Well I've not been updating nor reading much of the forums since I turned from an ere-wannabe to a careerist and workaholic to some extend. I still love you guys, but I don't think I have that much to contribute anymore. But still, if someone wants to read I'll update, since this is a nice place to write and receive free advice from very smart people!Not many news on the job promotions front, I am still at the same position/wage/department. There are a lot of rules and bureacracy that makes it hard to climb faster. After I complete two years in the position (next october), it will be easier, but I would rather not wait that much. You can guess I am a bit bored because of that.
New guys that were hired helped a great deal with building a new foundation for the systems we use there now. I became a kind of unofficial team leader, and these days I spent more time tutoring the less experienced programmers than actually programming. That's not bad, I think I like it. I feel sad sometimes because I would like to see dedication in people and not everybody is willing to put as much effort as necessary into the art. On the other side, I've been learning to judge better how much I can expect from each person and avoiding giving the wrong kind of assignment to each person, in a way that everybody can still be productive within their limitations. Their progress also makes me see very clearly how much of success in this field (or in any other I guess) is due not so much to natural talent or intelligence, but to time and effort that one puts towards improving their skills.
The bigger news is that after last brazilian presidential elections in November 2015, I became very disappointed with my country and culture. I kind of lost hope, and started to think about moving abroad to have a better life. I have a quite reasonable pay for my country, I have the most satisfaction I ever had in any job in my life. I have a couple of properties that are worth some money, I have a stable job. But for the first time in my life I started to see that a lot of the feeling of not fitting in that I always had in my life, is because of the culture of my country. So much corruption among everybody, in all levels. We are robbed daily since birth in so many levels and people who are educated to be honest have a very hard time findind their place. Also, economy is going south, and we faced the worst drought recorded here in Sao Paulo last year. It's nothing when compared to what California is suffering, but people and government are much less prepared here, and it will take time to adapt and build the infraestructure to live with this new climate. Meanwhile, we will suffer. Now we still have water in the pipes everyday, but only in the morning.
Also we have people being killed here daily by thieves, the violence numbers are quite ugly. You get used to seeing it on the tv and you can rationalize that it won't happen to you, but statistically is not a good place to be. Just this week I had to hit a guy on the street to defend myself: he asked for something and put his hand on my shoulder and then I pushed him back because he did physical contact with me. I kept walking, but he became mad because I pushed him, and then came after me. First he tried to throw a small rock at me, and then he got a really big one. I managed to get cover and was able to get close to him when he went behind a tree to get more rocks and wasn't seeing me. Since I had told him a lot of times to go away and he wouldn't, I had to use a punch and a hard kick to convince him otherwise. He had a big rock in his hand, if I wasn't paying attention he could have sneaked behind me and could have hurt me badly. When I first pushed him back, we were at like 100m away from a couple of cops. I don't know if they didn't see anything or if they didn't care.
So, after some research I decided that I want to try to immigrate to Canada. Most likely Toronto. ERE guys sometimes make their pile in a richer country and then move to a cheaper one to fast track their way into retirement. I am doing it backwards
The most difficult part will be selling my two properties I think. I have and ad online for the cheaper one, and I am learning to use facebook ads and google adwords to improve my chances to sell them. So far, I had one thousand clicks in my ad and one single message asking for some details. I answered it, and the person didn't write back.Because I felt I needed to have college or university degree, I started one in July 2014. I study via internet and it is two years long. I also have a electronics technician degree that I heard that will be recognized in Canada as "post-secondary", thus giving enough points in the immigration process to even make the college degree unnecessary. But I still have to send my diploma to make sure.
In other news, in December 2014 I became a brazilian jiu jitsu brown belt.
Not a very exciting life, and also not very ERE, but there you have it.
