Personal Development

How many times have you heard the old adage about how nothing in life is free: If you're not paying for the product, you are the productFacebook. LinkedIn. TikTok. But this isn't an internet age thing, the origins go back way further, originally being used to describe TV viewers being served ads. Sure, TV was "free" in that you don't pay to watch it (screwy UK TV licenses aside), but running a television network ain't cheap so it was (and still is) supported by advertisers paying to put their message in front of viewers. A portion of those viewers then go out and buy the goods and services they've been pitched hence becoming the "product" of TV. But what I...

I've had this blog post in draft for quite some time now, adding little bits to it as the opportunity presented itself. In a essence, it boils down to this: people expressing their displeasure when I post about a topic they're not interested in then deciding to have a whinge that my timeline isn't tailored to their expectation of the things they'd like me to talk about. The key term in that sentence is "my timeline" and as most of this relates to Twitter, there's a very easy way to understand whose timeline you're looking at: This is me, talking about the things that I find interesting. Ricky Gervais does an amazing job of explaining what I'm about to delve...

I started writing this blog post alone in a hotel room in Budapest last September. It was at the absolute zenith of stress; a time when I had never been under as much pressure as I was right at that moment. Project Svalbard (the sale of HIBP which ultimately turned out to be a no-sale) was a huge part of that and it was all happening whilst still being solely responsible for running the project. That much was very broadly known publicly, but what I haven't spoken about until now is that earlier that year, my wife and I had decided to separate and later divorce. As part of attempting to rebuild my life, I was also in the midst...

Patience. Frugality. Sacrifice. When you boil it down, what do those three things have in common? Those are choices. Money is not peace of mind. Money’s not happiness. Money is, at its essence, that measure of a man’s choices.This is part of the opening monologue of the Ozark series and when I first heard it, I immediately stopped the show and dropped it into this blog post. It's a post that has been many years coming, one I started drafting about 5 years ago. One I kept dropping little bits and pieces into as the years went by but never finished because the time just wasn't right. It was only after reflecting on the responses to the...

If you’re a regular reader, you may have noticed a rather major job change on my behalf recently. The day to day office grind has gone and corporate life is now well and truly behind me, where it will firmly stay. One of the things that amazed me most when I finally wrote about this is how surprised so many people were that I actually had a normal day job: Can't believe @troyhunt had another job as well! #inspiration https://t.co/918HOFSGLA — Conrad Jackson (@conradj) April 15, 2015 @troyhunt Put me in the category of "didn't know you had a day-job apart from the blog/speaking/etc". Wow. — Tommy...

Recently I’ve gone through a particularly intensive training program. This program has required a significant contribution of money, time and energy and although it has already been running for four weeks, has only just begun. The thing is though, its already made me a better programmer and the course is pretty easily accessible, in fact some people even stumble across it accidentally; get yourself a baby! What the?!Ok, I know it’s a nonconventional approach but allow me to elaborate. The journey into parenthood forces you to push all sorts of boundaries you wouldn’t normally consider. It requires degrees of both creativity and patience you’ve probably never experienced before. It also introduces...