I think take it easy, but do something consistently over a long period of time. That would be my takeaway and hopefully an answer to the question. You talked about the productivity stuff and focusing on that this year a little bit for everyone's credit benefit here. We constantly get people mentioning our productivity course that we've done. And this isn't a plug. This is more the reasoning why? And because it. It helps people with their goal setting. Hello, and welcome to the Pibytes podcast, where we talk about Python career and mindset. We're your hosts. I'm Julian Sequeira. And I am Bob Baldeboz. If you're looking to improve your python, your career, and learn the mindset for success, this is the podcast for you. Let's get started. And we're back. Happy 2023 from Pie Bytes. How are you going? How are you doing? I'm good, man. Welcome, everyone, to the Piewice podcast. We forgot how to do introductions after three weeks off. Totally lame, Rusty. It's time to get back into it, right? Exactly. I love it. But it is a nice, slow week as we ramp up to being back full time next week. But thought we would have a nice, happy new year podcast episode for everyone and also a celebratory one. So what are we, what are we celebrating? I got a new background, Nana and me too. Look at this. Beautiful. This is for the YouTube watches, this beautiful white curtain. But we can explain that in a little bit. Showing the logo on your shirt. It's probably piebites related then. Oh, yeah, it is. It is piebites related. What is it? Six years. Six years. 16 December 2022. We hit that milestone. So while I was away on holiday at the beach with the family, because we do beach stuff in Australia at Christmas, we celebrated our 6th year of piebites, which is just incredible and super awesome. How did you feel when we. When we hit that day? The 19th? Yeah, really happy. I mean, we could never have envisioned what py bytes is right now, right? Because we literally started over Christmas with this hobby project, doing some sort of python blog, teaching and learning Python. And that was all there was to it, writing articles and stuff. But, yeah, then from one thing came the other platform courses, coaching. And to me it just showed, yeah, a lot of persistence, grit, and also just rolling with the punches. Right. And innovate as you go. So, yeah, it was a nice reminder of that, definitely. I had this. I had this sense of pride, you know, just this pride of what we've accomplished in six years that we didn't expect to be able to do. But going back to our normal mantra of just taking off tiny chunks at a time, little pieces, just shows how much we've accomplished with taking one little step at a time. Baby steps, one after the other, they were, they may have been scary as all hell, they were over jagged spikes and stuff, but they were still baby steps. And to see what we've accomplished, I actually spoke to a friend today on the phone who said that it's. Every time I talk to you, it's nice to hear that you and Bob always have something coming. You always have something to look forward to. There's always one more thing to do. What's next? What's next? Exactly. So that made me feel good. I was like, oh, yeah, it's true. That's motivation right there to have that. And. But I did say, I did say that stuff doesn't come easy, right? It doesn't just come out of thin air. It comes from you and I chatting and testing and playing and, you know, brainstorming, pushing outside your comfort zone. Right, exactly. Exactly. So before we get into the goals for this year, because this episode, everyone, if you're listening, watching, whatever, not traditional goal setting podcast episode, where everyone's like, oh, set your goals for the year. And, you know, we do have a different take on that this year, slightly different. But before we do that, you know, happy new year, everyone. Thank you for listening to the podcast. Thank you for being a supporter of podcast pie Bytes, not podcast of pie bytes, for however long it happens to have been. If you've been here for the full six years, thank you. If you've been here for seven years, well, special. But. But I want to ask you, Bob, because we're indulging for a minute here because we haven't spoken, Bob and I haven't spoken in about three weeks. So how were your holidays? What did you get up to? Wow. Yeah, well, awesome. It was really good to take a break. I think we both were burning out a little bit in effort spent and pushing. The great thing about breaks, and we spoke about this many times on the podcast, is that you are forced to take a step back and reflect. And there was a lot of that microphone just moved. Can you still hear me? Yeah. Gotcha. I went in, was doing a lot of advent of code, a lot of coding, even when on learning algorithms. And I came out like, yeah, that's all nice, but let's focus on the business and the bigger pieces, right? So, yeah, it was really time for me to reflect and came out back fresh, rested, and with a lot of inspiration, as usual, and better focus. So again, if you can take a break, it's not a luxury. It's kind of a longer term productivity hack where you actually move the ladder from the wrong building to the right building and you start