Detailed Notes
Happy Thanksgiving! In this special holiday edition of the Building Better Developers podcast, Rob Broadhead and Michael Meloche take a break from the usual tech and leadership discussions to share meaningful Thanksgiving reflections for developers.
This episode dives into: 🟠 Gratitude for growth and change 🟠 Lessons learned from major projects and transitions 🟠 The importance of supportive teams, family, and community 🟠 How technology keeps us connected—professionally and personally 🟠 Holiday traditions, fun stories, and a little geek culture
Whether you’re reflecting on your own year, building a development career, or leading a tech team, this episode brings warmth and perspective for the holiday season.
Listen in, recharge, and take a moment to appreciate the people and opportunities that shape your journey as a developer.
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⏱️ Chapters
00:00 – Intro 00:45 – Why Thanksgiving Reflections Matter 02:10 – Rob’s Year of Simplifying 04:02 – Michael’s Big Projects & Challenges 06:40 – Gratitude for Teams and Family 10:15 – Technology That Connects Us 12:40 – Holiday Traditions & Stories 15:20 – Final Thanksgiving Message
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🔗 Connect with Us
🌐 Website: https://Develpreneur.com 🌐 RB Consulting: https://rb-sns.com/ 🌐 EnvisionQA: https://EnvisionQA.com 🎙 Listen to more episodes: https://develpreneur.com/category/podcast/
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📢 If you enjoyed this episode:
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Transcript Text
Let me go ahead and do this so we can say hi to everybody. Happy Thanksgiving week uh when this thing actually comes out. So, we're going to do our annual um which has been forever. I guess it's like the this is going to be the eighth ninth maybe 10th year. I'm not sure when first because this goes back to even prior um podcast. I've always enjoyed I always enjoyed with podcast having uh holiday specials and stuff like that and just being able to play around and um we will do that again this year. So, uh, we break. We do a little pause in our normal season of stuff and, uh, we're going to dive into I don't know. We got to think I got to think about what we wanted to do. Thank obviously for the Thanksgiving Day special, we're going to do things we're thankful for. That's always a good one. I think we probably want to talk a little bit about um, upcoming season, things going on, stuff like that. Just basically fun stuff for this first one. And then we'll come back and we'll do the Thanksgiving one. We'll see how long that's going to be. That may be a shortish one, but otherwise we'll do sort of our normal normal routine uh and jump into the podcast. Uh I don't have any notes or anything I have to do this time. So, this is sort of nice. And I got to hit record. So, and I got like a little bit better lighting. Even though if I go out at some point, it's because this table that I'm at has got like it was not it was built for very short people like yeah that short one short person was waving at me while I was mentioning that. All right. So we will dive into we'll just take it where it goes on our little th uno. Hello and welcome back. We are the building better developers podcast. This is also known as developer. We are pausing the season of building better foundations to have a little bit of holiday special stuff as we always do. So, we're going to do this uh Thanksgiving week and then also around Thanksgiving, New Year's or I'm sorry around Christmas, New Year's, that kind of stuff. We're going to have a break again. Uh but then we're going to carry on as always. We've got we've got a lot of interviews lined up. Uh a couple in the can, stuff like that. So, we got some really cool stuff that we will be talking about in the upcoming episodes and into 2026. We are actually to that point. First, I'm going to introduce myself. My name is Rob Broadhead. I'm one of the founders of developing building better developers. Also, the founder of RB Consulting where we are one of those nice little firms that helps you sits down and help you leverage technology, build a roadmap for success. Good thing, bad thing. Bad thing. Good thing is I am currently not home this I'll be home by the time you guys are here but currently I'm sitting in Las Vegas different I gave up Nash Vegas for Las Vegas and the trip day the travel day into Las Vegas was one of the most uh obnoxious of my life and it wasn't because of the things like you know travel plans or anything like that. It was just like everything that could go wrong basically went wrong from early in the morning they closed out our flight too soon. And so when we went to check in they're like you don't exist anywhere. We went through all took a lot of long a lot of time to get through that to the end of the day where we were just trying to sit down and have some food and it was very simple. It was just it's sushi. I I guess that's not the most simple thing but not that complex. And there was a simple request of don't put the hot peppery crap in my sushi. I'm not going to say who did it. It wasn't me. Uh but said person one upon trying it found out the hot peppery stuff was in there and it took that it took him a while to give it to us and it took him longer to get the second to you know make it good. By that time said person had actually died of starvation. had to res resuscitate them, bring them back to life just so they could eat their sushi. At least it was good. And then we went home. Uh, and that was just two of many, many things. It was a comedy of errors. If it was a family vacation movie, it would have been actually