DEV Community: Jose Gonzalez

How long does a great presentation takes to put together? 🤔

Jose Gonzalez — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 15:52:32 +0000

Answer: A long freaking time.

Hmmmmm...that's kind of vague. So, let's use more a concrete number: 12 hours.

At least, that's how far it has taken my buddy Arthur Doler to put his next awesome talk together.

So, why 12 hours?

Is it a magical number?
Am I in love with number 12?
Is it the meaning of life?

No, to all of the above.

Arthur committed to record his journey on streaming his talk preparation.

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And, as of this post, he has 12 hours of recording!

https://www.twitch.tv/arthurdoler/videos

Intimidated no more

It takes time to put a great talk together. It's not easy and a lot of work.

I hope you realize that even seasoned speakers have to go thru this every time they are putting a new talk together.

It's normal.

If you are currently working on a talk, keep on going!

Appreciation for speakers

Arthur's work reminds me to appreciate the time, effort, and energy put into each of their talks.

It's humbling to realize how much goes into a 45-min or 1-hour talk.

They make it look easy...the sign of a master.

Thank you to all the speakers out there.

TL; DR

Watch my buddy Arthur Doler on twitch.tv as records the creation of his new talk.

Can't make it live? Watch his recording.

Weekly Picks 2/11/2019 to 2/17/2019

Jose Gonzalez — Tue, 19 Feb 2019 15:23:01 +0000

Career

Weekly Picks 2/04/2019 to 2/10/2019

Jose Gonzalez — Tue, 12 Feb 2019 16:14:12 +0000

Career

Going Pro: Lifestyle Systems for the Exceptional Developer

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Money

Reflection

Mental health

If You're Often Angry Or Irritable, You May Be Depressed
AnxietyTech
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What Are You Trying to Achieve?

Jose Gonzalez — Thu, 24 Jan 2019 20:54:14 +0000

Instead of asking

What do you want?

Ask

What are you trying to achieve?

It helps the asking party (could be yourself):

gain clarity
rephrase their question
(probably) come up with their own solution

From you, it shows:

empathy
care
support
trust
patience

Try it and see people's reaction.

So, what are you trying to achieve? :)

Stuck? Ask Yourself These Questions.

Jose Gonzalez — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 23:14:15 +0000

The journey we call life is full of surprises. On top of that, we decided to add this crazy profession called software development.

Our lives are never boring. There's hardly a dull moment. We have to make decisions and many other decisions will be made for us.

Here's a few examples off top my head:

Office politics
Job rejections
Being fired...err downsized
Someone crushing your PR
Your "junior" opinion is ignored
Boring product
Using old tech
Job not matching job description
etc.

The outcome might lead to anger, resentfulness, unhappiness, regret, guilt or even hate!

It leaves us with a feeling of being stuck. The question I have for you is: why?

Why do we allow ourselves to do this to ourselves?

I believe we don't this on purpose. I believe we do this because we don't know other alternatives.

I invite you to look at these events from a different perspective.

Stuck? Ask Yourself These Questions

Will this matter in 3 hours?
Will this matter in 3 days?
Will this matter in 3 weeks?
Will this matter in 3 months?
Will this matter in 3 years?

You will quickly find out that very few things are really worth your anger, resentfulness, unhappiness, regret, guilt or hate!

To Keep Progressing

Jose Gonzalez — Thu, 25 Oct 2018 13:13:34 +0000

To keep progressing, we must

learn
commit
do

(Repeat)

STEVEN COVEY

So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish World of Warcraft

Jose Gonzalez — Thu, 12 Jul 2018 23:52:48 +0000

About 5 minutes ago, I finally uninstalled World of Warcraft.

10 minutes ago I said goodbye to my guild I stumbled on my last crazy adventure of leveling up a Orc Warrior to the current level cap (lv 110).

Right now, I'm writing this article with a bittersweet taste in my mouth.

Sweet because I'm finally done playing World of Warcraft as posted in my 7 day challenge series.