climbing in the right direction. To talk with Stephen Covey, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. So that's good. And obviously, there was the family, the kids celebrations, so that's awesome. What about you? Yeah, nice. Mine was definitely more family focused in the sense that from, you know, the last. Last week that we worked pie bytes, that I think you were recording the podcast episode with. Who was the last guest we had on the podcast? Kristen. Kristen, that's it. I was in South Korea when you were doing that, so that's why I couldn't do it. I was in Seoul, so I was traveling. I got to have some cold, Christmassy sort of stuff, so that was nice. But when I came back, that, you know, three weeks of annual leave kicked off, and it was just full family. I think three days after I got back from there, we were up the coast at a beach town, my favorite beach town in Australia that I've been to called Fingal Bay, and we spent a week there with the kids, and my sister in law is here visiting from Canada, and it's a full house, you know, that's why, for those of you watching, I'm not in my normal study office because that's where my sister in law is sleeping. And so I'm out in a weird sort of living room with a window behind me. And it's just been. It's been really different, you know, because I spent all of 2022 pushing every night of the week, working on pie bites and, you know, just constantly growth mindset. And this was the first time in quite a bit that I've sat there and actually said, no, nothing. Kids only family only relaxation, only even reading. Just all fiction. I even signed up to a comic book subscription with Marvel, and I was reading those guilt free. Yeah. And it was really nice. It was really nice to take that step back and completely disconnect. I didn't check slack, I didn't check email, didn't check anything aside from WhatsApp messages from you. And it was absolutely delightful. I had the best time. I was present with the kids. I was half dead from the amount of late nights with family and friends and especially New Year's and everything like that is just amazing. And it really showed me that for this year in 2023, and this is maybe a bit of a segue into the goal setting stuff. I just want to see a little more of that. I don't want it to be so heavy on pushing for the business and career growth and everything like that. I do want to make sure that I'm actively at certain key points, maybe. Maybe using the kids school holiday as an excuse. I want to step back and take some more of that time to have more of these moments throughout the year. So it was. It was lovely time, though, especially when you've got summer. Summer here. We're in the pool every day and everything like that. Well, it's definitely sunny here, as you can see, as well. Yeah, you're squinting, but, um, I'm happy to hear that. And, yeah, I think a few takeaways. Right. If you take a break, do it properly, if you take a break and you still doing a lot of work related stuff or checking slack, then you're not really having a break. So then it defeats the purpose. Right. And, yeah, I think it's very hard to do as well. I think the first week, first days, we were still pretty connected and thinking about stuff. It only kind of works if you're four or five days in. Right. Yeah. The other takeaway lesson is. Yeah. Like, you realize how precious these moments are with family and friends and even reading a book. And, yeah, if work tends to fill everything, like, you can work 40 hours, still work, you can work 50 hours, there's still more work. You can, like, fill 80 hours and still have work. But is it all important? Right. And with a break, you kind of realize, well, wow, this hour of reading or hour with the family is super precious. And is that really worth, like, pushing another hour after six? Probably not. Yeah. Like, things can wait. Yeah, exactly. And look proof proof in the pudding for, again, our YouTube viewers. I haven't shaved since Christmas Eve, so on the 24 December is when I shaved last. And it's a. I'm feeling the beard, so I do feel like I. That never happens with you. Yeah. Anyway, all right, so let's. Let's dive in. So thank you all for. For sharing in that with us and letting us share a bit of what we've been up to the past few weeks. We are going to quickly talk about goals now, when. When you talk about your goals in 2023, it's traditional New Year's resolution. What are you going to do? I'm going to lose 100 kilos. I'm going to go to the gym every week. I'm going to learn python, that sort of stuff. Right. There's four of those New Year's emails. So many emails from different places. Whether it be, I don't know, cleaning companies, whether it be shopping companies, who knows? Not just places like Python websites and stuff, but everyone is talking about New Year's resolutions, and we hate it because they tend to focus on being such sweeping changes. And as we alluded to, PI bytes over six years was not just like one big bang done were here. It was small steps, baby steps. And so when people think about use resolutions, they tend to be thinking about very large scale sweeping changes that essentially you're trying to boil the ocean and they wind up seeming