worse than any of the family vacation movies. Uh, but the good thing is we're here. Survive. Everything worked out okay. and working on my uh you know digital nomadness of a sort and roaming around doing work. One other person that does a lot of this moving around and doing work from different places is my co-host. Go ahead and introduce yourself. Hey everyone, my name is Michael Malash. I'm one of the co-founders of Building Better Developers, also known as developer. I'm also the founder of Envision QA where we help businesses build smarter, stronger software with custom development and rockolid testing. Let's see. Good thing, bad thing. Uh, well, we are recording this uh a little early before Thanksgiving and my wife is currently out of town. So, uh, in a way that's a good thing cuz I'm getting a lot of stuff done. But in a way, it's also a bad thing because now I have more distractions of taking care of the dogs, taking care of the farm animals, and just general chores in general, which is unfortunately cutting into my work schedule routine a little bit, which uh breaks that little pomodoro technique a little bit. Now it's like, okay, 20 minutes here. Oh, dog has to go out. Okay, it's just one of those where it's a little frazzled this week. I'm ready for things to calm down. I'm ready for that turkey. And it being, as we push this out, Tuesday of Thanksgiving week, I think we'll talk about the upcoming holidays and things like that as our special this time around. Uh, in the past, we've done, you know, uh, we usually do like a businessy one and preparing. Uh, you guys probably know that if you've been around for a while, we get into Thanksgiving, you know, day before Thanksgiving, we do thankful stuff. And then when we did Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Friday would be Black Friday and we talk about the sales and stuff like that. I'm just going to combine some of this stuff together and we'll see where it goes. Um, one of the things that is I always look forward to and rarely actually am able to embrace it during the holidays is actually having some holiday time. Like sitting down and just saying, "Okay, nobody's going to bother me. There's no work. There's no nothing like that. So, I'm going to chill. I'm going to have an adult beverage. I'm going to hang out with the family. I'm going to eat some food. I'm going to play some games. Stuff like that." And as part of that um I have over the years accumulated more than a few like game consoles and mobile things and such like that. One of my latest ones that I enjoy when I the few minutes that I have each year to do such things is uh Steam Deck. Love it. It's great because I don't do Windows and so a lot of stuff that would be Windows games I don't do. Can't do it. Steam Deck has allowed me to do some of that. And I was like, you know what? Talking with my kids just recently, they said Blood Bowl 3 is out. That is an all like longtime favorite of mine. Goes way back. Did it on the did the tabletop years and years and years ago, way before it was ever a game. Um, and so I'm like, cool. This is great. On my recent flight, did that got almost all the way to the end of the game and it the battery died. Basically, I ran out of power and it decided to reset everything. So, I'm like, "Okay, cool. I'm just going to go through this again because it's like my first game like yeah this is great having fun and I looked away and the next thing I know it had restarted itself again. So I'm going to see if third time's a charm but um that's one of those things that's like it's fun how much access we have to like games and all this kind of stuff. But it can also be very frustrating because now it's amazing how much we you know require like wireless and chargers and things like that kind of stuff. So, that's just a couple things to think about as you're as you're having a little turkey and hanging out is like make sure you sure you charge your devices. That may be our bonus uh material there for this one around. Your thoughts? >> So, first of all, I'll tell you uh also a avid gamer like you. Uh I've got the Steam Deck. If you're running into a lot of resets, uh check your uh settings when you're on portable, like decrease your display stuff, things like that. free up some of the battery. Um, that'll help eek out a little bit more, but yeah, it's a it's a slog. You get maybe an hour and a half, maybe two hours depending upon the game. Uh, but it also depends how hot the thing gets. If you're in a hot area, it's going to go down faster. Um, my big thing is, uh, I've gotten my hands on the new Pokemon ZA for the, uh, Switch 2. Uh, I got to play it for my birthday. That was about it. It is now been sitting collecting dust since uh September. I'm hoping to be able to sit down uh dust it off and uh spin that up a little bit and play it uh on Thanksgiving. However, uh this year I think my daughter's cooking uh Thanksgiving again. So, we're probably going to go over there, have food uh and you know, kick back, relax a little bit. So, I'll be able to play a little bit during the day, but uh then we'll be traveling a little bit and spending time with family. >> Yeah, I would say uh that's one of the things I always recommend uh because I'm near and it's near and dear to my heart is while you're doing the traveling and stuff like that for holidays uh or just sitting there in dead time. Great time to catch up on podcasts and things of that nature. Um I this is like bonus material again. I guess it's like if you want to level your game up in a sense, um spend a little time if you're sitting there, you got nothing better to do, instead of like doom scrolling, have a conversation