Bitter because I found a bunch of nice people in a virtual world that I didn't want to leave. Much like you guys are here at Dev.to.

But my decision has been made and there is no turning back.

Let's take a brief look at what has happened.

Last time

[Narrator voice]
...on Dragon Ball Z!!

Nah, I won't recap the entire journey.

If you need a quick refresh, please check out the kick off article. The last day entry was a turn around point.

Short Adventure Summary

First of all, it was insane!

I was playing 3-4hrs on weekdays and 8hrs+ on weekdays. It was aggressively stupid.

Why? - I can hear you ask.

Because I was focus (read: obsessed) with reaching level cap as soon as possible.

First week. 🙂
I was enjoying myself in the game. I wasn't obsessing to reach level cap. I had a plan what areas to level up and what dungeons to do.

The second week. 😓
This is where I started to push harder than I should. I was getting tired both physically and mentally.

But I think I reached level 60 by this point. It was getting crazy.

If it hadn't been for that guild I mentioned earlier, I definitely would've called it quits then.

Third week 😨
This was the turning point. There was little enjoyment here and got to obsess pretty bad. It felt like the good ol' days of my obsession. I was really tired, annoyed and anxious...I was a wreck.

This is where the guild came in and helped me power level. I didn't ask but they were help other guild members. I went in for the ride. This is when I built rapport with some of the guild members.

They helped me reach level 98. Good enough to play content from the Legion expansion.

But things weren't going well...

Fourth week 🤧😵
I crashed. My body finally gave out. I exhausted myself beyond belief. In other words, I burnout.

Burnout from a game? - You may be thinking.

Yes, but also burnout from my work place.

It is said that an addiction is an escape mechanism. And I was escaping work related issues.

"You have been burning the candle from both ends.", said my doctor when I went to see her, "you must rest!".

And I did.

My body forced me to. I had to take sick days off from work. I reached a point of no return.

Fifth week. 🤕
Eventually, I'd catch up on some rest and reach level cap: lv. 110 without really trying. To be honest, I didn't even noticed when I reached lv. 110 with my Orc Warrior.

Stepping Away

I wish I could tell you I stopped playing right there and then. But I didn't.

The habit (read: addiction) was too strong. I ended up making another character with much less obsession but still dedicating too much time to the game.

This is when I made my decision to really quit the game.

First Step of Many!

I decided this a little over two weeks ago from the time of writing this article.

I have not played WoW for almost a week and half. I'm doing great.

With the exception of logging in today to say goodbye to my guild, I have not played at all.

Anyone dealing with an addiction knows how critical the first days are.

I'm not out the woods yet. I have a long way to go.

One day at the time

What's next?

Continue to get plenty of rest. 😴

Here are some immediate improvements:

🔥 My eyes don't burn
😁 I'm not as cranky as I used to be.
🧘‍♂️ I have a clear mind and present in the moment.
⚡ Next week, I'll be giving another lightning talk at my local user group!
💖 I have more content coming down for you!

I will have more challenges, more crazy adventures and wild stories to share.

All in all to help you be a better developer and more importantly a better person.

Thank you for reading and till next time!

What would your journey say? 😊

Going to bed by 10pm and stop playing World of Warcraft - Day 7

Jose Gonzalez — Mon, 21 May 2018 23:09:48 +0000

Good day boys and girls!

Welcome to another entry on this journey:

Go to bed by 10pm
Stop playing World of Warcraft (again).

Today is the final entry on our 7-day journey. You can check out the intro to the series for more details.

Let's finish the last entry on our journey.

Day 7 (Weekend)

Waking up 🌅
I woke up at a decent time (8:30am) and looked at my phone. I got a message from a friend asking me to meet him at the tennis court.

I happily accepted his invitation. We don't just play tennis but exchange perspectives to help each other out. I guess you can say we mentor each other.

The whole meeting took 3 hours. Yes, 3 hours. We were having fun playing tennis and giving each other some life advice.

It was a great time.

