Hello friends, I hope you are well. As a number of you (more than 200!) have pointed out to me, it has been almost 3 months since I last appeared on Youtube. I usually tell you I will be back soon (spoiler alert: it's true.), and some wonder whether that will ever happen, whether I am going to abandon YouTube like others before me, and what I am doing at the moment… To answer you, I decided to write this short post to set things straight :)
Shortly after falling ill, and having had to stop giving talks and teaching in person, I started to share, mainly for those who already followed me « IRL » (In Real Life), content related to certain subjects I covered, mainly technical, around Linux, bash, and cybersecurity.
Little by little, thanks to the « magic » effect of my biologic treatment (science is like magic, except it works), my condition gradually improved, and I was able to do the same with the quality of my videos. At the moment I am writing this post, there are more than 7,800 of you subscribed, and I thank you again.
A few months ago, after noticing an unplanned side effect of my channel (to put it simply, it brings me qualified contacts for my businesses), I had announced to you during a livestream that I would soon have more time to devote to it. First, let me say that, contrary to appearances: it's true, nothing has changed there, and I have drawers full of content ready to come.
What has changed is that at the beginning of October, I had to abruptly leave my main activity of more than 22 years. As I have already said, I will return later to the reasons for this unplanned departure, but I can talk to you about its consequences, positive and negative.
1) We start with the bad news, but in fact, there is only one: I went overnight from a very comfortable financial situation to no income. For those who know me a little better, you know that I am personally more of a grasshopper than an ant, and that I like to enjoy the present moment, notably through my love of good food and the very best-quality products.
2) I was able, at the same time, to cut ties with the last toxic people in my life who were seriously damaging my health. Their effects are gradually fading, and although they will still affect my health for a long time: we are heading back in the right direction, and that, that is priceless. For a few days now I have even been able to start doing a little exercise again, with a few dozen push-ups (incline push-ups, taking it easy…) a day, and that, when I see the state I was in not so long ago: that is worth all the gold in the world.
3) I have already said it in a previous post and I say it again: I have recovered my most precious possession: time. And when I say time, it is really *a lot* of time. You do not realise it in the heat of the action. But when you work 16 to 18 hours a day, including weekends, without ever taking a holiday for more than 20 years, and it all stops abruptly: you realise it. Time is our most precious possession: and it becomes, with each day that passes, more and more precious, because we have less of it left!
Well ok, I have time now, but then why have I not posted a video again on my Youtube channel? First, I had to recover from a small relapse following this unplanned change of situation. As for what comes next: that brings us back to point 1. I have not yet decided how to divide my time between my businesses, and I have to do it if I want to be able to put something on my plate xD.. And what is certain for now is that I will have at least 2:
On the one hand, I am going to continue developing my ScalarX business, which until now mainly funded my R&D. So let the current ScalarX clients rest assured: I am not going to abandon them, and quite the contrary, I am going to take it all into « full production », hire people, and devote a substantial part of my time to its technical, organisational and commercial development. That is decided.
For the rest, it is a little more « complicated »:
Following my departure, I received a very large number of proposals, each more interesting than the last, whether in terms of the company's fields of activity (architectures with tens of thousands of servers or GPUs, artificial intelligence, simulations in computing centres with tens of thousands of servers, and so on) or financial (with a record offer received barely a few days ago for a remote CTO position at more than 700,000 €! <- yes, the number of zeros is correct). All of that is very tempting, and some offers really give me pause for thought; moreover, to be totally honest: it is always very (very) pleasant to see that, a few days before turning 46, and working fully remotely, I can be worth so much in this constantly changing market. What about all these proposals:
I have not yet made any definitive choice… I have postponed some, set others aside, etc. and I continue to receive them. Besides, at this very minute, the one that tempts me the most is at once the most informal and the most uncertain xD: during a chat on discord with someone I like very much, they floated the idea of partnering up to start a company in web 3.0.
Well, I know, « web 3.0 », it's clickbait, and depending on the source, it mixes a bit of everything from the semantic web to the metaverse by way of the blockchain, NFTs, or even artificial intelligence… But this kind of challenge can only appeal to my adventurous side, outside my comfort zone: the service business, which I already know inside out.
In short, as you suspect, one way or another, things are going to happen. And for the rest of my free time today: I have been able to start reading again, or simply enjoy some time with my family (TV series, video games, & more), quite simply. I have never taken a holiday in nearly 22 years, so think of this as a part-time holiday ;)
In conclusion: no, this is absolutely not hot air: I am coming back very soon / very shortly to Youtube with a lot of content ;). To come back faster, I will perhaps share with you a few bash live coding sessions, put together quickly to bridge the gap ;) My next biologic treatment is in a few days, the day before my birthday. I have a few consulting projects to handle before the end of the year and in early January, and after that: let's go, see you soon.
Christophe Casalegno
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