Because .com Wasn't Available

My 30 day challenge for August was to avoid watching any television or movies, and I finished about a week ago.  This challenge was tough, primarily since my girlfriend Stephanie (who I live with) was not under the same restriction.  As a result I ended up catching a few minutes of TV and movies here and there, but I did manage to avoid watching a complete show or movie for the entire month.  Also as a clarification, I exempted things like TED talks, screencasts, and other educational videos from this challenge.  The focus was really to avoid "junk food" entertainment that doesn't provide any lasting value. Surprises Two things surprised me about this challenge.  The first was how hard it was to go completely cold turkey.  In addition to the temptation at home, many of the bars and restaurants I went to in August (obviously) had TVs.  I also spent some time in airports, where TVs are never far away.  If you truly wanted to avoid even looking ...

Last weekend was the 2nd annual Northeast PHP conference in Boston.  I gave two talks, " Practical Responsive Web Design " ( slides ) and " Scaling PHP to 40 Million Uniques " ( slides ).  I had a lot of fun at the conference, and met some great people.  I didn't get to attend as many talks as I would have liked, since I spent some of the sessions preparing for my own, but there were a couple that I really enjoyed:

For context about 30 day challenges, watch this Ted Talk by  Matt Cutts . I'm trying an experiment for the month of August - not watching any television or movies.  I've never been someone who watches a ton of TV, but when I get into a show I can power through a ten episode season in a week.  Throughout July, I spent more time in front of the TV than usual, and some of my other activities have fallen by the wayside as a result.  I got to a point where I was in the middle of four books simultaneously, and working on three concurrent programming related side projects.  When you add that to everything else I have going on (Ultimate frisbee, Taekwondo, preparing talks for conferences, seeing friends, walking my dog, push-ups , work) it became unsustainable.  I would get a little overwhelmed by my schedule, and default to mindless activities to relax.

Human logic, unlike that of the machines which we program and use every day, isn't perfect.  We make mistakes, we establish bad mental habits, and we have many cognitive biases that negatively impact our ability to be successful engineers.  I want to go over five of the most common biases that I see on a regular basis as a software engineer.

One of the most important things you can do for your health, happiness, and productivity is to get enough sleep.  You have probably heard this so many times that it feels like white noise at this point, but what if you could actually do it?  What if you could wake up refreshed and energetic every day, and not struggle to get out of bed?  I believe this is achievable for everyone - as long as you are willing to take the time to methodically test your sleep schedule, and make a few minor changes to your bedtime routine.

In the spirit of the 30-day challenges popularized by Matt Cutts (among others), I have spent the last 14 days on an "information diet".  This is not a new idea by any means, and in fact there was an entire  book written about the concept (and a more recent one from Cal Newport which I highly recommend).  I actually heard about it initially from Tim Ferris, and this post on the 4-Hour Life Blog.  Anyway, enough with the background - what the heck is this about?

I recently finished my first Coursera class, Introduction to Computer Networks .  This was a 10 week long class, and I spent approximately 3-4 hours per week on it.  If you are thinking of taking a Coursera class, and this one in particular, then read on...