SaaS could be a good transition, there are quite a few SaaS shops using C++ for example. Or possibly backend if you're willing to do some cloud based side projects.
Embedded is a lot of fun but IMHO there is more opportunity and compensation up the stack.
"One benefit of working together in person, many
executives said, is the potential for spontaneous
interactions.
...
She noticed that she was soon having conversations
with peers that wouldn’t have happened in a remote
set up—a discussion sparked by a passing question
in the hall"
I can relate to this. I miss the impromptu conversation about idea -> whiteboarding session -> JIRAs -> new features, new design, etc.
WFH was great for the first month or so but at this point I find myself missing going into the office. Once the vaccine arrives I plan to switch to around 4 days on site / 1 day WFH.
On a related note there's a pretty entertaining NPR video breaking down whether or not you can power your house with a bike - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbUxt2x4InE (spoiler alert - you can't :))
I worked it out and even if I pedal 8 hours / day and somehow convince the wife to join we're only producing 2kWh / day. Our house's power usage is ~11 kWh/day in the winter (worse in summer due to AC)...it's hopeless.
That’s incredible! I have a hard cut off around 6.5-7 hours of sleep, anything less and I have noticeable performance decrease - inability to concentrate , needing to re read lines of code multiple times, etc.
You should reach out to the sleep researchers, a drug to temporarily not need sleep without massive burn out after would be pretty cool!
I bought that for my home and two for my office -- Costco had it for $300 USD in the warehouse (I see $400 USD online). Maybe cheaper in Canada because it is a Canadian distributor, it is made in China.
A few weeks after purchase, I waited at Costco for new tire installation and worked on my laptop for a few hours. I evangelized standing desks and this product many times while there.
It has very high build quality, especially for the price. The glass is nice and strong, the metal is sturdy, and it doesn't wobble. The setup was super easy, the three integrated charging USB ports are very handy -- too bad no USB-C though. It has presets and a nice little integrated LED. I put my 75 pound kid on it moving up and down with no problem. I have not cracked open the controller and open-sourced the breakdown.
I used an Uplift for many years; it was nice too and good wood and a bit larger at ~$750. But if you like the modern look, the product and the price is great.
I've heard good things and I played with it at Costco, and it seemed solid enough. I didn't get it because it just wasn't big enough.
My wife has the Skarsta, which is a good size, though it doesn't have a motor. I've heard the Becant has problems with the motor, so I didn't get that.
I'm still in the market for a decent, reasonably priced (under $500 preferably) motorized desk, but it needs to be serviceable (I want to be able to replace the motor or desk top without sending it in).
Yep, I've had it for about 2 years. Biggest complaints are that the buttons are on top and easy to press by accident (although there's a lock button on the side), and the lowest setting isn't low enough for me (5'8"). All that said, I think it's great for the price. I'm thinking about upgrading to a big ol' Uplift Desk because I want to get an under-desk treadmill with enough room for a chair next to it.
My two cents - keep the books/papers/resources on the shelf and go out and build an embedded project. Sure, you could read about interrupts, registers maps, chip datasheets, etc. but the rate of learning will be much greater if you learn by building.
For example, why not build a home automation system?
Start with a Raspberry pi and start hooking up peripherals...light switchtes, timers, sensors, etc. You'll stumble across buses like I2C/SPI, you'll learn about networking. You'll figure out what registers are and learn what interrupts are and what they mean.
You'll get lazy rewriting communication code and stumble across messaging frameworks like MQTT to communicate with devices on your network. You'll run out of money using Raspberry Pis for each new device you build, and you'll find cheaper ways of doing things like desiging devices using MSP430 or ESP8266s.
You'll make mistakes, and you will learn. Best of luck on this new adventure!
My favorite for 2018 - "Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder" by Nassim Taleb. I particularly enjoyed the discussion of asymmetry and the implications for investing but also for systems in general.
Another +1 from Deep Work. The main takeaway for me was the following quote:
"We spend much of our day on autopilot, not giving much thought to what we are doing with our time.
This, is a problem. It's difficult to prevent the trivial from creeping into every corner of your schedule if you don't face without flinching your current balance between deep and shallow work"
I tried his pretty extreme recommendation to schedule every minute of every day (see chapter 'Rule #4' or 6:30:30 in the audiobook), my summary below:
-> I use a 4"x6" lined post-it note pad and block out 30 minute/block blocks throughout the day
-> Interruptions are scheduled for future blocks (although occasional mandatory interruptions
of course occur from time to time), and I edit the post-it note throughout the day
-> At the end of the week I do a post-mortem and review which tasks slipped to the next week and recap what happened
I've found a surprising amount of distractions lurking throughout my day that I've been able to eliminate. Scheduling your day is also really compatible with Agile development as you can easily answer why your JIRAs slipped into the next sprint, what your blockers were, etc.
Embedded is a lot of fun but IMHO there is more opportunity and compensation up the stack.