Great, and very honest article. I love how you reflected on your own goals and motivations. It's always good to take a step back and see if we are driven by the goals and values of others or whether we are true to ourselves. This article is a great start and shows your uniqueness and personality. Well done.

Hey Jome, love your goals and motivation. I also really like how you start this blog post with a personal, and relatable story. If, during writing and especially before publishing, keep in mind that you want others to be able to "pick one or two things from my articles" - then I'm sure you will exceed all your goals! Thanks for sharing!

Nice write up. Love your honesty. Almost all of us respond to those metrics. That's why social media platforms are built around them. But understanding that is the first step. The question is, apart from having your mood influenced by the metrics, what is your actual goal? Why do you blog? There is probably something behind these metrics. Like, you want people to see your skill, or get more opportunities to strive in your career. Maybe a goal could be to write 1 blog post (per whatever interval that works for you) and interact each week with 5 people that also write blogs. These interactions will help you: build real relationships, enhance your network, and most likely help you increase the feel-good metrics on your own blog. Happy blogging.

I love remote work. My ideal setting would either be a remote-first or an exclusively remote setting or living close enough to the office so I can check-in several times a week to connect with teammates.

I have never tried to really program on the phone. Yes, fixing small issues here and there is surely possible, but I would not like to actually program. Seem super cumbersome. But, happy to learn about how others do it.

Sandeep, it was such a pleasure to have you on my show! It was a very insightful and fun conversation. Thanks for sharing your journey so openly with all of us!

I love ReSharper PyCharm or Visual Studio depending on which language I use Chrome to run and test web apps Postgres Git and Github Notpad++ Command prompt or PowerShell ;-)

Milica Maksimović , this is such a great article! Thank you for sharing it with the dev community. I also really appreciate the attitude Hashnode has for its contributors. You always make sure that it is a win-win situation. Making everybody aware of the canonical url and its impact is so important. Otherwise, people cannot really build up their own platform. Thank you!

I think that Marketplace, Recruiting and Training are all a very natural fit for Hashnode. I also believe one of those will have the most potential for Hashnode monetization. Whether it works or not comes from the execution. It really depends on which form it is connected to Hashnode and how the platforms would work. One of those done right is probably also better than several done half-baked. Personally, Training and Courses would be great for me. I'd not be happy with ads. The paid feature for devblog might also be interesting for Hashnode. And I like the merchandise idea. This seems like a why not.

I did whiteboard coding for my interview at Microsoft. And, I liked the whiteboard experience more than for example pre-screen interviews I had at other companies that are done in a shared document (not a real IDE). Those I find really awkward. Mostly because I cannot see the other person, and then I feel I have to talk when I actually think and so on. For that reason, I like solving problems on a whiteboard more. Purely, because you are in the same room as the other person and it feels more connected. And it can also be nice to have a way to "visually" discuss a problem. Coding on a whiteboard is obviously strange as it happens in a totally different environment as normal. Still, I think the most important aspect is the interviewer. In general, I am very stressed at interviews. And if there isn't a good vibe between the interviewer and me, I feel the interview is doomed anyway. I prefer interviews where the tasks I have to solve are similar to my day-to-day work and they test for the skillset I will need. I imagine the best interview to be just working alongside the interviewer solving real problems together (although I haven't ever been interviewed that way, so maybe it would be horrible ;-) )