Wednesday, February 27, 2013

I'm tired

It may come as a surprise (or not) to those of you who see me posting on the Redis mailing list, or who've been involved in the writing of Redis in Action, or that work with me on a daily basis, or that I give technical advice to, or those that I would call friends, ... but I am tired. Actually no, I'm fucking exhausted.

In the last year and four months, I've played the architect and lead engineering role in the rewriting of an entire online meal ordering platform, I've advised 3 startups on how to scale/re-architect their backend (one of which grew from 50k users to 380k users in 1 month, still growing just as fast), I've advised countless Redis users how to use Redis, I spent one year of my evenings and weekends writing my book, I've worked on several of my own open-source projects, several personal projects that may turn into side-businesses, I was invited to and spoke at 4 conferences in 4 months (a different talk for each one), I've spent the last 2 months part-time working from home to help take care of my first child, and for the 5-6 months before that, doing my best to take care of my pregnant wife.

I used to joke that I was a machine; that the act of helping people, giving advice, writing software, all of it, was rewarding and invigorating, and that I didn't need to take a rest from it. I was wrong. Aside from a couple long weekends in the last year, and 2 weeks after my daughter was born (during all of which where I replied to work email, still worked from home on occasion, and took phone calls), I've been running at full speed the entire time with only the occasional movie/video game night or spending time with friends.

I need a vacation. Somewhere with a beach, warm water, good snorkeling, and decent waves for body-boarding and/or surfing.

When and how I will take a break, I have no idea.

Take care of yourselves out there, it's all too easy to push yourself to the limit for too long, and to deny that you need to take a break.

6 comments:

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  2. I'm sorry to hear that man. I know you worked hard. I renew my invite for Sardinia (Italy), together, this summer
    (a paradise, literally, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sardinia#Geography).
    Not sure how feasible it is for you with daughter, the long trip etc. but think about it.

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  3. It's good that you recognise this. Sometimes things are so busy I don't even recognise I need a break till I crack. You may not be able to take a full break but now that you know you can do little things to help refuel. Babies do get easier, I promise.

    Elizabeth from Vermillion

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    1. It's not really so much the baby. It's everything else, with the baby thrown on the top. I've been doing too many things for too long. I need to stop some of them, and rotate through those that I want to continue doing.

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  4. Hi;
    Was looking for some info on Redis and ended up here. This post really made me smile. It reminded me of the few years past (at one point I had three daughters under 5). It can feel like a war zone at times.
    The "everything else" is a whole lot easier when you can guarantee a good nights sleep.
    Apparently these are for you "golden times" - ask any parent. Of course, it might just be that their brains were so far fried at the time, they just can't remember how hard it was.
    Keep smiling Dr Josiah!
    Now I need to find out some more about Redis... Maybe I'll try your book.

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