Shylands

After a Decade of Staying Silent, I've Started to Blog. But Why?

2018-07-30T17:48:02Z

Back in the early 2000s, when the web was still in its infancy, I used to share a lot on its ever-emerging platforms, connecting with strangers without a second thought. MySpace became my go-to sounding board and place for online socialising. I found myself letting it all out there, without any hesitation. The carefree young web was a great place to be. Much like a child, it was discovering its potential, with every baby step it took. And with it, I was discovering a brave new world, where people could connect instantly and exchange ideas, with no prejudice.

But upon entering my early 20s, something changed, and I stopped sharing. I’m not entirely sure what happened. Perhaps with the webs growth I had become more aware of how visible and permanent the content I shared was. Or it could be that the abundance of new voices popping up each second, made mine feel a bit ordinary, like it was of no real value.

I’d spend hours reading forum posts but never reply. I’d write tweets and hit cancel before sending. But as someone who works on the internet, I felt the need to put myself more out there. Yet, when I came to doing it, I’d feel anything I could say had already been said.

So I stayed silent. A mere observer.

And here I am, 10 years later, a lifetime apart. Since then, I’ve founded startups and liquidated them. Launched projects that were shut down shortly after. Learnt new skills and forgot old trades. Visited new places and experienced foreign cultures, that made me crave for more. Despite all that I haven’t said much. When I did it was usually work related and out of necessity.

Finding my voice

In the past year, something has changed. I’ve arrived at a point where I’m compelled to start sharing again. I finally feel like I have something to say. My desire to speak up began with a change to my usual reading material. For years I’ve been topping up my existing design and tech knowledge, never straying far from what I already understood. But this information was no longer satisfying me. I felt it was time to break out of my close-minded interest sphere and seek new knowledge.

This quest has become one of the most valuable experiences of my life.

With every piece of breakthrough knowledge uncovered, I became energised with fresh ideas for my life and work. I found each new concept compounded upon the last. I started to open up to other possibilities and things to learn I’d never have considered before. I had developed an addiction to learning about the things I don’t yet understand.

I discovered functional medicine, meditation, stoicism and the history of Homosapiens. I started to appreciate the importance of organic produce and products.

I considered life changes to optimise my health, performance and productivity. I experimented with new habits, keeping the ones that assisted with my goals and discarding those that didn’t. I started to contemplate the future of humanity and to iterate on a viewpoint of how it should be.

In short, I woke up and became prepared to question my own beliefs, realities and systems, and those of the world around me too. However, despite finding fulfilment in the expansion of my horizons I felt frustrated.

Frustrated at myself for not prioritising learning sooner. Frustrated that in classrooms and conversations of my past I hadn’t been learning the right things.

In fact, often I was learning the opposite of what I now consider fundamental human knowledge, with many of the teachings of my past having no basis in reality—and not knowing any better I went along with them. I was rarely questioning why.

Why are these things I believe now to be such essential knowledge so unknown to the majority of people? Perhaps they are known, and I’m the oblivious guy being left behind. But if that’s the case, why did I have to look so hard to find the truths I was seeking? Is it because not enough people are questioning their own reality?

Question everything

Question why are our supermarkets filled with processed crap. Question why we spend most of our lives sitting rather than moving. Question why some people just accept ‘news’ articles as real when there are clear facts to disprove them. Question why there is so much poverty when 1% of humans on earth own 50% of the wealth. Question why are we knowingly destroying the only planet we have to live on.

In the year 2018, we shouldn’t still be teaching and spreading the incorrect, factless information that leads to these kinds of questions being asked. We need to take a hard look at why they need to be asked, and think about the consequences to world if we move past them sooner rather than later. We should be asking ourselves — why does it have to be this way?

Accepting the status quo of the modern world is madness. I believe we can change it.

With the web, we have been granted a gift that can facilitate change. Its open platforms enable us to make quick, impactful progress. Together we need to move the knowledge-needle and start course correcting.

This can be achieved by helping humanity become prepared to question why things are the way they are. Ready to identify the differences between facts and fictions. Ready to make logical conclusions. Ready to solve problems. Prepared to take actions that lead to positive improvements for everyone.

I’ve had enough of outdated systems, bullshit rules and made up beliefs. Haven’t you?

This is why I’ve decided to start a blog. I yearn to help others become comfortable questioning their beliefs and those of the world around them. To assist people in getting to a point where they question something new, before they accept it. So they can achieve a state of genuine self-awareness.

From now on I won’t be silent any longer, I’ll write articles and share tweets I think will help. Eventually I plan to build software that helps too.

If my efforts make a difference to even one person, I’ll consider it to have been a worthwhile endeavour.

How I Created a Feeling of Accountability to Help Launch a Side Project

2018-07-30T17:48:03Z

Do you have projects you struggle to get off the ground? I know I do.

My portfolio website shylands.com has plagued me for over a decade. It took me 8 years to replace the original version from 2007, a small lifetime on the internet. The replacement was intended to be temporary too. A quick update before a full blown redevelopment. That was 2015.

Fast-forward to 2018… In the 3 years since the last update I’ve dabbled with new versions from time to time. But none of those ever had my full commitment, and inevitably never saw the light of day.

Why couldn’t I get it launched?

Starting was never my problem. I could even muster up a head of steam and make decent progress. However out of nowhere I’d second-guess a decision I had been so sure of mere hours before. If I couldn’t find a solution then and there I would stop working on it. “I’ll come back to this later” I’d tell myself.

Life continued, “later” never really seemed to happen. The project would drift from my mind. When “later” did finally come around months would have passed. By then everything about my work would no longer “feel right”. So it hit the scrapheap. Losing momentum and confidence in a project sucks. I’d bet it’s something ever web maker struggles with from time to time, but they couldn’t be as hopeless as me right?

Earlier this year and right on schedule, I had a new desire to relaunch shylands.com — but for the first time as a blog. Surely this time would be different. The idea stayed in my head for months, before I told a few friends that I wanted to start writing. They seemed excited to see what I’d produce, and I became motivated to push ahead. Yet I still didn’t do anything about it. Many months would pass again. I wanted to start, but I didn’t. What was holding me back?

Did I prefer spending my free time doing other things? Or maybe I was afraid of putting myself out there? I’ve managed to launch countless projects with other people, but very few of my own. Why did I find this such a challenge?

I learnt long ago from working in startups that the best course of action is usually to launch quickly. Why couldn’t I apply this learning to my personal projects and just get them out the door?

It was then I had an epiphany.

I needed a deadline that had to be met. I needed people to help push me forward when I hit a wall. I needed the accountability I’d get from a team. As long as I was only accountable to myself, I’d continue with my struggles to launch anything. I wondered—could I find a way to create a feeling of real accountability? A sense of pressure, a commitment it would pain me to break.

I opened up ProductHunt and searched for a tool that could help me fix my problem. There I discovered an accountability service offering to act like your boss, at a small cost. While I liked elements of the idea, being accountable to a total stranger didn’t appeal to me.

Then there was Work In Progress—a maker community working in public. This solution resonated with me and seemed closer to something that might work. Yet I didn’t feel confident that if I joined I’d garner the direct accountability I coveted. Sharing my goals publically could compel me to complete them. But if it didn’t, how would I combat my own worst enemy—myself.

Instead, I decided to tweet and see if anyone in my network fancied being my boss for a month. A proposal I’m not sure my followers viewed as legitimate. As you’d expect I received a couple witty retorts, but I did get one real offer from @tyndyll. Result!

He had been struggling with the same problem of accountability in his projects. We conceived of a solution we thought could work, and decided to conduct an experiment.

We’d create a place where people could come to be held accountable for their goals. Somewhere they could define their projects targets, and then assemble a group who had agreed to offer feedback, encouragement, and most importantly accountability.

