0:00:00Hello, and welcome to Developing Perspective. Developing Perspective is a podcast discussing
0:00:04news of note in iOS development, Apple, and the like. I'm your host, David Smith. I'm
0:00:09an independent iOS developer based in Herndon, Virginia. This is show number 70, and today
0:00:13is Thursday, August 2nd. Developing Perspective is never longer than 15 minutes, so let's
0:00:17get started. First, if you're a long time listener, you would have noticed that the
0:00:22previous episode to this one was somewhat out of the ordinary. And like I mentioned
0:00:27on the previous regular Developing Perspective episode.
0:00:29It's a new series that I'm launching and starting
0:00:32where I interview interesting developers in the community,
0:00:35people who have been around the block, made a lot of mistakes,
0:00:39and hopefully can share those experiences
0:00:41and help us all to learn from that in a constructive way.
0:00:44And so my first one was with Matthew Bischoff.
0:00:47And I highly recommend you give it a try, give it a listen.
0:00:51Like I said, it's a different flavor and style of show
0:00:54than the normal Developing Perspectives,
0:00:56which are 15 minutes, typically one small topic, just me talking.
0:01:00So maybe it's not your thing, but hopefully it is.
0:01:02Hopefully it's interesting.
0:01:03Definitely check that out.
0:01:04And I wanted to also just as a call for comments on that.
0:01:09It's a new something new I'm trying out.
0:01:11It's something I've never done before.
0:01:13And so it's always helpful if you give me
0:01:14feedback in terms of either things that you liked, things you didn't like,
0:01:19things you could do more, whether that's technically.
0:01:21I know there are some problems with the levels balancing between the R2
0:01:24voices initially and things.
0:01:26Whatever it is, just feedback is always helpful for me as I'm starting something new to be
0:01:30able to better tweak and adjust as I go.
0:01:34And also, I'd also be interested in if you had any suggestions.
0:01:36I've gotten a couple coming in already, but people who you'd be interested in hearing
0:01:42from.
0:01:43So in terms of for me to try and line up an interview with, that kind of thing, it's always
0:01:48to some degree it's helpful if you're like, "Hey, I would like to be on the show."
0:01:54I'll certainly always look at those.
0:01:56But what I'm most interested in are recommendations for people
0:01:59you'd like to listen from.
0:02:01Because that's an even stronger endorsement
0:02:03than just volunteering.
0:02:05And so that's sort of a new thing.
0:02:11Trying it, I hope it works well.
0:02:12And just give me some feedback through the usual means.
0:02:15All right, a couple little things for today's show.
0:02:17An interesting thing that I realized I never actually
0:02:20noticed when it happened, I don't think.
0:02:22but i've been doing developing perspective now for over a year
0:02:26uh... that's kind of quite something considering the fact that
0:02:30you know it started off so
0:02:32sister experimentally at the beginning it was not something that i really
0:02:36as knew what i was
0:02:38getting into even or that i really had any expectations on
0:02:41how long it would how long it would go how do you know sort of what the form
0:02:45the showed the end
0:02:46i'm at this point and it's kinda crazy that to me that at this point
0:02:49this will be episode eighty one
0:02:52in terms of individual episodes that i've done on developing perspective it's
0:02:55number
0:02:56uh... seventy in terms of actual like my
0:02:59comical numbering because i had a bunch of sort of i called beta episodes at the
0:03:03beginning
0:03:04you know so i've been doing this for a little over a year
0:03:06uh... that that about eighty episodes and it's kind of remarkable and it's
0:03:09just really what i'm at the teaching to mention that
0:03:12moreover i think all the listeners out there 'cause if i
0:03:15if it was just me talking to myself, which I must say it was at the beginning, that got
0:03:21old after a while. And I lost interest and didn't do it quite as often. It was only when
0:03:26I was able to get a lot of feedback and a lot of encouragement from people who found
0:03:30it useful. That encouragement and sort of making me feel like it was really actually
0:03:36helping people really helped me keep at it. And so I just wanted to thank all the listeners
0:03:41for all their support.
0:03:42All right, and so I'm going to talk about the main topic for today's show, which is,
0:03:47I think it's something I've mentioned a couple of times, but not in too great detail. And
0:03:52it's very relevant for me because next week there won't be any episodes of Developing
0:03:56Perspective. I'm going on vacation. And I'll be sort of gone and with my family for the
0:04:03week, and so I won't be doing any episodes of the show. But more generally, I thought
0:04:07it would be interesting to talk a little bit about REST
0:04:10and the importance of REST as a developer in general,
0:04:14but mostly just even as someone who's self-employed
0:04:17or a founder of a startup or those kinds of things.