with one of the AI engines out there about something. It is um I was talking with somebody the other day. It was luckily uh I shared this, but in the pregame here, but in the pre-show, but it was somebody that also failed to hit record uh while doing recording an episode. Uh but one of the things we talked about was how many people use AI are actually using it and are actually productive and it's actually a very small amount and I think it's one of those things that part of it is because we just people don't understand how to use it yet. They haven't really they're using a little bit. It's like a replacement for a search engine and some stuff like that. But um it's worth uh in the building better developer sense you know building better Thanksgivings or however you want to look at it. Um, I think that's something that's worth playing around with a little bit is see where you can um, you know, make some changes there because I don't want you to have you don't want to go through all of this and just get done with the holidays and being like, "Ah, crap. I'm back into the normal slog and I got all this other stuff." There are some opportunities to make some gains in uh, your productivity and in your business itself and some of the things you're you're working on. Uh, but that being said, also make sure you like you got to get your like after turkey nap. You got to like spend a little time chilling out, listen to Christmas tunes and all that kind of stuff, which I'm sure you've been listening to Christmas tunes since July 4th, basically like I have because that stuff's out there already. Or get yourself some really cheap candy and stuff. That's great. So get your sugar high going. Oh my god. You and my wife with I will do Christmas in July. We'll watch Christmas movies like the first week in July and then that's it. no Christmas until after uh at least uh at least Halloween. >> U however, you know, I find it funny though. Yeah. Oh, kicking back, relaxing, trying to find things to work on. You know, you mentioned have a conversation with AI. So, we just talked about, you know, playing games and that. So, for those of you that like tabletop games like Dungeons and Dragons, things like that, use AI, you know, play around with AI and try to be the dungeon master or have it be the dungeon master and try to build out some scenarios and some routines or some campaigns with AI. Play around with it. I've heard some people have had some great success with it and some people have had some horrible uh experiences with it. But that's one of those scenarios where you really can control and you know more or less what you're expecting to get out of it. It's either you're getting a campaign that you like or you can tweak it or it's just not working at all and it's like, "Okay, punt this AI, go to the next AI and try that." Now, for those of you that are developers that do like gaming and want to try taking that to the next level, you could also try to build a have AI help you build your first like JRPG or just simple like Flappy Bird or whatever that stupid bird game was that uh was had really good music and was addicting but just like had no point. Uh but uh I think it was like Flappy Bird or something. Uh >> you you could birds, >> huh? >> Angry Birds. >> No, it it was like it was like a little sidescroller. You just tap to keep the bird flying and avoid things and >> Oh, yeah. I missed that one. >> I I was like, "How is this game so popular?" Uh, but that's one of the things you can do, you know, look around, you know, take a pause, do things that you don't normally do in your routine, but they can be fun and still productive. Um, like learning how to game. The other thing too with that is um one of the fun things that I like to do, I've talked about it a lot, but for me it's fun. For you it might be work, but pick up a new technology or something you haven't used in a while. Dust it off. Figure out how what the latest uh updates are to it. For instance, you know, Java routinely updates, Spring gets updates, you know, uh Python gets updates. get the latest version of whatever and build a small kitchen sync app and just Google or go out to their sites and figure out what are all the new features and try to do a small kitchen sink app and test all the new features, see how it works, you know, kick the tires uh and then play around with that. Yeah, I think that's something that's it it's always worth it within your doom scrolling and things like that is to check out some of the stuff out there. check some of the new technology, what's out there, uh what's available. Uh I find that's a great time to do it because you're going to see a lot of it probably, you know, around Black Friday and all the sales and things like that. Uh it's not a bad time to see what's out there. Uh sometimes you can jump on a couple of deals. There's everybody has them. Uh sometimes they're not much of a deal, sometimes they are. uh software companies in particular. I found a lot that will do, you know, you can get a annual subscription for 25 or 50% off on Black Friday, things like that, which is not bad for your business or your side hustle. Uh side hustling in particular, if you don't have a whole lot of money coming into it, then it's a great time to like stock up on uh some of the tools that you need or go build your own. Uh that's always uh in itself a very fun thing. That's something we embrace here uh fairly regularly. There's a lot of this stuff that it's just like, "All right, I've seen what I like. I've seen what I don't like in the other tools." And scratch your own itch and go build something that works for for you and your, you know, your company, your