To form my group for shylands.com, I invited industry friends @keizgoesboom, @willmcneilly, @wakeuphate and @overture8. People I felt would be up for taking part. Then I returned to Twitter to see if I could round out the group with a few folks I was less familiar with. I wanted a blend of friends and acquaintances.

You’re more likely to get feedback from your friends, but you’ll also be more comfortable failing before them. By including people I was less familiar with, I felt a stronger compulsion to succeed—probably because I didn’t want to face the embarrassment of failing in front of my peers.

The concept resonated with designers @theshawe, @carolinepixels and they rounded out my group.

Full steam ahead! I was pumped.

The process of asking for accountability had already lit a fire under me. I had a burning desire to avoid failure in front of this group. At all costs.

Creating the experiment

Every project needs a name. In a conversation with group member Melissa Keizer, she named it the wonderfully punny Checkmates. The experiment would take place in a Slack chatroom. I set it up, outlined what I needed to be held accountable for, invited the group and got to work!

Without drawing out the details, the end result was a successfully launched project, on time. I even managed to squeeze in a stretch goal by writing a third blog article.

Not only did I achieve a feeling of real accountability throughout, but I found the groups feedback led to the launch of a better end product.

In addition, we had a second accountability project setup by Will, and hopefully, more will follow. I know I’ll be using this approach going forward for further developments to shylands.com and other side-projects.

From my own point of view, the experiment was a success. It compelled me to meet a 5-year-old goal in 23 days.

But Checkmates is not a perfect solution, nor do I expect it would work for everyone. Group members are graciously giving up their own time to help you out, so you can’t expect constant interaction or feedback.

My offer to them was to reciprocate in their own Checkmates group, or help with anything else they might need in future. It remains to be seen if anyone will ever take me up on my offer. To value my proposal, the group members first need to have a desire to launch a side project. They then must have bought into the Checkmates concept enough to work on it there. Finally, they’d need to value my opinion; otherwise, the only benefit I can give to them is accountability.

Why not try it yourself?

Do you have any a side project you’re struggling to launch? Or perhaps one rattling around your head you can’t quite bring yourself to start? Why not see if you can pool together your own Accountability Group from people you know or your own followers?

If you do, please share your results with me. 😃

Adaptations to the Modern World: Sitting

2018-07-30T17:50:03Z

Humans have adapted away from the lives they evolved to live. Adaptations to the Modern World is a series comparing how we lived in prehistoric times with how we live today. How have we changed to fit a world filled with cars, phones, fast food, and everything else we now call normal?

It considers how we’ve diverged from the time-tested practices of our ancestors; pondering how these changes have affected us both mentally and physically.

Like every species on earth, we evolved to make the most of our environment. In our case, that meant we slowly changed over hundreds-of-thousands of years to survive in nature as hunter-gatherers. We lived in this way for by far the longest period of our existence.

Roughly 12,000 years ago, the vast majority of humans drastically changed how they lived when they began farming. From then changes came thick and fast. We had more time and freedom to develop new ways to survive, and we allowed ourselves more opportunities to establish other systems and ideas.

Fast forward 12,000 years and we now live in a world that’d be alien to hunter-gathers. The problem is, we didn’t have enough time to evolve to suit the world we created.

Our bodies and minds aren’t much different than they were 12,000 years ago. Nevertheless, we’ve forced them to adapt to a foreign lifestyle.

This is a series of articles, delving into these human adaptations, made to suit a modern world. Have they benefited us? Harmed us? Are we ok to keep going the way we are? Or if we want to become a healthier species, more physically and mentally prepared for today’s world. Do we need to take a step back to our roots?

First, I take a look at an activity we all love to do, sitting.

Sitting

There is nothing wrong with sitting. We have always been able to, and have sat on our bottoms from time to time.

The fact that we sit is not a problem. The problem is that we now sit for lengthy periods of time, often in unnatural positions. Let’s compare some of the reasons for sitting in prehistoric and modern lifestyles.

Prehistoric Humans: Why They Sat

To relax
To relieve fatigue
To participate in a group event
To prepare a meal
To eat
To watch something

Modern Humans: Why We Sit

All the same reasons
To watch TV
To use a device (phone, game console)
To work (desk job)
To drive
To go to the toilet
To fly
To move around with a disability

Our reasons for sitting have dramatically increased haven’t they? It’s only natural to assume that with this increase, we now sit a hell of a lot more than we sat pre-Netflix.

Next, consider how we sat then and how we sit now.

Prehistoric Humans: How We Sat

It’s safe to assume Prehistoric humans didn’t have access to chairs, at least as we know them today. The earliest record of a chair I could find is from 3100 BC, not that long ago at all. Before that it’s likely our options were a little bit more limited:

On the ground — crossed legs, on knees, leaning on our side or lying down. We don’t know exactly, but we likely did it all.
On a rock or branch that raised them off the ground (most like today).
On a prehistoric chair — They might have crafted with their modest tools something chair like. For example a stack of rocks against a tree, they may even have draped an animal hide over it for comfort, we’ll never know.
In a squat position — In ancient times we often squatted down whenever we wanted to rest. This practice still happens today in places like Asia. It seems that westerners have forgotten this skill. Forgotten it to the extent where we’re unable to it in a squat for any length of time.

Modern Humans: How We Sit

If I was to ask you to visualise sitting, what would you think of? I’m guessing you see an object which lifts your rear-end off the ground and supports your back. A chair. There are many other forms of chairs, but this is the normal form. How we sit in them also varies and depends on the activity we’re doing (if any).

Some of us place our lower back in the support of the chair and sit up straight, others slouch away from it We might then put our feet up or recline backwards. Frequently we add another object in front of it to lean over, like a table.

Prehistoric Humans: How Long They Sat

Much like today, we likely sat for as long as life allowed us to. But it’s doubtful the world let us settle for very long, or that we were as comfortable in one fixed position over time.

You had to eat, so you had to hunt or gather to survive, that meant lots of movement. We migrated to where the food was when our local resources ran out. We undoubtable did a lot of sitting around too. But what if it started to rain? Or a neighbouring tribe attacked?

To conclude, back then we moved around much more.

Modern Humans: How Long We Sit

How long we sit today varies from human to human, and place to place. But our modern world has developed in a way that sitting for a protracted length of time is often required, or fun to do.

Thanks to attention absorbing tech, we can stay fixed and stimulated for hours on end. We can even jump between attention-grabbing mediums without needing to get up. When it’s time to work, most of us are employed to sit in offices. Our work environments are seats and desks waiting for us to occupy them for 8 hours every day. To get to these jobs, well you guessed it we sit more. Whether we’re commuting by car, bus, train or plane, more often than not we sit to get to work.

Modern life is a never-ending journey from seat to seat.

Why Does It Matter How Modern Humans Sit?

Yes the human body did evolve to be capable of sitting, but it also evolved the capability to crawl, stretch, run, walk, climb, swim and lie down. Yet many of us today are paying the price for staying more sedentary than we move.

By sitting a lot, and in particular for an extended period of time, our bodies are adapting in unnatural ways. A typical seated position today, puts enormous strain on your neck, spine and back muscles. Especially if you sit with poor posture. This often leads to muscles weakening, becoming tight from limited use, which can cause severe and permanent physical issues.

Research has shown over-sitting contributes to weight gain, anxiety and shortens lives. And it increases your risk of heart disease, diabetes, leg clots, varicose veins and cancer. Our sitting habits inflate our chances of becoming deformed, unhealthy and dying prematurely.

We need to rethink our approach towards sitting. Today. This issue might be well known, but there is a severe lack of change happening to try and fix it.

What Needs To Happen?

Schools must teach the importance of moving (preferably not while sitting so much). We do learn about the importance of exercise. But exercise alone doesn’t solve the damage of frequent prolonged sitting sessions. Education should make this understood.
Offices must provide ways for employees to work that get them away from seats.
Work breaks should be more frequent, and getting out and moving encouraged.
Governments should establish new regulations around this, and incentivise businesses to make changes.

