I was a technical co-founder of a startup in 2016. My job was to take our CEO’s idea and to architect out a reasonable MVP within 3 months time along with my ragtag team of developers (friends). To summarize that part of the story, we launched at month 5, participated in a huge startup competition at month 6 and grew rapidly by month 12. By month 36 we had to shut the doors due to a variety of factors as many startups tend to do.

Since that time though, I’ve had the opportunity to work with various startups in the Los Angeles area, mainly early stage and looking for technical help. Typically when startups reach out to me, it’s not because they are doing amazingly well. They’ve dug themselves into a tough situation and they need a second opinion or some form of validation that everything is going okay. Much of the time, things are not going okay. And consistently, the reasons have been very similar as to why. There is no sign of a technical founder anywhere in the vicinity and no one even knows where their servers are. …

You have probably already read about the obvious benefits of owning less “stuff”, such as saving money, being less cramped, and appreciating things more in your life. All good things, for sure. But there other less talked about benefits that come with that lifestyle as well, and those are the most interesting ones to me.

When I decided to “become” a minimalist a few years ago, it was a choice out of my own hands. I was running a startup, I was going broke, I had too much stuff lying around. So, as I slowly started to sell more of my worldly possessions day by day, I was also slowly becoming a minimalist in the process. …

I’ve been a professional software engineer since 2008. And there’s one concept that every programmer learns early on and that they don’t forget ever again. And that’s crunch time.

If you’re not familiar with the term, it’s essentially the moment when you and your team realize that you’re probably not going to complete something and that you will have to work more hours than expected. In some cases, this can mean an extra day or two. In other cases, this can mean months of overtime work with no end in sight.

As mentioned, crunch time in the programming world is pretty much expected. In fact, not an interview has gone by where I’m not asked “You’re fine working extra hours when needed, right?” without even having the offer yet. It happens in other fields as well, I’m sure. But it seems to be more rampant in the technology world. …

I started blogging in 2014 with no real idea as to what I was doing and with very little control of the English language. But, I was a programmer, I built a blog engine to compete with WordPress (I lost), and I wanted to test it out. The result was a blog about writing code. At least that was the initial intent. It has morphed various times throughout the years along with my interests and skills.

After writing almost 1000+ articles (and countless more ‘drafts’ that will never see the light of day), here are 6 lessons that I can share about the process for anyone looking to begin their own writing journey. Because it really is a journey paved with many challenge, dragons and forks in the road. …

Just as with any human relationship that comes to an abrupt end (or not so abrupt at times) certain events in our lives will require us to take a step back, heal our wounds, take some time and recover before we venture out again into the unknown.

Typically, when startup founders make the tough decision to not continue forward with their business, it’s because resources have been depleted and there is no clear sign of progress ahead. …

I’m not the best writer in the world and I really only have a small list of people that I consider to be amazing writers. But I have been doing it for a while. Mainly because I enjoy the process, but also because it’s damn challenging. My personal programming blog (www.thatsoftwaredude.com) currently sits at almost 1000 articles and there’s a clear progression in overall quality if you were to look at the first 10 articles versus the last 10 articles.

Please don’t look at the first 10 articles. Needless to say, I’ve had a few years to analyze my writing and to come up with a writing process that suits my needs. And while every article written isn’t a mass hit with the world, a fair number have done very well. …

For a big portion of my life, I’ve suffered from weight fluctuation problems (+80lbs), skin problems, sleeping problems, brain fog problems and I will cut the list there for my own sake. You might have guessed that I lived a pretty “standard” city life during this time. High stress job, quick and easy diet and artificial light pouring into my soul until 2am.

But I’m a programmer, and I like data and graphs and such. So in my early 30’s I started to do what many people in their 30’s do. To stop abusing the body so much and to figure out why it was broken. I took measurements daily, hourly and to the minute at times depending on the activity. More than numbers, I took notes. I didn’t so much care that I ate 1800 calories instead of 2300, though that’s important too. …

We’ve all read the articles online about a $50,000 freelance job or a $2,000 article that went viral. And maybe that inspires you into action to write your great next masterpiece. I know it does for me. I read all of those articles too because I want to learn what this mystical panacea is that brings forth wealth.

A month later, as your emails go unanswered and your article sits at maybe $1.28 in earnings, you wonder where life went wrong as you potentially shift directions once again to something completely different.

Well, I’ll tell you now, life didn’t go wrong. It went right where it was suppose to go based on your work, its quality and the reaction from those around you that got to experience it. Instead of looking at the contrast between you and a random soul that generated $1,000’s of dollars like magic (months ago), look at the contrast between yourself before and after you accomplished your work. …