business, your your goals and things like that. Um, and don't be afraid to, you know, mess around with some stuff. Take some time. It's like, that is the best thing about holidays is think about it as it's like it's free time. It's like found money or something like that. So, let some of your normal stress disappear and just go hang out, do something fun. Uh, things like that because the the work will be there when you get back. You don't it doesn't just magically solve itself ever. So, you know, when you hop back, do that. Like I said, take a nap. Maybe it's cuz I'm getting old. You feel free to catch up on your sleep a little bit. Get some exercise. Whatever it is that you normally don't do, uh, get out there and give yourself a little time to do so. Especially great time to do the things where you're like, I don't do that because I never have the time. Well, now pretend effectively you do have the time. So, go do it. Pretend like you're just a normal person and you don't have a billion things on your, you know, weighing you down and go out, have yourself a good time doing so. Uh, closing thoughts. >> Yeah. Also, you know, remember it's a time for thank thanks, giving thanks. Um, if you're working all the time or you're always glued to some type of digital device, take a step away. Spend time with your family, spend time with your loved ones. if they're not around, you know, hang out with your friends, you know, kick back, watch some football, watch some holidays, uh, you know, specials on TV, but, you know, just spend time with people, disconnect from the technologies, and just have a good time and kick back and relax. Yeah. Yeah. And don't be afraid to catch up on your uh your latest Netscape uh or Netscape latest uh wow, I don't know where I got that one from, but your latest uh binging and and stuff like that. Your latest Netflix binging of such because there's a lot of those out. There's a lot of things have come out this year. Um, so check some of those out. Whether you're a a Stranger Things fan or one of the Marvel any of the Marvel stuff or, you know, all of those good Cobra Kai, any of those good ones that are out there. Uh, take some time and uh, you know, catch up to those. Enjoy the time that you've got uh, and taking care. Especially, I love this like, you know, Tuesday before Thanksgiving. I always loved it when I was in an office because it was like one of the times that there weren't a lot of people there. Usually people would work Monday and by Tuesday you're already people are disappearing. So by Tuesday afternoon it was sort of quiet and you get some stuff done. Take advantage of that. Uh but then also hopefully you'll have a couple quiet days and you'll be able to take advantage of I don't know sleeping in and stuff like that. I hear that happens. I haven't had it hasn't happened to me in a long long time but you know I I hear it's out there. It's some mythical beast like a unicorn. As always, go out there and have yourself a great day, a great week, and we will talk to you next time. Bonus material. Um, just bonus thoughts on this one. Uh definitely this is one of the things that like if you're if you're in an office, if you are not working remote uh this like you know from my years that I did take advantage of if you're not taking if you're not taking the holidays take advantage of like it being quiet of a lot of times companies will have like half days you know like you you leave it to the you know like the Wednesday before Thanksgiving or something like that. um take advantage of that kind of stuff to also to catch up on your your stuff around work. It's a great time to like, you know, get a couple of things done without distractions. Uh maybe update your calendar so you can like block some time out and have these on a regular basis. Um, I think that's one of the best thing is also take a look at it and see where uh you were more productive because maybe it's something that's uh it's going to be something that's going to like nudge you a little bit to tweak your your schedule, the way you approach your work. Maybe you need to start doing pomodoros, things of that nature. So, little bit of uh bonus holiday productivity for you. Yeah, I'll throw in um keep an eye on the Black Friday specials. A lot of them are not on Black Friday this year. Some have already started. Uh so just keep an eye on the advertisements if you're looking to buy something. Uh a good site that um I think you showed me years ago, uh Camel Camel Camel is really good at keeping track of when prices drop for certain items on Amazon. Uh definitely check that out. Uh if you have something you're looking for, uh might give you an idea of when something might be on sale or if it's never been on sale. So, hey, it might be coming up uh soon. The other thing, too, is, you know, just try to relax. Like Rob said, you know, if you're in an office, uh the other thing, too, is if you're in an office and things are a little bit slower than they normally are, maybe take the time to get to know your co-workers. If you guys are working all the time, maybe take, you know, like an early lunch, go out and spend an hour or so for lunch. rebuild the team, you know, or reconnect with your co-workers if you're always, you know, heads down, you know, putting out those fires. So, also again, just take the time to reconnect and relax and, you know, get ready for the turkey and we'll catch up with you guys when you get back. Have a good one, everyone. Enjoy your uh holiday. We will see you next actually on the holiday. We'll try not to go too long because we don't want to take you away from your your loved ones and and your naps. Talk to you next time.
