Mark Brown

Gratitude

Today I'm grateful that our basic needs are covered. Our family is healthy and safe. We have good stable jobs with great maternity leave. We have the loving support of parents, siblings and close friends. We live in the lucky country. We are chipping away at our goals.

Some recent setbacks aside, we've had a very good year and I choose today to focus on that.

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Money

This is simply how me and my partner think about money, our overall strategy and the lessons we've learned over the past few years.

It's not personal financial advice. Your situation could be different to mine and you might have different goals. Still, I think there's valuable lessons in here that could apply to many different situations, otherwise I wouldn't be sharing it.

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Grow your own food

Growing my own vegetables and herbs is one of the most rewarding things I do. The first year I got serious in the garden I grew 30 varieties of tomatoes. From sowing to harvest through to seed collection these plants make me happy.

I've learned a lot about the natural world and have been able to enjoy a great variety of healthy, delicious and free food all year round. Here's a few tips to encourage you to give it a try. Plants want to grow, anyone can do it.

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Workaholism in tech

My workaholism came in waves but there were consistent habits throughout my career that lead me towards burning out. Habits that I’m wanting to change before the shit hits the fan.



This is the definition of workaholism that I’m running with:



  • Feeling compelled to work because of internal pressures.
  • Having persistent thoughts about work when not working.
  • Working beyond what is reasonably expected of the worker (as established by the requirements of the job or basic economic needs) despite the potential for negative consequences (e.g., marital issues).



And this is the definition of burnout:


Burnout is a state of mental and physical exhaustion that can zap the joy out of your career, friendships, and family interactions.

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Barefoot

I am a big fan of the Barefoot Investor, this entertaining and helpful book gives simple step by step instructions that any Aussie can follow to become financially secure. His advice is sound and will help you to protect yourself and your family.

I’ve always been a good saver. I was content with less and avoided debt like the plague, I've never owned a credit card. Yet, I thoroughly enjoyed reading and applying the Barefoot strategy because it helped me put our finances on autopilot.

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Abroad

I describe travel as one of the greatest privileges and educators, I hope to continue traveling and learning from different cultures and history for as long as my legs will carry me. Still, after a three month trip through India and Nepal and another five months in the Philippines I find myself missing home.

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Client-side MVC

What role should frameworks play in the front-end architecture of rich web applications? People are working hard on frameworks to give us a more powerful, easier way to build the types of applications that have become common (single page applications). I find myself agreeing with Jeremy Ashkenas that these all-singing, all-dancing frameworks are not the answer - a minimal framework that leaves you in control of when things happen and doesn't make assumptions about your UI is a much better place to start.

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Balance

Near the end of a four year stint in a corporate environment I took four weeks holiday by the beach. I relaxed, played guitar, prayed, treated acne, ate well and exercised with running, push ups and sit ups. It was a great time of recovery and healing and I started feeling better about myself and more healthy in the process.

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