insurmountable. You think, I'll wait till February, I'll wait till March. Oh, it's April now. I haven't even done this, so do I even bother? I'm already quarter through the year, so that can be a really dangerous, dangerous thing. Take a sip of water. Here we go. Sorry. Just before we recorded, I choked on a bit of water and it's. It's right in my throat. Anyway, so one thing I do want to challenge you all with, and bye bye. Sorry, I'm sorry. I'm taking the microphone this, this time. But I have been thinking about this. I've been thinking about this. It's not right to set your goals and your New Year's resolutions. So I do believe you should be setting goals 100%. Set yourself some goals for the year. Don't, don't step around that and use this as an excuse not to do it. Not giving you a way out. The point here is to do it when you're in the right frame of mind. Now, if you are still on holidays, don't do that. Don't set your goals now. Not a chance. Because you're not in your normal routine. You don't have the same level of stress, of workload, of responsibility that you have for 99% of the rest of the year. Right? If you're doing this while sitting on a beach, or most of the people in North America are somehow in a log cabin sipping hot chocolate by a fire and it's snowing. I'm very much generalizing here. Unless you're in California and you're currently in a heat wave or something, if you're on holiday, it's not the right time to be setting your goals. That's when you can do some dreaming. That's when you can think about some goals, because you're clear minded, but setting realistic goals, goals that are achievable, do that when you are back in your routine. I'm going to stop talking there for a second. Bob, did you have any thoughts on that? No. That's funny, because when I was recording you WhatsApp message yesterday, it was yesterday, the first work day. Right. And of course, I hit it hard. And also, the kids were out spending some time with sister in law, right. So I went from a week without kids and without work to a week where, you know, they're still at home, they're not at school, they still have holidays, plus you have to pie by work and like, oh, my God, I realize how, how much, how little time you actually have for your own stuff. Right? So it's way more realistic to think about goals now in this setting than as well as when off week, because then you think, oh, I can conquer the world and I have so much time and not realistic. Right. So, yeah, you kind of. That's a good point, I think. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, some of the things I want to achieve this year involve, and it was purely because I fell in love with the city, Seoul, in South Korea. I want to learn some Korean. So given that I want to learn Korean, I would love to, you know, in the back of my mind, I'm always thinking I want to pick up my guitar again and keep going. Given I want to grow pie bites more, do all sorts of different things like that, you know, be present with the kids and so on. It's great to list that out now before I'm back in my normal routine. So, for example, the kids are still home on school holidays to the end of January. My sister in law is still here to the end of January. So whatever I pick up and do now is going to still feel like I'm on holidays until I'm back in that routine and the kids have started school and I can list out all the things that I want to do this year, however many books I want to. I'm going to read 50 books this year, Bob. You know, I'm going to put it on piewhite's books. There's a plug for the platform. Nice. I'm going to read 50 books, all that stuff. But then as soon as I'm back in that full routine, I'm going to say, where am I going to fit all that in? How on earth am I going to do that? So my challenge to you, listening to this or watching this is think of your goals. But until you're back in your routine, or at the very least, if you can, if you know what your routine is going to be when everything gets back on track and traffic picks up again and your commutes start to happen and kids are going to school and whatever else is on your plate. If you can predict what that's going to look like, then start setting goals around that. And it might mean actually lowering the expectation you have on yourself. But that's okay, because that means it's achievable. And getting somewhere is better than getting nowhere, right? Because something seems so insurmountable. So, Bob, what's just an example for everyone? Unless you wanted to say something else, what's an example of a goal you're setting for yourself this year? That's a great question. I'm not yet in the mindset for that, I guess. No, we did our goal setting exercise yesterday, so a lot of my goals are aligned with the business, and that's growing PDM, the coaching. We want to push hard on the schools, and we want to also push hard on the productivity because we have a course that's really getting people results and we want to further build that out. Because the reason we talk a lot about productivity on this podcast is because a lot of people struggle us with it, and it's a constant battle with increasing work demands, social media distractions, Internet overall. So that's