The meeting re-energized my social batteries. I felt good coming home.
Relaxing (again) 😌
It was lunch time already.

I finished the breakfast left over and decided to crash on the couch while eating. Everyone was busy doing their own thing. But what else can you do in another rainy, relaxing day?
Setback, or is it?
As I got control back of my TV, I decided to watch some YouTube videos. No, not the cat videos. Sometimes I enjoy watching videos on Game Of Thrones or something related to mythology.

And I probably should've done that. Instead, I ended up clicking a World of Warcraft YouTube video related to the new expansion.

I'm was into Warcraft lore since late 90s. It's the main (and probably only real) reason why I played these games.

More details in Observations section
Anxious afternoon 😰
After eating and watching some more videos, it was time to visit finances and other things that weren't handle during the weekend.

To my pleasant surprise, not much needed to be handled. The missus had done an excellent job on updating YNAB.

This is where my anxiety kicked in. What am I going to do now? It's early in a Sunday afternoon. It's hot and muggy outside.

Then I remembered the WoW videos and remembered I never reached my personal goal: get a character level capped (lv. 110). That's all I wanted ever since I start playing again back in January.

More details in Observations section
Fun again 😊
After the game finished installing and ate dinner, it was 7pm already.

I knew what I wanted to play. My childhood favorite race and class - Orc Warrior. 😈

Orc grunts always drew me in. Maybe it was the way it was drawn. Maybe because they were the "bad" guys and I was tired of the knight in shinning armor. Whatever the case is, I made one and it was fun again!

I felt like a bad ass, smashing skulls with my battle ax. Screw leveling, this is where the game was at.

I had fun. Fun I haven't had in very long time.

How did we do? 🤔

Get to bed by 10pm? ❌
I was in bed by 10:05pm. But couldn't catch my zzzz until past midnight. My judge screwed with me after a few hours.

It felt like one of my parents scolding me. You know that feeling when you did something they told you not to do? Yeah, that one.

More details in Observations section
Stop playing World of Warcraft ❌
OK. Failed but not failed?

Failed because I loaded the game again.

Not failed because I stopped playing for 7 days straight! The last time I played WoW was early last Sunday afternoon.

I think that also pissed off my judge: I reached a goal. A goal, it thought I couldn't reach.

Observations 👀

I was hooked when I was watching the videos at lunch time.

I was hooked again because of all the areas I didn't get to experience yet. You see, the real reason why I wanted to play WoW this time around was to experience the new (to me) expansion content I didn't get to experience over the years. I'm talking about Mist Of Pandaria onwards (yes, it has been a while).

I don't care for gear or raiding content. I'm more interested in following story lines and finding out what happens to whom. Explore new areas, kill things I never killed before or die horribly due to a noob mistake.

When I went to bed I let my judge talk and talk. I figured it'd get tired after a while.

But I gave it too much ammunition: I played WoW and under its eyes: I was a failure, a loser, a good-for-nothing, selfish bastard who had not met its ideal standards.

Between you and I, I believe it was pissed for another reason: I had fun.

Your judge doesn't like it when you have fun.

I don't know about yours but mine doesn't let me or wants to have fun because there's still so much to do. Also, having fun it's not part of being a responsible adult.

It sounds like my mother. Ha! It is my mother's voice I hear every time I hear it scolding me.

It works so well that it tries to make you feel guilty for having fun in life.

Have you ever feel that way: you are having fun and then feel guilty for it?

Conclusion

I'm going to move my schedule and be in bed by 10:30pm. As I talked previously, I got to bed by 10:30pm multiple times. Eventually, I will push to get in by 10pm.

Thanks to this experiment I gained insight and clarity on what I want to do without letting the judge guilt-trip me.

So what does Jose want? Simple:

Level up my orc warrior to level cap and enjoy some of the content I haven't experienced yet. Go thru the story line, you know, smashing some skulls whether they be demons or Alliance 😘 (Calm down, I also have Alliance characters!)

Up next, a wrap up blog post with more thoughts about my judge and what's next on the journey!

