Kent

I was busy through the week, so I couldn't commemorate my "second anniversary". Last Thursday (the 8th) marked the second year since, "My second biggest mistake" - aka my leaving Microsoft. So, what have we/I learned in those 24 months?

1. Work/Life balance. I feel that for the most part (i.e. excluding crunch time on projects), I have it. My commute is about 15s. The coffee in the office is fine (although not as frequent as I'd like). I am fairly strict about stopping work at the end of the day (excluding email and the newsletter of course). This one is a happy-happy.
2. Health. Sort of related to the above, but I wanted to pull it out for special consideration. Better. M and I go for a walk before I get started on work, as well as frequently at other times, and I exercise 5 days a week.
3. Many developers shouldn't be. This mostly from a few of the recipients of the newsletter[1]. I get a lot of unsubscribe requests, coding help and whatnot. The saddest part is that most of the time the solution is either RTFM or "type just what you asked me into Google." I imagine it's the same on most if not all discussion forums. However, I still think developers should be beyond these trivial user issues. Perhaps we aren't the "top guns" I keep thinking and hoping we are.
4. Envy. The recent spate of Microsoft hirings has really brought out the envy in me. I'm not sure why as the three gentlemen in particular truly deserve to work there, and I am not anywhere near as qualified, skilled (or good looking) as they. I guess it's because they are getting an opportunity to create that I felt I never had at that place. See: envy.

More lessons to come, I'd imagine...

[1] The CodeProject Insider. Even though I struggle some days to create it, I really do like it. If you need a dose of IT/Dev news that doesn't take itself too seriously, I think it's one of the best emails you can get. There. My marketing exercise for the year. (Yes, perhaps it should just be an RSS feed, but that's not my decision)