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WDRL 270

Find your self, why fast software is good software and ethical data sensemaking.

Hi, I’m Anselm Hannemann, a freelance Frontend Developer and Engineering Manager. You can hire me. I wrote WDRL for 10 years and have a a Market Garden as a side-business.

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Hey,

Today take some time to have a deep breath and remember what happened this week. Go through it day by day and apprecuate the actions, the negative ones as well as the positive ones. Accept that negative things happen in our lives as well, otherwise we would also not be able to feel good. It’s a helpful excercise to balance your life, to have a way of invalidating the feeling of “I did nothing this week” or “I was quite unproductive”. It makes you understand why you might not have worked as much as you’re used to—but it feels fine, because there’s a reason for it.

All the climate change news is overwhelming, politicians not acting in the interest of our planet can create anger. But remember that everything starts with yourself. If you start a business, you need to do it. If you are sick, you need to take action to get well again—even if the best action is to do nothing but relax and sleep. How do you build a successful business, how do you get well again? You give it time, you care about it and yourself and you tell people about it with passion. If you do the same about climate change—instead of moaning that no one does anything—but talk to people and tell them why buying less, driving less with the car, flying less (especially for bussiness) are chances to improve the own life, that’s how people change their minds. We’re living in a luxury society where we buy so many things that don’t make us really happy, e.g. TVs, computers, smartphones, smart home devices, cars. Of course they have some benefits but we usually forget about the benefits of a simple, natural life. Sitting under a tree in a park or in the forest can be way more relaxing than watching another action TV series. It’s unconvenient the first time you do it but after experiencing the difference, we might think differently about it. We will value nature much more, and therefore need to care more to preserve our environment. No matter what action you do, if it’s talking to others, retweeting something, building a environmental project, ditching the car to walk or bike next time you go shopping or for dinner, it has a positive impact on yourself—and the environment.

We should direct our attention to find ways to solve problems affecting our own health, our environment, the world we live in. A good example of action for developers is the world's first online hackathon to help fix the climate, running between today and end of August. In order to attract people you can win quite some nice prices as well. What to do? Use your tech skills to build and launch projects intended to help fix the climate and submit them.

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Go beyond…

If you like what I write, please contribute with your money. If you want to read some inspiring stories on how to shape our society by working in tech, how to build better collaborations, how to not get trapped by media, I recommend to have a look at the Offscreen Magazine No. 21

Anselm