What would your journey say?

As always, thanks for reading.

Till soon!

Going to bed by 10pm and stop playing World of Warcraft - Day 6

Jose Gonzalez — Sun, 20 May 2018 19:22:22 +0000

Good day boys and girls!

Welcome to another entry on this journey:

Go to bed by 10pm
Stop playing World of Warcraft (again).

If you are not familiar with what we are doing here, I invite you to check out the intro to the series.

Friendly reminder: this is to help you reflect on yourself. You may not be having the same struggles, but I hope you can take something useful out of these stories.

Let's continue our journey!

Day 6 (Weekend)

Waking up
Hurray for nothing scheduled on Saturday mornings. Sleeping in and not having to wake up early is freaking awesome, don't you agree?

Except when you get hungry. That's the only reason to wake up.

Or running in my case. I noticed I have been slacking on my morning runs. On the weekends, I tend to go longer distance, but this morning wasn't going to be one of those days.

Hmmm...not bad. I still ended up with almost 5 miles.
Relaxing time!
After the run, I had an early lunch (it was already noon).

My original plan was to eat and continue handling the family finances, but ended up watching two movies with the missus back-to-back on the couch.

Yep, I was a couch potato for most of the afternoon...and loved it!

Not to mentioned being with the missus and doing nothing.
Evening + Dinner
Can you tell I love food, yet?

As evening settling in, we ate dinner and continue to watch Futurama as a family (we've watching this serious for almost 100 times, and never get sick of it).

After dinner, I was feeling tired and thought I was gonna crash by 8pm.

But I couldn't. I had to write and publish Day 5 entry.
Moar Pokemon
Once I was done with publishing Day 5 entry, I continued my Pokemon FireRed adventure.

And for so dang reason, I got a second wind. I woke up and had a hard time falling asleep by 10pm.

To be fair, I did get to bed at 10:15pm-ish. Not bad.

Man, you are messing up.

Is that really you or your inner judge thinking that?

I promised myself I wasn't going to be too damn critical for being in bed a few minutes late.

You aren't being discipline.

My inner judge thinks. But I know it's a way to screw me over with guilt and self-resentment. It's a trap. I know him all too well.

How did we do? 🤔

Get to bed by 10pm? ❌
Late by a few minutes.

I think I would've gotten a lot more success if I had set up my limit to 10:30pm. I have been by bed before 10:30pm with ease.

I'm improving too. Before this adventure, I was in bed by 11pm or 11:30pm during weekdays. I'll take going to bed a few minutes after 10pm any day.
Stop playing World of Warcraft ✅
Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

I was dreading the weekend. But I did pretty good. I got some stuff (not listed here) besides being a good couch potato.

The urge doesn't go away. The judge tests me every possible time it can. The bastard is a two-timer jerk though.

C'mon, you handle it. You've not problem with the game!

Followed by.

You are so weak that you can't last 7 days without playing some stupid game. You take that so seriously. Don't play or you will disappoint a lot of people!

I told you he was a bastard, didn't I?

Conclusion

A tough challenge today.

Honestly, it went a lot easier than expected. I enjoyed watching movies with the missus and laying on my nice comfortable couch.

Even though I was a few minutes late, it was not a big deal really. I'm getting better each night I give a try.

What about you? What will your journey say?

Thanks for reading. Till tomorrow!

Going to bed by 10pm and stop playing World of Warcraft - Day 5

Jose Gonzalez — Sun, 20 May 2018 00:33:54 +0000

Good day boys and girls.

Welcome to another entry on this journey:

Go to bed by 10pm
Stop playing World of Warcraft (again).

If you are not familiar with what's going on here, I invite you to check out the intro to the series.

I hope while you read this, it helps you take action on whatever you are trying to improve in your life.

Let's continue the journey.

Day 5

Coming home🏠
I had to rush home, shower and get back out.

Why? It was date night. It was the first date night the missus and I had in a very long time. It was long overdue.

