I stopped buying new and started buying second hand about a year ago. Honestly, it's worked out just fine. I got a 6th gen i7 Lenovo T460S with 20Gb RAM, 512Gb M.2 and 1920 x 1080 display, all for about USD 700, about a year ago on eBay. It's still going strong today, and pretty much using it for the same purposes as you listed. It runs most modern linux distros flawlessly. WSL wasn't a great experience for me, but maybe things have improved since last year. Considering the specs of cutting edge vs., 1 or 2 generations ago, it's rarely ever more than 30% bigger/better/faster/brighter/etc. It just doesn't make sense to me to pay 100% to 200% more for a 30% improvement. The other huge plus (for me) is that I really don't care what happens to the laptop. I treat it with as much care as I treat my 2018 15"MBP, but at $700 (or $2 a day spread out over the last year), I really don't stress about it. Keyboard is THE BEST. Touchpad, on the other hand ... well, PC trackpads suck so very much, especially if you're used to Apple touchpads, which are just such a pleasure to use.
Do consider buying second hand, especially if it's a secondary machine.
This is probably really obvious but just in case: be careful you don't break any laws in the process. Would be a shame to land in as much hot water as the perpetrator. Good luck!
I've built a few hackintoshes over the years (probably 1 in 5 success rate), and this is among the best documented projects I've seen. Well done indeed!
[Don't think I've come across GitBooks before this -- looks like something we could use on a project so, bonus find! Thanks!]
Left 4 or 5 years ago for employer/work reasons. Had a couple of hundred friends, and a started few groups that accumulated thousands of members. Not surprisingly, everyone I mattered to managed to find me and reconnect via email, sms etc. I don’t miss it at all, and I’m happy I don’t waste time like that anymore!
Community argument is compelling, but there are so many ways for communities to stay in touch now. I don’t think it has to come at the cost of so many Facebook negatives (privacy, addiction, mental health, etc.)
The community argument isn't actually compelling. It creates "ghost-like" relationships, where you don't really know someone anymore and haven't for years, but act like you're still best friends, with occasional empty comments or likes. It's like eating cotton candy for dinner and acting like you have the energy a good steak would have given you. Many of them don't have email though, and phone chats are often difficult to coordinate. I think occasional visits is probably the best way to keep in touch with people you don't live near and thus see regularly. And if neither of you can manage to schedule that, then maybe there's no real connection there after all.
How can you do occasional visits if you don’t live nearby? A lot of people I know live across the country or in the middle of America or outside the US. Even seeing all of them occasionally would be very difficult. Unless you mean every few years? But that’s barely anything.
It seems to me life is meant to be lived most with the people you live near. No matter how much technology improves the ability to communicate long distances, it's never the same as being with those people. So maybe it does mean visiting only every few years, and maybe even less often. It's hard when those people are family though, because then you have a permanent connection with them. But sometimes friends drift apart (physically) and you make new ones (locally) instead, and that's okay.
I used to be like your brother; possibly worse. Overweight; unable to find motivation; waiting for things to fall into my lap; waiting for things to be 'perfect' before starting anything; hiding behind video games and blaming others for problems I created entirely. There's a lot of us out there, and your co-founder sounds like one too.
Don't be cruel or unkind, but be honest. Tell him to move aside, and go on without him for both your sakes. If you stay as you are you will both rot. If he can overcome his problems (with time - you can't force it on someone who doesn't want it) he will understand what you did, and why. If not, that's just too bad. I would bet, however, that your brother will eventually get tired of being tired, and pick himself up. When that time comes, you'll be there to reach back and pull him forward.
TL;DR - sleep properly, eat properly, exercise regularly, and learn to live in the present.
I learned to calm my mind by reading, and following the exercises in a series of books called, 'The power of now', and 'Practicing the power of now' by Eckhart Tolle. Some people have difficulty in picking up these books, particularly 'The power of now', because it was featured on Opera. Or because it's a'new age' title. If this is you (dear reader): get over yourself, and this book will change your life. It's a tiny book that you can read, cover to cover, in a few hours. It's available in many languages, and also as an audio book.