Transcript Segments
Let me go ahead and do this so we can
say hi to everybody. Happy Thanksgiving
week uh when this thing actually comes
out. So, we're going to do our annual
um which has been forever. I guess it's
like the this is going to be the eighth
ninth maybe 10th year. I'm not sure when
first because this goes back to even
prior um podcast. I've always enjoyed I
always enjoyed with podcast having uh
holiday specials and stuff like that and
just being able to play around and um we
will do that again this year. So,
uh, we break. We do a little pause in
our normal season of stuff and, uh,
we're going to dive into
I don't know. We got to think I got to
think about what we wanted to do. Thank
obviously for the Thanksgiving Day
special, we're going to do things we're
thankful for. That's always a good one.
I think we probably want to talk a
little bit about um, upcoming season,
things going on, stuff like that. Just
basically fun stuff for this first one.
And then we'll come back and we'll do
the Thanksgiving one. We'll see how long
that's going to be. That may be a
shortish one, but otherwise we'll do
sort of our normal
normal routine uh and jump into the
podcast.
Uh I don't have any notes or anything I
have to do this time. So, this is sort
of nice. And I got to hit record.
So, and I got like a little bit better
lighting. Even though if I go out at
some point, it's because this table that
I'm at has got like it was not it was
built for very short people like yeah
that short one short person was waving
at me while I was mentioning that. All
right. So we will dive into
we'll just take it where it goes on our
little th
uno. Hello and welcome back. We are the
building better developers podcast. This
is also known as developer. We are
pausing the season of building better
foundations to have a little bit of
holiday special stuff as we always do.
So, we're going to do this uh
Thanksgiving week and then also around
Thanksgiving, New Year's or I'm sorry
around Christmas, New Year's, that kind
of stuff. We're going to have a break
again. Uh but then we're going to carry
on as always. We've got we've got a lot
of interviews lined up. Uh a couple in
the can, stuff like that. So, we got
some really cool stuff that we will be
talking about in the upcoming episodes
and into 2026.
We are actually to that point. First,
I'm going to introduce myself. My name
is Rob Broadhead. I'm one of the
founders of developing building better
developers. Also, the founder of RB
Consulting where we are one of those
nice little firms that helps you sits
down and help you leverage technology,
build a roadmap for success. Good thing,
bad thing. Bad thing. Good thing is I am
currently not home this I'll be home by
the time you guys are here but currently
I'm sitting in Las Vegas different I
gave up Nash Vegas for Las Vegas
and the trip day the travel day into Las
Vegas was one of the most uh obnoxious
of my life and it wasn't because of the
things like you know travel plans or
anything like that. It was just like
everything that could go wrong basically
went wrong from early in the morning
they closed out our flight too soon. And
so when we went to check in they're like
you don't exist anywhere. We went
through all took a lot of long a lot of
time to get through that to the end of
the day where we were just trying to sit
down and have some food and it was very
simple. It was just it's sushi. I I
guess that's not the most simple thing
but not that complex. And there was a
simple request of don't put the hot
peppery crap in my sushi. I'm not going
to say who did it. It wasn't me. Uh but
said person one upon trying it found out
the hot peppery stuff was in there and
it took that it took him a while to give
it to us and it took him longer to get
the second to you know make it good. By
that time said person had actually died
of starvation. had to res resuscitate
them, bring them back to life just so
they could eat their sushi. At least it
was good. And then we went home. Uh, and
that was just two of many, many things.
It was a comedy of errors. If it was a
family vacation movie, it would have
been actually worse than any of the
family vacation movies. Uh, but the good
thing is we're here. Survive. Everything
worked out okay. and working on my uh
you know digital nomadness of a sort and
roaming around doing work.
One other person that does a lot of this
moving around and doing work from
different places is my co-host. Go ahead
and introduce yourself. Hey everyone, my
name is Michael Malash. I'm one of the
co-founders of Building Better
Developers, also known as developer. I'm
also the founder of Envision QA where we
help businesses build smarter, stronger
software with custom development and
rockolid testing.
Let's see. Good thing, bad thing. Uh,
well, we are recording this uh a little
early before Thanksgiving and my wife is
currently out of town. So, uh, in a way
that's a good thing cuz I'm getting a
lot of stuff done. But in a way, it's
also a bad thing because now I have more
distractions of taking care of the dogs,
taking care of the farm animals, and
just general chores in general, which is
unfortunately cutting into my work
schedule routine a little bit, which uh
breaks that little pomodoro technique a
little bit. Now it's like, okay, 20
minutes here. Oh, dog has to go out.