We had been looking forward to it since the beginning of the week. We had been talking about it like two teenagers whose parents were out of town!
Da plan 📜
The night plan was very simple:
- Drop off the kids (6pm-9pm)
- Have some drinks
- Watch a movie (Deadpool 2)
A fine evening if you ask me.

Luckily, all places were very close to each other. This helped us save a lot of driving time.
Drinks 🥂
After dropping of the kids, we went to our favorite spot for food and drinks.

It was great taking off the parent hat. We have a rule when we go out on dates: we don't talk about our kids.

It may sound harsh and probably heartless, but it works for us.

The drinks and food were good as always. We were just shooting the breeze until the movie started. We were having such a great time that we almost ditched the movie and continue drinking and just chillin'.
Movie 🎦
The movie was great. I won't spoil it for you.

It had been a very long time since we sat next to each other. I felt like our early days when we used to go out to the movies on a weekly basis.

We agreed that we needed to go out alone more often.
Pick up + Home 🏠
After the evening was over, we were all home at around 9:30pm. I was about to stay in bed and crash for the night.

Then, I remember I had to wrap up my Day 4 entry. It drove me passed 10pm.

No regrets. I'm glad to share this adventure to you.

The good news is that I passed out as soon as I got to bed shortly after 10pm.

How did we do? 🤔

Get to bed by 10pm? ❌
Missed it by a few minutes.

It's OK. I won't let my judge guilt trip me because I was late only a few minutes.

I got to spend more quality time with my best friend. Also, letting out some steam without wearing the parent hat helped me out a lot.
Stop playing World of Warcraft ✅
A day like this one made this part super easy.

I'm glad I stopped playing a few days ago. I was present while having some drinks with the missus and enjoying the movie.

I wasn't distracted by rushing to come home to get my "fix". This is already paying itself in less than a week.

Conclusion

After a great evening with the missus, I'm OK not getting to bed at 10pm. As I mentioned, I got in bed very shortly after 10pm.

I'm slowly getting back to my old self. My anxiety and withdrawal are improving because I didn't feel rushed to get home to play World of Warcraft.

I like where this is going.

What would your journal say? 🙂

Thanks for reading. Till tomorrow1

Going to bed by 10pm and stop playing World of Warcraft - Day 4

Jose Gonzalez — Sat, 19 May 2018 02:16:50 +0000

Dear journal,

Today was a good day. She looked my way and smiled...

...oh wait. Wrong text file. 🤭

Good day boys and girls!

Welcome to another entry on this journey:

Go to bed by 10pm
Stop playing World of Warcraft (again).

For those of you who don't know what's going, I invite you to check out the intro to the series.

A quick reminder, I'm sharing this to help you. Please, don't forget to take action!

Let's continue the journey.

Day 4

Coming home🏠
Staying up later than usual had taken their toll.

Eyes were heavy (but not burning, yay!). I had nothing plan for the afternoon. Other than dinner and write my Day 3 entry.

Missus was tired herself and dinner was take out, a rare occasion for our weekday dinners (yes, I know, I'm spoiled).
After dinner 🍽️
As mentioned earlier, I committed to nothing. The only thing on my list was to write the daily journey entry and head to bed afterwards.

A bit light on this entry, right? Sometimes you got to take it easy. All you need to do is ignore your inner judge. You know that nagging voice inside tell you that you must always be busy.
After kids in bed 🛏️🛏️
Missus and I were strict this time: straight to bed after putting kids to bed. And we did.

I played some Pokemon FireRed while she was watching Doug (yep, the 90s show!)
Bed time 🛏️💤
I was in bed by 9:30pm.

Although, I didn't fall asleep until after watching 1-hour episode of Troy series in Netflix.

Hey, I'm making some small improvements.

How did we do? 🤔

Get to bed by 10pm? ✅
First win of this journey!

Although I wasn't sleeping by 10pm, I was already falling asleep in bed.

Most importantly, I was hanging out with my best friend. We were spending the much needed quality time. We were being silly.

