Hanging my volunteer gloves and moving to a new phase of my life
TL;DR: As of 2020, I can only help during office hours, at work, if paid and/or affects our projects, namely what we use in OpenFOAM itself and blueCFD-Core.
Full post:
So nearly 2 years after my blog post Why I contribute to the OpenFOAM forum(s), wiki(s) and the public community, I'm writing this blog post you are reading now.
My last 3 thread posts at the forums in CFD-Online this year, were on May 7th, February 27th and January 20th. And before that, it was 10 posts over my winter vacation on the last week of 2019. Before that, it averaged out to around 1 post/month. I have 10,956 posts here at the forum and it still averages to 2.62 post/day.
I'm currently vacation, mid August 2020 and am writing this, since I'm unable to help the way I used to in the past.
So what happened?
In a short description: borderline-burning-out + ~30kg overweight.
In other words, I was still able to work, but having difficulty maintaining a stable life, which wasn't healthy to begin for years now, along with overly stressed, even if there was not much of a reason to be stressed...
What am I doing now, since early 2020?
What does this mean for what I can do to help in the community?
Given my past efforts over a period of 10 years, I'm writing this blog post as an official stance on how much I will be able to help in the future:
What I ask you, as you are reading this blog post?
Associated to this blog post, I'm writing another blog post which I may need to update in the near future: What I've done in the past years and may need someone else to pick it back up
edit: Aiming to wrap up writing said blog post by the end of the 19th of August 2020.
Signing off for now:
I've written some years ago in a forum post, where someone asked a vague question and I went on a rant over "as people grow older, the more they know and the more responsibilities they have, therefore the less free time they have to come and help here... so the less information you provide, the less likely you will get the answer you need".
In a way, my time has come and I need to move on with my life. But I was stressing out too much to notice it sooner. Fortunately I should still be on time to keep going forward and hopefully be able to help more the community in the future.
This has happened to the various authors of code that is currently and was in OpenFOAM in the past, where they helped people publicly over several years and ended up having to pull away from the community, because it's not easy to achieve a balance between life and working as a volunteer.
Fun fact:
Even if I don't post in the next 20 years it would still give me a rate of 1 post/month...
Full post:
So nearly 2 years after my blog post Why I contribute to the OpenFOAM forum(s), wiki(s) and the public community, I'm writing this blog post you are reading now.
My last 3 thread posts at the forums in CFD-Online this year, were on May 7th, February 27th and January 20th. And before that, it was 10 posts over my winter vacation on the last week of 2019. Before that, it averaged out to around 1 post/month. I have 10,956 posts here at the forum and it still averages to 2.62 post/day.
I'm currently vacation, mid August 2020 and am writing this, since I'm unable to help the way I used to in the past.
So what happened?
In a short description: borderline-burning-out + ~30kg overweight.
In other words, I was still able to work, but having difficulty maintaining a stable life, which wasn't healthy to begin for years now, along with overly stressed, even if there was not much of a reason to be stressed...
What am I doing now, since early 2020?
- Changed my diet, namely changed my eating regiment to something I should have done over 20 years ago.
- Increased my physical activity to a much healthier dosage.
- Am moving on with my life to a new phase where I actually have to behave as a grown up, specially given I'm already 40 years old as I write this.
What does this mean for what I can do to help in the community?
Given my past efforts over a period of 10 years, I'm writing this blog post as an official stance on how much I will be able to help in the future:
- The majority (~99.9%) of the public contributions will be done within working hours at my job; in other words, during office hours, at work, if paid and/or affects our projects, namely what we use in OpenFOAM itself and blueCFD-Core.
- The remaining 0.1% outside of my job will mostly be the bug tracker at openfoam.org, given that I can't be at both openfoam.org and openfoam.com
- Everything else where I've helped in the past, will be once in a blue moon, may it be at the forum or openfoamwiki.net
- I don't know how many or which community/official OpenFOAM workshops I will attend in the future. I already had to give up on the Iberian User workshop of 2018, due to health reasons, i.e. what has finally led me to this decision this year of 2020.
What I ask you, as you are reading this blog post?
Associated to this blog post, I'm writing another blog post which I may need to update in the near future: What I've done in the past years and may need someone else to pick it back up
edit: Aiming to wrap up writing said blog post by the end of the 19th of August 2020.