0:04:20Because the interesting thing about being a regular,
0:04:22as you call it, like a 9 to 5 corporate job
0:04:25is that you, in some ways, have external things driving your REST
0:04:30schedule.
0:04:31Typically, you have vacation days.
0:04:33Those vacation days often expire.
0:04:36is you have this kind of enforced sort of rest or vacation time
0:04:43each week-- or sorry, each year that is helpful,
0:04:46because it puts these boundaries around what you're going to do.
0:04:49And as you begin a year, you're making plans with your family,
0:04:52you can kind of look at it and say, OK, well, I got three weeks of leave.
0:04:56Let's make sure I take that.
0:04:58Whereas if you're independent, you don't have that benefit.
0:05:02You could take as much time off as you want to some degree,
0:05:07or you could take as little time off as you want.
0:05:10And you have infinite and zero leave at the same time.
0:05:13And that's really difficult. And it's something
0:05:15that I certainly struggle with.
0:05:16And I know it's a weird thing that I probably--
0:05:20I don't think I take as much vacation as I'd like,
0:05:22as maybe I should sometimes.
0:05:24I certainly take vacation.
0:05:26I have a couple of big-- I take off major holidays typically,
0:05:30but not always.
0:05:30I certainly don't take off.
0:05:31Often I'll work on days like President's Day or Martin
0:05:34Luther King or any of these kind of minor federal holidays.
0:05:39I often will just work because it doesn't really--
0:05:42my schedule isn't confined by that in a useful way.
0:05:45I have a friend who works in the stock market industry.
0:05:49And for him, it's like if the markets are closed,
0:05:52there's no work to do.
0:05:54And so whenever the market's closed, he has a day off.
0:05:56And that's great.
0:05:57But being a software engineer, being an iOS engineer,
0:05:59There's really nothing that is external that drives my--
0:06:05that's my schedule in that kind of way.
0:06:07And so it's kind of a funny thing.
0:06:08I can take it off as much as I want.
0:06:11And I think as I've been doing this more and more,
0:06:14I think I've been more and more understanding
0:06:16of the importance of having rest as an important variable
0:06:22to optimize in my day, or in my week, or in my year.
0:06:27It's easy to just sort of keep plowing into something
0:06:30and keep working and working in some ways to your own detriment,
0:06:34to the detriment of your work.
0:06:36That if you feel like you can never stop, you're always working,
0:06:40if you're always constantly working on things,
0:06:42I think overall, after a while, you'll lose perspective.
0:06:46You'll stop thinking of new and interesting ideas,
0:06:49and you'll probably form a lot of bad habits.
0:06:51And this is something I've seen in myself.
0:06:53And so on the small level, what I found is really helpful
0:06:55is to make sure you keep a very regular schedule.
0:06:59I mean, especially now that I have children, but even before that,
0:07:02there's something very strongly motivating
0:07:07about keeping a regular schedule, both in terms of saying,
0:07:10I'm only going to work so many hours a day, whatever it is.
0:07:13I typically work 9 to 5.
0:07:14And I work 9 to 5 because that works well for my family.
0:07:17But whatever that is, whatever would work well for you is fine.
0:07:21But I think it's important that there is some kind of thing there.
0:07:23There is some kind of rest, that there is
0:07:25some kind of sort of split between your work time
0:07:31and your non-work time.
0:07:33And your non-work time can be all manner of things.
0:07:35But it's actually something that's very important,
0:07:38that you say, this is the time when I'm not working.
0:07:41And you really try not to think about work, not to do work,
0:07:45not to always be thinking about it,
0:07:48because you're just going to wear yourself down.
0:07:50And so it's like for a long-- now
0:07:52that I have a retinomatopoeia probe,
0:07:54found this to be a bigger problem for myself because before I didn't have I
0:07:59had a big iMac at the office and I just didn't take it home so I really couldn't
0:08:02work in a practical way I'm at home now I can take my laptop home but it's a
0:08:07tricky question and I think I'm gonna try and not take it home very often even
0:08:12though I could just that unless I really have something conscious that I need to
0:08:16be working on and doing at home I'd rather just leave it at the office and
0:08:19make sure that at the time when I'm not working I'm really not working and so
0:08:24So when I come to the office, I'm more interested in working, I'm more engaged, and I'm excited
0:08:28to do what I'm doing because it's special.
0:08:30It's a, you know, I'm creating a distinction between my time.
0:08:35And then more beyond that, I think it's good to sometimes just get, I think you really,
0:08:43it really enhances your perspective, which I guess is appropriate given the title of
0:08:47this podcast, you know, Developing Perspective.
0:08:49But I think having distance from your work really helps with generating and engendering
0:08:54that sort of a good perspective on what your work is and what you're doing.
