Thanksgiving Reflections for Developers: A Moment to Reset and Appreciate

Welcome to Building Better Developers, the Developer Nord Podcast, where we work on getting better step by step professionally and personally. Let's get started. Well, hello and welcome back. We are Building Better Developers, the Developer Nord Podcast and the seasonal pre musical Gobble Gobble Gobble thing, which Michael now knows he better make sure he gets it in there because that's like my favorite thing about the podcast and the holiday specials is putting in the extra little sounds. It is Thanksgiving. And so this episode we are pausing as we have in the past. We're going to pause and we're talked about. We're going to talk about some things to be thankful for. First, I'm actually thankful for this, but I am Rob Broadhead, the founder of Developer Nord, building better developers, also founder of RB Consulting, where we are the company that sits down with you, helps you leverage technology, better build a technology, technology roadmap for success. If we fumble a little bit more, that's okay. It's a holiday special. Good thing, bad thing. I'm going to do it for this year. I'm going to just like throw it out there a little bit and we'll get our scope a little bit. Good thing, bad thing. So, and this is again, two sides of the same coin. Been spending the year like downsizing and going through all kinds of crap and change and like shifting life immensely so that there's like, it's basically cutting roots everywhere in a lot of cases. It's like, it is an exhausting thing to do, particularly when you got like all of the accumulation of crap that I had when all of this started. It's also very cathartic though. While what I'm freeing myself up to do, I very much look forward to, I also have to say that it's like, it's been really cool to not have a bunch of crap, to not have a lot of things to worry about, to get it down to like very simple stuff. Now granted, the couple of things I have, like if my laptop dies, I am going to be screaming and crying until I get it replaced. But you know, most of the stuff, it's like, okay, I don't have to worry about it. I have minimal stuff and it really does make life a lot easier. But also what makes life easier is having somebody else cohost. So go ahead and introduce yourself. Hey everyone, my name is Michael Melosh. I'm one of the co-founders of Building Better Developers, also known as Developmenter. I'm also the founder of Envision QA, where we help businesses build smarter, stronger software with custom development and rock solid testing. Check us out at EnvisionQA.com. Good thing, bad thing. Similar here, flip of a coin. It's been an interesting year. I've had a very big large project. Seeing that almost to fruition should be hopefully wrapped up, hopefully right after this episode or very shortly after. The flip side of that, that downside, I learned a lot of things that can go wrong. Trying to expand and change the scope of what I had been doing in the past for my consulting company. Building into a full-flood software company is a different animal altogether and a lot of growing pains. So hopefully looking forward to next year being in a better place and getting that next big bid. So it being Thanksgiving, let's talk a little bit about what we are thankful for. And this goes back to like, I always like to look back at the year, you know, the year gone past and some things that went right and things like that. First off, and this sort of, you know, Michael talked about big projects and building a company and stuff like that. I am really, really thankful for the team that has, that I guess I built here at RB Consulting for the developers and the project managers and all that kind of good stuff that have come together because it's really a cool bunch of people. That is one of those things that has always been fun when you build a team and they're successful and that it works well, that it's really cool to be a part of that team. And that is one of those things I'm very thankful for is that the people that have been put in my life and been able to work and to be able to get them, you know, productive jobs and grow them as well because the developers started out of school, we've grown them and they've turned into some really impressive guys that are part of our team. And we've sort of grown all of our members and spent some time with them and investing in them and helping them to grow and embrace what they can actually be. And that is, I'm really thankful for their efforts, for them being the people that they are and being able to have them in my life. Another one, I'll just sort of like, I'll get a couple and then we'll toss it to you. I'm really thankful for the freedoms that we have. I have throughout the last, I don't know, couple of decades, I've always wanted to own my own business and be able to set my own schedule. And as time has gone on, it's been able, I've been more and more flexible so that I can, like, you've got wireless, that kind of stuff, so you can work almost anywhere. And this last year, as much as any prior year, I have worked all over the place. I've had all kinds of different situations and I've still been able to be very productive and able to get stuff going. And yes, there are distractions and all that kind of good stuff out there, but that's why God invented headphones. So very thankful for the technology that allows us to do this. I think sometimes we're just surrounded by it and we forget how cool some of this stuff is and how much it does to, if we do it right, how much it does to improve our lives. Your turn on a couple. First, I'm thankful for my family for being supportive because I put them through the wringer this year trying to get this business off the ground with these projects. I can't tell you how many times I've had like a 100-hour work week and it's like I barely leave my office and see the light of day. And yet, my wife's always there making sure that I'm still alive, I'm still moving, I'm eating, keeping me going, keeping me motivated. It's been challenging. Like I said, this has been a very interesting experience. Thankful for my friends and friendships that we have, Rob, being able to do this podcast, working together, doing different projects together. And the team I had with Chase, unfortunately, shortly after this, we won't be a team anymore. We are all being furloughed. But I've had the opportunity to work with some very interesting people over the last three years and seeing all the work that we've done get completed and kind of see the project finally. Unfortunately, it's being rolled off and going off into the sunset as Chase moves on to something else. But it's bittersweet. It's been a great year. I'm just thankful for all the connections and friendships and just looking forward to the next stage and seeing where things go. Yeah, I think I have to throw in family in general has been there's they there is a lot of stuff that family has been very frustrating at times over the years. But also there's just like it is I'm getting to a