Start anew

I have just lost my job.

A lot of people collapse because of this very same reason. Maybe it has something to do with times of crisis, I don't know. I see this as an opportunity to explore new ways of working, try my very own ideas, and invest time in research, reading and learning in general.

In Spain you can request part of the unemployment benefit as an unique payment if you are going to be either entrepreneur or self-employed. The latter is my case.

This money can only be spent as an investment for your new endeavour. I requested it, and I will update my computer to a brand new iMac quadcore, and that's pretty fine. I will even buy a new and ergonomic chair, but that's not the point of this entry.

I bought books. "How many?", you might think. Well... I bought 78.

I bought 78 books at amazon.co.uk, mainly technical ones, some about project management or productivity. Web design is present as well, as is Javascript, Erlang, Lua, Blender or iPhone development, among others. The bulk are C++ and game development books. That's because I want to design and develop games, or at least I want to try. And I know that I am good at trying.

So far in my life, I have learned how to program in several languages, doing magic tricks, dancing popping, playing the guitar and lately I started playing the piano. I am self-taught, as many developers are, but I self teach me in many, many areas as you can see. I don't even know where my knowledge about the English language comes from. I think that I taught that to myself too.

It's all about attitude and will. If you think... no, I'll rephrase that: If you know that you can do it, you will be able to do it. It takes some time to get to this point, though. Even I have some breakdowns and I think that I won't be able to do or learn something. But I end up being able to do it. Always. It's about perseverance and self-confidence. The good thing about this, is that when you become proficient at learning by yourself, it becomes second nature. Well, kind of.

I already read one of the books, it's Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware. I really liked it, it has lots of interesting ideas that I am eager to try. But one of the interesting things I noted was that I already apply some of the practices that Andy recommends on his book. And I think that somehow they just came out of the blue, because of my bias towards embracing change and learning new things.

I don't know if I am going to blog more often, but I should, and I think I will. It would be nice to use my blog as a real log of the changes to come. I think that I should rename it to Papipo 3.0, though.