I’m feeling much better since last week’s fever situation. Special thanks to those of you who reached out with well-wishing.

A new YouTube video which I was slow on releasing is out. Where I try React for the first time.

I'm very happy with the sponsor concept so far and I have to again thank West Arete and Bzzt for supporting my work. You can find their opportunities (US and Sweden respectively) on the jobs page. They want Elixir developers so reach out to me through that jobs page and we can talk :)

I still want to have a more diverse set of opportunities and companies that I can help source candidates for. I've spoken to several good candidates that don't fit with either of the current sponsors and I'd love to have some place to send them. If you think your company would benefit from help finding Elixir devs, reach out directly or get more details here.

I Really Like Talking to People

If you told me, 10 years ago, that I'd be excited about setting up conversations with random people I didn't know and connecting them to other people I don't think I would have believed you.

Beyond my teens I have never really been anti-social. However, I've also probably under-appreciated the power of talking to people most of my life. I've always wanted to build things, create things and have always seen that as the primary measure of my success. What are you putting out in the world? What's your craft and art?

Probably all the most impactful things I've done is to tell one person "you should talk to this other person". Finding someone a job, connecting someone to the right creator, helping someone cross a threshold under your mantle of either privilege/influence/trust/authority or whatever it may be. In general, but especially when it concerns work and money, it is very hard to not be impressed by the impact.

If I write a blog post and it goes on Hacker News, that's satisfying and a bit exciting. 500 concurrent readers is neat. 100.000 views extra does give me a kick of endorphins. People reaching out and saying thanks for the chance, seeing a friend's whole economic situation change, watching someone you like start to enjoy their work again, these things are deep in the pit of your stomach feelings.

Talking to people is made easier by me mostly having reason to talk to people that dig tech or do things that relate to what I do. It is very easy to find common ground and excitement with fellow developers. I will say though that some of the more interesting and challenging conversations are in the realms where I'm stretching a bit. A while back I spoke to a very cool lady who is the Director of Marketing at a company. Very different background to mine and if I could have more hours of her time to just absorb all the things she has done.. I'd pay for that.

I can't sustain a conversation that doesn't interest me very well, that's just a brain thing for me. I seem to do pretty well at finding shared excitement though. And I'm not a prodigy at this, I'm just pretty good. You should see one of my sisters. She makes friends in a 5 second elevator ride.

At this point I've come to recognize that most valuable things I do are things that don't scale. My writing can scale, videos can scale but what people value the most, communication, trust, people skills and high-impact consulting services. They don't really scale a lot and they don't need to. Trying to mix your ideas of creation and art with business and scaling is tricky because it mixes concerns and dilutes what you are trying to do. It's not wrong but it has an inherent tension.

I'm coming to recognize that some of the things I take for granted are part of my creation, my art and what I put out into the world. Actively taking a different stance, actively trying to be kind, actively reaching out to people and trying to make things happen. It keeps being rewarded. It ain't webscale. It just works well enough. Not everything is about how well you draw, how well you code, your execution of craft and skill. Those are important. They are also always second to people in my estimation.

If you want to write me something about this, I'm at lars@underjord.io or on Twitter where I'm @lawik.

I appreciate you reading this. Thank you for your attention.

- Lars Wikman