Many software developers have the concept of a “side project”, but they never consciously decide if it is a hobby or a business. Many hope they can spin it into a business at some point, but they're working on it like it's a hobby, spending too much time tinkering with details that are unimportant if it's a business. This just results in frustration as you eventually close the door on yet another “side project” that never went anywhere.

You can read more about the projects I've been involved in on my about page.

In Pasito, the user selects the date and time of an event, Pasito detects the time zone from the browser, and converts it to UTC in the database. Since we have the time zone saved, Pasito can convert it back to the proper local time in the browser and the calendar feed. Done.

There are a couple problems with this:

1. What if I'm in Denver looking for events to go to in Philly? The event is at 7 PM, but I'm seeing 5 PM in my browser in Denver, and might enter the wrong time in my calendar.

2. What if the rules around when daylight savings time changes between when the event was created and when it happens? Suddenly that 7 PM turns into 6 PM without any change to the event in the database.

Pasito already does #1 correctly by using the time zone saved with the event instead of adjusting the display in the browser with the browser's current time zone, but #2 is still a problem.

To solve it, I need to start storing:

1. The clock time (what the user meant locally) to show in the browser

2. Time zone of the location of the event, and

3. The UTC time to use programmatically.

When the timezone rules change, I need to update the UTC timestamp accordingly. Or, more simply, run something every day that looks at future events and re-calculates the UTC time.

It's kind of a pain, but I take accurate information seriously in Pasito and I don't want someone showing up to an event at the wrong time.

Thanks to this article by Lau Taarnskov for the solution to the problem.

Aside: Instead of time zone you can store the location as context and look up the time zone based on location. This is how CargoWise, software I integrate with at my day job, does it.

#dev

Expanding on an example from my last post, I changed “I give a fuck about communicating in Spanish” to “I give a fuck about communicating in Spanish, but in November, two months before I visit my friends in Peru.” This freed up my mental space right then, when I was overwhelmed, but still gave me enough time to refresh the Spanish I currently knew, and figure out how I wanted to learn more in the future, and do it.

If you can't come up with a specific “later”, just do yourself a favor and let go of it completely.

Then “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck” crossed my desk, and it couldn't have been a more perfect time. I sat down to read it and take notes over a few nights and it made a huge difference. It's less about not giving a fuck, and more about making a conscious decision what to give a fuck about.

Some lowball examples I feel comfortable sharing:

• I give a fuck about being able to communicate in Spanish, I don't give a fuck about speaking Spanish perfectly.
• I give a fuck about having fun dancing, I don't give a fuck about executing moves perfectly.
• I give a fuck about the people who show up to Fiesta Randyland having fun, I don't give a fuck if everybody shows up.
• I give a fuck about having a capable body that enables me to do whatever I want, I don't give a fuck about how it looks or whether I'm performing better than someone else at the gym.

If you're feeling overwhelmed and dealing with a lot of stress, give it a read, it might help you too.