Okay, it's just one of those where it's
a little frazzled this week. I'm ready
for things to calm down. I'm ready for
that turkey.
And it being, as we push this out,
Tuesday of Thanksgiving week, I think
we'll talk about the upcoming holidays
and things like that as our special this
time around. Uh, in the past, we've
done,
you know, uh, we usually do like a
businessy one and preparing. Uh, you
guys probably know that if you've been
around for a while, we get into
Thanksgiving, you know, day before
Thanksgiving, we do thankful stuff. And
then when we did Monday, Wednesday,
Friday, Friday would be Black Friday and
we talk about the sales and stuff like
that. I'm just going to combine some of
this stuff together and we'll see where
it goes. Um, one of the things that is I
always look forward to and rarely
actually am able to embrace it during
the holidays is actually having some
holiday time. Like sitting down and just
saying, "Okay, nobody's going to bother
me. There's no work. There's no nothing
like that. So, I'm going to chill. I'm
going to have an adult beverage. I'm
going to hang out with the family. I'm
going to eat some food. I'm going to
play some games. Stuff like that." And
as part of that um I have over the years
accumulated more than a few like game
consoles and mobile things and such like
that. One of my latest ones that I enjoy
when I the few minutes that I have each
year to do such things is uh Steam Deck.
Love it. It's great because I don't do
Windows and so a lot of stuff that would
be Windows games I don't do. Can't do
it. Steam Deck has allowed me to do some
of that. And I was like, you know what?
Talking with my kids just recently, they
said Blood Bowl 3 is out. That is an all
like longtime favorite of mine. Goes way
back. Did it on the did the tabletop
years and years and years ago, way
before it was ever a game. Um, and so
I'm like, cool. This is great. On my
recent flight, did that
got almost all the way to the end of the
game and it the battery died. Basically,
I ran out of power and it decided to
reset everything. So, I'm like, "Okay,
cool. I'm just going to go through this
again because it's like my first game
like yeah this is great having fun and I
looked away and the next thing I know it
had restarted itself again. So I'm going
to see if third time's a charm but um
that's one of those things that's like
it's fun how much access we have to like
games and all this kind of stuff. But it
can also be very frustrating because now
it's amazing how much we you know
require like wireless and chargers and
things like that kind of stuff. So,
that's just a couple things to think
about as you're as you're having a
little turkey and hanging out is like
make sure you sure you charge your
devices. That may be our bonus uh
material there for this one around. Your
thoughts?
>> So, first of all, I'll tell you uh also
a avid gamer like you. Uh I've got the
Steam Deck. If you're running into a lot
of resets, uh check your uh settings
when you're on portable, like decrease
your display stuff, things like that.
free up some of the battery. Um, that'll
help eek out a little bit more, but
yeah, it's a it's a slog. You get maybe
an hour and a half, maybe two hours
depending upon the game. Uh, but it also
depends how hot the thing gets. If
you're in a hot area, it's going to go
down faster. Um, my big thing is, uh,
I've gotten my hands on the new Pokemon
ZA for the, uh, Switch 2. Uh, I got to
play it for my birthday. That was about
it. It is now been sitting collecting
dust since uh September. I'm hoping to
be able to sit down uh dust it off and
uh spin that up a little bit and play it
uh on Thanksgiving. However, uh this
year I think my daughter's cooking uh
Thanksgiving again. So, we're probably
going to go over there, have food uh and
you know, kick back, relax a little bit.
So, I'll be able to play a little bit
during the day, but uh then we'll be
traveling a little bit and spending time
with family.
>> Yeah, I would say uh that's one of the
things I always recommend uh because I'm
near and it's near and dear to my heart
is while you're doing the traveling and
stuff like that for holidays uh or just
sitting there in dead time. Great time
to catch up on podcasts and things of
that nature. Um I this is like bonus
material again. I guess it's like if you
want to level your game up in a sense,
um spend a little time if you're sitting
there, you got nothing better to do,
instead of like doom scrolling, have a
conversation with one of the AI engines
out there about something. It is um I
was talking with somebody the other day.
It was luckily uh I shared this, but in
the pregame here, but in the pre-show,
but it was somebody that also failed to
hit record uh while doing recording an
episode. Uh but one of the things we
talked about was
how many people use AI are actually
using it and are actually productive and
it's actually a very small amount and I
think it's one of those things that part
of it is because we just people don't
understand how to use it yet. They
haven't really they're using a little
bit. It's like a replacement for a
search engine and some stuff like that.