These are just a few ideas. Whatever happens awareness of the harm we’re causing to ourselves must improve. So we can correct our damaging sitting adaptations before it’s too late.

We no longer need to move to survive the same lifestyle as our ancestors. But we do need to move to fulfil the biological needs of our physical form.

If we can bring awareness to this sitting epidemic and correct our adaptations, we will become healthier, live longer and be better equipped to adapt to whatever the future holds for us.

This article is based on research, with assumptions made. I am not a doctor, scientist or historian. Simply someone hoping to help people become more self-aware and willing to question why things are the way there are.

Making New Friends, in a New City as a Remote Worker

2018-10-05T17:50:03Z

In September 2018 I moved to the city of Cologne in Germany — the first time I’ve ever lived outside of Ireland. While I’ve always wanted to live in a new country, I must now do something I’ve struggled with throughout my entire adult life; making new friends.

Back home in Ireland, most of my closest friends were made naturally, when I was young, somewhere between 5 and 15. Since then, I rarely felt the need to make more friends.

Why?

Perhaps it’s because in situations where I must talk to a new person I struggle — often feeling uncomfortable and anxious, unsure of what to say. Or it might be because I’ve never felt the need to be surrounded by a big group of friends.

But now I’m in a new country, that speaks a different language with the only person I know being my girlfriend. If I don’t make new friends, I know that eventually, I will feel isolated and alone.

Rather than letting this become a problem, I want to tackle it head on and use it as an opportunity for personal growth.

While in Germany, I hope to make real friends, not just new acquaintances. I know this is going to be a challenge. Research has shown it can take at least 50 hours to forge a casual friendship and 200 for a close relationship. So to make this happen, I’ll have to be persistent and find people who want to achieve a similar goal.

The following is how I plan to approach making new friends in a new city.

Always keep my goals in mind

Become more comfortable talking to strangers
Make real friends not just acquaintances

Find people like me

We all want to be friends with people who share the same interests. Therefore, I feel it makes sense to focus on going where other people like me will be.

Co-working spaces

Since I’ll be working remotely, I believe that by having a dedicated co-working desk where I sit/stand most days, I’m likely to have an excellent opportunity to bond with fellow co-workers.

Industry meetups/events

Over the years I have gotten to know several people at design and tech events in Belfast. These events are great as everyone has a common interest in the subject matter and usually a desire to network.

Expat meetups

InterNations facilities various events for expats in cities around the world. A situation where every single person attending is looking to mingle with new people sounds perfect.

Language classes

I made lots of friends in school, taking a German class seems like a sensible way to meet people likely in a similar situation. Plus I badly need to learn German!

Other ideas

Talk to people on public transport - I’ve seen people do this in the past but to be honest, when someone tries to talk to me on a bus I’m mortified.
Carpool - BlaBlaCar is quite prominent in Germany and presents a situation where you pretty much have to talk to someone
Be neighbourly - Try my best to be friendly and not just awkwardly walk past any new neighbours.

Use ‘tools’ available to me to increase my chances

Apps

Tinder is probably the best real-world relationship establishing app ever created. Unfortunately, I’m yet to find a Tinder for friends that has a large pool of people to meet, so for me none of the current tools effectively solves the problem. Hopefully a leader will emerge in my time here.

New in City/Expat Online groups

A quick search shows countless Facebook groups for new people to meet and chat. To utilise these channels I will need to start and contribute to discussions, something I also struggle to do online.

Provide value to others

I hope that if I share valuable, interesting things on the internet that it will make others interested in getting to know me. Even better I could speak at an industry event (another fear that needs to be conquered).

Alcohol

Ok, this one I don’t want to do, however it has worked well for me in the past. My level of comfort talking to new people increases immensely when I have partake in a few drinks. This is a crutch I don’t want to lean on. I shouldn’t need alcohol to dilute my shyness. But alas I doubt that I will be able to avoid this crutch entirely. 🍻🇩🇪

In conclusion

Making new friends is likely easy for lots of people, and they’ll probably think this post is a bit over the top. But knowing myself, there’s a chance I will take the easy route and avoid antagonising my anxieties by talking to strangers. So I’m hoping by publishing this article I will feel compelled to put the effort in.

Do you have tips on how to meet new people?

If you think I’ve missed anything, I’d appreciate it if you could tweet me your tips on how to make friends in a new city.

Why I Quit Landscape Photography

2018-12-01T17:50:03Z

In 2009 I took up a new hobby — landscape photography. Around this time, HDR photography was gaining popularity online. And I became mesmerised with the vivid fantasy-like images of photographers such as Trey Ratcliff.

After spending countless hours researching the HDR process, I decided to give it a go. So I purchased my first DSLR camera, wide angle lens and tripod, and headed off to the Belfast Hills. There I stood in awe at a gorgeous sunset scene before I recaptured my focus, and snapped 3 bracketed exposures. Afterwards, I returned home to learn how to process my first HDR photograph.

I fell in love. In love with the thrill of exploring nature, on the hunt for the ideal scene to shoot. And in love with the process of editing a shot to perfection.

2009 - My first HDR shot

In hindsight, my first attempt had many issues, but I had adored every part of the journey to get there.

Over the next 8 years, I constantly strived to create a better HDR image. I’d read up on composition techniques before returning turning to the field to try them out. I’d upgrade my equipment to improve the image quality. I’d listen to feedback and gradually tone down my over-the-top HDR output. I’d research the best locations in Ireland and head off sometimes for days on the hunt for the perfect scene.

And to me it was all well worth it, I could see my work improve over time.

2009 vs 2011

2010 vs 2012

2012 vs 2016

2015 vs 2016

Yet over the last couple of years, I’ve taken less-and-less landscapes photographs. Leading me to today — where I don’t really take any. Sure I take the odd snap on my phone, but my camera stays at home in its bag.

Why did I quit?

Recently I’ve been pondering why I stopped. Considering various possible explanations:

Mobile phone photography had progressed far enough that you don’t need a DSLR anymore.
Everyone takes photos now, so it’s lost its appeal.
I explored every part of Ireland and lost the joy of discovering a new place.
I felt my time was better spent elsewhere, as it wasn’t contributing to any ultimate goal.

Yet to truly determine why, I had to drill deeper, and contemplate why I took up photography in the first place.

I had never desired to become a professional landscape photographer, for me, it was an escape — a hobby. After sitting with the question for a while I found my answer. What I loved the most was the journey of learning to create the best image I could.

Sadly I had come to a point where I’d achieved a level of ability I was happy with. The path to progress further was no longer as clear. Sure I could keep going – I am by no means anywhere near the level of the worlds best landscape photographers. But the quest to improve this particular skill no longer appealed me.

Instead, I found myself starting to fill my free time with a new hobby. And in a way, it’s the same hobby — learning.

Why I’m focused on learning

I’ve discovered a love for expanding my worldview. That means I’m not focused on learning any one thing. Instead, I’m approaching what to learn with an open mind. By doing so I’ve found I’m gaining new perspectives — and that new ideas and possibilities are opening up to me.

One day I might choose to focus in again on one interest as I did with landscape photography. But for now, I’m happy spreading my wings across a variety of new things.

While sometimes I do find it sad that I’ve stopped something that was a big part of my adult life. I’m still happy with my choice to pursue new interests. I’m exploring again, just in a different way.

Are you focused on the right things?

I recommend doing the following thought exercise. Sit and examine why you’re pursuing your own interests. If you discover a pursuit isn’t yet complete — great, keep going! But if it’s no longer providing the value it once did. Consider finding something else and starting a journey to learn something new. You might find it as refreshing and rewarding as I have.

