Come Hell or High Water. In This Case, WaterFor much of September I wasn't at my desk. In fact, I wasn't even in the same country as my desk. I was enjoying my honeymoon in Italy and Switzerland with my wife. Besides a much needed break from the craziness of NYC, traveling gave me a chance to get some rest. As some of you may know, I have been building a Git training business called LearnGit.io, and prior to our trip my mental state had been easily derailed by obsessing over two competing outlooks: "LearnGit.io is a great business and will be successful", and "LearnGit.io will ultimately fail, and I will have wasted irretrievable time with nothing to show for it". I can't say that this mental battle doesn't still exist, but taking a small break allowed me to regain control. It's now a little bit easier to step back and see the big picture of why I started. To focus on the process rather than the false dichotomy of success or failure. I try to remember that there is no such thing as failure if you try, because failure is the most effective way to get better in the long run. Taking a break gave me a chance to reset and remember this. However, my re-entry into work wouldn't be so smooth... Water, water, and more water I returned to New York ready to get back to the grind, but the weather had other plans. While I was away, record rainfall caused 3 inches of water to flood the basement of the co-working space where I work. Water poured in, and created a river in the hallway. Sadly my office was partially flooded. My first days back were spent removing soiled rugs, and triaging damage. Thankfully only a few millimeters of water managed to penetrate my office door, but casualties included my rug and main video light. Though this damage was less than it could have been, my newly full fuel tank had to take a hit - along with about a week of productivity and a few hundred dollars. Yes, even rugs are business critical (soundproofing!). As I ramp back up into work, be sure to check out the LearnGit.io public GitHub repository for up-to-date progress and weekly updates. Feel free to leave feedback there as well. Feature Preview: Search Oftentimes using Git is a necessary step in a process that doesn't otherwise involve version control. Developing software involves writing code, debugging, and integration testing. The last thing you want to do after all that work is spend time fumbling with Git. The goal of LearnGit's search is to understand this, and feed you information seamlessly. That way you can spend less time with Git, and more time on development. To accomplish this, LearnGit's search goes beyond autocomplete and zero-latency results with "Instant Results". Search for any Git term, and instantly get an explanation and code samples right in the search box. You can be on your way in seconds without ever clicking a search result. Check out a preview above. There is a lot more to come in future newsletters. Thanks again for joining the journey. Cheers, Jack
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My name is Jack Lot Raghav, I'm a tech industry professional (ex Amazon) & growing YouTuber (35k @themoderncoder) building an online business (LearnGit.io). In this newsletter, I'll be sharing monthly technical & business insights as I strive for self-employment.
Two and a half years ago, I quit my full-time job as a software engineer at Amazon. Since then, I've been recovering from burnout and attempting to start a business teaching Git to people on the internet. If I could sum up this past year, it would be the seemingly endless exercise in convincing myself that everything I've worked on this past year wasn't a complete waste of time, and that my life choices weren't a huge mistake. I gather this feeling is fairly standard among self-employed...
Happy August! ☀️ I wasn't able to send a July newsletter due to a crazy travel schedule. Just a heads up, this newsletter focuses mainly on updates to the learning platform I'm building: LearnGit.io. If you're interested in a more narrative newsletter, check out my June update. My summer travels landed me in sunny Napa, California, where I was able to spend some quality time with old friends. Free Trial We'll start with the big news: Anyone can now access a LearnGit.io free trial! The first 2...
Along with some big updates on my small business, LearnGit.io, this month I share the story of why I moved to NYC, and the bumpy ending to my 7-year-long career at Amazon. Thanks for reading! Change In the past 6 years, change has been a reliable companion. To recap, I moved to NYC, quit my job of 7 years at Amazon, got married, started a small business, and (just this month) got kicked out of my apartment... Our old 430 sqft, 1bd Brooklyn apartment. We're smiling in this picture, but on the...