I'm excited to announce I have a new project. I'm giving away all my secrets.
The secret that will probably be most useful to everyone is how to practice the art of programming. I've created a five day course to introduce this art to anyone who's interested, regardless of experience. Right now the course is in beta testing - still secret! - but I'll announce when it's open to everyone.
Is it a recipe for disaster to give away your secrets? Don't you lose all your power when everyone knows what you know?
I've never believed that, and my life has proved it. I've made it a principle to give my knowledge to others as I was given knowledge when I started. Years ago, I made my living teaching guitar, and it made me a better musician. Having more musicians around means better bandmates. A rising tide lifts all boats.
Likewise with teaching programming. Whether as a consultant for Fortune 500 companies like American Express and VMWare, or working with novice developers coming from disadvantaged backgrounds, giving away secrets has been some of the most rewarding stuff I've ever done.
There's a deeper component to secrets. The concept of "authenticity" got discussed to death a few years ago, but I still believe the core message: the closer your internal life resembles your external life, the stronger you become.
There's two ways to make those lives match. You can make the internal external, by releasing it into the world. Or, you can make the external internal, by accepting the world as it is, but changing how you choose to view it.
Here's another secret: I'm excited about my new project, but excitement can sometimes be indistinguishable from fear. Developing this course has required me to get familiar with a lot of skills I didn't have, like email marketing and business plans. Learning new things can be scary, but I choose to view fear as excitement.
So, I'm looking forward to giving away all my secrets. My greatest hope is that people will find them useful. Thanks as always for your attention - I promise I'll treat it with the utmost respect.