So, here we are again. Another multi-year lapse in updating this blog. At least this time the reason for the update isn't that I'm migrating the blog yet again. No, this time, I have things to talk about again, and I felt this blog is actually the appropriate place to do so.
So, logging back in here, I see that I never even finished editing the few draft posts I wrote over 3 years ago. They were mostly me complaining about teaching and problems I ran into and how I swore I was finally done with teaching. It just wasn't worth the effort/time, etc, etc. Yeah, that didn't happen. I ended up caving and teaching another course. THAT course (which ended December 2016 I believe) IS likely my last formal course for the foreseeable future. I'm just very jaded with all of academia at this point. I see no point in furthering my own education, and the only way to make a decent living in academia is to have a doctorate, and since I just can't get excited about any academic topics long enough to want to go down that road, I think it's time to close that door.
Will I one day change my mind and venture back into academics? Who knows. I tend to change my mind quite often. For now though, I'm happier pursuing teaching at the small scale in the form of mentoring and providing internships.
So as to what I've been doing the past 3 years (besides not teaching, and then teaching, and then not teaching again)? I've been experimenting with entrepreneurship actually. I joined a startup as a CTO, for which I discovered that I was grossly unprepared. I joined another startup which was really exciting (I was just a cog in the wheel that time, not at all anyone of importance). That gig sadly coincided with the last time I attempted to teach though. So it ended badly when the time to develop my course materials eventually overtook my life and I found I had no time to devote to the startup, and so I had to leave. I did feel that I learned some very valuable lessons from that experience though, and so I'm glad I did work there, even if it was only for a short time.
Which brings me to now. I've been working slowly on bootstrapping my own venture, which is extremely difficult. I'm struggling with balancing my family responsibilities with getting some interesting projects off the ground. I'm also employing a few interns to help out, which is allowing me to learn so much about managing people. Mostly, I really enjoy the work, that is until I have to file paperwork, or get cryptic letters from the state, and then I panic thinking I didn't fill out some stupid form correct, or that I forgot to pay some asinine tax. I could really do without all of the governmental bureaucratic non-sense to be honest, and it truly is the worst part of running a small business so far (or technically a micro business).
Well, enough about all that. I may go back into my drafts and publish some of the things I never got around to, or I may not. I haven't quite decided. Either way, hopefully, I'll be writing more often in this new year.
