Thoughts of a Psych/Code Monkey/Guitarist

This is probably my final one of these for a while due to leaving Zurich  and no longer being employed, but after 2.5 years of living only a few hours away, I finally made it to Paris! It's one of the most popular tourist cities in the world, as quickly made clear by the lines of non-french folks everywhere. Having only been once before, when I was about the age of two, it was definitely high on my list of places to visit - and so as I was leaving, I felt now was my last opportunity. First up - Paris is huge, over 12 million in the Paris metropolitan area , and it certainly feels like it. I came in by train, so managed to avoid the much maligned CdG airport, but still, getting from Gare du Nord station to my hotel (about 10 mins walk) in the dark and rain was a serious introduction to Paris traffic. For most of the trip I'd resigned myself to doing completely touristy stuff rather than trying to get a better feel for the city - partially for language constraints, but m...

Some of you may have heard it already, but I haven't really broadcast it yet: 31st March was my last day working at Google, and probably my last day as a professional software engineer! I wanted to hold off announcing it until after April 1st, to avoid any suspicion of an elaborate hoax, but now it's the 4th, I think it's safe: officially, I'm now unemployed. Some more details to answer what people have been asking me most often: Why?  I like to think that it was inspired by this wonderful SMBC comic . While not following exactly, I had been doing coding for around 10 years (4 at university, 6 at Google), so it was time for a change. Additionally, it's a good time to change - I was finishing a project at work, I had to move out of my apartment anyway, I have no dependents (partner/kids) and working at Google has made me financially stable, at least for the next SMBC 'lifetime',  There were a few other (relatively minor) things at work which made the d...