Open-sourcing my photographs

Since I have a large collection of Irish landscape shots serving no purpose. I’ve decided to make them available for free to anyone who needs them. You can download my landscape photos on Pexels. If you use one please send me a message, I’d love to know where :)

My map of photogenic places in Ireland

I'm also sharing a Google Map I created. It charts the locations of over 220 photogenic locations in Ireland. Hopefully you can use it to also discover some of the amazing places I have on the beautiful island of Ireland.

Pro-tip: If you star the map whilst signed into your Google account, you can get directions to any location from the Google Maps iOS and Android apps.

Defining My Personal Mission

2019-02-09T17:50:03Z

Before I started blogging last year, I gave some thought to what I want to achieve in my life. Until then I’d only had notions. In my teens, I thought about attempting to become a world-renowned filmmaker. In my 20s I tried and failed to create a globally successful software business out of Northern Ireland.

Now that I’m in my 30s I’m thinking about things a little differently. I still have personal aspirations, but my perspective has changed. I feel I now know who I am, and have strong conviction in my beliefs. 32 years in, I’ve realised I want to do something more than just make money and achieve success.

I first defined a personal mission statement last July. Not long after I shared it with the group who held me accountable to start my blog.

My mission 1.0 — To help people become more self-aware and open-minded, so together we can make the world better, faster, and enjoy it in harmony.

At the time this felt right. It helped me shape what I would write about in my articles, and start to conceive of ways it could be achieved.

However seven months later it’s not sitting as well with my as it once was. I still completely agree with the statement, and hope that my efforts can achieve just that. But I’m not entirely sure if that specifically, or that alone is where I want to place my focus. Ideally, I’d also like to have a clearer end goal in mind which I can use to orient myself on my journey. So I’ve iterated on my mission statement:

My mission 2.0 — To have a positive impact on the world before I die. I’m still working out how.

My new mission statement is a placeholder. I’m acknowledging that I want to have a positive impact on the world, but I’m not entirely sure how quite yet. I am sure that I’m going to do everything I can to work it out. To start I’ve defined what I believe to be positive value for the world.

I believe a positive impact would be:

Helping people to be more open-minded so they are more accepting of others
Helping the world to trust more in information backed up by evidence
Helping people to question and not just accept the way things are
Preventing climate catastrophe so our world remains habitable
Helping restore and preserve the natural world
Removing corporate influence and corruption from governments
Stopping things that don’t need to happen (murder, rape, violence, war, poverty)
Helping people to become more aware of the effects modern society has on their minds and bodies, and take action
Free healthcare and education for all

These are some (not all) of the things that I believe would make the world a better place.

Your mission

Have you given any thought to your own mission? You might have completely different ideas to me — and that’s ok. You don’t have to think globally either, there’s nothing wrong with pursuing a more localised goal, the effects of your efforts could spread organically. The most important thing is to do what you believe in.

My only advice is that you try looking outwards rather than inwards. Consider what you want to leave behind when you’re gone before deciding on your life’s work.

Progressing my mission

Since my mission is still in flux, I’ve decided to create a mission changelog. When I gain some more clarity I’ll update it. For now, I know I’m trying to have a positive impact on the world before I die. I’m still working out how.

I’d love to hear from anyone who has worked out their own mission or are in the process of figuring it out. If you fancy a chat about missions send me an email.

Helping Prevent Climate Breakdown

2019-05-08T17:50:03Z

Like many people, I’ve been aware of the risks posed by climate ~~change~~ breakdown for many years, and like most people, I haven’t been doing much about it — until now. In mid-April 2019 the urgent need for action was pushed into the spotlight thanks to the Extinction Rebellion activists among others. Their actions motivated me to focus my thinking on what I could do to help prevent our climate from breaking down.

While researching climate benefiting lifestyle changes, I found most of the information to be poorly organised and hidden within blog posts scattered around the internet. I couldn’t find a single, easily consumable point of truth that I’d be happy sending to a friend to learn more.

I felt there was a problem, so why not try and solve it? There and then I decided to start ClimateChoice (No longer online). A place to learn the choices you can make to reduce your carbon footprint and help others to act. One easily readable, shareable website.

Rather than developing ClimateChoice alone, I wanted to find a few like-minded collaborators. On 22nd April I tweeted:

I'm developing a website to help people work out what they can do right now to prevent climate breakdown.

Is anyone interested in working on it with me? All skillsets welcome, the only thing you need is motivation to make a difference. 🌎🙌
— Steven Hylands (@shylands) April 22, 2019

To my surprise, I received dozens of offers. It seemed I had identified another problem - people are motivated to prevent climate breakdown, but they aren’t sure how to help. I wondered… could all these interested parties be brought together in one place to join forces and create their own projects?

Within a couple of hours, a new collaborator (@jp_aulet) and I had set up a Slack group and website for Impact Makers - A community of tech people who want to have a positive impact by helping prevent earth’s climate breaking down.

Two weeks later we have a community of 115 tech people discussing climate breakdown problems and ideas on how to solve them. My own project has attracted a couple of collaborators in @thepaulmcbride and @tobequitefrank1 and is well under development, with plans to launch on 19th May.

Impact Makers

Building the community has been a great experience, but not one without issues.

Committing to work on a climate awareness or action project requires you to sacrifice your time. As you’re unlikely to make any money from it (though you could), you’ll need to value the reward of giving as much as that of monetary gain.

In addition, often it feels like there’s something just a bit more important to be doing with your time that will fulfil your basic human needs. Unfortunately, the lack of obvious impact on our daily lives can make the climate crisis feel like a problem for another day. We all probably know something we could be doing to help prevent climate breakdown today, but we don’t do it. I know I’m guilty. ✋

For those who have the desire to help they often just don’t know how. Some might not have a project idea but are ready to jump in and work on a defined task if available. These Impact Makers need someone to take ownership of an idea and approach them, then they’ll get to work.

Finding Collaborators

From my experience if you release an idea into the wild, there’s usually someone around the corner waiting to help. That’s why we’re testing a way to make it easier for group members to find a collaborator with our new project ideas Trello board.

Try stuff + see what happens

One thing I’ve learnt from life is that having the courage to try stuff and see what happens often pays off. From a few tweets, I ended up with a group of 100+ like-minded tech workers. I’ve met and chatted with countless new people. People who could become future friends or business partners. I even received a job offer. All just from being willing to put something out there and see what happens.

In two weeks I’ll do the same with ClimateChoice. Perhaps it will inspire new projects? Or convince someone to make climate helping life changes? Or a future world leader to run for office on a pro-planet agenda? Or maybe it will get 10 views and sit forgotten? Who knows? I’m willing to try and see what happens.

I’d encourage you to join me in Impact Makers and see if you can get involved and help prevent earth’s climate breaking down.

Can Indie Makers Help Fix the Climate?

2019-06-21T17:50:03Z

Two months ago I started Impact Makers - a community for tech people to help prevent climate breakdown. Ever since I’ve been thinking about how to assist makers to take action. The desire to do something is there in abundance, but it’s still difficult for the majority to get to the point where they act. Why is that?

You need an idea of how you can help

Climate change is the biggest, scariest problem we’ve faced in our lifetimes. What makes it especially frightening, is that solving it feels entirely out of our control. How can we as software developers and product designers help in a meaningful way beyond reducing our own carbon footprint?

How can we convince governments worldwide to put the planet above all else? How can we help change how we travel, change how we eat or change the world’s energy sources with software?

As makers, we are first and foremost problem solvers. While the climate emergency may seem like a problem we can’t impact, when you drill down, you discover that it’s a wide-ranging issue composed of hundreds of smaller contributing problems that we can help with.

To form an idea of what you can do to help fix the climate, try to identify the high-level problems and work backwards, for example:

High-level problem 1:

We rely on energy and food sources which contribute dangerous amounts of greenhouse gases to our atmosphere. These emissions are now causing our climate to breakdown.

High-level problem 2:

We’re deforesting the planet, destroying ecosystems which help reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, speeding up climate breakdown.

