Nik Spyratos

Deviations, New Challenges, New Beginnings

Table of Contents

2024 Update: I've decided to move the blog to Bear Blog, and some external links may have been made private, so some links below may be broken.

It's been quite a while since I've written another post! It's been a wild first half of the year for me. In my exploration of the theme of Depth that I explained in my previous post, lots has changed.

The exploration of Depth so far has had one main revelation: Surrender. Letting go of expectations of myself and others. Letting go of the hiding of parts of myself that I do. Letting go of obsessions with goals and life plans. Even letting go of the Themes system!

This is not to say I no longer have any desires, goals or plans; merely that I do not hold my self-value to them as much as I did in the past.

There are a few resources I can credit for this:

With this sort of radical reimagination of life, all sorts of upheaval has occurred for me. Some rocky relationship moments, a radical career shift spurred by demotivation (and a gentle push), passport challenges, and a change of how I interact with technology.

This is starting to sound an awful lot like a quarter-life crisis...

Let's start with the theme itself: Depth.

Deviating from Themes

An inherent part of the Themes system is that it is not intended to be used for extended periods; indeed CGPGrey recommends something along the lines of switching the theme up every few months.

From having used this system for the last 3 years now, I think it's time to move on from Themes for a time. It has served well in some regards, and in others perhaps been vague. For the next while however I need something more concrete, like SMART goals.

The secondary reason for needing more specificity is certain challenges that have come up.

New challenges

At the beginning of the year I launched my old apartment on Airbnb. Unfortunately at the same time with an economic crisis and loadshedding, the winter has been very rough for bookings. For now I'm holding out for improvements towards the summer.

As of June, my Greek passport is expired. To renew it, I need documentation of military exemption (Greece still has conscription). I do not qualify for such exemption for another 2 years, as while I've not lived in Greece for 10 years now, I have "only" been working for ~5 years instead of the required 7. The Greek consulate in Cape Town has not responded to further enquiry on what the actual requirements are and if this is a true blocker to getting a passport or if the bureaucracy is just being obtuse. What this now means is I am restricted in travel to the capabilities of my South African passport, which is to say not many destinations are available without extensive visa processes.

Another June shift is one of work: To put a long story short, I was not my best self in employed form, and mutual agreement was reached in that regard. To recover, I took June off - the first real holiday I've had since the time between graduating high school and starting college in 2015. I'll speak about the next steps in my career in the next section.

Now, moving back a few months. As is common knowledge by now, South Africa in 2023 is suffering its worst bout of power cuts yet. Everyone that can afford to do so, is installing solar panels, inverters and batteries. Moreso the latter two than the former; as most renters and apartment dwellers do not have the capability to install solar power. These devices are expensive, especially when you want to power things like desktop computers.

This, combined with aforementioned rethinking of how I approach my life and technology, inspired me to make some technology shifts: I've transitioned from using a desktop computer for all my needs to an M1 Macbook Pro and a Steam Deck for gaming. Combined, these two devices at max usage draw 1/3 of my desktop used to. I intend to write more about the technicalities in a future post.

The important part here is downgrading the hardware power is a mirror of also downgrading the importance of it in my life. While I still spend substantial amounts of time on computers and enjoy gaming, it is no longer as much of a main focus in my life outside of work.

New beginnings

It's not all doom & downgrades. There's been some positive things too. A little bit of self-spoiling, and new beginnings.

The self-spoiling refers to upgrading my car. I've never been too much of a petrolhead, but I do enjoy sleek design and a bit of speed. As much as I loved my Hyundai i10, it was cramped for a tall guy like me and I was starting to get RSI from my legs being in awkward positions. So I found a deal on a car I've admired for a long time: an Audi TT.

On the new beginnings, back to my career shift. After some time interviewing, I decided I need to try a new mode of work that I've been wanting to do for years. I've transitioned to full-time freelancing. I'm grateful to have developed a network over the years that I've been able to find work from almost immediately. Given my past experience with payment systems, I've decided to focus on that as my niche.

Life feels a lot different when you're fully on the hook for your income. It's a different kind of challenge. You definitely need to have the hard skills in place to take it on, and then the soft skills to network and find work. The flip is you now have full control over your ways of work. For me, that means remote, with very few meetings, and control on technical approaches. I'm enjoying it thoroughly so far.

While on the path of establishing my freelancing practice, I also took some time to re-organise my knowledgebase system to better serve myself and others. That's where you're reading this post - I tried out Obsidian finally after years and instantly fell in love. It's the perfect tool for my workflow, and merging it with my writing using Obsidian Publish fits perfectly.

The last new beginning is a bit of a re-introduction. In 2020, I took over hosting the PHP Cape Town meetup. Shortly after the first live event, lockdowns took place and every meetup went online. After some time I spearheaded merging PHPCT with PHP Joburg, into PHP South Africa. About a year and a half in, in a time of great work stress, I decided to step down from organising the meetup. The remaining organisers have also been under their own forms of busyness and stress, and thus the meetup has languished somewhat. But no longer - as of this week we're reassembling the team and I'm joining back as an organiser! Stay tuned to the website and Twitter account for updates.

Moving forward

Now that I'm freelancing, I see all forms of my work as an extension of the same expression of self and creation. My freelancing, side projects, writing, open source, and community work are all moving in the [[06-06 Swimming in all directions, ignoring the rope on your leg|same direction]].

I can't promise what exactly I'll be doing next. What I do know is that I intend to write more pieces, both long and short. To subscribe to updates, check my Substack. I'll be posting some things there and linking to this site a lot.

Poke around the Perceptions part of this site for many helpful resources & notes that I've collected over the last 4 years.

