| First and foremost, screw the green boxes on GitHub. They don't mean shit. Second of all, there are many ways to "skill up" and that doesn't always mean creating open source side projects or experimenting with the newest fad. After becoming a father I found I certainly had a lot less time but it forced me to cut out everything that didn't matter. That included watching tech talks, working on a bunch of small projects, getting my "commit a day" on GitHub, reading a large number of books, and so on. Instead, I decided what I needed and wanted was financial freedom and I wanted to achieve that by building my own software business(es). I stopped measuring myself by silly graphs or what others in the industry may or may not think of me. I stopped second guessing myself and I stopped worrying about my "marketability" or "maintaining skills" for hireability's sake. Why worry about skills, marketable or keeping up with the fads if I work for myself? As long as I'm true to myself and I can build kickass products, I don't care about anything else. Since then, I've built my own successful business and I am currently working on the second (second baby and second business!). |