The high-level solution to both of these problems is actually very simple - STOP

Unfortunately doing so is anything but simple… yet don’t lose hope! Now that we know where to start we can dissect these problems to identify opportunities.

How? Ask the question ‘why’ until you hit upon a problem you can help fix. Let’s use the harmful energy sources issue as an example, and repeatedly ask the question why:

Why can’t we stop using harmful energy sources?

One reason would be:

Because historically renewable energy sources have been more expensive than harmful non-renewable energy sources (though this is fast changing).

Why?

Many governments around the world subsidise fossil fuels.
The cost of renewable energy sources have not dropping fast enough due to lack of investment from governments.

Why?

Fossil fuel companies donate billions to certain politicians so they will carry out their money making agenda

Why?

A transition to renewable energy will put them out of business unless they change their product offering.
Fossil fuel companies make their shareholders a lot of money and they likely want to maintain their fortunes above all else.

So what have we identified here?

Some people in power will prioritise financial gain over the planet.
Fossil fuel companies want to maintain the status quo rather than change.

What could we do to help?

Help make politicians who take money from fossil fuel companies fear they will lose power if they don’t prioritise the planet.

How?

A tool that helps constituents contact their local politiican to let them know that the climate emergency is their number 1 voting issue.

Raise awareness of politicians who are prioritising the planet over profit.

How?

A website that highlights the views and voting records of parties and politicians in different countries.
An app that asks you for your political views and location and suggests which politician(s) in your area aligns best with your point of view.

Help humanity to not value money and power above all else.

How?

Increase education of how becoming rich doesn’t necessarily lead to happiness.
Draw attention to resources which highlight the path to living a happy life.

Pressure fossil fuel companies to change.

How?

Increase awareness of their actions so their customers no longer wish to be associated with them.

These are just a few examples, if I was to continue I’d likely identify many more issues and be able to spot further opportunities. By repeatedly asking why, we can identify smaller problems that have more obvious software solutions which could help fix the climate.

What’s in it for me?

Even if you have an idea to work on you’ll still consider if it’s worth sacrificing your time to bring it to life. While it would be nice to think that the dangers of the climate emergency are enough to entice action, for the vast majority it’s likely to still come down to the question of ‘what is in it for me?’.

So what would you get out of launching a product to help fix the climate?

It depends on your idea.

You could identify a problem that has a solution people will pay for and potentially make a living from it — which is the ultimate goal for most indie makers.

Or you could focus on a non-profit idea. While this may not lead to a direct financial benefit, it usually feels great, and you never know what new opportunities might arise tomorrow based on your sacrifice today.

A new incentive to fix the climate

The incentives to work on a climate action project might still not be as strong as developing a straight-forward product idea with a clear business model. That’s why @JP_Aulet and I have conceived of an event which we think will make helping to fix the climate more appealing.

Introducing The Climate Fixathon

We’ve teamed up with Makerlog and Makerpad to launch The Climate Fixathon. The world’s first online hackathon for makers to help fix the climate.

🏆 Thousands in cash to be won.
🛠 4 weeks to build a web site, app or service.
👩‍💻 Open to teams or individuals.
👨‍⚖️ Winners decided by judges including @anthilemoon, @fajarsiddiqfs,
@colly, @thornet and @cennydd.

Full details will be released on 10th July with the event running from 2nd to 30th August. Subscribe on fixathon.io to get updates.

What can we achieve?

Having an impact that helps restore a safe climate for our planet might seem like an impossible task. But if we directed our problem-solving abilities and technical skills to this life-threatening problem who knows what we could achieve?

Try asking why the climate emergency is happening, and see if you can work out your own way to help fix the climate. If you can, come join us in The Climate Fixathon!

My Climate Guilt — Air Travel

2019-10-03T17:50:03Z

A year ago I moved to Germany from Ireland. At the time I was going through a period of personal growth and self-discovery — trying to decide what I could work on to help move the world forward, while also figuring out how to adapt to living in a new country.

A year later and I’ve moved again, this time to Tokyo — and I’m not just in a different place but also a different headspace. Like many, I became woke to the extent of the climate emergency early in 2019. Aware that solving this problem was the most important effort my generation will likely ever undertake, and it requires all hands on deck doing whatever we can to lessen the damage to our environment and avoid the critical point of no return.

To help I’ve focused the last 6 months on motivating the tech community to care about the issue and start taking action. For me, that meant creating ClimateChoice and starting the Impact Makers Slack community to connect tech workers who want to help prevent climate breakdown and inspire action. Along the way, The Climate Fixathon was launched to provide an added incentive for makers to help fix the climate leading to the creation of 41 products.

One of those products is AirCare created by @bloudermilk and I. It’s a product I found myself motivated to work on thanks to one of my biggest sources of climate guilt — air travel.

This year I’ve come to realise the impact my travels have had on the environment and it’s not something I’m proud of. Even worse it’s doubtful I’ll be able to reduce my carbon footprint while I continue to live overseas.

I’m unlikely to sacrifice a trip home to see my family and friends in Ireland even though I’m now well aware that means 9,579 km of air time adding roughly 2.5 kg CO₂ to my carbon footprint. To put that another way, it is estimated emissions of that level will contribute to 8 square meters of Arctic sea ice melt. Yikes.

So we should all just stop flying right?

If only it was that easy. Unfortunately, self-sacrifice is required to make this choice and the vast majority of us are like me — not yet prepared to do so.

Flying, in my opinion, is one of the hardest things to replace or remove from the lifestyle of a 21st-century western human. Long-distance travel has become one of our favourite activities. Holidaying and business travel is ingrained in our culture. But with the true extent of the climate emergency finally breaking through and becoming a key issue across the planet will we stop or at least reduce our air travel?

My guess is most of us won’t and only a minority will reduce their air travel in a meaningful way. In fact, it’s predicted the industry will continue to grow year-on-year well beyond the 45 million flights of 2018 and its share of global emissions will increase too.

Why won’t we stop flying?

Alternative travel methods usually take a lot longer, in some cases cost more and our desire to experience whatever is on the other end of the flight is more than our desire to sacrifice today for the benefit of the future. The majority of us are still likely to prefer to not sacrifice out time, to not lose money, and to not miss out on an experience.

Until air travel requires more sacrifice to our lifestyles (for example an increase in cost due to the introduction of carbon taxes) most of us will still choose to fly.

A bigger issue is that many people still don’t understand just how harmful flying is. It’s only because I’ve gone out of my way to learn about climate change that I now understand the true impact of a flight. I’ve known for years that emissions weren’t great for the planet, but I wasn’t aware how little time we had to avert disaster.

Disaster is very much what awaits unless we can massively shrink the carbon footprint of humans.

Preventing climate disaster

I believe one of the most important things we need to do is help people understand the climate impact of their choices. Without this basic knowledge, an average person is unlikely to care. A person armed with understanding is positioned to make an informed choice. They might still choose to fly, but they also might fly a little less. They might help their family learn about the issue, and they might prioritise the environment the next time they visit a voting booth.

That’s one of the reasons why Brendan and I created AirCare. We want to help you understand what your flights mean for the planet.

In addition, we want you to know what you can do instead of booking a flight and make it easy for you to compensate for the emissions of your travel by carbon offsetting when you absolutely must fly.

How AirCare works

With AirCare, you simply forward a flight booking confirmation email to impact@air.care. It will then analyse your email and send you back a climate impact report seconds later. Alternatively, you can add your flights manually.

You’ll discover your flight’s carbon emissions, you will find out how far you’d need to drive in an average combustion engine car in order to do the same damage and you’ll learn how much Arctic sea ice is likely to have melted as a direct result. You can then choose to compensate for your impact by contributing to Gold Standard carbon offsetting projects — starting with Planting Biodiverse Forests in Panama.

