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How to Have a Bad Day

If I do any of these things, I usually end up having a bad day:

  • Skip my morning run
  • Start my day before reviewing my list of priorities
  • End my day without reviewing progress against those priorities
  • Have a day full of meetings
  • Create nothing (usually related to the day-full-of-meetings thing)
  • Only have work conversations with co-workers during the day
  • Talk to an asshole
  • Let self-doubt creep in (related to the asshole-thing?)
  • Spend the entire day indoors
  • Read literally anything about the current President or upcoming election
  • Open Morning Reader more than 2 or 3 times during the day (usually means I don’t know what to do and am spiraling)
  • Drink the night before

A surefire way to make sure I have a good day is to avoid having a bad day, so today I’m going to have a good day.

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Pocket Nag

I’ve taken the last couple of weeks off of work. The break was very necessary, but I didn’t really understand why until the last day or so.

I’ve felt extremely overwhelmed in life. Work was suffering. I was snapping at my family. My body physically hurt. It wasn’t good.

I’m working on being more deliberate in all kinds of things: how I spend my time, what I eat, even what I’m going to spend my attention on.

Today I took a small step and put my phone out of reach when I was home. Left it in the kitchen.

During my vacation, I noticed that I still felt strangely overwhelmed – despite turning Slack and email notifications off. Despite no meetings. Despite intentionally not talking or even thinking about work.

I also noticed that I spent a lot of time looking at my phone while on vacation. There’s a lot more free time on vacation. And I noticed that I started spending it looking at my phone. Twitter. Online news. Reddit. Instagram.

Literally nothing of value. And with the outcome of distraction and some feeling of being overwhelmed. What the hell?

So today, my phone wasn’t in my pocket. The most noticeable outcome of this is that I sometimes just sat there with nothing to do. So I would actually watch what was going on. Wife cooking dinner. Kid playing with cars. The rain outside.

Just not having that little screen in my pocket, nagging me, giving me something to do instead of sit with my thoughts. It made so much difference. Unexpectedly.

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Installing Plex on a Raspberry Pi is Simple

If you’re looking to install Plex on a Raspberry Pi, this is the ultimate guide. I’ll show you how to install Plex easily, mount an external drive to store all of your data, and set up Plex so that you can easily watch files on any device.

Fox took Family Guy off of Netflix, but we had been watching it for years on Netflix. We don’t want to pay for a Hulu subscription (it has ads!), and don’t have a DVD player anymore. Plex to the rescue!

Installing Plex on a Raspberry Pi is Simple
Installing Plex on a Raspberry Pi is Simple

I’ve had a love affair with the Raspberry Pi, so I’ve got a few around the house. I also went through a “back all your data up… twice!” phase in my house, so I have a huge WD hard drive laying around doing nothing.

The perfect combination.

To get a Plex server up and running on a Raspberry Pi, you need some essential equipment:

  • A Raspberry Pi 3. I always get this Raspberry Pi starter kit from Amazon since it comes with an SD card, power cable, heat sink and enclosure. And can be at my house in 2 days.
  • A big external drive. While this is optional, I used a WD MyBook DUO since it has USB ports on the back. I use these USB ports to power the Raspberry Pi so that I don’t take up all of the electrical outlets in my office. But, any hard drive will do. Here’s a 4TB hard drive for less than $100, which is probably more than enough space.

Now, let’s get Plex on it. First, update Raspbian.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Install the HTTPS transport package

sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https

Plex comes in a new repo, called Dev2Day. To get it, we need to add a key:

wget -O - https://dev2day.de/pms/dev2day-pms.gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -

Now, we need to add the repo to our list of package sources:

echo "deb https://dev2day.de/pms/ jessie main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pms.list

Finally, update the package list:

sudo apt-get update

Now, install Plex:

sudo apt-get install -t jessie plexmediaserver

Set Plex to run as the pi user:

sudo vi /etc/default/plexmediaserver.prev

In that file, change PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_USER=plex to PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_USER=pi and save.

Restart Plex:

sudo service plexmediaserver restart

Now we need to mount the external drive permanently so that it’s available every time you restart your Pi.

To start, install exfat fuse:

sudo apt-get install exfat-fuse

Plug your external drive into your Pi and get it’s stats:

sudo lsblk -o UUID,NAME,FSTYPE,SIZE,MOUNTPOINT,LABEL,MODEL

Take note of:

  • the location of the disk partition. This is typically something like /dev/sda1.
  • the fstype. This is typically something like fat, exfat, ntfs or ext4.

Create a target folder to mount your drive to.

mkdir /mnt/media

Mount the drive, replacing /dev/sda1 with the location of the drive you want to mount:

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/media

Verify that you see the files:

ls /mnt/media

Assuming you see the files you expect to see, let’s mount this drive permanently. Open fstab.

sudo vi /etc/fstab

Add a new line

/dev/sda2 /mnt/media exfat defaults 0 0

Replace /dev/sda2 with the location of the drive you want to mount, /mnt/media with the mount point, and exfat with the fsystem on the drive.

