I highly recommend the Earthsea book by Ursula Le Guin (I actually recommend all of her books) and the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser by Frtiz Lieber. Especially if you are looking for something that is a quick read and not a 20 book, 50 billion page series.

Also the Drizzt novels by R. A. Salvatore, while not the same level of quality, are fun.

Also, from an enterprise point-of-view, .Net has the same advantages as Java (stability, runs everywhere, backed by a large corp) but is fundamental better designed and doesn’t come with the potential legal baggage of being owned by Oracle.

I would argue that .Net is one of the best techs that Microsoft is producing at the moment. I’ve used it on and off for a number of years and haven’t done any development targeting Windows in a decade. It’s all be running on Linux servers. The dotNet works great there.

And, 100% agree with using Rider. My hierarchy of .Net IDEs is Rider->Notepad+±>Visual Studio Code->manually adjusting the memory on my computer using magnets->Full Visual Studio (whatever they are calling it these days).

Bah. Obviously fake. Lincoln was sitting in a balcony to the side of the stage. Not directly in front of it.

I’ve been in tech for 30 years now and this is the really key advice. I’ve know several people who were very good developers but fundamentally do not like the process of software development. And they are completely miserable because of that. It’s great if you can find a job you love working at but that requires a lot of luck. Having a job you generally enjoy and it gives you enough money to do the hobbies that you really love then you are doing great.

On what degree to get, most of the time, outside of your first or second job, if a company cares about your degree more than your work experience then they are probably not somewhere you want to work.

All that said, anything security related will stay relevant as will as cloud system admins/engineers/architects. If you want a tech role that will last, doing something that is about designing and maintaining systems rather low-level implementation will server you a lot better.

Also, @[email protected] what are you talking about? Blockchain is super useful for money laundering and blackmail and committing fraud and bribery and and… ok maybe not the best area to try and build a career in.

Good idea. Thanks for the update and for not just being reactionary anti-Meta. As much as I personally feel they should be defederated simply because of who they are, I’m glad you are running the site in a more sophisticated manner.

I’ve done the intern thing before but I didn’t think about it this time. I’m going to check on that.

Definitely a good suggestions in general. I did talk to everyone and the consensus was pro-mechanical keyboard but only if they are quiet. So I’m more looking for things to propose to people rather forcing them to use them.

The workshop idea is nice but, at the moment, we are a small company with more money than time. So there wasn’t a lot of interest in DIY route at the moment.

Oooh. Nice. Thanks for the recommendation!

I’ve never lost a professional MMA match

It’s not a complete false hope. See point 4.

By itself moving to a new country won’t change the core of who you are. But it does give a good opportunity for change. It helps a lot if you are able to set aside some time to reflect on your interactions and experiences. For me a big catalyst for change was paying attention to why I was doing things. Was it just out of habit or because it was what I know? Or was it something I really want to do?

Funnily enough being more social is one of the big things that changed for me. Partially because I found a group of friends I like, partially because I came to understand what I want out of being social. Also what my limits on socializing are. But all that took effort. In the form of both in finding friends and understanding myself. It also wasn’t quick. Probably took me 2-3 years so give yourself plenty of time.

Obviously, a lot about what you will experience will vary depending on your background, where you are moving from and where you are moving to. I’m a well-off white American living in Spain and I have had a very different experience from a friend who moved from Kenya.

That said, there will be a number of common things.

1. Get used to being confused and uncomfortable. A simple example of this is when you go to a small bank branch here there isn’t an obvious queue. There will just be a bunch of people standing around. What you are supposed to do is ask “who is last”. Then, once they are done, you know you are next in line. Not a major issue but your will be constantly encountering things like that.

2. Making local friends will usually be hard. Knowing the language will help a lot but, unless you are moving to someplace like Ireland, it will take a lot more effort.

3. Being in a new country won’t change who you are. I know someone who moved to Europe planning to travel to a new country every month. But they didn’t do that because that’s not what they did before moving. So, after a few months, they reverted to not traveling much because that’s ultimately what they preferred.

4. Being in a new country will change who you are. Being forced to interact with a new culture will change how you view the world. You will likely learn a lot about yourself that you didn’t know, learn how to navigate different cultures better and just understand people better.

Overall, I highly recommend living in a country. If nothing else, it is not boring.

One final piece of advice: if you can, find a local lawyer who speak your language, get their business card (or write down their contact info) and put it in your wallet. Also save it on your phone. If anything happens where you really really need help, being able to contact a lawyer quickly is very helpful.