D. E. Williams
@dewilliamsco
Christian ✝️; Husband/Father; Semi-Retired at 45 (Consulting); Board Member, Investor, AI Advisory; Faith, Family, Financial Freedom
Having kids changes you as a person. You are reborn as someone who will sacrifice life, limb, & blood for this baby whom you just met. While parenting is exhausting when they are young, raising them and seeing them learn and develop unique perspectives on the world is worth it.
"Happiness comes and goes, but the meaning of being directly connected by DNA to a human you brought into this world is ever lasting." world.hey.com/dhh/children-o…
A good friend of mine got AWS certified (pro architect), then got the Azure pro certs. They earn $500k+/yr helping customers migrate from Azure to AWS, AWS to Azure, and advising on multi-cloud architecture. The Azure certs are what set them apart from the crowd.
There is actually a big demand Azure because most people pick AWS.
🎯 It may not be that we’re burnt out. We just aren’t doing enough of what fuels our fire and purpose.
Had a chat with friend and his words punched me in the gut... "What if we're burnt out not because we're doing too much, but because we're doing too little of what lights us up.”
Most athletes & entertainers are not part of the “elite.” The elite have degrees, credentials, social and professional networks, & live a stable/traditional lifestyle (marriage, 2-parent household, children). With a few notable exceptions (LeBron, Hurts), there is no overlap.
black doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc do notttt associate with the entertainers and athletes like that😭😭😭😭 very much a divide between the black “elite@
We moved back to VA from SoCal specifically because my parents and in-laws were getting older (mid-70s now). They’re all still healthy but I can see the aging in real time. A friend of mine sent me this book to help us plan with them.
Gen X, Millennials, even Gen Z, better listen up. Many of us will soon be responsible for aging parents if you are not already. Financially. Medically. Emotionally. And if you’re not ready, it will hit you like a ton of bricks.
Shout out to Harvard’s CS50. This free online course saved my life after I almost died in 2012. I needed something to do while I was recovering in the hospital and at home and discovered CS50 by accident. Best CS class I’ve ever seen.
YouTube - ❌ Certificates MDN - ❌ Certificates W3Schools - ❌ Certificates Top 11 FREE Certificate Sites:
Make sure to get signed and notarized advanced directives (medical and financial) before there is any cognitive decline with your parents. The documents need to be clear that you can make decisions for them, but you are not personally responsible for their bills or debt.
We don’t talk enough about what aging really costs. Assisted living could cost between $4K–$8K per month, in-home care cost $25–$30 per hour, not to mention prescriptions, hospital stays, rehab. Or the time off work, transportation, food etc. It adds up fast.
These tools are fun, but I’ve noticed that these demos are always the most basic use cases. Todo lists, card generators, landing pages. It’s never anything remotely close to a real enterprise business use case with complex workflows, legacy processes, and integrations.
Today we’re releasing GitHub Spark — a new tool in Copilot that turns your ideas into full-stack apps, entirely in natural language.
You learn by building. Reading and watching tutorials will only get you so far. You have to roll up your sleeves are get to work. I said this on a coaching call this morning to a managing VP running a $150M/year P&L. Life-long building = Life-long learning.
which matters more: learning or building?
Like clockwork. Every couple of years there’s at least one major Microsoft hack or outage. I actually feel bad for the folks still maintaining SharePoint in 2025, but there are worst ways to make money.
🚨NEWS: US NUCLEAR WEAPONS AGENCY BREACHED BY HACKERS VIA MICROSOFT
This book looks like an interesting read. I’m firmly in level 4 and building a business. I’ve seen this info on stages of wealth presented in different ways but none this clean and simple.
This is beyond good.
Life is far easier today than the 1970s or 1980s, when most of our parents came of age.
Life has always been hard. This consistent whining about how easy "boomers" had it is corny and lazy. Read a damn article and watch a documentary. Life has always been hard. Stop bitching
Yes, AI does slow down experienced software developers, initially. This is because it is a new skill that must be learned through trial and error. reuters.com/business/ai-sl…
Great leaders and entrepreneurs: 7 and 8 Competent leaders: 5 and 6 Mediocre leaders: 3 and 4 Most politicians and lazy people: 1 and 2
The Ladder of Accountability
There’s a whole book written on this subject detailing the well meaning, but misguided plan to replace physical books with screens. afterbabel.com/p/edtech-trage… teachertaskforce.org/sites/default/…
Replacing textbooks with Chromebooks was a mistake
Prediction: we will see more and more ads, research papers, and public policy promoting fatherhood, motherhood, marriage, and 2-parent homes over the next few years.
I feel the pendulum swinging... Good job, @Nike.