Why I Do Things that Don't Scale (Very Well)

Sun, 10 Sep 2023 16:09:18 -0000

I changed my bio when I joined Mastodon.

Podcaster, Dev Advocate, Tryer of things that don’t scale well

I believe my best skill is doing things that can make a big impact to a small group of folks (sometimes even one). The <100 folks I believe I've sincerely made some impact on have been greatly benefited because I worked to focus purely on their case.

Socially

I love 1:1 zoom calls talking about whatever and showing up to conferences to encourage 1-2 people give there first conference talk. I will normally DM folks with thoughts instead of making a blog post and I'm always a fan of saying the thing that may make someone feel uncomfortable because it needed to be said.

I have influence but I'm not an influencer. I also don't hate that word. I have some privilege that others don't and I can work to level the playing field a tad. I spend way too much money to help a handful of people, like funding the higher level of Discord perks so that all the Black Python Devs in my community can share their screens in our meetups with the same fidelity while getting $0 in funding.

I also make things that I want like podcast where I ask my friend to break down British things because I'm an ignorant American at times. It's also just an excuse to talk to him because we're both adults with busy lives. I also do what I call the most important not-recorded podcast with my friend and Productivity GURU (HAHA take that SCOTTY!) Scotty Jackson. We learn from another, we empathize with each other and we shed tears for each other and at the end of the day it's cathartic and not recorded and probably the thing I've learned the most from in the last 3-4 years we've been doing it.

Technically

This also applies on the technical side. My blog post automation workflow is something like.

Write the post in Drafts then push it to GitHub where it deploys to via GitHub actions and then gets distributed on social media via Micro.Blog's cross-publishing platform.

My website is built on a static site generator I've been building for 4 years that has plugins and themes support and I am the primary and mostly sole maintainer of (and one of probably 4 users).

I made automated ADHD Awareness AutoTweeeters and Fire Maps based on NASA Geothermal Anomaly data. It was all for me and no on else really but I shared it anyway (bugs and all) because I thought there might be 1-2 other folks that could learn from it but in the end just me and that's okay.

Why

Because I like making things. My friend and favorite creator on the internet, Brett Terpstra, has made a very wonderful career making little things that served him and folks like him. Many of those things have been free and I continue to see the improvements to his work with every release (You should check out his latest project journal.

I believe in doing things. Why, because you can. Let's be honest there will very few of us that are remembered more than 20 years after our deaths so legacy is something that means nothing to me. I think 3 words sum it up. Happiness (in the things I'm doing), Inquisitiveness (and always learning new things), and Hope (that tomorrow will be better for those around me) (okay that's more than three but shh). I've learned the best way to do that is to have fun, don't take yourself so serious and most importantly, care for that person on the other side of the conversation as much as you hope they feel they are cared for.

When you move mountains for a single person. You still moved a mountain. Be proud of yourself for that! - Jay (I just made that up! Look at me!)