These books will teach you how to calm your mind by learning to be 'present'. You'll learn how to observe your mind -- how to accept the thoughts, obsessions, preoccupations about things that happened in the past; how to accept the worry, dread, and anxiety about things that may happen in the future. Past and future are important, but none truly affect you like the present. Right now, right this very moment as you read what I've typed, you are actually free of these burdens.
Learning to be present was foundational to everything else I've done to break out of the cycle. I became self-aware in a way that made it impossible to reconcile the various negative character traits I had developed from early adolescence. I stopped procrastinating not because I developed some super-human will power or laser-like focus, but because I learned to spot the moment my mind wandered away from the task at hand. I stopped waiting for things to be 'perfect' before starting something because, in the present, nothing is perfect or imperfect -- it just is what it is and that's that. I stopped waiting for things to fall into my lap (to get lucky) because, for the first time that I can remember, things started happening because I made them happen.
We'll call this Phase 1, from about 2012 to 2016. The problem is that over time I became complacent. I got used to the new 'normal'. I started using 'being present' as a band-aid, a life-hack that I could apply whenever I noticed I was going back to my old ways. I was also increasingly feeling tired and lacking mental and physical stamina; finding it difficult to stay sharp and focused in meetings, particularly in the afternoon. It got to the point where all those old problems -- procrastination, depression, anxiety -- were becoming more and more difficult to manage simply by being present. The problem: I was overweight, and likely suffering the effects of early type 2 diabetes; the effects of drinking soda with every meal, eating four or five meals a day, and limiting my physical exertions to getting on and off the bus to work.
This is when I discovered intermittent fasting, the Keto diet and regular exercise.
Phase 2, from about 2016 to the present. I bought a bicycle and started cycling to and from work (12 miles round trip). I stopped eating breakfast and lunch. I stopped drinking soda, and eating sweets. I reduced my carb intake to 5g a day. Within about a week, I had lost 3% weight. In the first month, I lost 8%. After three months, I was 15% lighter. I started sleeping better -- a LOT better -- and waking up effortlessly in the morning. I had never been a 'morning person', and used to set four or five alarms (and a dozen snoozes); now I don't even set an alarm. I can't help waking up early and feeling completely refreshed! I started wearing clothes that fit well -- this is an underrated, AMAZING feeling! At work, I stopped feeling tired at all; in fact, I was (and still am, almost to the annoyance of my colleagues) sharp and focused throughout the day.
> Did I do anything in particular to break out of the cycle?
If you're looking to begin, I would start all of the above at the same time. It's going to take a few months to really get going, but you'll feel the benefits almost immediately (certainly within the first week). After about a year, you will hardly recognise the person you used to be!
I wish I'd taken more time to write the response in a way that's easier to read; you are most welcome. If it's not working for you, or you need inspiration, or you want to share notes do feel free to drop me an email at nao-at-nao360.com. I have all the time in the world for people that want to be happy, and are willing to put in the work.
When my kids were about the age of yours, I did the bulk of my learning during the weekends; there was always at least half a day's worth of 'free' time distributed throughout those two days. I can't remember if it was Trello or Basecamp, but I used one of the online project/todo/card management sites to maintain a list of ideas/links/bookmarks etc., during the week (this is a lot of fun in itself, it's like filling a shopping cart!), and then worked off the board over the weekend. I found this helped me to appreciate the progress I was making -- it can feel quite slow-going in the beginning -- half a day a week amounts to 2 days over 4 weeks. Inevitably, as you progress (as you start to gain some proficiency in your new skill) you'll find yourself putting a few more hours in during the week; excitement and creativity being the greatest motivators! Good luck! It's not easy, but it's eminently do-able.
Do consider buying second hand, especially if it's a secondary machine.
Best of luck!