Weekly Chatter 8 & 9

chatter

My weekly list of what I’m enjoying or pondering, this time a double pack - Weekly Chatter 8 & 9.

What I am reading

Three books. From time to time I read a letter or two from “Moral Letters to Lucilius” by Seneca. I am about to start”Moral Letters to Lucilius” Volume 3. Food for thought. Another book that I find fascinating is “Seveneves” by Neal Stephenson. It is a captivating story of the desperate efforts to save humans due to the disintegration of the Moon. Discovered on Bill Gates’ reading list. The third item on my reading shelf - “Release It” by Michael Nygard. A couple of stories when a “small” mistake in the code triggers an avalanche, an expensive system outage.


What I find fascinating in stoicism

A simple guide to a happy life. But what does it mean “a happy life”? Asceticism, simplicity, honesty, not wanting more … and be prepared to die. I’ve just realized that some of my bucket list items are pointless and not worth an effort.


What country I visit each month

Poland Once a month I visit my relatives in Poland. Talk to my brother. Enjoy time with parents. Play with a dog. Visit Biedronka. Enjoy a drive.


What certification I got recently

Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert: Cloud Platform and Infrastructure I passed third, the last required exam: 70-532 Developing Microsoft Azure Solutions. Overall, it wasn’t that difficult as I’d expected. Watching courses on Udemy, reading the documentation and trying things on my own. But the feeling “Oh shit, I am going to fail this exam” was present.


Podcast episodes worth listening

The Hanselminutes Podcast - Preparing a city for self-driving cars with Leslie Caceda Leslie talks to Scott about the design and ethics of self-driving cars.


The quote I am pondering

If you don’t take risks you will always work for someone who does


How I wasted a few hours on useless stuff

I am hosting this blog on silvrback.com. The subscription was about to end soon, and I thought it might be a good time to switch to something more powerful (I didn’t need it, but why not). Since I want to focus on writing on the blog, not coding it, I started to evaluate different blogging platforms. I spend a few hours looking into Jekyll, Wordpress, hosting plans and prices, different templates. Finally, I renewed the Silvrback subscription. It could have been a blog post instead …


What commercial I watched a few times


I'm Valdas Maksimavicius. I write about data, cloud technologies and personal development. You can find more about me here.