0:08:59It's kind of that difference of if you're inside of a maze, for example, and if you
0:09:03imagine one of those classic sort of green, hedgy mazes, it's like if you're in the middle
0:09:08of that, it's very difficult to know where to go next.
0:09:12If you're in a helicopter 100 feet above it looking down, it's very easy to know where
0:09:16to go next.
0:09:17And that perspective and that insight and wisdom that you can build, I think is very
0:09:23heavily related to having time away from it, that you can sort of be outside of your problems
0:09:29and looking at them from the outside.
0:09:31And you can be thinking about them at a higher level, and you're not so stuck in the weeds.
0:09:36You're not so just stuck there and being like, "Oh, this is my next task.
0:09:42This is my next task.
0:09:43This is my next task."
0:09:44kind of going from one to one to one without looking up and really knowing, are you heading
0:09:48in the right direction? You know, it's like the, you know, it's like you're making all
0:09:53these tiny little decisions that could actually be really driving you off course, even though
0:09:58to start with you seem to be heading in the right direction. And so it's important to
0:10:01kind of pull back from that. And even things like bad habits, it's having a break from
0:10:07something, you'll know you potentially notice bad habits or things that you started doing
0:10:11that maybe you shouldn't.
0:10:12Maybe you're bored at work or you're not
0:10:16excited about what you're doing.
0:10:17And so you're spending way too much time
0:10:19on Twitter or on Facebook or Hacker News
0:10:22or whatever it is for you.
0:10:24And you're filling in that time in a way that's not productive.
0:10:29But because you're just sort of constantly still doing it
0:10:32over and over and over again, you're
0:10:33not giving yourself the opportunity
0:10:34to kind of have that break, you may not realize that.
0:10:37You may not be able to see how your habits and patterns are
0:10:41developing or how they've changed.
0:10:43And so it's important to take a step back.
0:10:44And so like I said, next week I'll be going on vacation,
0:10:46going to the beach.
0:10:48I'll be bringing along my computer, probably, primarily
0:10:51just because the nature of being an independent is that
0:10:55I'm always working to some degree, just in that I have
0:10:58servers that I maintain.
0:10:59And if things go wrong and I get my uptime monitoring alert
0:11:04that says, hey, your main server's down, I really do
0:11:07need to make sure that I can fix that and make it work.
0:11:09But I don't expect to open Xcode.
0:11:13I've done coding on vacations in the past,
0:11:15but typically that was before-- typically what
0:11:18I've done that is when I'm learning a new technology,
0:11:21sometimes it's actually fun to do that.
0:11:22I think this year, though, it's not something I'm going to do.
0:11:25And I think if I'm doing any work-related things,
0:11:27it'll be like reading books related to what I do,
0:11:29but not necessarily directly.
0:11:31So for example, I've been meaning for a long time
0:11:33to really get into Being Geek by my Michael Lopp, this book
0:11:37that I've gotten through the first four or five
0:11:39chapters a couple of times, but I never quite had the time to read it.
0:11:42So I'm looking forward to diving into that
0:11:45and hopefully doing things that will enhance my mind and my skills,
0:11:50but not necessarily working.
0:11:51So it's really a nice break.
0:11:53But when I come back and I open Xcode, it feels fresh.
0:11:55It feels interesting.
0:11:56And hopefully that helps me to be a better developer.
0:12:00And it's just something that I'd encourage everybody
0:12:02to make sure they're doing.
0:12:03It's a dangerous trap if you're an independent,
0:12:05to get sucked into always working that you're you always have your laptop with
0:12:09you. No matter where you go, you're going on vacation with the families a long
0:12:12weekend here. And you're like, Oh, let me you know, I got got a couple of hours to
0:12:16kill. Okay, I'll work on the next feature. That's a dangerous place to find
0:12:20yourself. I think you're just you're ultimately doing yourself a disservice
0:12:24and in the long run, even though in short term, it may feel like you're not.
0:12:28Anyway, that's it for today's show. As I said, I won't be here next week. So the
0:12:33next episode will be August 14th will be my next episode. Like I said at the beginning,
0:12:41if you have comments or thoughts about the new interview series that I'm doing on Developing
0:12:46Perspective, I'd love to hear those. If you have people who you'd be really interested
0:12:49in hearing from, I'd love to hear that feedback as well. It's always the best place to contact
0:12:54me if you have questions, comments, concerns. It's probably on Twitter. I'm @_davidsmith
0:12:58there. Or if you go to the About page on the podcast developing perspective.com, you can
0:13:04see an email address there that you can reach me at if you prefer that method. And otherwise,
0:13:09I hope you guys have a good couple of weeks. Hopefully you can get some vacation, get some
0:13:13rest at the same time. And I will talk to you then. And between now and then, happy
0:13:17coding. Bye.
0:13:18[BLANK_AUDIO]