Paying away the guilt is not a solution to the problem but we hope that AirCare can help people understand the impact of their choices, and facilitate positive behaviour change for both individuals and businesses.

We’d love your feedback on what we’re trying to do. Try calculating the climate impact of a flight with AirCare (it’s free) and let us know what we can improve to make the tool as useful as possible.

We hope that AirCare can play a big part in reducing the climate impact of air travel. To keep up to date on our progress follow us on Twitter.

My Year in Review – 2019

2019-12-31T17:50:03Z

In 2018 I finally developed a healthy productivity habit and began to find the motivation to become more open on the web - starting a blog, a newsletter and to try simple ideas like Checkmates without the fear of failure. This theme carried over into 2019 in a big way for me, leading to easily the most productive year of my life.

2019 – A look back

My main goals for 2019 were to work out my personal mission and to launch a product and ideally be earning enough recurring revenue to live on. While the money bit didn’t happen, the launching definitely did!

At the beginning of the year, I was searching for my mission in life - and in April, I found it when I woke up to the climate emergency. That led to a desire to use my skill set to help. I decided to try and motivate the tech community to raise awareness and take action. In the space of 6 months, I launched Impact Makers, ClimateChoice, The Climate Fixathon (and blog interview series) and AirCare. I also ran my own events in Belfast - The Climate Breakdown Brainstorm and Indie Hackers Belfast and spoke at IndieHackers Cologne to pitch an idea I was pursuing at the time.

Getting Burnt out

The result of all this productivity was burning out. I had launched too many things and found it hard to focus. Strangely I also felt a bit demoralised despite having successfully grown the Impact Makers community to 700+ members and created an online hackathon that resulted in the launch of 41 climate tech projects.

Around the same time in September, the business I co-founded and worked on for the past 3 years closed, and I was left without a steady income. Thankfully having been in this situation before with Rumble Labs, I’d learnt my lesson and built a savings fund. That meant I had a financial cushion, enough to buy me time so I could circle back and focus on my main goal for the year - launching my first solo startup business.

Thankfully I had already discovered a problem I was hoping to explore. It came from starting Impact Makers, and noticing how hard it is to keep a Slack community engaged.

Getting Lowdown

When asked by a developer I’ve worked with for years (Phil McClure) if I had any product ideas, I was able to answer an emphatic yes. Phil immediately saw the problem and felt the solution could also work for Slack teams. So we started on the journey of building Lowdown – a tool that turns the best content shared in Slack into a newsletter. Within a couple of months, we had a beta out and began testing with our first users.

Phil and I are aligned in our business sensibilities, particularly around the desire to bootstrap. However, the timing of our beta launch was perfectly in-sync with application deadlines for a couple of local Northern Irish tech grants. We felt we had a strong business idea and decided to apply. I’m delighted to say we were successful and received the Techstart Proof of Concept Plus grant and were also selected as one of 21 companies out of 400 for the Propel pre-accelerator which starts in January. The end of our year has been spent on further Lowdown testing, getting ready to launch our paid plans and preparing for a busy first half of 2020 in Propel.

2020 — The path ahead

2020 is all about focus. Primarily that means a focus on working out how to build a successful business with Lowdown. I’ll be doing this in the open and plan to blog weekly about our journey throughout the Propel accelerator from early January until the end of June.

Unfortunately, this means my climate-related projects will be taking a bit of a backseat for now. Sometimes I feel conflicted about this, but unfortunately at this time, I have to place my own financial survival first, and Lowdown feels like the right idea to follow to achieve this.

To be honest I’m feeling pretty bleak about the direction of our planet and humanity these days. We’re only just beginning to see the effects of rising temperatures, and it’s frightening the complete lack of necessary action by the people running countries around the globe. I think this might be causing me to lose hope a bit with a natural instinct for my own survival coming to the forefront. However, I’m confident my efforts to help with the climate emergency are not over, and I’d still like to help however I can.

Hope for the future

The one real bright spark I see in the world today is in the younger generations who want to save the world and aren’t afraid to do something about. Hopefully, the 2020s will be remembered as the decade our young people came of age, took control, and helped save the planet from devastation. If enough of us wake up and take action, there is still hope.

Other highlights from 2019

Moved from Germany 🇩🇪 > Japan 🇯🇵 > Northern Ireland 🇮🇪🇬🇧
Recorded my first podcast interview
Became a top writer on Medium for Climate Change
Participated in the Global Climate Strike in Tokyo
Launched NI Creative Community - A Slack community of 750+ designers in Northern Ireland
I quit landscape photography in 2018 but I’ve started rediscovering my love for it

My Year in Review – 2020

2020-12-31T17:50:03Z

Here’s a brief look back on my 2020. It’s mainly for my own reference, but perhaps there’s something here that will inspire you to do something different in 2021.

Lowdown

From January-June I took part in the Propel pre-accelerator with Lowdown. I’m so happy I decided to give it a shot. I learnt more in 6 months than I have in years, making dozens of new friends and connections in the process. Unfortunately, the experience was affected by the pandemic, shifting to full-time remote halfway through, but in the end, that opened up new opportunities too. If you ever get the itch to start something, I’d highly recommend Propel.

Lowdown started 2020 with the goal of reaching $10k MRR by year-end. The first product we launched got to $150 MRR in 6 months before we decided to shut it. We realised we weren’t building a product that solved a painful enough problem. So we pivoted to launch Lowdown 2 in November. It’s the missing email digest for Slack. So far we’re at $50 MRR in 6 weeks.

Regardless of if Lowdown works out or not, everything about this year of focus on it feels worthwhile. Without a doubt, I’m now better tooled to decide what’s worth working on, and how to make something successful.

Bikepacking

I love to travel, but 2020 meant that wasn’t happening off-island. Inspired by Phil Sturgeon, I decided to try my hand at bikepacking. In April I bought a bike and started to do day trips around the country. Previously I’d never cycled more than 50k, but I worked that up to 120k, and then decided to try a short multi-day trip.

For that, I cycled the Causeway Coast and back. Belfast > Ballycastle > Coleraine > Belfast.

My ultimate goal was to spend August cycling the entire Wild Atlantic Way of Ireland with my camera and tripod, shooting landscapes. In the end, work and willpower got in the way and that was shortened to a week cycling the first 800km of it. From Kinsale to Dingle. Grey Irish weather also resulting in very few landscapes.

Travelling by bike is an awesome way to actually take in the landscape around you. Things don’t fly past you, and you’re more willing to stop and explore at a moments notice. If you want to experience a slower way to travel and get fitter in the process, you should give it a shot.

Other highlights from 2020

Didn’t fly anywhere in a calendar year for the first time in a long time (I doubt this will be the same in 2021)
Sold AirCare
NI Creative Community grew to 750+ designers in Northern Ireland
Impact Makers grew to 1,050+ techies who want to help with the climate crisis
Climbed Carrauntoohil — the tallest mountain in Ireland
Created and hosted the “Drink-and-draw” for designers Stranger Briefs with Tim Davidson
Launched a product in a couple of hours - Meetfromhome
Co-hosted Indie Hackers Belfast with Kyle Gawley
Hosting an online NI Design Chat meetup for 40+ designers
Won Propel Bootstrapper of the Year

2021 — The path ahead

In 2021 Lowdown is being relegated to a side-project, and my focus will instead be on Stora — the Shopify for self storage. I’ve been helping the CEO, and self storage automation king Gavin Shields get the first version live over the last few months. I think he’s really onto something, so I’ve decided to join him as a co-founder and CPO.

Beyond that, I’m setting less lofty goals in 2021, at least until things start to settle down with the pandemic.

I’d like to travel again when it’s safe to do so. Perhaps another bikepacking trip. It currently feels a bit pointless, attempting to plan anything, a little like life is on pause.