Signing off for now:
I've written some years ago in a forum post, where someone asked a vague question and I went on a rant over "as people grow older, the more they know and the more responsibilities they have, therefore the less free time they have to come and help here... so the less information you provide, the less likely you will get the answer you need".
In a way, my time has come and I need to move on with my life. But I was stressing out too much to notice it sooner. Fortunately I should still be on time to keep going forward and hopefully be able to help more the community in the future.
This has happened to the various authors of code that is currently and was in OpenFOAM in the past, where they helped people publicly over several years and ended up having to pull away from the community, because it's not easy to achieve a balance between life and working as a volunteer.
Fun fact:
Even if I don't post in the next 20 years it would still give me a rate of 1 post/month...
Total Comments 5
Comments
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Hi,
I still remember you were the first one to reply when I posted first time in the form. It was a stupid question but you still answered it. That bought enthusism in me to look for more. Now due to OpenFOAM I work in my Uni and can afford to fund my studies. Like wise I beleve that you have helped many directly or indirectly just by one post to change their career.
In one word THANKYOUPosted August 19, 2020 at 05:05 by neko2650
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Hey Bruno, thank you very much for your open-minded way to talk about your private life. I hope that we will meet somewhen in person again as I really liked your presents in the OpenFOAM Day in London.
I am glad that you decided to make a step back from the community support as you did a lot of support. We, the community, were sometimes talking about your name »wyldckat« and we assuming that each letter stands for one person behind the accronym as there were so many posts everywhere from your side on cfd-online.
You posts were always an unjustified enrichment for everybody (not only the thread-starter). You put »always« lot of time and effort in your reply's and if your reply was not good enough (for you) you extended it a few ours ago with new tests and outcomes.
Take care of yourself Bruno. You know my personal behavior too and I have the feeling to go more-or-less your way with additional private circumstance load. I also do have the feeling to not have enough time to do that or investigate into that. Nevertheless, I never had such a intensive community presence as you have/had.
Be aware that your posts and your ideas/thoughts were helpful for a lot of people who are reading through the forum, and they will be helpful for everybody in future.
You set the basic and fundamentals of many questions in this forum. At least, I have the feeling regarding this and we, the community, will give you value to everything your made an also to your personality.
Again, take care of yourself and your health.
May we meet somewhere someone again. I hope so.
TobiPosted August 19, 2020 at 06:58 by Tobi
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Hi Bruno,
Thank you for being such a great person, which is clear not only on the immense contributions to the community, but also by your concern to justify the absence of news.
As many Foamers I first met you in CFD Online, but I had the privilege to work with you in many occasions. Several "adventures" where I witnessed that in person you don't change a bit, you have exactly the same posture everyone knows from CFD Online.
Currently you have to focus in you, to get better asap. Feel free to ask if I can be useful in anything.
Even if you don't put any other post in CFD Online, based on your legacy, you'll be the, and our, champion for a long time.
We'll miss you, but I'm sure that everyone prefers to have a healthy Wyldckat than another post from you.
Please do your best to enjoy life, be happy and stay safe
Your very honored friend,
MiguelPosted August 19, 2020 at 13:56 by mnobrega
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Hey Bruno!
I confesse I was about to send you a private message asking your help, but then somehow I came to this post and realized you retired because of health reasons.
Well,
I just want to thank you very very much for all of your efforts and the herculean task that is to reply on this forum as an hobby expecting "nothing" in reward.
I had the privilege of meeting you in the 3rd OpenFOAM Iberian Meeting at Porto, and there I could assess what a great person you are.
Regarding your health issues, I really hope that you can recover from your burning-out situation. I personally suffer, from time to time, nervous issues as well. May be that's a side effect of OpenFOAM users
Anyway,
I really support your decision of a full disconnection from the forum, so you can dedicate more time to your personal life. I really hope you get well soon.
Grande abraço,
Jorge Gadelho.Posted February 2, 2021 at 07:51 by JGadelho
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Hi Bruno,
I wish to express my huge respect for you due to your unmatched, selfless contribution and high thinking. My wishes for your better health.
Regards
NipinPosted June 18, 2021 at 02:59 by nipinl
