# DeveloPassion's Newsletter 62 - Financial captivity Hello everyone! I’m Sébastien Dubois, your host. You’re receiving this email because you signed up for DeveloPassion’s Newsletter. Thank you for being here with me ✨ If you enjoy this, please forward it to your friends 👍. If this email was forwarded to you, then don’t forget to subscribe and become a supporter ![[DeveloPassion's Newsletter Logo.png|DeveloPassion's Newsletter logo: lightbulb sprouting colorful idea nodes]] ## Welcome to the 62nd edition Another week, another newsletter! I hope that you all had a great one 🤩 I probably sound like a broken record by now, but this week has been really tough. Going through a separation is *exhausting*. I’ve spent a ton of time introspecting and thinking about the future. I’ve also explored my options regarding housing and hope that this will all soon be behind me… I long for normality and stability. I’ve had a really hard time working, as I have all those thoughts that overwhelm me. My baby has been sick for more than a week, and now it’s my turn. Given the changes in my life, I’m going to feel more financial pressure than ever before. The thing is that I won’t be able to pay rent with my half-time job alone, so I need additional income. I’m lucky though because I still have options. One is to go start working 4/5 of the time instead of ½ as an employee. Another is to secure one more contract as a freelancer to ensure I can create a large-enough buffer for me to keep working on side projects. I’ll do everything I can to remain able to continue creating products. Going back to work as a full-time employee would leave a sour taste in my mouth. But I realize how privileged I am… For now, it’s okay because I have an ongoing consulting contract, but there’s no guarantee that it will last for long. So I guess this means I’m entering a critical period of my solopreneur journey. 🙏 Next to the landslide of emotions, stress, and anxiety, my separation also creates another problem. There’s of course never a “right time”, but having to recover money from the stock market when everything is going down feels quite bad… ![[DeveloPassion's Newsletter 62 - Financial captivity - s&p500.png]] Caption: The "performance" of the S&P 500 index so far this year Obviously not the greatest moment to need that money. For the past 3 years, I’ve been working hard towards financial freedom. But now I’m in financial captivity more than ever! ## The Lab 🧪 This week has been quite frustrating. Sales have dropped quite sharply: ![[DeveloPassion's Newsletter 62 - Financial captivity - sales.png]] Caption: My sales on Gumroad for the past week It’s a bit disappointing as I thought I was starting to see some momentum. My wild guess is that the combination of my lack of marketing for my products and the economic context have contributed a lot to this situation. As a result, I’ve decided to remove the tiered pricing on the [PKM Library](https://www.store.dsebastien.net//product/pkm-library) and on the [Obsidian Starter Kit](https://www.store.dsebastien.net/product/obsidian-starter-kit). My rationale is that both products have reached their “best price” for now. I’ll adjust later once I have added more value. I’ve continued working on the Obsidian Starter kit, but didn’t deliver much this week; my mind was clearly elsewhere. ## Things I've learned this week ![[DeveloPassion's Newsletter 62 - Financial captivity - New notes.png]] Caption: Some of the notes I've taken this week This week, an idea that I found fascinating is that **we become what we focus on**. And it’s so true. We can achieve anything we want in life, but we can’t do it all. So we need to choose a few things, and focus on those long enough to achieve significant results. Another one is the fact that **we should focus on cheap ideas instead of expensive ones**. Once again: small and riskless bets instead of winner takes all bets with huge potential upsides and downsides. ## Recents articles No new article this week ## Books corner Learning requires focus. But, unlearning and relearning requires much more - it requires choosing courage over comfort. In *Think Again*, Adam Grant weaves together research and storytelling to help us build the intellectual and emotional muscle we need to stay curious enough about the world to actually change it LINK: [[Think Again (book)]] ## Quotes of the week - [[I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot Accept]] ## Tips of the week Learn about the concept of *cognitive* *fusion* and *cognitive* *defusion*. Cognitive fusion is when we consider our inner voice as “us” and believe what it says. Cognitive defusion is when we instead observe our thoughts as products of our mind that we don’t have to automatically accept as reality. Cognitive defusion is key to fighting anxiety and maintaining better mental health. It kills me that we don’t get taught that in school! ## How cool is that?! Peter Bence is a wonderful artist. Check out his covers. This one of “Under Pressure” is *epic*! LINK: [Under Pressure - Queen x Peter Bence (Piano Cover)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RDmuxgwcxW-zo&start_radio=1&v=muxgwcxW-zo) I rarely share music in this newsletter, but why not? ## Thinking and learning links of the week LINK: [Writing Advice for students (U Toronto)](https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/student-pdfs/) LINK: [A brief, informal guide to doing grounded theory - Fulcra](https://fulcra.design/a-brief-informal-guide-to-doing-grounded-theory) LINK: [Readwise plugin tips for Logseq & Obsidian](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-nlLOXr0Lg) LINK: [🌠 Database Plugins and More New Themes](https://www.obsidianroundup.org/2022-05-07/) LINK: [PKM Weekly May 1 2022 – Issue 017 – Curtis McHale](https://curtismchale.ca/2022/05/01/pkm-weekly-may-1-2022-issue-017/) LINK: [PKM Weekly May 8 2022 – Issue 018 – Curtis McHale](https://curtismchale.ca/2022/05/08/pkm-weekly-may-8-2022-issue-018/?utm_campaign=newsletter-post-title_35&utm_medium=email&utm_source=mailpoet) ## Tech links of the week Python for Web development. A really cool project created (AFAIK) by the guys behind Anaconda. LINK: [PyScript | Run Python in your HTML](https://pyscript.net/) LINK: [GitHub - microsoft/Web-Dev-For-Beginners: 24 Lessons, 12 Weeks, Get Started as a Web Developer](https://github.com/microsoft/Web-Dev-For-Beginners) LINK: [Use Playwright to Test and Automate Web Applications | egghead.io](https://egghead.io/courses/use-playwright-to-test-and-automate-web-applications-74b97e59) A course about Playwright created by Basarat Ali Syed LINK: [End to end typesafety with tRPC - Kristian Dupont](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1TCueEhhJo) Dockerfile v1.4 and Buildx v0.8 now enable developers to define multiple build contexts between Dockerfiles. Follow along as we tackle some examples. LINK: [Dockerfiles now Support Multiple Build Contexts - Docker](https://www.docker.com/blog/dockerfiles-now-support-multiple-build-contexts/) LINK: - [[10 Essential Knowledge Management Methods Every Professional Should Master (Article)]] - https://www.dsebastien.net/10-essential-knowledge-management-methods-every-professional-should-master/-every-professional-should-master// LINK: - [[Why Obsidian is All You Need - From Simple Notes to Complete Productivity (Article)]] - https://www.dsebastien.net/why-obsidian-is-all-you-need-from-simple-notes-to-complete-productivity// LINK: - [[The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Obsidian (Article)]] - https://www.dsebastien.net/the-ultimate-beginners-guide-to-obsidian// LINK: - [[Knowii Community]] - https://www.store.dsebastien.net//product/knowii-community ## Related - [[Cognitive fusion]] - [[Cognitive defusion]]