But um it's worth uh in the building
better developer sense you know building
better Thanksgivings or however you want
to look at it. Um, I think that's
something that's worth playing around
with a little bit is see where you can
um, you know, make some changes there
because I don't want you to have you
don't want to go through all of this and
just get done with the holidays and
being like, "Ah, crap. I'm back into the
normal slog and I got all this other
stuff." There are some opportunities to
make some gains in uh, your productivity
and in your business itself and some of
the things you're you're working on. Uh,
but that being said, also make sure you
like you got to get your like after
turkey nap. You got to like spend a
little time chilling out, listen to
Christmas tunes and all that kind of
stuff, which I'm sure you've been
listening to Christmas tunes since July
4th, basically like I have because that
stuff's out there already. Or get
yourself some really cheap candy and
stuff. That's great. So get your sugar
high going.
Oh my god. You and my wife with I will
do Christmas in July. We'll watch
Christmas movies like the first week in
July and then that's it. no Christmas
until after uh at least uh at least
Halloween.
>> U however, you know, I find it funny
though. Yeah. Oh, kicking back,
relaxing, trying to find things to work
on. You know, you mentioned have a
conversation with AI. So, we just talked
about, you know, playing games and that.
So, for those of you that like tabletop
games like Dungeons and Dragons, things
like that, use AI, you know, play around
with AI and try to be the dungeon master
or have it be the dungeon master and try
to build out some scenarios and some
routines or some campaigns with AI. Play
around with it. I've heard some people
have had some great success with it and
some people have had some horrible uh
experiences with it. But that's one of
those scenarios where you really can
control and you know more or less what
you're expecting to get out of it. It's
either you're getting a campaign that
you like or you can tweak it or it's
just not working at all and it's like,
"Okay, punt this AI, go to the next AI
and try that." Now, for those of you
that are developers that do like gaming
and want to try taking that to the next
level, you could also try to build a
have AI help you build your first like
JRPG or just simple like Flappy Bird or
whatever that stupid bird game was that
uh was had really good music and was
addicting but just like had no point. Uh
but uh I think it was like Flappy Bird
or something. Uh
>> you you could birds,
>> huh?
>> Angry Birds.
>> No, it it was like it was like a little
sidescroller. You just tap to keep the
bird flying and avoid things and
>> Oh, yeah. I missed that one.
>> I I was like, "How is this game so
popular?" Uh, but that's one of the
things you can do, you know, look
around, you know, take a pause, do
things that you don't normally do in
your routine, but they can be fun and
still productive. Um, like learning how
to game. The other thing too with that
is
um one of the fun things that I like to
do, I've talked about it a lot, but for
me it's fun. For you it might be work,
but
pick up a new technology or something
you haven't used in a while. Dust it
off. Figure out how what the latest uh
updates are to it. For instance, you
know, Java routinely updates, Spring
gets updates, you know, uh Python gets
updates. get the latest version of
whatever and build a small kitchen sync
app and just Google or go out to their
sites and figure out what are all the
new features and try to do a small
kitchen sink app and test all the new
features, see how it works, you know,
kick the tires uh and then play around
with that. Yeah, I think that's
something that's it it's always worth it
within your
doom scrolling and things like that is
to check out some of the stuff out
there. check some of the new technology,
what's out there, uh what's available.
Uh I find that's a great time to do it
because you're going to see a lot of it
probably, you know, around Black Friday
and all the sales and things like that.
Uh it's not a bad time to see what's out
there. Uh sometimes you can jump on a
couple of deals. There's everybody has
them. Uh sometimes they're not much of a
deal, sometimes they are. uh software
companies in particular. I found a lot
that will do, you know, you can get a
annual subscription for 25 or 50% off on
Black Friday, things like that, which is
not bad for your business or your side
hustle. Uh side hustling in particular,
if you don't have a whole lot of money
coming into it, then it's a great time
to like stock up on uh some of the tools
that you need or go build your own. Uh
that's always uh in itself a very fun
thing. That's something we embrace here
uh fairly regularly. There's a lot of
this stuff that it's just like, "All
right,
I've seen what I like. I've seen what I
don't like in the other tools." And
scratch your own itch and go build
something that works for for you and
your, you know, your company, your
business, your your goals and things
like that. Um,
and don't be afraid to, you know, mess
around with some stuff. Take some time.
It's like, that is the best thing about
holidays is think about it as it's like
it's free time. It's like found money or
something like that. So, let some of
your normal stress disappear and just go
hang out, do something fun. Uh, things
like that because the the work will be
there when you get back. You don't it
doesn't just magically solve itself
ever. So, you know, when you hop back,
do that. Like I said, take a nap. Maybe
it's cuz I'm getting old. You feel free
to catch up on your sleep a little bit.
