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the way forward

My tech career will be 45 years old this year. It’s been a good run but at 64 it seems less likely that corporate america will continue to subsidize my hustle of getting paid to play with toys. It’s been a good run but eventually my contract won’t get renewed and this industry doesn’t value age and experience as much as some others do.

So what then? Here are some ideas that have been percolating in my mind…

• YouTube personality - This one has a few spokes.

• Just blathering about current events and other things: I consume a lot of information and I can integrate into a narrative that my housemate, at least, finds entertaining enough to indulge some of my more mundane personal quirks

• Interesting Personality Interviewer: I have a lot of interesting friends. I’ve considered starting an interview series where i sit down with someone I know who is interesting to talk to. I know a few people who are micro-famous as well.

• Career path interviewer: One of my standard rants has been “children of engineers are wired differently than the other kids”. Interview a number of such people and come up with a summary of how kids of engineers are different. Once that idea solitified, it follows that other careers have similar effects: If your dad was a successful salesman, what did he pass down to you? If your mom or dad was a teacher, what unique wiring did you get as a result?

• ubuntu for your mom: make up some presentations on helping people transition from mainstream computer operating systems to LInux desktop. The linux fanbase has been saying for years and years that “____ is the year of the linux desktop”. Based on breakthroughs in windows interoperability (thanks to Valve, for instance) and the surveillance overreach of he mainstream platoforms, more people are considering taking the plunge. Prepare something to be delivered to audiences like senior centers to help people get over the hump to try this themselves.

• Psilocybin for seniors - “plant medicine” is having a moment here in Colorado and increasingly other places. How does one get started in this, what are the pitfalls, etc. Could be entre’ to a number of side topics - how to grow them yourself, what is it like, what intentionality is available, etc.

• Real world side gigs:

• If the making drum thing concludes successfully, could make it a thing. Some of the hard work could be pushed towards someone younger/more fit

• refurbishing computers for people who want to move to linux - you don’t need all that to run a browser, word processor and media player