Despite this pause, I met hundreds of people in 2020 (mainly on Zoom), far more than I ever have before. As an introvert, this was a big success for me. However, it made me appreciate how meaningful in-real-life human connections are. I’m hoping that at some point in 2021 I can hit the unpause button and get out there to meet new people and forge new friendships.

Have a great 2021 everyone 🖖

How I Remote Worked From a Campervan Along Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way

2021-09-26T17:50:03Z

In the summer of 2021, I took off in my newly purchased (yet very old) converted Ford Transit campervan. My goal was to travel the entire length of Ireland’s awe-inspiring west coast, the Wild Atlantic Way, without interruption to my work on Stora.

I’m pleased to say I managed it! Whilst there were bumps along the way, it’s totally possible. I’ll share all the little things I did to make it go (relatively) swimmingly in this guide.

Like many of us today, I predominantly work remotely, requiring nothing more than an internet connection, electricity, and a laptop. However, when I decided to try this journey, my camper had no solar installation, wi-fi, or desk. I won’t be getting into the specifics of installing solar in this guide; there are plenty of better solar set-up guides around the internet to help with that. What I can do is give you a few tips that helped me.

Electricity

Set your van up properly

I got by with one solar panel and leisure battery but you likely will want to consider additional panels and potentially a second battery to increase power reliability.

Definitely install a battery switch to charge from your van’s main battery while you drive—that was an absolute lifesaver for me—particularly when those pesky cloudy Irish skies reduced the charging capability of my solar set-up.

Get a campsite electric hookup lead

One bright spark I had before setting off was to get a cable that converts 16A campsite electric hookup into UK plug sockets. These are very cheap and come in handy if your battery has died and you can find a spot in a campsite (not actually that easy at last minute notice during the Irish summer). I’d recommend getting one at least 5m long.

Coffee shops are your friend

I worked from coffee shops quite a bit to give my leisure battery a break. There is no shortage of options now along the Wild Atlantic Way. Even the smallest villages usually have somewhere you can work. The perfect opportunity to discover a new place, charge your devices and over caffeinate yourself.

Working environment

First and foremost, you’re in a van. It’s unlikely you’re going to have the perfect ergonomic set-up. I made do with an adjustable rotating table and a camping chair. Sure it wasn’t the most comfortable I’ve been in my life, but it did the job.

I was also fortunate to have a table pulled out from my van’s side door at perfect standing desk height. I absolutely loved working at it, from the plentiful scenic spots of the Wild Atlantic Way’s coast.

Apart from that, I had a Roost laptop stand with me, which I used on my desk alongside a keyboard and mouse. You really don’t need much.

The internet

This is the most crucial bit of this guide and likely where you’ll find the most value. Today, it’s not straightforward to get a strong enough internet signal along most of the Wild Atlantic Way to conduct Zoom calls and work without issue. But it’s totally possible with a bit of planning. It’s worth saying that all that follows might be rendered mute in the near future thanks to services like Starlink, which will beam super-fast internet to you anywhere. Sadly I had no such capability.

Accessing the web remotely (today)

You have a solution already: It’s in your pocket (your phone). Unless you’re rockin’ a Nokia 3210 or similar, you can set up your personal hotspot, tether to your laptop and work happily enough. I seriously considered this as my primary internet set-up. But eventually decided it would be wiser to have a dedicated internet device. And it was the right decision.

In the end, I purchased a 4G portable hotspot from Three Ireland. Here’s why:

Since I’m from N.Ireland, I needed an Irish sim, so I wasn’t hit with massive data usage bills whilst in Ireland
From my research, Three seemed to have the best data coverage in the country
Having it meant I always had two devices I could connect to. A backup definitely came in handy from time to time
I anticipated needing to put it on top of my van sometimes to get a better signal. I was correct

I’d recommend following a similar approach. If a 5G hotspot device is available (which it wasn’t for me), get that. You could also go as far as to install an antenna on your van. It would certainly mean you wouldn’t need to set your hotspot on your roof as I had to, which means you won’t forget it’s up there, and drive a few hundred meters down the road before it falls off and smashes (I did that and it survived 🙏).

The goal: 4G or 5G at all times

You really can’t rely on anything below 4G to provide enough strength to do the typical remote daily workflow–particularly video calls. So how do you ensure, to the best of your ability, you have access to 4G?

Use data coverage maps to pick where to park.

Without network data coverage maps, I don’t think this trip would have been possible. You’d be searching for an internet connected-needle in a haystack otherwise.

These are available for all networks on websites like this. For my purposes, I stuck to Three’s official coverage map. They break down the coverage to show if it’s suitable for indoor (good, shown in purple) or outdoor (not as good, displayed in yellow). I endeavoured to always work from a purple, indoor 4G area.

As you can see, along the coast, the coverage is patchy at best. But 99% of the time, everything worked well when I worked from one of the better-covered areas. Sometimes the weather affects things, but there’s not much you can do about that.

OK, so now you know how to find where the best internet signal is. Now how do you actually find somewhere you can park that suits all the remaining criteria for a pleasant stay?

Working out your perfect Wild Atlantic Office

Here are my ideal criteria for a lovely remote van office location, in order of importance:

Free - You really don’t need a campsite. I paid for one the entire trip
Quiet - Somewhere I could sleep and work away from main roads
Scenic - That’s the whole point of this, right??
Close to amenities - Nature is gonna call and a shower from time to time is nice
Strong data coverage - Work uninterrupted
Close to cool local food and coffee - I’m hipster AF

Sometimes I would stay somewhere scenic with no internet coverage, but I’d always have an idea of where I could go close by to have the internet gods bathe me in their data glory.

You should work out your own criteria. Once you have it, you’ll likely wonder how you can find places that fit in a purple patch without having to drive around like a headless chicken.

Find park up spots with the Park4night app

Park4night is essentially a crowdsourced map of places van-folk have camped before. It’s an unbelievably useful resource that will help you work out things like:

Are there toilets/showers?
Is there a height barrier?
Is it noisy?
Is it flat?
Is it gonna blow my mind with a sunrise view to die for?? 😍🌅

Best of all, it’s free! Big up to the community who have created something so invaluable. It took me to the most awesome lakes, cliffs and coasts and even found me overnight spots in cities like Cork and Dublin to stay without much issue.

The map data disconnect problem

Now you know how to find the internet, and you know where to find places to stay. However, there is a problem. These two data sources are not connected, and it’s a real pain in the arse. The good news is I’ve worked out a few solutions, so you don’t have to:

Solution 1: The map jumper

The quickest (and most frustrating solution) is to basically open up both your data coverage map and Park4night and eyeball them. First, you need to find an area along your route that looks like it’s internet-rich, then find a spot in Park4night that looks like it’s in that area.

This approach can work. In particular in areas with great wide-ranging coverage. The problem I found is often, the best parking spots are on the fringes of the stronger coverage. That can be the difference between a Zoom call where your colleagues are mind blown by your superhuman ability to chat shop with them from a van on a beach and your team cursing your buffering nomadic work quest beneath their breath.

Solution 2: My map in the middle

Preface: I’m a map nerd. I like making maps. I solved this problem (largely) by doing a bit of time-consuming upfront work creating my own Google My Map. On it, I roughly combined the data from both of these sources. Here’s how:

On my laptop, I opened both maps side-by-side. I then roughly drew shapes of the strong signalled areas on my Google My Map. I’d then open up the web pages of any Park4night spots that looked like they were in that area, copying their GPS coordinates (decimal degree version) into my Maps search field and hit enter to find its exact location. If it happened to land well within my marked area, I’d press “Add to Map” and colour it green (for strong signal). Sometimes there’d be spots on the fringes I’d be less confident in; I’d still save them and colour them yellow in case they were needed.

While this was a tedious process (which I’d do about once a week), it meant I wasn’t stressing every day about where I’d end up. I’d always have a pretty good idea. It wasn’t perfect, but it was good enough to get by.

