DeveloPassion's - DeveloPassion's Newsletter - Heat waves

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 ✨

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Another week, another newsletter! I hope that you all had a great one 🤩

This week was my last week of work for August. I’ve decided to take a few weeks off to recharge. There won’t be a full-blown newsletter in the next couple of weeks. I rarely go offline for so long, but this year is definitely not a usual one.

I’ll do my best to come back in the best possible conditions to spend the rest of the year with you all.

I’m very grateful for all the kind words I’ve received these last few weeks, as I was going through these difficult times. It means a lot 🙏

If you get value out of this newsletter, then become a supporter. This will give you the possibility to join my private community, and it will help me keep going.

As I’m writing these lines, a new heat wave is upon us in Europe. Temperatures of ~36 degrees (96.8 Fahrenheit) are expected in various countries, and Belgium is no exception.

Heat waves tend to slow everything down, and even stop some things entirely. Few systems can sustain extreme temperatures for a long period of time without failure.

As people try to cool off using air conditioners and consuming much more water than usual, power infrastructures and water reserves suffer a lot.

Just like those systems, we humans also suffer from our own sorts of heat waves. Those get caused by overwork, overthinking, anxiety, high levels of stress, health issues, lack of sleep, etc.

And just like those systems, when we get hit by a heat wave, we have to slow down, cool off, and recharge. If we don’t take the warning signs into account early enough, then we risk catastrophic failure, sickness, burnout, or worse.

The thing is that most of us don’t learn to “monitor” ourselves and don’t know how to interpret the warning signs. Some of us even live in denial and don’t accept the truth when faced with it.

The solution is not so much to anticipate those heat waves, but rather to design our environment so that those either never happen or are much less severe.

If we feel stressed all the time, then we need to switch gears, find a new job, a new position, a different work schedule, etc. Same if we feel exhausted, demotivated, bored, anxious, etc.

We need to design our work around our lives and not the other way around. The future of work is not only remote, but it is also much more aligned with our core values, with our specific needs, and is respectful of our own biological rhythm. It’s not an option, it’s a necessity. Society just takes too long to realize and adjust. Way too long.

The good news is that we don’t need to wait for society to evolve. Maturity is responsibility. It’s up to us to take responsibility for our own well-being. Productivity really needs a rethink. Hustle culture is toxic and shouldn’t be promoted in any way. Yes, it’s okay to be in a rush from time to time, but no it’s not okay to always have to be at 110%. We are not meant to work like that. Just like the electrical infrastructure is not made to be put under intense pressure all the time. What we need instead is wellbeing-driven productivity, as Martine Ellis calls it, or Zen productivity, as I like to call it. That is, sustainable productivity. Productivity that does not hurt us, and does not lead to heat waves.

Think about that the next time you “feel the heat”!

This week was slow but interesting.

After publishing my latest article and sharing it on Hacker News, it quickly appeared on the front page and stayed there for a few hours. As usual, this led to a huge spike in visits:

This, in turn, led to many new subscribers to the newsletter, a few sales, new friends on Twitter, and a boost in ad revenue 🎉

I did not realize it until today, but I’m now past $5K revenue on Gumroad. Quite cool!

I’ve added a new option to the Obsidian Starter Kit: an hour of coaching. I hope to book a few calls in September and learn more about how to help my customers. Fun times ahead!

I’ve now sold ~180 copies of the Obsidian Starter Kit, and really feel like I’m just at the beginning of a long journey. I want to help raise awareness about modern note-making solutions and how they can help people reach their goals.

On other news, I’ve bought a new camera and lens. I have more than I need to get started with YouTube when I return in September. I’ll just have to pick the first topic to cover (all ideas are welcome!), and to learn more about video editing 😂

If you want to support my work, become a supporter and share the link with your friends: https://newsletter.dsebastien.net ❤️

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