Being self-employed can be tricky. In the (nearly) three weeks I’ve been without a boss I’ve had days of huge productivity and days of zero productivity. For a while I thought working for myself would mean a flexible schedule, with lots of time to do whatever I want. Indeed if I so desired I could put 60+ miles on the bike every morning, wearing compression tights while I sit at my computer and code for the afternoon and evening. Or I could travel all over the place, see friends endlessly, and live the good life.
What I’ve described above is the self-employment struggle — no clear deadlines or outside pressure, nothing but self-induced desires and goals. The urge to stay-cation is huge, yet productivity is critical. I should be the busiest I’ve ever been in my life right now. The only way I’ll succeed is by building awesome shit, enabling me to have more meaningful conversations with investors. I quit my job to give myself the time I need to prototype ideas and speak to investors. I didn’t quit to get more free time. Self-employment, at least the kind that will hopefully one day lead to a technology startup, is about working hard, not taking a vacation.
Overall I’ve been insanely impressed with Android’s documentation. I’d even go so far to say that the Android platform has the best documentation of any platform or technology I’ve ever learned, including Django and Python.
However, I couldn’t find much on the semantics of the onCreate() and onUpgrade() methods in android.database.sqlite.SQLiteOpenHelper, which is a class that helps you open and upgrade a SQLite database. I’ll describe below how these methods are called when databases are created and upgraded.
Database Creation
When the SQLite database is constructed for the first time, as you’d expect the onCreate() method is called, creating the tables you’ve defined and executing any other code you’ve written. However, this method will only be called if the SQLite file is missing in your app’s data directory (/data/data/your.apps.classpath/databases). This method will not be called if you’ve changed your code and relaunched in the emulator. If you want onCreate() to run you need to use adb to delete the SQLite database file. The sqlite3 tool description has more context here.
Database Upgrading
The constructor of your implementation of SQLiteOpenHelper should call the super constructor, passing along the database name and version. The onUpgrade() method will only be called when the version integer is larger than the current version running in the emulator. If you want the onUpgrade() method to be called, you need to increment the version number in your code.
As I was waiting for a friend at San Francisco’s Union Square, one of the main downtown tourist attractions, I noticed a man handing out flyers for Jews for Jesus. This man, who has no idea I’m writing this post, reminds me that patience and tolerance are qualities we must each cherish and devote ourselves to.
My initial reaction to seeing his Jews for Jesus messenger bag was–I’m ashamed to admit–judgmental. The rhetorical questions started poluting my mind: why would someone spend their Monday afternoon handing out flyers for a religion I’ve never really understood? Aren’t Jews who believe in Jesus not actually Jewish? Isn’t that the point of Christianity?
As my self-righteous stream of judgement continued, the man turned just slightly so I could see his face as he handed out flyers. He was a middle-aged man, average in height, average in build. He wore a baseball cap, messenger bag, and a hoody, all with “Jews for Jesus” written in large letters. His jeans were Levis, his shoes designed for running and sport. His flyers were yellow. And each careful attempt at handing a flyer to a passing tourist came with a slight, yet sincere smile. He was completely normal, a man devoted to a belief, cautiously handing flyers to people passing by, with what seemed like no shame for being one of those people who give away those damned flyers.
I was so ashamed with myself I almost wanted to cry. There I was, waiting on that sunny street corner, probably reading some redundant tech blog on my iPhone 4, only noticing him when I looked up to locate my friend. I judged him for his beliefs instead of admiring him for his devotion and apathy for foolish and ignorent judgement from people like me.
Although often flyers are given out by pushy, annoyed people, many of them mean well and are only cautiously promoting something they believe. The same is true for beggars: some of them are pushy in their requests to spare some change, while others are doing what they need to do to be happy or accomplished. Whether you accept a flyer or give away some change is your decision. All I ask is that you treat everyone with patience and tolerance, understanding that all of us–homeless, rich, poor, devoted, what have you–are after the same mission: to be happy.
I took a photograph of the Jew for Jesus to remind me of that dreadful feeling I had when I realized that instead of judging this man, I should admire him for his courage and devotion. Although I don’t believe in his beliefs–and frankly I would still not accept a flyer–I have a new respect for him and other people in his situation.
Time has a fantastic article about happiness, money, experiences, and possession. If you have the time I’d suggest reading the article. Otherwise I’ll give a quick commentary below. Here’s a great excerpt from the article:
There’s been a lot of recent research on this subject, much of it conducted at Tom’s home institution, Cornell University (a lot of it by Tom). And the answer is clear. If you’re conflicted about whether to spend money on a material good (say, a computer) or personal experience (say, a vacation), the research says you’ll get much more satisfaction — and for longer — if you choose the experience.
I can’t agree with this more. Sometimes I worry that I have too many possessions - two surfboards, a snowmobile, two snowboards, three bikes, two computers, one car, the list goes on. However, all of these possessions enable me to have experiences with my friends. The most happy moments of my life have been on my bike, snowboard, or snowmobile with my friends or family. I’ve found myself uncontrollably yelling with joy during my experiences. And I recall those experiences countlessly with those same friends and family. I get as much if not more joy recalling these experiences as I do actually participating in them.
An experience, whether it’s athletic, food- or drink-related, travel, or anything else, has brought me far more happiness than my possessions. I justify new or better possessions based on the quality and quantity of the experiences I’ll have with said possessions.