This out your mounting by rebooting your machine.

sudo reboot now

If it comes back up, you’re golden. If not, you probably messed up your fstab. Here’s how to fix your fstab.

Install Samba. This lets you run your Plex in a closet, but add files to it from another computer.

sudo apt-get install samba samba-common-bin

Configure Samba to share your media directory. Open the Samba config file:

sudo vi /etc/samba/smb.conf

Scroll down to the very bottom of the file and add this:

[Plex Media]
Comment = Plex media folder
Path = /mnt/media
Browseable = yes
Writeable = Yes
only guest = no
create mask = 0777
directory mask = 0777
Public = yes
Guest ok = yes

Be sure to replace /mnt/media with your media mount point.

Restart Samba:

sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart

Now, we need to create some folders that will make Plex easier to use.

In your terminal, create a folder for TV shows:

mkdir /mnt/media/TV

And create a folder for Movies:

mkdir /mnt/media/Movies

Now, add your media files to the appropriate folders.

If you’re on a Mac, you should see your pi appear as a shared drive in your Finder. You can also connect directly to it by going to Go->Connect to Server, and typing in smb://raspberrypi.local

Once you have your movies and TV shows copied over, we can set up Plex!

In your browser, go to http://raspberry.local:32400/web. If that doesn’t work, replace raspberrypi.local with the Pi’s IP address.

This will bring you to the Plex web app. Create an account (or sign in if you already have a Plex account). Plex will give you a quick guided tour, then will give you the chance to “Add to Library”.

Select the media type and the folder that contains that content. Plex will index these files for a few minutes, then organize it for you.

That’s it! You can connect to your Plex via web browser, or any of the dedicated clients on iPhone, Android, Roku or the Amazon Fire TV.

 

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[Solved] Emergency Mode Due to Bad fstab

You can automatically mount a drive on your Raspberry Pi by editing your fstab file. Learn how to automatically mount a drive on your Raspberry Pi here.

But if you’re like me, editing fstab rarely works right the first time. This typically results in your system crashing on startup with a message saying that your Raspberry Pi has gone into “Emergency Mode”. You fix this by removing (or editing) the new line from your fstab file. But how do you do that if your system won’t start up?

Here’s how to get your Raspberry Pi out of Emergency Mode, and booting again:

  • Take your SD card out of your Pi and mount it on another computer.
  • Open the boot partition, and the file cmdline.txt
  • Add init=/bin/sh to the end of the line and save the file
  • Unmount, place back into your Pi, and power up your Pi. Your Pi will boot into a minimum shell environment as root.
  • At this point, you need to mount the actual filesystem, but without loading fstab. To do that, enter mount -o remount,rw / –target / and hit enter
  • Now, edit your fstab file by entering vi /etc/fstab and hitting enter
  • After you’ve made your edits, exit the file, then at the command line, type exit. The system will panic, but it’s fine.
  • Remove the SD card from your Pi and put it back into the other computer.
  • Open the boot partition, and the file cmdline.txt
  • Remove init=/bin/sh from the end of the line and save the file
  • Unmount the SD card, place it back into your Pi, and power up your Pi. You should be good to go now.

Alternatively, throw your Pi away and just grab a new Raspberry Pi 3 from Amazon

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Share Your Point of View, Not This Article

There are two problems in our profession:

Independently, neither of these are actually problems 1.

At the intersection of Imposter Syndrome and infinite content is where we spend too much time. We’re spending time reading how others have solved their own problems instead of solving our own.

The intersection of Imposter Syndrome and infinite content is a dangerous place to spend time. The intersection is why Hacker News, Twitter and Medium are all popular in our profession today.

We’re so insecure in our own skills and experiences that we try to read as much as possible.

We assume that everyone else has figured it out.

I read this post about Scrum, I can finally get my team to do it “right”. It’s been retweeted 13.4k times, so it must be good.

If I read this Medium article about the best user research questions, I’ll finally start to get value out of my user research. It’s got seventy-billion “claps”, so it must be good.

Everyone else is reading this book, so I better get in on it.

Thing is: the authors of those blog posts probably feel the same way.

But we don’t think about that. We skim the article (at best) with confirmation biases running in the background, fixate on the bulleted list of “solutions” at the bottom of the page, share it in our team’s Slack page, then wonder why the problem won’t go away.

And because their solution to their problem didn’t solve our problem, we actually feel worse. So we read even more.

Most blog posts about how some other awesome founder or design team or engineer lacks enough context to actually be useful. 2

Those blog posts, Quora answers, clever Tweets, and sometimes entire books, lack context.

