Lately, I’ve been having regular conversations with my mentor and friend, Simon Carcagno, and this man has been on a roll. He will make these, seemingly throwaway, comments and observations that worm there way into my brain and unlock and unblock these mental obstacles I’ve been struggling with since the beginning of 2024.

This concept, introduced by this episode of Fixable, has brought together some of my favorite things: mathematics and working smarter.

I didn’t realize I would have actual applications for what I learned in my Automate the Boring Stuff course so quickly! If you have any tasks that require the same sequence of mouse clicks, keyboard taps or anything like that to occur, then I have a time-saver for you!

Determine a fixed amount of money to gamble (e.g. $1,000).

Pick which color to bet on (e.g. Black)

Start by betting the minimum bet (e.g. $5)

Every round, increase your bet by $5, but continue to bet on the same color.

Stop play when either of the two events occur:

• You’ve doubled your total cash.

• The amount of money you have is less than your next bet.

As I near the end of my Automate the Boring Stuff course, I’m learning some very useful tools - especially as a Windows user. In order to synthesize my learning, I decided to do a little project combining a few new python functionalities I learned.

While I was reviewing chapter 5 of Automate the Boring Stuff, I learned about using Dictionaries in Python. One of the fun exercises demonstrated by the book was using Python’s Dictionary functionality to create a database for a list of supplies for a picnic.

A few weeks ago, I was listening to a special episode of the Teacher’s Off Duty Podcast with Daymond John and they were talking about teaching kids financial literacy. One idea they mentioned was having an in-class economy, where students earn classroom currency and then have to budget their money accordingly.

I am currently interested in using Python to Automate the Boring Stuff. Recently, I found an opportunity to apply it in my work at Bleeker and it was a huge time-saver and will add quite a bit of value over time. I figured it would be valuable to write out how I did it here for my own reference, but perhaps you will find it useful too! 

January is a ripe time for wanting to start a new habit, but is it always worth it? I developed the tool below where you answer a few short questions using the Negative Five to Five (NFTF) scale to answer that very question.

Approximately this time last year, I posted how I signed up for my first marathon which occurred in January of 2022. Although I made it through with a time of 5 hours and 35 minutes, you can see from my pictures that I was having a rough time. See, there is this thing called the Runner’s Cry where you push yourself really hard and begin to lose control of your emotional regulation. This happened to me at around mile 20 when my watch stopped providing accurate readings and I had hit some sort of mental wall.

For my second Independence Day as a US Citizen, I thought it would be appropriate to share how Seth and I are using the NFTF scale to vote in the Maryland primaries.

Since I was 9 years old, I knew I wanted a laptop. I don’t think they were even something that pervasive back then – we had only gotten a color computer a few years before (and had finally gotten the hang of a mouse instead of using DOS commands), so I do not actually know where things stood in terms of popular tech…

One practice I am trying to make a habit this year is to put together a project proposal for almost any action or process I do at work. I also encourage everyone I work with to do the same. I am finding that this is an essential activity that clarifies…

In the final part of this three-part series, we will cover how to keep a series going and everyone engaged.

In this second part of this three-part series, we will cover useful insights on scripting, recording and editing.

Making a podcast is easy but making a good podcast requires an incredible amount of hard work and dedication (or a lot of money to throw at someone who knows what they are doing).

Two organizations could have the same job description but the workload and emotional labor may be substantially different.

The graphic below will help determine what part of the range is appropriate for your organization.