Every year at the beginning of July, France is host to the most legendary race of the year. Over 180 professional cyclists from around the world start a 21-day race that will cover more than 2,200 miles and climb over dozens of mountains. The Tour de France tests these cyclists both physically and mentally, awarding the holy yellow jersey to the fastest overall rider. This year’s tour, apart from being the most entertaining tour I’ve ever seen, showed me how dependent success is on determination. I’ll give a quick recap below.
This year’s Tour de France ended yesterday on the Champs-Élysées, putting a close to the epic race which was determined the day before on the individual time trial. Amongst the favored winners for this year were Cadel Evans of Australia and Andy Schleck of Luxemburg.
On Thursday, July 21, with four stages to go and Thomas Voeckler wearing yellow, Andy Schleck attacked in the mountains. He would win the Queen stage that day, and only miss yellow by a few seconds. The next day, again in the mountains, Andy would perform well and wear the yellow jersey, with a margin of almost a minute on Cadel Evans.
With Andy in yellow, the tour would enter the final determining stage on Saturday, the individual time trial (TT). This stage is different than all other stages, because riders pedal solo against the clock, without team members to draft. Cadel needed to make up one minute of time on Andy to win the tour, to be the first ever Australian to wear yellow on the podium in Paris. All Andy needed to do was maintain his minute lead. Andy, riding last, had a huge advantage, too, because he knew exactly how his time compared to Cadel.
Cadel would win Saturdays stage, beating Andy’s overall time by 94 seconds. Cadel out raced Andy on the individual TT by over two minutes. He rode like a champion. He rode with determination. You could see his passion and commitment to win in his face. He wanted the yellow jersey more than anything. He left everything on the road that day, determined to win, determined to bury his body and forget everything he’s ever done to focus solely on winning. Meanwhile, Andy rode with excuses. You could tell by looking at his face, at his pedal strokes. Throughout the tour he complained about descents being too technical, ultimately upset that the tour wasn’t being determined in the mountains. Though I haven’t heard what Andy had to say about Saturday’s individual TT, I could tell what he was thinking by his riding. He was thinking about how lame the individual TT was, how a tour should never be determined by a TT. He was making excuses to himself, reminding himself that he trained to his strengths in the mountains, instead of to his weakness on the TT bike.
Determination is all it takes to succeed. Often we focus on what we’ve done instead of what we need to do. We can’t make excuses. Excuses haven’t gotten us to where we are today. Whether you’re racing on the bike or trying to start your own company, you need to focus everything you have on what’s in front of you, on what you need to do to win. Forget how you’ve trained or what jobs you’ve had previously — those don’t matter anymore. All that matters is your determination to do whatever it takes to win. Cadel is the first Australian to ever win the Tour de France because he was determined to win on Saturday. Instead of making excuses and distracting himself from his goal, he focussed, performed, and won. Congratulations, Cadel. I was originally rooting for Andy, but you deserve the glory that will rest on your shoulders for the rest of your life.
Lastly, I’ll leave you with a wonderful commencement speech from Bill Cosby. I can’t tell you how much this speech has inspired me. I strongly recommend that you listen to the entire speech. It’s a beautiful story and analysis of you.
After an amazing year or so at Atlassian, I’ve decided to leave in pursuit of my dream to create a consumer mobile/web company. I’ve had this dream for as long as I can remember, and though I’m deeply sad to be leaving an amazing company, I’m utterly excited about my decision. As of July 8th I’ve been officially a self employed, struggling entrepreneur. And it feels awesome.
I can’t begin to describe how amazing my time at Atlassian was. While sitting on the marketing and developer relations teams I’ve learned an immense amount both on how to market software and also on how to facilitate and grow a developer ecosystem around a product. Though my time was brief, I wouldn’t exchange my experience at Atlassian for anything. Besides hard skills and experience I’ve also learned how awesome and friendly a company can be. Atlassian’s culture is truly unique, especially in the business-to-business software space. Where other companies in this space are bland, Atlassian is exciting, enjoyable, and electric. I’ve made some amazing friends during my time at Atlassian, and I’m sad I won’t be seeing their shining faces every day.
My dreams and desires are finally becoming reality. I’ll move from the observer to the doer in this crazy technology world, prototyping each idea as it comes with the hope that one can become a company, with investment, employees, and a dream to change the world. Wish me luck, and please keep in touch. Your advice and support has always been and will continue to always be paramount!
Hacker News is a software startup news aggregator, read by a large portion of the software startup community. Articles bubble up to the front page as the community votes on interesting content. A typical Hacker News article might be about a new Apple or Google product, or a new internet law the government recently passed. Or maybe a neat Python tip, or a sweet tutorial for Go, Google’s new programming language. The articles that catch my attention, though, are stories of entrepreneurs, both successful and failed, telling their tales of starting from nothing and ending with users and profits and fame. These articles are intended to inspire us, to teach us about anecdotes that we ourselves can follow when we embark on the entrepreneurial journey that so many people in the software industry dream of. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned about reading Hacker News, it’s that you become an entrepreneur by doing, not reading.
In the year or so that I’ve been reading Hacker News, I’ve likely read at least 50 stories from entrepreneurs that I look up to. These stories–though inspiring and often interesting–all have the same theme, the same purpose. These stories tell us that the road to entrepreneurship is paved with experience and risk and challenge. To be an entrepreneur I need to be an entrepreneur. I need to take the risk, pursue a passion or idea, and be desperate to learn how to shift and mold that idea into a business.
The road to entrepreneurship is well traveled, and certainly well told. But I need to make my own roads. I need to try things for myself.