Before I left, I seriously considered working with a developer to figure out how to pull both data sources into one place. There’s definitely a problem worth solving here with a bit of tech. However, I think Elon has that one covered with Starlink.

Can you remote work from a van in Ireland? Yes.

It really is entirely possible to do this today. I had a fantastic 6-week journey along Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way without any real impact on my work.

And when your workday is done, there are countless adventures to be had, sights to see, great people to meet and places to explore. I couldn’t recommend the experience enough.

I’ll leave you to work out how to solve the biggest problem of all when it comes to remote working along the Wild Atlantic Way…

“How can I sit in a van working when there are so many Wild Atlantic adventures outside my door waiting to be had?”

Sometimes the allure was too much for me to resist 😬🏊‍♂️

If you’ve any other questions about remote working from a van feel free to drop me an email.

Looking Back Before Moving Forward

2025-04-13T17:44:03Z

I started this blog back in 2018.

The plan was simple: write more. Think in public. Share ideas.
And for a little while, I did. A handful of posts, some momentum. It felt good.

Then… nothing. Four years of silence.

It wasn’t intentional. Life got busier. I moved around a few countries, had a period of feeling a bit lost. I threw myself into startups—Lowdown came and went. Then Stora happened, and it quickly became a big focus due to demand. My day-to-day became about so much more than making software - growing a team, jumping into sales, success, marketing and beyond.

In the middle of all that, I met Vera, got married and bought a house.

I did try to return to the blog. Multiple times. As experience tends to do, I was feeling like I had more and more unique perspectives to share.

But the website was years out of date and I didn’t like it anymore. So what’s a builder like me going to do but start again?

I got stuck in designer perfectionism, I’d try ideas, leave them for a few months before coming back to them and not liking them anymore. Nothing got published. What’s more in the middle of it all, generative AI became a thing, and I had way too much fun utilising it to explore more easily accessible creative ideas. But as a result the site became a graveyard of half-finished ideas.

No regrets

It would be easy to feel guilt about all of this, but I don’t. This creative exploration regardless of if it’s in private or public is all part of the creative journey. Now that I’ve finally pushed this site live, that journey will recommence in public. And with that fresh start, I find myself looking back at where it all began before moving forward.

Looking back

When I first started this blog, I had a lot of ideas and ambitions. Looking back at those early posts, I can see how my thinking has evolved over time. Some of those initial thoughts still feel relevant today, while others have shifted as I’ve grown and changed. It’s interesting to reflect on how my perspectives have developed, what I’ve held onto, and what I’ve let go of along the way.

I wrote about accountability—something I’ve internalised now. I set non-negotiables, hit deadlines. I may even have done too far in the opposite direction.

I worried about sitting too much. Still do. I’ve found ways to help, no rocket science — lots of steps, lift weights, the usual.

I wanted to help prevent climate breakdown. Still do.
But honestly? It’s hard to stay hopeful. The inaction is exhausting. The problem feels too big for individual effort, and too slow for headlines. I know I don’t do enough myself, and I’m not pretending I do.

My last post was about remote working around Ireland in a campervan. This is something I still love.
I’ve completed several trips since 2021 with a better van. I took it to the next level travelling around mainland Europe for 2 months.

Looking forward

I’m more excited than ever to be a creator on the internet. AI is opening up new ways to think, write, build, and express ideas—but it’s also raising real questions about authorship, originality, and where creativity goes next. I’m interested in all of it—the potential and the tension. Here I hope to explore those ideas, share what I’m learning, and work out the messy parts in public.

If any of it resonates, reach out. I’m always up for an honest conversation.

Did I Write That Blog Post?

2025-05-13T17:44:03Z

Did I write that last blog post? Not exactly. Here’s what actually happened:

I uploaded all my old blog posts into ChatGPT.
Then I asked it to ask me questions about them—how I feel about those ideas now, what’s changed, what’s stayed the same. I didn’t even type my answers. I used Flow, an AI dictation tool, and just spoke freely.

From there, I gave ChatGPT some guidance—rough ideas about the kind of post I wanted to write, the tone, what mattered. But it already had years of conversations with me in its memory. It knew my style. My pacing. My quirks. So when it pulled everything together, it sounded… pretty close to something I would have written.

I read the draft. Changed some bits. Deleted others. Reworded some things that didn’t quite land. Then I hit publish.

So… did I write it?

In the traditional sense, no.
I didn’t start with a blank page. I didn’t sweat over every sentence. I didn’t even type (mostly).

But in another sense: yes.
It’s my voice. My stories. My reflections. It wouldn’t exist without my direction.

This is the weird new middle ground we’re in now.
Not “written by AI.”
Not “written by human.”
Something in between.
Collaborative. Co-authored. AI-assisted. Whatever you want to call it.

And honestly, I loved it.

For someone like me—time-poor, idea-rich, and prone to perfectionism—this process works. It lowers the barrier to starting, helps me find flow faster, and lets me polish ideas without the usual friction. Creative expression feels more accessible than ever—less blocked, less precious, and far more fun.

The questions this raises

But I get that it’s not straightforward.

If an AI helps you write something, is it still your writing? Are you cheating? Or are you just using better tools?

Where’s the line between “assistance” and “outsourcing”? And does the line even matter, if the end result is honest and true?

And how does that make you feel—as the reader?

Do you care that I used AI?
Does it make the post feel less genuine?
Do you want to read it less?
Does it change your opinion of me?

I’m genuinely curious.

Because the tools are only getting better. The lines are only getting blurrier. And we’re all now having to reckon with what creativity means when it’s not just human anymore.

The answer

So yeah—did I write it?

Kind of.
And I’m okay with that.

P.S. I’d love to know what you think. Honest reactions welcome here or on X.

Shylands

After a Decade of Staying Silent, I've Started to Blog. But Why?

Finding my voice

Question everything

How I Created a Feeling of Accountability to Help Launch a Side Project

Why couldn’t I get it launched?

Creating the experiment

Why not try it yourself?

Adaptations to the Modern World: Sitting

Sitting

Prehistoric Humans: Why They Sat

Modern Humans: Why We Sit

Prehistoric Humans: How We Sat

Modern Humans: How We Sit

Prehistoric Humans: How Long They Sat

Modern Humans: How Long We Sit

Why Does It Matter How Modern Humans Sit?

What Needs To Happen?

Further Reading:

Making New Friends, in a New City as a Remote Worker

Why?

Always keep my goals in mind

Find people like me

Co-working spaces

Industry meetups/events

Expat meetups

Language classes

Other ideas

Use ‘tools’ available to me to increase my chances

Apps

New in City/Expat Online groups

Provide value to others

Alcohol

In conclusion

Do you have tips on how to meet new people?

Why I Quit Landscape Photography

Why did I quit?

Why I’m focused on learning

Are you focused on the right things?

Open-sourcing my photographs

My map of photogenic places in Ireland

Defining My Personal Mission

My mission 1.0 — To help people become more self-aware and open-minded, so together we can make the world better, faster, and enjoy it in harmony.

My mission 2.0 — To have a positive impact on the world before I die. I’m still working out how.

I believe a positive impact would be:

Your mission

Progressing my mission

Helping Prevent Climate Breakdown

Impact Makers

Finding Collaborators

Try stuff + see what happens

Can Indie Makers Help Fix the Climate?

You need an idea of how you can help

High-level problem 1:

High-level problem 2:

Why can’t we stop using harmful energy sources?

Why?

Why?

Why?

So what have we identified here?

What could we do to help?

How?

How?

How?

How?

What’s in it for me?

A new incentive to fix the climate

Introducing The Climate Fixathon

What can we achieve?

My Climate Guilt — Air Travel

So we should all just stop flying right?

Why won’t we stop flying?

Preventing climate disaster

How AirCare works

My Year in Review – 2019

2019 – A look back

Getting Burnt out

Getting Lowdown

2020 — The path ahead

Hope for the future