point where there's a lot of payoffs and stuff like that. And so that has been actually a lot of relationships. It's been one of those years, last couple of years, a lot of those things where you invest and invest and invest that that some of those things are coming to fruition and they're you're seeing the fruits of your labor as it were. And very thankful for that for the the people that stuck with me early on that I that I stuck with them at times and that we've all come out, you know, come out of this on the other end. I also just say one of the things that's that's really cool. And it goes back to technology and stuff like that that I'm very thankful for, especially now as the family starts to scatter a little bit more is the technology allows us to keep in touch. I mean, whether it's travel and we can hop on a plane in a few hours, be almost practically around the world or things like Zoom and phones and stuff like that, FaceTime and all that kind of stuff where you can feel like you're like right there in the same room with people on a regular basis and with, you know, at the drop of a hat, basically, you don't even have to be just like, OK, go in and just like you don't even have to dial a number anymore. You just basically say call blah, blah, blah. And they'll call that person and you're you're sitting there talking to them and chatting away. So very thankful for the connectivity that we have, even though sometimes we know a lot of places that talk about how we are the least connected people ever because we're able to just like drop our heads into the phones. But thankful that when we're not around, we're able to do that. We're able to use those devices and thankful that when we are around with each other that you can grab that device out of somebody's hand and put it on a table in the other room or something like that and actually have face to face interactions with them. Yeah, that's one of the big things. It's like as long as you're using things like Zoom or you're actually calling someone and physically talking to them, that's staying connected. If you're just on Facebook and just texting all the time and it's mixed because you really don't have that kind of connection. You just have like email almost. It's like almost a disconnected communication. You know, it's just been a bittersweet year. Just so thankful for what's hopefully what's going to be coming. You know, it's been also a difficult year. We've had another election, you know, another rough year with some weirdness with the government, as always. But hopefully as we transition into next year, you know, all that will be like usual. It's just passing in the wind. It's just a weird season. And we're also having a weird season of weather. We already had our Arctic chill and it's not even Thanksgiving yet. Except you never know. We might get snow again on Thanksgiving. Everyone says it doesn't snow in Tennessee. No, it does. It's not the first year I moved here back in 2001. It's like, oh, yeah, we don't get snow. Yeah, 12 inches of snow. Now, again, you know, be thankful. Look around. You know, one of the things I am thankful for is we get the final season of Stranger Things starting today. Finally get to see what kind of hell mouth we're going to be walking into for this final season. I'm a huge sci-fi Spielberg fan, George Lucas fan, you know, grew up with the Goonies, ET and all that. If you've never watched Stranger Things, season one is pretty much like ET meets Goonies, meets Dungeons and Dragons. It's like everything Spielberg in one show. It was great. But, you know, besides watching TV with loved ones, you know, I think Detroit's playing again as always on Thanksgiving. It's kind of a tradition, given them from Detroit. We'll watch that. And unfortunately, I won't be as connected with my family because they don't do FaceTime real well, but we'll definitely be texting back and forth if we get a touchdown. I don't know if Detroit's going to make it to the Super Bowl. We keep crossing our fingers, but at least we're not, what was it, our bad season one and 15 and something like that. So we're off to a decent start this year. Yeah, maybe at this point, the Titans will not be heading for the one and 15 season, but I don't know. We'll see how that goes. I was going to say, I'm thankful for you guys, all of you that are out there. This is part of why we do it. I mean, we enjoy doing this. We enjoy all of the work and stuff like that, but we also enjoy being able to hear stories of success and where things of, you know, where you guys have been able to be helped out by stuff where you've utilized. It's always fun to see some of our articles over the years and how often, especially some of the like to do type articles just keep coming up and coming up and coming up. So we do appreciate you guys being out there and spending some time with us and just investing a little bit in yourselves, because hopefully when we come across you professionally, you guys will be that much better and we'll all be able to laugh at those that aren't as good. And actually, it's not as much laugh as usually complain about those like, I wish they knew how to use version control or things of that nature. But we want to keep this one short. So thank you so much for your time. We appreciate you hanging out with us. Now go and be thankful. Go out into the world and be thankful and enjoy your Turkey Day. Gobble, gobble, gobble that little thing. And we will see you next time around. Have a good one. And bonus material is why are you still here? You need to go and move on. Thank you so much. Cause you guys were even more thankful that you, I assume that you haven't like blacked out the video of us every time. It makes us feel a little less ugly. But if you have, you don't have to let us know. That is the one thing you don't have to send us at info at development or.com. Also, you guys enjoy it. Hope you have a good one. I hope this is not on like some big screen, but instead you're looking at a little one because it's a little scary thinking of us on a big screen. Have yourself a good one. Great time. And we will talk to you next episode. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. This was sponsored by RB Consulting, your partner in building smarter, scalable tech from startups to established teams. RB Consulting helps you turn tech chaos into clarity with proven roadmaps and hands-on expertise. Visit RB-SNS.com to start your next step forward. Also sponsored by Envision QA. They help businesses take control of their software by focusing on what matters most, quality, reliability, and support you can count on. Find out more at EnvisionQA.com. Thanks for tuning in to the Develop and Rore podcast, where we're all about building better developers and better careers. I'd love to hear your thoughts or feedback. So drop a note to info at developandrore.com. Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you listen. And remember, a little bit of effort every day adds up to a great success. Keep learning, keep growing, and we'll see you in the next episode.