February 2017 Must-Haves

Each month I provide a list of resources (podcasts, talks, blog posts, books, music etc.) that I consider to be must-haves. There’s no doubt that you’ll see recurring themes or resources throughout these posts. I publish my Must-Haves on the closest Tuesday or Friday to the 15th of every month.

Here’s my February 2017 Must-Haves

CodeMentor – Code Mentor is a great service that pairs you up with coders in real time to solve problems you’re having right now. A few weeks ago I was building an app and got stumped on a problem. I spent the usual hour or so researching the issue on Stack Overflow and couldn’t find an answer. I got to the end of my rope and decided to try CodeMentor. I posted the exact issue I was having and had 3-5 coders offer to help within 5 minutes or so. I did the usual look through their profiles and then picked one. We then jumped on a Zoom web meeting where he was able to review the code on my machine and point to the issue in under 10 minutes. I paid $20 for the help. Well worth the money to save me at least another hour finding the problem myself. The purist in me hates asking for help, but time is in fact money.
Minimalism – A Documentary about Important Things – I fancy myself an aspiring minimalist. I don’t ascribe to the “all things are bad” that some minimalists do, but I have systematically eliminated vast quantities of things from my life over the last few years. When I buy new clothes, old clothes immediately get set aside to go to Goodwill or sold online. I do my best to remove something from my life when something new comes in. Anyway, I recently watched this film and it inspired me to go deeper into this worldview. I challenge you to watch it and not be affected. Watch it on Amazon, Netflix or other similar content networks.
Off Camera with Sam Jones – I started listening to this podcast about a month ago after hearing it on in our car one day while riding around with my wife. Sam Jones interviews (primarily) Hollywood luminaries on their most important work. His guest list is impressive, but the interviews are not what you’d expect. He has a way of digging with people that I really like. Highly recommend starting with the Aaron Paul interview.
You Need a Budget – I’ve tried a number of personal financial planning packages and hate almost all of them. YNAB’s methodology for running your personal finances is truly unique and it’s been a game changer for us. HT to Matt Fiedler of Vinyl Me, Please for the recommendation a few months back.
Touching the Void – I’ve wrote a brief review of this book about six years ago. It is one of THE MOST gripping stories of survival and human courage you will ever read. Ever. There’s also an accompanying docudrama on Netflix, but read the book first. It’s a short, easy read as well. Honorable mention this month is The Lost City of Z, another book filled with remarkable human perseverance.
Flu shot – For the first time in my life, I got the flu in late January. It was absolutely wretched and I still have the residual cruft being cleaned out. I will be getting flu shots from here on, even if they don’t actually work.

That’s it for February 2017. I suppose in the spirit of Minimalism I should’ve only picked one thing. I hope you enjoy at least one of these over the course of the next month.