I'm going to take a stab at keeping my list of TODO projects public as well: [[Project List]]

See you soon!](<2024 Update: I've decided to move the blog to Bear Blog, and some external links may have been made private, so some links below may be broken.

It's been quite a while since I've written another post! It's been a wild first half of the year for me. In my exploration of the theme of Depth that I explained in my previous post, lots has changed.

The exploration of Depth so far has had one main revelation: Surrender. Letting go of expectations of myself and others. Letting go of the hiding of parts of myself that I do. Letting go of obsessions with goals and life plans. Even letting go of the Themes system!

This is not to say I no longer have any desires, goals or plans; merely that I do not hold my self-value to them as much as I did in the past.

There are a few resources I can credit for this:

With this sort of radical reimagination of life, all sorts of upheaval has occurred for me. Some rocky relationship moments, a radical career shift spurred by demotivation (and a gentle push), passport challenges, and a change of how I interact with technology.

This is starting to sound an awful lot like a quarter-life crisis...

Let's start with the theme itself: Depth.

Deviating from Themes

An inherent part of the Themes system is that it is not intended to be used for extended periods; indeed CGPGrey recommends something along the lines of switching the theme up every few months.

From having used this system for the last 3 years now, I think it's time to move on from Themes for a time. It has served well in some regards, and in others perhaps been vague. For the next while however I need something more concrete, like SMART goals.

The secondary reason for needing more specificity is certain challenges that have come up.

New challenges

At the beginning of the year I launched my old apartment on Airbnb. Unfortunately at the same time with an economic crisis and loadshedding, the winter has been very rough for bookings. For now I'm holding out for improvements towards the summer.

As of June, my Greek passport is expired. To renew it, I need documentation of military exemption (Greece still has conscription). I do not qualify for such exemption for another 2 years, as while I've not lived in Greece for 10 years now, I have "only" been working for ~5 years instead of the required 7. The Greek consulate in Cape Town has not responded to further enquiry on what the actual requirements are and if this is a true blocker to getting a passport or if the bureaucracy is just being obtuse. What this now means is I am restricted in travel to the capabilities of my South African passport, which is to say not many destinations are available without extensive visa processes.

Another June shift is one of work: To put a long story short, I was not my best self in employed form, and mutual agreement was reached in that regard. To recover, I took June off - the first real holiday I've had since the time between graduating high school and starting college in 2015. I'll speak about the next steps in my career in the next section.

Now, moving back a few months. As is common knowledge by now, South Africa in 2023 is suffering its worst bout of power cuts yet. Everyone that can afford to do so, is installing solar panels, inverters and batteries. Moreso the latter two than the former; as most renters and apartment dwellers do not have the capability to install solar power. These devices are expensive, especially when you want to power things like desktop computers.

This, combined with aforementioned rethinking of how I approach my life and technology, inspired me to make some technology shifts: I've transitioned from using a desktop computer for all my needs to an M1 Macbook Pro and a Steam Deck for gaming. Combined, these two devices at max usage draw 1/3 of my desktop used to. I intend to write more about the technicalities in a future post.

The important part here is downgrading the hardware power is a mirror of also downgrading the importance of it in my life. While I still spend substantial amounts of time on computers and enjoy gaming, it is no longer as much of a main focus in my life outside of work.

New beginnings

It's not all doom & downgrades. There's been some positive things too. A little bit of self-spoiling, and new beginnings.

The self-spoiling refers to upgrading my car. I've never been too much of a petrolhead, but I do enjoy sleek design and a bit of speed. As much as I loved my Hyundai i10, it was cramped for a tall guy like me and I was starting to get RSI from my legs being in awkward positions. So I found a deal on a car I've admired for a long time: an Audi TT.

On the new beginnings, back to my career shift. After some time interviewing, I decided I need to try a new mode of work that I've been wanting to do for years. I've transitioned to full-time freelancing. I'm grateful to have developed a network over the years that I've been able to find work from almost immediately. Given my past experience with payment systems, I've decided to focus on that as my niche.

Life feels a lot different when you're fully on the hook for your income. It's a different kind of challenge. You definitely need to have the hard skills in place to take it on, and then the soft skills to network and find work. The flip is you now have full control over your ways of work. For me, that means remote, with very few meetings, and control on technical approaches. I'm enjoying it thoroughly so far.

While on the path of establishing my freelancing practice, I also took some time to re-organise my knowledgebase system to better serve myself and others. That's where you're reading this post - I tried out Obsidian finally after years and instantly fell in love. It's the perfect tool for my workflow, and merging it with my writing using Obsidian Publish fits perfectly.

The last new beginning is a bit of a re-introduction. In 2020, I took over hosting the PHP Cape Town meetup. Shortly after the first live event, lockdowns took place and every meetup went online. After some time I spearheaded merging PHPCT with PHP Joburg, into PHP South Africa. About a year and a half in, in a time of great work stress, I decided to step down from organising the meetup. The remaining organisers have also been under their own forms of busyness and stress, and thus the meetup has languished somewhat. But no longer - as of this week we're reassembling the team and I'm joining back as an organiser! Stay tuned to the website and Twitter account for updates.

Moving forward

Now that I'm freelancing, I see all forms of my work as an extension of the same expression of self and creation. My freelancing, side projects, writing, open source, and community work are all moving in the 06-06 Swimming in all directions, ignoring the rope on your leg|same direction.

I can't promise what exactly I'll be doing next. What I do know is that I intend to write more pieces, both long and short. To subscribe to updates, there's an RSS feed and email subscription available on this blog. I'll be posting some things there and linking to this site a lot.

Poke around the Perceptions part of my knowledgebase site for many helpful resources & notes that I've collected over the last 4 years.

I'm going to take a stab at keeping my list of TODO projects public as well: [former project list link]

See you soon!

#life #lifestyle