Welcome to our extra special super awkward holiday party episode. We take a break from the super serious no nonsense talk you’re used to from Etsy Jam and offer some answers to questions which will help you get to know Richie and I better. If you like ugly sweaters, awkward pauses, uncomfortable ice breakers and all the other fantastic parts of holiday parties, stick around!
What’s your favorite part about working full time at home?
Richie – My favorite part is having the family right here around the house. I can eat breakfast with them without worrying about rushing out of the house before they wake up or being late to office in traffic.
I can eat lunch with them and not having to miss dinner because I’m stuck in traffic either. Probably the lack of having to drive around makes that really nice.
Gordon – Not having to commute is the first thing that comes to mind. It was a real pain. Honestly, I didn’t realize how much of a pain it was until I stopped making that commute every day.
The other thing I really like about working from home is being here while my son is growing up. It’s really cool because even if I’m not engaging with him all throughout the day because I’m working – I’m still around for when certain things happen like that first time he laugh, or smile, or starts to really say things, or does something silly. I’m in the house for those things so when they can happen, I can be there quickly instead of totally missing out on those things.
Most challenging part about working full time at home?
Richie – Work – Life separation. It’s hard to leave something at the office when you live in the office. The same space where I keep the books and the whiteboard and other work stuff is right here. I walk by it all the time. So if I have an idea, I wanna run in and do something with it. It’s really hard to disconnect from it.
Gordon – Along the same lines of what Richie was saying; it’s the same deal of wanting to be accessible and be involved – but at the same time, I also need separation. I also need to be able to focus on work stuff and get things done too. Part of the problem is my office being here in the house; if they have a toy that’s broken, they come in to my office and now I’ve got not only my work stuff but also personal things are coming in as well. That’s one of the challenges. It’s keeping that separation and it’s also tough to set expectations because I don’t want to have a rigid schedule since I always enjoy flexibility and variety.
Top 4 Most Recommended Books
What would you say are your top books that you recommend people to check out if they haven’t read them already?
Richie:
Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. Its real focus is on the power of the present. Don’t worry about the past. Past is gone, past doesn’t exist. Future. Don’t worry about it because it hasn’t exist either. So to worry about anything aside from what your current reality is doesn’t make a lot of sense because you don’t know what’s gonna happen in the very next moment.
Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss. The book is really not about working less, it’s about working smarter. So of the 40 hours a week you work, what’s the 10% that’s actually the most productive and the most valuable? The most valuable 4 hours of your entire week. You don’t have to go through the book and do everything. Use it as lessons but the point is still to look for those 10% of what you do to get 90% of the results and see how you can implement that in your life.
Running Lean by Ash Maurya. This is part of the Lean Startup series. It’s a way to de-risk business ventures early on. Or projects in general. The idea is basically validating and seeing if this thing (your idea) has legs before you go out and spend a bunch of time and money on it.
Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon. I feel like a lot of people get caught up when they have business ideas. They need inspiration and they need to know it’s okay. This book has those lessons in it – you look at something, and you take that idea and you realize that it’s okay to do it because you’re doing something that’s different.
Gordon:
StrengthsFinder by Tom Rath. This was one that my previous job recommended. The premise of the whole idea is that a lot of times people tend to see what their weaknesses are and work to improve their weaknesses. The whole idea behind StrengthsFinder is that you identify what your strengths are and then you make sure you are amping those up as much as possible.
The Mythical Man Month by Fred Brooks. The concept behind the book is that you can’t just throw more people at a problem to solve it. So if you do have an office job, or if you are in any kind of management type position – this is probably a really good book for you. It’s really interesting. It’s a quick read and I like it!
Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty. The next ones are children books. Failure is okay. It’s okay to fail as long as you keep pushing forward especially if you have a passion at something. It’s a cool message that I don’t think often gets spoken about in children’s books and so I thought it’s a really cool one to share with kids. And it’s a good reminder for all of us.
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. It’s a short story about a tree that just keeps giving and giving and giving until it has nothing left because it loves this little boy so much. He doesn’t really realize at all that the tree is sacrificing for him until later on.
Favorite spare time activities
Richie – I like to spend my time in the water. When I was in Cleveland, I love being on Lake Erie. I love boating as well and being at the beach. So back when I lived in Cleveland, Lake Erie would be my jam and when I was on Florida, loved being in the ocean. One of my favorite activities too is hiking in the mountains. There’s something about mountains that I find really calming and humbling at the same time.
Gordon – In true nerd fashion, I would say almost all that’s related to my computer. Whether it’s a side techy project or messing with Raspberry Pi things, any kind of Linux thing, and computer games too. I’ve got a little fun project that I’m doing right now and that is to build out my own home automation control security system that’s running on a Raspberry Pi. Messing with Philips Hue lights with their API to do some pretty cool things are one of my favorites too. Just random techy tech things like that.
