~/diary/The year of the Plum
Updated Dec 31, 2024

🖊 The year of the Plum Tuesday, Dec 31, 2024

This year I cemented my move away from the suburbs of Silicon Valley and into a small town in a rural area. Doing this experiment a couple of years ago turned out to be a great decision. I love living here. Life is slower, people are closer and warmer, I enjoy the trees, the quiet, the smells of nature. Just a few years ago I could not have imagined moving to a place that on the surface feels quiet and isolated (it is not, it feels warmer and more alive than the denser part of the bay).

I would have a hard time moving back to a more metropolitan area in order to be closer to a company office. But remote job prospects are good, it does not look like I will have to. I feel lucky for this situation that allows me to comfortably live and work from here.

The last couple of years I’ve been freelancing rather than taking a regular full time job. It has been great, I like the clear cut work-in-exchange-for-money agreement. While I like the theoretical freedom to engage with multiple separate customers, I find myself not really having the bandwidth to do so. It is my tendency to focus in one direction where my contributions are more valuable and appreciated. So next year I’ll give up this dream of working on multiple engagements, regardless of how appealing the various projects are, it’s just not realistic for me. I’d rather be fully committed to one awesome adventure at the time. It unfortunately means turning down other alluring adventures.

Highlights:

Many great nights at home eating, drinking and taking to friends. Numerous visits to old friends who feel closer than ever.

Two very pleasant visits to my home country and my home town. Finally learning to get along with my family in the few days a year we spend together.

It made me very happy to present a project at a conference I hold in high regards, and get a great response and feedback to it.

It was great to meet in person some of the folks I have been working with on a daily basis. Someone I have been mentoring is making big leaps forward, which makes me proud. It felt good to see some of my contributions have a sizable impact and produce words of praise and recognition.

Assorted memorable moments: N’ombra de Vin, DragonCon, Halloween on Florence, Delle Aie, La Scala, Tropea, Goat Sanctuary, Luna Stage.

Notable quotes:

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts […] — Marcus Aurelius

Man who believe they are accomplishing something by speaking speak in different way from man who believe that speaking is a waste of time. — Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon

In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run it is a weighing machine. — Benjamin Graham

My definition of elegance is the achievement of a given functionality with a minimum of mechanism and a maximum of clarity — Fernando J. Corbató

Notable bookmarks:

Math / Art: bleuje: Animations

Article: The Man Who Killed Google Search

Life advice: Save the Web by Being Nice

Education: Smoking is Awesome

Book: The Little Book of Common Sense Investing

Book (re-read): Cryptonomicon

Talk: On Building Systems That Will Fail

Live show: Flynn Creek Circus

Athletics / Art: Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir @ PyeongChang 2018

Sci-Fi: Scavengers Reign

Comedy: Tacoma FD

Fantasy: Arcane

Fiction: Blue Eye Samurai