definitely something we see potential as well. Right? So definitely goals there. And I don't do any number of book red goals. No, that's kind of. I think that's what I do want to mention. There's this great interview by Ryan Holiday when he had James clear on the show and he recasted that on his podcast and Atomic habits. Right. It's one of her favorite productivity books. I really should read it. And one thing I picked up from that episode is just love the process, right? Like you should set your goals, of course, but fall in love with the process because it's going to get hard and it's going to be tough. There will be setbacks. But if you just love what you do, and you can just do that for 2 hours a day, for example. A lot of people, for example, cannot even fathom how to write a book. But then both authors on that podcast are saying, well, just put two quality time hours in a day and then be happy with that. Don't push for 8 hours. Do things in small increments. And it also goes back to PI bytes. We have had good and bad months, but it was the consistency overall over a long period that got us results. I love that quote. I've mentioned it a year before, but people often overestimate what they can do in a year and underestimate what they can do in ten years. And you should really see it as a marathon. So see it as a marathon. Fall in love with the process, do a bit of work every day, and then after years, you will just can have a major impact. Right? Yeah. So I think that's. That's kind of the problem with goals. People take it sometimes as a crash diet kind of thing, like six pack in 30 days. Right. And then they go all out, create some insustainable habits of three hour workouts and 1800 calories or something ridiculous, you know? And then, yeah, February comes and they have this boomerang effect. Right. That they go, yeah. Back to even worse as it was before, because this is way too demanding. Right? Yeah. So, yeah, I think take it easy, but do something consistently over a long period of time. That would be my takeaway and hopefully an answer to the question. I don't even know what the question was anymore. Yeah. About goals. So instead of a specific goal, I gave you more like the philosophy. No, no. You talked about the productivity stuff. Right. And focusing on that this year a little bit and to everyone's, for everyone's credit, benefit here, we constantly get people mentioning our productivity course that we've done. And this isn't a plug. This is more the reasoning why? And because it helps people with their goal setting, and it helps people achieve those goals that we're encouraging you to set for yourself when you're in the right frame of mind. But that productivity course, it's like this thing we made that people are saying is just incredible. Hey, this is Bob and a quick break from our episode. We're right back because we want to give you the opportunity to learn about our pivots. Practical productivity pack. Yep. This is a pack that is designed to help you be more productive. It's not as simple as that because there are so many pieces to productivity. There's mindset, and there's a heck of a lot of best practices to put into play here to really help you get there. And that's exactly what this course is designed to do. So what's inside the pack? All right, to start, there are seven modules, and we start off with module one, as you'd expect, which is all about a time audit. We move into goal setting, planning habits, deep work motivation, and end on perfectionism. These are really important pieces to help you break the habits you have, build good habits, and really start getting your productivity boosted and all this and less than 4 hours of concise video content. Check out more information about the course@pibytesproductivity.com. Everyone who takes it and actually implements is talking about how life changing it's been. Right? And we've mentioned that before, but because of that, we really want to do something with it. And that's a goal we're setting for ourselves this year, is to really grow that, get it out there, uh, build on it and um, do more. Because it has helped people from a non Python perspective, which is incredible to us because we built it for Python programmers, right? And uh, with coders in mind. But the, I guess the, the things we talk about in there are just so universal that it doesn't matter whether you're a coder or not, it can help. And that's why we, we really want to do that, because it makes sense to get it further out there, help more people and so on and so forth. But on that note, the other goal that I wanted to mention that we set, and this is us adding some accountability to what we're working on, just letting everyone know that's one of our steps, right, to success, is getting your stuff out there. We want to grow the school, the school tier on our coding platform, the pie bytes platform, Codechallenge es. We want to see more schools using that this year because the results that other schools are getting across the US that are using it, fantastic. The students are loving it. We're loving seeing their feedback and seeing them holding certificates and things like that. And we just want to see it in schools. And me personally, like