Your team is not the same as their team. Your experience is not the same as their experience.

If you’re a manager, stop sharing Medium articles, tweets and blog posts. Read what you want to read 3, but establish a point of view and share that with your team, instead. Help create an opinionated team with a point-of-view to solving problems, not just a team that regurgitates whatever article was popular last week.

And if you’re an individual contributor, do the exact same thing.

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Dieter Rams’ 10 Principles for Good Design

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Dieter Rams was an industrial designer, probably most well known from his work designing Braun items in the mid-to-late 20th century.

It’s been speculated that Apple’s Jonny Ives took heavy inspiration from Braun’s design styles and lessons to create the iconic products that make up our lives today.

Aware that he was a significant contributor to that world, he asked himself an important question: is my design good design? To help others answer the same question, Rams created 10 principles for good design, including:

  • Good design makes a product useful
  • Good design is aesthetic
  • Good design makes a product understandable
  • Good design is unobtrusive
  • Good design is thorough down to the last detail
  • and, my personal favorite: Good design is a little design as possible

Vitsoe has the entire list of 10 principles for good design.

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An (actually) Helpful Hacker News Comment

If you’re ever feeling down after reading the HN homepage with posts about how “Small eComm Startup Raises Fifty Quatrillion Dollars” and then looking at all the time you’ve put into your own small niche eComm business, close the HN homepage and just keep this comment in mind:

Right now, somewhere in the world, a child is being born into an uberly rich family. That child will grow up to inherit millions for absolutely no work. He’ll live the good life full of yachts and private jets.

Right now, somewhere in the world, there is a party happening full of gorgeous wealthy people who need not lift a finger to attain the luxuries that they have. Their success is only a matter of genetics and luck.

Right now, somewhere in the world, is an investment banker who is making literally millions after clicking a few buttons and making a few phone calls to a few friends. He knows the right people and is in the right place, and that’s all that matters.

Right now, somewhere in the world, is a 20-some year old guy who is worth billions because of a website he started. He was born into a family that sent him to the right high school. He then went on to one of the best universities in the country, built his website, moved, met the right people, and raised $500+ million in funding. He and likely generations down the line are set for life.

Right now, somewhere in the world, is a 17yr old teenager who started a company with some money from his parents, built a product, with help from friends and family, and got acquired for $30 million.

There’s always someone becoming richer than you for much less work, every second of the day. Look past that and just keep working. I get down about how unfair that is from time to time, but there’s nothing you can really do about it, other than focus on your work.

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Stop Having Crappy Meetings!

meeting_shirt

There are meetings, and then there are meetings.

Some of them go quickly. You come out of the meeting feeling like you actually accomplished something.

And then there are the other kind of meetings. It lasts exactly the amount of time scheduled in your calendar, and everyone leaves in a haze and with an invite to the dreaded “follow-up meeting”.

You can’t control everyone else’s meetings, but as someone once said “you must be the change you wish to see in your company’s meetings”.

So here’s how to make your own meetings suck less:

  1. Have a focused purpose for your meeting. If your meeting is for a vague purpose, you’re going to go in a vague direction. Good meeting topics: “Landing Page X Design Review”, “Engagement Tracking Implementation for New Users”, “Top 3 Goals For Website Redesign”. Bad meeting names: “Landing Pages”, “Tracking Pixels”, “Website Redesign”.
  2. Don’t have brainstorming sessions. These always end up as wasted hours. Instead, figure out the problem and ask people to come to the table with a few solutions. Then, name you meeting something specific. Example: “API changes we can make to support feature X in product Y”.
  3. In the description field of your meeting invite, add the questions that must be answered by your meeting. Meetings should be held to present information or answer questions, so get people thinking about them (even subconsciously) before your meeting.
  4. Only invite people that must be there to get those specific questions answered. You most likely don’t need the VP of marketing there to discuss the technology behind tracking pixels. Talk to him before or fill him in later, depending on your company’s culture.
  5. Stay focused! Once the meeting is underway, keep trucking towards your pre-stated meeting goals. Everyone’s been in meetings that stray, and rarely is anyone richer for the experience.
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Sergey Brin Thinks Touchscreens Are Emasculating

Sergey Brin seems to be popping up everywhere.

He made a surprise appearance at the TED Conference yesterday, talking about Google Glass and mobile:

Brin began the talk by looking down at his phone, and commenting that, like many, this is how he spends most of his time. “We often question if this is the way you want to connect with the people in your life,” Brin said. “I feel it’s kind of emasculating. You’re just rubbing this featureless piece of glass.”

While some may complain that we’re taking cool advice from a guy who wears Crocs, I don’t think Sergey’s wrong. Just count how many times you’re out with friends and have a split second of down-time. Chances are you instinctively reach for your phone.