I won't let my inner judge make me feel guilty that I'm failing to meet my "goal".
Stop playing World of Warcraft ✅
It gets better. Today was another win. A much bigger win than you can imagine. It can only get better going forward.

It's too early to claim victory. Relapse is still very possible. It'd not be pretty. I'm vigilant and paying attention to my inner judge.

Anxiety and withdrawal are dwindling. My serenity is slowly coming back. I'm more present, enjoy the moment if you will.

The inner judge can't exist in the present. It draws its power from the past and the future.

Conclusion

First win for both challenges in this journey.

To be honest with you, not playing World of Warcraft has bigger benefits in the long run.

Switching sleeping hours is a gradual process. Maybe, I should've set the time for 10:30pm and gradually moved to 10pm.

What would your journal say? 🙂

Thanks for reading. Till tomorrow!

Going to bed by 10pm and stop playing World of Warcraft - Day 3

Jose Gonzalez — Thu, 17 May 2018 23:35:23 +0000

Good morning, afternoon, evening, night. Wherever the hell you're reading this from.

Welcome to another entry on this journey:

Go to bed by 10pm
Stop playing World of Warcraft (again).

If you have no idea what's going on, I invite you check the intro to the series.

Remember, these series is to help you take action on whatever you need help in your personal life. (Happy devs, develop better code IMO).

Let's continue the journey.

Day 3

Coming home🏠
I had a rough day at work and was mentally exhausted. It wasn't terrible but I did had a small urge to sign back to World of Warcraft.

Once I got home, my inner judge justified that my hard day at work deserved to be rewarded. I knew exactly how he wanted the reward.

The urge went down after a quick refreshing shower. It went away after making weekend plans with the family.
After dinner 🍽️
I finished and published Day 2 of this series.

Later, I continued on my re-organization of my personal finances in YNAB as I talked in Day 1.

The missus and I had some great discussions back and forth on how to deal with our money (finance conversations are critical to any relationship!).

I felt pretty satisfied.
After kids in bed 🛏️🛏️
I screwed up again.

After the boys were in bed, I continued to work on YNAB. Why is this a problem? The missus and I have a very serious rule: don't discuss/handle finances after 8pm.

You can say I got a bit obsessive because numbers didn't match.

It's like when you are trying to make your code work and you think you have the answer in the next 5 minutes.
A tad aggravated 😩

Brought this on myself.

In other to blow up some of the steam, I continued playing Pokemon FireRed and chill. The missus was on her computer gaming herself for a while already.

It looked like tonight was going to be the night to be in bed by 10pm. But nope.

I started to talk about the book I'm currently listening to: Soul without Shame: A Guide to Liberating Yourself from the Judge Within .
Bed time 🛏️💤
I wish my mouth would stop talking sometimes.

But I get a bit passionate on certain topics. And the missus was interested to hear more about the inner judge in relationships.

Our conversation carried until about 11:30pm. By the time we felt asleep, it was pass midnight.

How did we do? 🤔

Get to bed by 10pm? ❌
Another day. Another failure? Not really, but we did wake pretty tired. We aren't in our 20s anymore!

I'm glad I'm spending more time with my best friend. Communication had been dwindling between us lately because I was spending too much time playing.

I'm not justifying myself. I'm aware I'm not meeting my goal, but I also won't be super judgemental/critical. In other words, I don't think I'm failure and I'll try again.
Stop playing World of Warcraft ✅
Woooooo!

Third day straight. It's a big win for me.

The anxiety and need to get a fix is still there and present. But it gets easier with each other.

Going cold turkey is a pain, but you need to rip off the bandage on certain things.

Conclusion

Another victory and a minor setback.

It's all about negotiation. Even though I'm failing to go to bed by 10pm, I'm spending valuable time with my best friend.

Tonight might different though. We are both damn tired by going late to bed too many days in a row. You will find out on tomorrow's entry.

Hey, question for you: Have you started your own challenge? It could be something small like drinking 1 cup of coffee less.

What will your journey say? 🙂

Thanks for reading. Till tomorrow!