Business model canvas and other frameworks for shaping business proposals, assume that the goal of every business is generating profits.

As far as I know, a framework that puts the workers and members of an organisation or company the center and has the goal of aligning components and processes to generate wellbeing for them, does not exist.

We should build it.

Diversity for the senses

Smelling soil, getting dirty, watching seeds sprout, watering plants, etc. is a great bunch of stimuli that you just don't get from an office space :)

I think that big companies should start adding farms next to (or on top of) office buildings. Gardening instead of (or in addition to) foosball tables!

Physical work to start the day

We are confirming it: starting the day with vigorous physical work (digging trenches, turning the compost, loosening soil) is a great way to boost the mood. It just feels more natural to have a day of mixed activities: some on the computer, some outside.

The dogs are loving it, too. I don't see myself giving up the mixed work any time soon.

Moving & first steps

It has been two months and a half since I last wrote here. A lot has happened since, the most important event being that construction work concluded and we finally moved to the house.

As moving always does, this has required a ton of effort and for a while made us stop other projects but now we started working on fixing stuff around the house.

Configuring unit tests for the adapter:

Add a Makefile:

test:
    @./node_modules/.bin/mocha -u tdd --reporter spec

.PHONY: test

In package.json, configure the test script:

"scripts": {
   "test": "make test"
}

Running npm test will then run make test, which will invoke mocha to run all the tests under /test.

Unit testing database-driven applications:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/145131/whats-the-best-strategy-for-unit-testing-database-driven-applications

Some progress here :)

To implement the queryable interface, understanding the Waterline query language is fundamental.

Read the documentation

Tech for farms

A friend of ours has a IoT related project, a product that would help people take care of their gardens.

A farm with developers would be a good place to test tech for farms, I guess.

Basic Solr-Sails test app

I wrote a super simple Sails - Solr integration test to learn some Sails basics and understand the whole workflow from HTTP request to Solr and back.

The adapter here (just a couple of super simple methods are implemented) will grow to become a full sails-solr adapter implementing the queryable interface and at least some of semantinc.

https://bitbucket.org/nelovishk/sails-simplest

If you don't want to use auto increment integer IDs for your model in Waterline - Sails, you'll need to set the option autoPK to false.

If you want to write a waterline adapter, start by reading the waterline specification of the different interfaces to be implemented.

We'll be using solr-client to build the queries, create "connections" (they're not the same kind of connection you'd have to a SQL db, just HTTP service calls) fetch and parse results.

The queryable waterline interface is implemented in a single method: find.

I'm trying to figure out what's the easiest and more standard way to parse options and turn them into a query. In this case, a Solr query.

The sails-mysql module is useful as an example. I've found it easier to understand than the Mongo or the sails-disk adapter (perhaps since I'm more familiar with MySQL than I am with Mongo).

Brain work-only ain't normal

I'm reading (or rather, listening to) the book Folks, this ain't normal, it's an interesting read.

The author, Joel Salantin, talks about how abnormal our relationship with food production is, and how far removed from the origins or our food we are.

Construction work began

Just last week, construction workers started tearing down walls, repairing roofs and doing all kinds of work to prepare our new home to become the Dev Farm.

[soon] :)

Development and production settings

What is the right way to switch between both?

use local.js to override default settings.

Work-life balance

Sure, we need to avoid overworking ourselves, burning our motivation down and ending up hating what we (hopefully) once loved to do.

But also, it would be ideal to see work as a part of life. Work, not as a ugly cost we have to pay to get a life, but an important activity that provides us with more than money.

The idea is perhaps utopian and based on a privileged way of life in which, for starters, I get to choose my economic activity. I know that. I'd like all humans to have the same freedom to choose, but that's too big a scope for this note, so I'll focus on our company.

I'd like Matrushkos and anyone who works with us to get more than money. To get their brains teased, a sense of purpose and achievement, fun, friends. And, of course, economic resources to pursue other things that can't be done with an economic goal in mind.

Reflection sparked by: http://mx.casadellibro.com/libro-delfines-sexo-y-utopias-doce-ensayos-para-sacar-la-filosofia-a-la-calle/9788475065342/850938

It would be nice to be able to rename streams.

Web Development Farm

During the last few years I've been thinking that doing most of my work in front of a computer is not healthy or happy and perhaps it isn't even the most productive routine.

I think that I need a mix of physical labour and brain work. The physical labour would keep me happy and strong, and the intellectual work would keep me sharp and entertained. And treadmill desks seem ridiculous.

Having a vegetable garden or living in a small farm and working in it in the morning, then working on programming and other Matrushka tasks would seem ideal; get some fresh air, get a dose of endorphins, produce tasty veggies and have some time to think.

So... We're going to test it! Fernanda (my partner and also Matrushka co-founder) and I are moving to a house just outside of Guadalajara where we'll have enough room to have a large vegetable garden, perhaps some hens or other small animals (bees?) and try what would seem a richer mix of work types.

This stream will (hopefully) be a mixed bag of farm-ish pictures, insights on our hybrid lifestyle and on managing a young opinionated web dev company and a micro-farm together.