I needed to shrink a PDF last week — something I don’t do often enough to remember the flags. Ghostscript is the tool, and it’s already on most Linux machines or a quick apt install ghostscript away. The command is: gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -dPDFSETTINGS=/screen \ -dNOPAUSE -dQUIET -dBATCH -sOutputFile=output.pdf input.pdf The bit that actually matters is -dPDFSETTINGS=/screen. That’s the quality dial. /screen gives you the smallest file — fine for emailing or uploading, rubbish if you need to print anything. ...

I spent a few months watching the markets before I actually put money in, and even longer figuring out how to pick stocks without losing my shirt. The internet is full of guides that read like they were written by someone who has never actually placed a trade, so here is what I learned from doing it wrong first. Start by understanding what kind of market you are in This sounds obvious but most people skip it. A stock that works in a bull market will destroy you in a bear one, and the same goes for sideways chop. I used to pick stocks based on their individual merits without checking whether the overall market was even cooperating with me. That changed when I started paying attention to whether the major indices were trending up, down, or just wandering around like they had no idea what to do. ...

I’ve spent enough time watching people trade to notice that everyone has a style, and most of them picked it without really thinking about why. Trading styles aren’t just technical classifications — they’re reflections of personality, patience, and how much time someone is willing to sacrifice to a screen. Here are the ones I’ve actually seen people use, with a bit of context about what each one demands. Scalping This is the closest thing to gambling with better record-keeping. Scalpers hold positions for seconds, sometimes milliseconds, chasing tiny price movements that add up if you catch enough of them. The math is brutal: one bad trade can wipe out an hour of small wins, and the commission costs eat into margins before you’ve even started. ...

I’ve been looking into property auctions in the UK recently, and one thing that struck me is how fragmented the market is. You’ve got the big national names, then regional specialists, and somewhere in between a whole bunch of firms that have been doing this for decades without much publicity. Here’s a list of companies I came across. Some are household names, others you’d only know if you’ve actually sat in an auction room or bid online at 11pm on a Tuesday. ...

I used to think negotiation was about persuasion. About having the right words, the right tone, the right strategy. Turns out I was missing the whole point. There’s a concept from negotiation theory called BATNA — Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement. It sounds academic, but it’s actually the single most practical thing you can know before walking into any discussion where two people want different things. Your BATNA is what you’d actually do if the talks fall apart. Not what you hope for. Not what sounds good in your head. What you’d realistically do tomorrow morning when nothing has been agreed. ...

I started doing affirmations roughly two years ago, after a particularly rough patch left me convinced I was fundamentally broken. Not in the dramatic sense – just that quiet, persistent voice in the back of my head telling me I wasn’t quite enough. You know the one. The first time I tried it, I felt like an absolute idiot. Standing in front of the mirror, saying “I am worthy” out loud, while my brain screamed bullshit. I lasted about forty-five seconds before giving up. ...

I spent years thinking about money the wrong way. Not because I was bad with it – I just never had anyone sit me down and explain the actual mechanisms. School taught us about compound interest in the abstract, but never about the vehicles. The things you can actually own that pay you back. This is the list I wish I’d had when I was twenty. Some of these are obvious. Some I only discovered recently and immediately wondered how I’d missed them. A few are borderline absurd but technically valid, which is why they’re here too. ...

I used to gossip. Not the dramatic, scheming kind — just the everyday variety. The “can you believe what so-and-so did” chatter that happens in offices, group chats, and among friends. It felt harmless enough. Social bonding, right? Then I realised something uncomfortable: the people who gossip the most are usually the same people who will gossip about you the moment you leave the room. Once I noticed that pattern, I couldn’t unsee it. And honestly, it made me tired. ...

Some things that help keep negativity at bay: Notice when you’re spiralling. Naming the pattern breaks it. Set boundaries with people who consistently drain you. Limit social media. Curate your feeds so they’re not just outrage and comparison. Take walks. Physical movement changes mental state. Keep a gratitude list. Three things a day is enough. Learn to say no without over-explaining. Don’t participate in gossip. Change the subject or leave the room. Forgive yourself for mistakes. You’ll make more of them. Get enough sleep. Everything feels worse when you’re tired. Do one thing well each day instead of doing ten things poorly. Journal when your head is noisy. Getting thoughts out of your head and onto paper helps. Surround yourself with people who challenge you constructively, not ones who just agree with everything. Accept that some things are out of your control. Focus on what you can influence. Take breaks. Regular ones, not just when you’re burning out. Declutter your workspace. Physical mess feeds mental mess.

I spent three months building a data pipeline last year and another two months fixing the things I got wrong. What follows is the architecture I ended up with, and more importantly the decisions that shaped it. Where the data comes from We pull from three kinds of sources. Internal databases, mostly PostgreSQL instances running on our own infrastructure. Third-party APIs for things we don’t control, like payment providers and analytics platforms. And CSV files that land in an S3 bucket whenever someone exports a report from a legacy system that nobody knows how to update. ...