Bas' Take on Tech: Welcome, 2023!
🗞️ Buzz
The cost-cutting in the tech industry is not going anywhere soon, it seems: Google employees have started becoming anxious about the situation. Here is a very vulnerable and honest reflection on what it means to get laid off by Steven Buccini.
I have found an exciting collection of 50 trends and predictions for 2023. I do not agree with all of them. And, in fact, some even contradict my predictions from the last issue: "Return of the Tech IPO" – I still don't believe 2023 will be a good market climate for IPOs.
A lot of news surfaced in the health bubble: There is a new anti-aging approach that selectively kills old cells. In neuroscience, scientists at the Baylor College of Medicine measured depression in patients by implanting 14 electrodes.
At MIT, scientists looked into programmers' brains by magnetic resonance imaging. Interestingly, we work very similarly to ChatGPT.
A trend I have seen is the rise of psychedelic drug treatment to the mainstream. I, myself, have experimented with micro-doses of Psilocybin in the last year. Here is an article that seems to confirm we might see a rise in the usage of this kind of treatment.
🐍 Conferences
The CfP for PyCon Germany – which is where I had my first conference talk last year in Berlin, is still open for a couple of days.
I submitted a few proposals, so wish me luck ;)
Other events that I am considering attending this year:
I'm curious: Which conferences or events do you plan to attend this year?
📚 Books, books, books…
On Twitter, I asked people about their best readings of last year. Here are some great picks:
The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee
A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins
How the World Really Works by Smil Vaclav
⚕️ Health / Reactions to my health journey
I got a lot of reactions from writing about my 2022 journey in the previous issues and on my blog. In particular, people asked about my diet and exercise choices that brought me to <10% body fat and fixed some of my health issues.
I've done a lot of research on health-related topics since 2020. However, I'm not a licenced healthcare professional but rather just the guinea pig of my own curiosity, so I'm somewhat reluctant about giving advice to people other than like-minded friends here.
If you're interested in the details of my protocols, just shoot me an email at blog@bascodes.com, and I'll share with you what worked for me.
☕️ Coffee Chats
I had so much fun doing coffee chats with fellow devs last year. I'd love to chat with you, too. I have some open spots on my calendly.
📝 Eddie's Perspective
Eddie Jaoude is not only a full-stack developer but also a very passionate advocate of Open Source. He runs EddieHub and helps developers get involved in Open Source projects. I asked him why he thinks getting involved is beneficial for your career. Here is his answer:
You will hear many people talk about things we need to do in tech to accelerate our careers, for example: networking, content creation etc, but with so many these can be difficult. However, I found that Open Source covers all of these topics. If you get involved in Open Source, you will improve your skills as well as your communication skills, while growing your network and having so much content to share.
🚀 What else?
I have changed this newsletter from “occasional” to at least once every two weeks. The new format not only contains curated news and insights from the tech world but also sets the stage for fellow developers.
I will ask people about their journeys in the tech world and also in life. I’m pretty sure there is much to learn from listening to other people’s experiences, and I am excited to share that with you!
Of course, I need your help with this.
Please tell me if you want to share your story with my 450+ readers!
What is something you learned?
What are some books that recently influenced you?
What do you want to share with others about your life, your productivity, your career, and your health?
Reach out to me on this form.
Let me know how I can make the newsletter better.
I set up a short feedback form here.
It would mean the world to me if you spent a minute or two filling it out!
Best,