Bob, I said this to you yesterday, me personally, it'd be a sense of pride to see it used in australian schools. So that's one of the things I'll be focusing a chunking part of my time on to building that out and around curriculum and syllabus here in the syllabus here in Australia and going with that. So we'll see how that goes. That's super exciting. I'm really excited about that. And yeah, we have kids ourselves, right? We know the value of teaching them and yeah, thinking about the next generation of programmers and getting. That's why I like the philosophy of pyscript as well, which I started learning yesterday. Like one of its goals is just to make python accessible to more people by making it possible to code in a browser. And that's just really a very nice aim. And yeah, similarly, if we can get Python in the hands of more students and give them a better way to learn it, an easier way that gets them results moving forward. That's amazing. So we're really, really excited about that. Yeah. And just to add to what you said, the thing for me is that doesn't just teach them an easier way, but it teaches them in a way that is more realistic to real world programming, not just some, you know, flashy game where they solve a puzzle and slay a dragon. You know, that's not how it works in the real world. So there are no dragons. That's funny. Right? We spoke about this with Russell on the podcast here before. And, I mean, if you look at the newbie bytes, they're actually pretty boring, right? It's text and a coding editor. And so what would be the appeal for younger students? But then we got the feedback, like, they like it more than the actual gaming stuff because it's actually addicting. Solving them and getting credits and see pie test pass or fail. Yeah, yeah. Looking at that horrendous output. Yeah, exactly. We never expected that. So, again, goes to show, you just have to roll with the punches, get stuff out there, and then iterate over the feedback. Yeah, exactly. So, to recap, as we wrap this very casual first episode for 2023, let's see. I hope we can get away with that. Yeah. So I'm going to wrap it up. Let's, let's, let's, uh, paraphrase. So what we want you to do, here's the takeaway from this, is, um, set your goals when you're in the right frame of mind, understanding that you're going to have a very, very busy schedule, right? You have things you need to do, you have responsibilities, and you have to set realistic goals that when you break them down to the actionable steps to actually get them done, they're actually things you can fit into your daily responsibilities. It's not. It's not an easy. It's not an easy task to do, but this is a simple task to do. Right? You know what it is that you'll be doing day to day once you're off holidays? What is it that you can realistically achieve? And if you need to make sacrifices, think about that. Right? And one thing I'll add in here that we forgot to mention, Bob, is it might help you motivationally to visualize yourself sitting in the same spot that you are now in 2024. And what is it that you're going to say that you did over the past twelve months from this moment until then, and how do you want to feel in that moment in 2024? What do you want to have accomplished? This can help you figure out what the goals are. But then remember, make them realistic. Because I think I'd feel pretty fantastic if I was, I don't know, sitting in a private jet. No, actually, I think it'd be pretty boring. But you know what I'm saying? Horrible goal. It's a horrible goal. No, but I'd feel pretty good with some pretty extravagant things for a moment. Of course, I'm only human, but to achieve those in a year? Not realistic. What's more realistic is that we grow into, say, having pie bytes in 20 different schools by 2024. That would be pretty realistic. That's doable. And that involves a bit of work, and I can chunk that down into weekly work through 2023. So think of it that way. Think about how you can fit it into your routine. Don't let it overwhelm you. Small chunks, small pieces, baby steps. And we look forward to hearing what you put down. So if you do get value out of this, please message us, please email us, respond to us on one of the many platforms that we operate on and let us know what you've done, what you planned for this year. We'd love to hear it. By all means, reach out, invite, bye bye, and yeah, on the social media. Yeah. Just to sad on that, just think long term, right? I remember we had some very specific goals for the year, but we also had some seeding goals as we started to call them. That would just have less impact this year, but would set us up for success in the coming years. Again, think long term, you can definitely think big, but being realistic, you can only get so much done in this year. But that's fine if you keep doing that consistently over the years. Yeah, exactly. Cool. All right, well, that's that. So, Bob, at the risk of inundating everyone's ears or whatever, have you read any books? Oh my God, I stopped buying books. Actually, I went to the public library. That's for starters. Love the library. PSA, public service announcement. If you have not been to your local library, please go. They are so