Get some exercise. Whatever it is that
you normally don't do, uh, get out there
and give yourself a little time to do
so. Especially
great time to do the things where you're
like, I don't do that because I never
have the time. Well, now pretend
effectively you do have the time. So, go
do it. Pretend like you're just a normal
person and you don't have a billion
things on your, you know, weighing you
down and go out, have yourself a good
time doing so. Uh, closing thoughts.
>> Yeah. Also, you know, remember it's a
time for thank thanks, giving thanks.
Um, if you're working all the time or
you're always glued to some type of
digital device, take a step away. Spend
time with your family, spend time with
your loved ones. if they're not around,
you know, hang out with your friends,
you know, kick back, watch some
football, watch some holidays, uh, you
know, specials on TV, but, you know,
just spend time with people, disconnect
from the technologies, and just have a
good time and kick back and relax.
Yeah. Yeah. And don't be afraid to catch
up on your uh your latest Netscape uh or
Netscape
latest uh wow, I don't know where I got
that one from, but your latest uh
binging and and stuff like that. Your
latest Netflix binging of such because
there's a lot of those out. There's a
lot of things have come out this year.
Um, so check some of those out. Whether
you're a a Stranger Things fan or one of
the Marvel any of the Marvel stuff or,
you know, all of those good Cobra Kai,
any of those good ones that are out
there. Uh, take some time and uh, you
know, catch up to those. Enjoy the time
that you've got uh, and taking care.
Especially, I love this like, you know,
Tuesday before Thanksgiving. I always
loved it when I was in an office because
it was like one of the times that there
weren't a lot of people there. Usually
people would work Monday and by Tuesday
you're already people are disappearing.
So by Tuesday afternoon it was sort of
quiet and you get some stuff done. Take
advantage of that. Uh but then also
hopefully you'll have a couple quiet
days and you'll be able to take
advantage of I don't know sleeping in
and stuff like that. I hear that
happens. I haven't had it hasn't
happened to me in a long long time but
you know I I hear it's out there. It's
some mythical beast like a unicorn. As
always, go out there and have yourself a
great day, a great week, and we will
talk to you next time.
Bonus material. Um,
just bonus thoughts on this one. Uh
definitely
this is one of the things that like if
you're if you're in an office, if you
are not working remote uh this like you
know from my years that I did take
advantage of if you're not taking if
you're not taking the holidays take
advantage of like it being quiet of a
lot of times companies will have like
half days you know like you you leave it
to the you know like the Wednesday
before Thanksgiving or something like
that. um take advantage of that kind of
stuff to also to catch up on your your
stuff around work. It's a great time to
like, you know, get a couple of things
done without distractions. Uh maybe
update your calendar so you can like
block some time out and have these on a
regular basis. Um,
I think that's one of the best thing is
also take a look at it and see where uh
you were more productive because maybe
it's something that's uh it's going to
be something that's going to like nudge
you a little bit to tweak your your
schedule, the way you approach your
work. Maybe you need to start doing
pomodoros, things of that nature. So,
little bit of uh bonus holiday
productivity for you.
Yeah, I'll throw in um keep an eye on
the Black Friday specials. A lot of them
are not on Black Friday this year. Some
have already started. Uh so just keep an
eye on the advertisements if you're
looking to buy something. Uh a good site
that um I think you showed me years ago,
uh Camel Camel Camel is really good at
keeping track of when prices drop for
certain items on Amazon. Uh definitely
check that out. Uh if you have something
you're looking for, uh might give you an
idea of when something might be on sale
or if it's never been on sale. So, hey,
it might be coming up uh soon. The other
thing, too, is, you know, just try to
relax. Like Rob said, you know, if
you're in an office, uh the other thing,
too, is if you're in an office and
things are a little bit slower than they
normally are, maybe take the time to get
to know your co-workers. If you guys are
working all the time, maybe take, you
know, like an early lunch, go out and
spend an hour or so for lunch. rebuild
the team, you know, or reconnect with
your co-workers if you're always, you
know, heads down, you know, putting out
those fires. So,
also again, just take the time to
reconnect and relax and, you know, get
ready for the turkey and we'll catch up
with you guys when you get back.
Have a good one, everyone. Enjoy your uh
holiday. We will see you next actually
on the holiday. We'll try not to go too
long because we don't want to take you
away from your your loved ones and and
your naps. Talk to you next time.