my career into a dead-end

47 here. I drove my career into a dead-end.

Always been a generalist. Tried many times to do startups and saas products. It never got me anywhere. Between my projects, I worked as a freelancer, while living in many different countries. I took anything I could get. Earned enough money, then tried again. I have broad work experience, but nothing deep. Started a family late in life (with 44). Now I feel my career is a dead-end. Plus I seem to have lost my ability to put up with all that technological mess and the ever-new-shiny-thing.

I'm in a real slump. It's been a long time that I slept well.

Last year I created an online course. It's self-hosted and on Udemy. Compared to the time I have invested it generates peanuts, but I enjoyed the process of teaching.

So this is my plan out of the slump: teaching and corporate training. I figure that once I have created sufficient products, I may be able to make a living. And I'm trying to get my foot into corporate training. Though I'm an introvert, I do enjoy a lot helping others to learn and acquire skills.

I'm working on my public speaking abilities as well. Last year I gave a talk at a conference. I was nervous as hell, but at least some seem to have enjoyed my talk.

It's a long hard way, but I feel it's the only viable for me.

btw - if anyone here wants to chat, get in touch, email in profile.

To anyone who has become a parent recently and wondering what you have done to your life: I feel your pain.

After my daughter was born I had dark moments. Boy, was I naive about having kids. It was by far the most exhausting task I ever had to do. Especially the first year was tough. Relationship with mother, work, self-confidence, everything went down.

But let me tell you this: it gets better!

My daughter is turning three and she has grown into something splendid.

I didn't expect this, but I can honestly say that she is giving me as much as I give her. She has her own personality and it is a lot of fun to get to know her better every day.

I still miss my old life, a lot, but now I get to have fun with this creature and can learn from her every day something.

Interesting answer! I think this is even truer when it comes to lying to myself.

Trying to pretend something that does not match reality can create enormous stress. I realised this one day when I had rather strong feelings of being burned-out without actually being in stressful situations (like working long hours etc). All my stress came from inside me.

Basic, Assembler, Pascal, C, Oberon, Miranda, Java, JS, Python, Clojure, Scala

(EU national living in UK)

Yes, I want to leave. I believe in the idea of Europe and want to help it succeed.

I work in London. It used to be a great place to be if you enjoy living in an open multicultural environment with fresh ideas. Now it's turning into an old boring and way overpriced place.

I always had high respect for google maps.

Knowledge uploading like in the Matrix movie

I don't think I lack social skills in particular, I'm easy to get along with and in all my jobs I (think) I made my bosses happy. What I lack is the selling part, the "explain what were your challenges in your last project and how did you solve them".

I usually do well in a general code interview. But it's certainly not the same, as mentioned many times on HN, lots of devs have problems with code interviews and personally I find their value doubtful. Solving some puzzle is not the same as writing a technical blog or building a side projects over months or years.

After a long absent from the desktop I returned developing in JavaFX. Oh boy has desktop app development improved on Java! I liked it a lot, using FXML to define the GUI, MVC built in etc.