valuable. I love going to the library. I just signed up to our library up near this new house, but they were closed for the Christmas holidays. It's not only about taking books, right. And saving on buying books, just sitting there and be surrounded by books. It's just really nice. Some quiet, therapeutic, crowded space these days. But anyway, yeah, so I'm going to read atomic habits. I just want to reemphasize that that's really a book well timed. I mean, it sold 10 million copies. Can you believe that? Just amazing. And yeah, I think we're both reading the body by Bryson. Yes. Lots still to plow through, but fascinating read. Yeah. And I read a book on dieting, so. In Spanish. So title might not make sense, but. Yeah, just conscious about. Yeah. The poison that they sell on supermarkets. So you really have to be picky. So that was a good read. And. Yeah, various miscellaneous. You sure? Not too much? Well, some. So I've read clearly a bunch of comics. My cup of tea, I love it. So I read a bunch of comics, which is fantastic. I'm reading the body, as you mentioned, by Bill Bryson. I'm finding that it is a fun read, but it's not something that draws me back. I have to read it every day. So I'm just going back and every couple of days to read a chapter. I'm currently about halfway through the wizard of Earthsea, book two, the Tombs of Attuan. I think that's how you say it. So that's been. It's fun to pick that up again. So reading that and what was the other thing? Oh, the other thing I'm doing, it's not quite reading, but it's. I'm doing another masterclass on sustainability and eating. So it, long story short, it's more about understanding the food chain and where our food comes from. And not saying that I'm just going to go organic and all that sort of stuff, but understanding where your food comes from, that's what has taught me so far, is that it's quite important and making your choices on what you do eat, what you don't eat. Now, mind you, it is based on the american food system food chain, which is very different, I think, to the australian stuff. But, and I won't go into all that detail now, that's a whole different. If anyone wants to know about it, you know, have a chat with me. I'd love to have a conversation, but yeah, it's very interesting. I'm really enjoying it. It's a nice way of doing some, you know, thoughtful growth consumption there that isn't python related or mindset related. And. Yeah. Different medium. I like it. Yeah. To keep it technical, I also pulled out a classic I want to revisit this year. Code complete. Two. Nice. Second edition. Yeah. Oh, second edition, right. Yeah. So really going back to the fundamentals. So it's a really good book about. Yeah. Coding related stuff to keep it technical. Then I'm going to do some soldering tomorrow with the kids. I'm so excited. Nice. That's part of my sustainability push for the year is to reuse and recycle. So I found a broken bit of equipment at home and I thought, well, may as well open it up and see. And I actually found where the brake was. And so I cracked out the soldering iron and I'm going to show them how to do it tomorrow and see if we can repair it. Let's see if you can show something next time on camera. On camera, yeah, we'll see. All right, well, look, everyone, thank you for listening. Thank you for being here. Thank you for watching. If you're on YouTube and we appreciate all of you again, six years is huge for us. We're super proud. And I think the thing, Bob, I'm speaking for you here, is that the thing we enjoy the most is the people. This wouldn't be what it is without all of you. We love and appreciate everyone who's crossed paths with us. We know that time is the greatest gift you can give. So anyone who's given us any form of time, even if it is just listening to these podcasts, we appreciate you and we're happy that you're here. Totally. Yeah, it's a lot about python and content, but in the end, the relations we have built through pivots and thanks to our community have been invaluable. And that's really what it's all about. Yep, definitely a lot of lifelong friendships there as well. So thank you, everyone. We will be back next week with our 100th High Bytes podcast episode. So excited. Very, very special episode. And talk about community, by the way, maybe some people don't know we also have a slack community, so we'll link that below Pybit es community. I've been there, it's a very friendly place. And yeah, people share Python developer mindset related things. And yeah, you can get a lot of value out of that. Beautiful. All right, well, tune in next week for the 100th episode, which we're very excited about. I don't even know what we're going to do, but we'll figure out something. Yeah, putting us on the spot here. All right, everyone, take care. Thank you for listening and watching and we'll back, be back next week. Alright, cheers. We hope you enjoyed this episode. To hear more from us, go to Pybite friends. That is Pybit es friends and receive a free gift just for being a friend of the show. And to join our thriving slack community of Python programmers, go to Pibytes community. That's pybit es forward slash community. We hope to see you there and catch you in the next episode.