I’m in a suburb of Charleston, SC and it’s so weird how I have no idea how far things are….1 mile? 3 miles? I miss riding my bike on that Portland grid and following the numbers all the way to zero and hitting the Willamette.

By far the best thing is that he makes his own playdates. I'm not the middleman anymore. He just makes plans and asks me if it's ok. And if his friend doesn't have a landline, I let him call their parent. It surprises them, but when he leaves a message, they love it. He's definitely had more time with friends because of it.

Another funny thing was he complained about writing a thank you note, so we said "OK, the alternative is that you have to call them". He called them, had a nice conversation, and thanked them. Honestly, it was better than a thank you note.

It's been one of the best purchases we're made. I feel some hope this will delay the eventual begging for a smart phone because he's able to do the most critical thing, connect with friends.

* Appreciation from my manager and team, who I respect and love working with. * New knowledge that I can use later, and possibly build trust with others. * Influence that I can use later * The good feeling knowing I solved a problem for my business and hopefully letting them spend that money or effort elsewhere. * Some sense of job security

This is probably a very Pollyanna view of the world, and maybe it's all because I have a good team and manager. But nevertheless, I feel like I hit the lottery as a programmer. It's enjoyable, the work changes day-to-day and it pays well.

Personally, I spend a lot of time reviewing other's code ad also going through my own PR's in Github. I'm very familiar with that view. I think it helps my brain that I use the same diff view when I'm working locally and when I'm reviewing code on Github.

For example:

* maybe you don’t love Marc Maron but you LOVE David Sedaris. Just listen to that interview.

* maybe you hate news but you’re curious about a specific current event. See if “The Daily” has an episode on that.

I’d recommend finding high quality podcasts and looking through their archive. There is no better podcast than hearing a high quality operation like “This American Life” tell a story all about one of your interests.

In that vein, I keep an eye on:

The daily

This American life

Today explained

Planet money

Marc Maron (he really pulls a lot out of people)

Those are super mainstream, but they’re popular for a reason.

We switched everyone over as quickly as we reasonably could right after that.