I went to my blog the other day and noticed my last story here was in February. I guess I got a little distracted. So, what have I been up to? Let’s talk about it.
Over the last couple of years, like many blogs, I’ve seen the readership dwindle. This doesn’t mean I think it’s time to abandon the blog. But with so many other things taking my time, I suspect I won’t be blogging quite as regularly as I have in the past. After 1730 blog posts, this blog has been really important to me. I’d never abandon it.
So, if I’m not blogging, what am I doing?
The Film
The most obvious answer to this is the film I’ve been working on since the beginning of Covid: Man Enough to Heal. The film post-production wrapped in May. Since then, I’ve submitted it to film festivals and engaged a sales agent to find distribution. I’m quite happy with the results and can’t wait to share here when it’s available to watch!
Pluralsight Courses
Since the beginning of the year, I’ve working full-time updating and creating new courses for Pluralsight. Right now, I’m in the middle of updating my long ASP.NET Core, End-to-End course for .NET 6 (and .NET 8 when it ships). The other courses I’ve released or updated this year include:
Coding Shorts
While blogging has waned, I’ve been focused on doing short videos I’m calling “Coding Shorts”. These videos are ten or so minutes long so I can teach one, discrete skill or technology. I’ve made 67 of these so far. Here’s one of my recent ones if you’re interested in getting a taste of them:
I’ve also authored a handful of “Rants” where I talk about the industry and my opinions about what is important. You can find all the videos at my channel:
The Pivot
Lastly, I’ve been spending time thinking about what is next. Every once in a while (~10 years), I find the need to change the direction of my career. Teaching and training have been great, but I think I’m ready for another challenge. In the past, these pivots have been about what things I’ve focused on. Some of these include:
- xBase development that pivoted to C++
- C++ pivoted to COM and ActiveX
- COM and ActiveX that pivoted to ASP.NET and C#
- ASP.NET/C# pivoted to desktop development with WPF/XAML
- WPF/XAML pivoted to Silverlight training
- And lastly, Silverlight pivoted back to ASP.NET and .NET Core
But where do I go next? I have no idea. But I realize that this is likely my last pivot. This means I’m looking to do something that excites me and that I think is important to do. But who knows what that is. I’m scaling back my training and doing more client work, but I’d love to find some clients that are doing important things. If you think you’re one of those companies, feel free to reach out on my work site:
Last Thing…
In case you don’t know, I release a newsletter every week with the articles that I find useful — both software related and other tech (e.g. Space, Science). If you want to subscribe, feel free to visit:
This work by Shawn Wildermuth is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at wildermuth.com.
If you liked this article, see Shawn's courses on Pluralsight.
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