Tomorrow, Tomorrow

(Originally published June 26, 2024)

It's been a little bit since I updated anything here. Tbh, I've been focused on just feeling okay this year. Trying to get outside and feel some sun. This has meant less computer time and less writing time, but that's okay for now. I'm really hoping maybe it won't be six months until the next blog post, but maybe it will be. Anyways, here goes some updates.

It's been a couple of years now since DepressiveHacks was created. At the time, I had ideas of what I wanted to do and where I wanted it to go. As it usually goes, I was wrong and those ideas were totally incorrect. You can find them in early blog posts on this same blog. You can go read about how wrong I was and how I realize now what a fool I was. That's okay, though. We all learn things. Sometimes they're easier and sometimes they're not. It's all part of the journey.

If you would've asked me in 2022 where I envisioned DepressiveHacks in two years, I would've never imagined things would be where they're at now. I do very little actual educating as I originally intended, much to the bemoan of some very early audience members. I did a lot more crypto investing than I expected to when I created this in 2022. I also completely missed the boat on making it a profitable endeavor, because any money I've made has not come from this blog. Again, oh well.

I am returning to write here because I need somewhere to express that I have never been more optimistic about the future of web3 and DepressiveHacks' place in it. This is very clearly the direction things have gone here, and I've met some really incredible people and had some amazing opportunities that never would've happened without severely leaning into the crypto and web3 space over the past couple of years. I still remember the day that I won my pink Awkward Astronaut that you all are so familiar with.

There are going to be some really cool things that happen between now and the end of the year. A few of them I know about already and can't disclose yet. These things are the reason that I'm excited enough to express it in a new blog post. Opportunities I never foresaw. I am so grateful. I'm confident that there will be opportunities I don't know about at this moment that come about as well. I've always played the long game in the web3 space, which confuses a lot of people, but I see it paying dividends slowly and surely more than you'd expect. This has only reinforced my thinking on this strategy.

I've not done a lot of investing this year. That's very intentional. I plan on seeing how the rest of the year goes. If 2024 is a wash year, so be it. I spent too much time caring about how much I was investing down to the penny in the last couple of years. Very much to the sacrifice of my own well-being at times. This was a hard lesson to learn. The future is scary. I felt constant anxiety when thinking about it. A crippling anxiety that only could be eased by trying to plan, save, and nickel and dime a way to a better tomorrow.

Listen, I'm always the first person to admit that I'm an idiot. I'm terribly stubborn. I often need a kick in the ass. Plenty of ass kicks have come, with the most recent being the shutting down of Birdie. I spent a lot of time working on building that out with Ryan. It hurt to close the shop despite continuing to lose revenue month over month. Life is unforgiving sometimes and all we can do is trudge forward the best we can. Pivot. Do something different. Learn from our mistakes and our experiences.

I'm optimistic. For the first time in a long time. I feel a sense of wonder about what's coming up that I lacked for a long time. Stay tuned. This thing's just getting going. As always, thanks for being here.

2023 Wrap Up

(Originally published December 21, 2023)

Today in therapy, my therapist walked me through an exercise in figuring out what I'm grateful for that happened in my life in 2023 and how I would like to take those things with me into 2024. I would encourage anyone who has had a difficult time to do something like this. I found it very helpful to verbalize positive outcomes and encouraging that even in the darkest of times, there is light.

We have flown past the year anniversary of this blog. October 2022 was the first ever blog post. Since then, I've had opportunities to do more writing. Lately, I have not been writing as much, and it is something I am looking to pick back up. I recently applied for a new web3 writing opportunity that I am hoping comes through for me. I have some ideas for new pieces that I would like to do. It's just a matter of finding where to publish them and how to best get new readers.

It is encouraging that the web3 space is coming back. The economy has been so bad for so long. People and families are struggling, which is a really difficult thing to see, especially this time of year around the holidays. I hope that 2024 brings brighter days ahead for many, myself included.

So, what am I grateful for from 2023? I am grateful for my new web2 day job, which I enjoy much more than the previous position I was in. I am grateful for anyone who has been a part of my life and year. Web2, web3, doesn't matter. I am so lucky to know so many people who add value to my existence. I have learned a lot this year, especially about myself. I generally think that I'm a fairly self-reflective person, so I have difficulty sometimes putting in the work. I feel that because I've accomplished something previously, it's all taken care of. That's not how things work. Much like physical health. Just because you've lost weight before doesn't mean it can't come back. Physical and mental health are a continuous process. I hope to improve upon both in 2024 having learned some major lessons in 2023.

I'm grateful for the traveling I've gotten to do this year. I've seen some familiar places and some new ones. I look forward to doing hopefully even more traveling in 2024. It is one of my greatest joys in life to see unfamiliar places. Travel really helps with my depression. Seeing something new, getting out of my routine, and experiencing a different reality is not only engaging but humbling. I often learn a lot when I travel.

I am grateful for creating DepressiveHacks. I have gotten to do many things in this space that I wouldn't have dreamt of when I first started investigating the blockchain. I am hopeful that even more cool things will come in the future. People who remained throughout the bear market showed serious tenacity and really demonstrated the type of person they are. Opportunity will come and networking in web3 is the key to it. I'm more bullish on that than any asset, web3 or web2.

Finally, I am grateful for the game of golf and the opportunities I have had working in the golf industry. I anticipate a lot of cool things coming up in 2024 and beyond for my efforts within the golf world. I truly love what I do in that aspect of my life.

Thank you, as always, for reading. I am hoping to have more to share in 2024. I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday season. Be sure to hug the ones you love and spend time with them. This existence is short and often painful. Cherish those moments. -DH

October Is Lovely This Time of Year

(Originally published October 30, 2023)

When I started this blog, I had a really grand vision for what DepressiveHacks was going to be. It's been over a year now and things have certainly gone vastly differently than I originally anticipated. I have had some really unexpected surprises and met some incredible people. Let's get up to speed.

So since my last blog post, I have been let go from being a Publisher at Nifty Gateway. I had some auspicious dreams of using my position as a Publisher to help bring local artists in my area into the digital art world. My goals, as usual, were ambitious. I ended up publishing my own photography and a drop from a very talented photographer I met through sharing various web3 communities together. While the experience definitely was positive, I actually lost money on this initiative and never recouped what it cost me to actually publish NFT drops. Part of this was that the market dried up as I got onboarded. Part of this was my need for more experience in this field. Regardless, I appreciate the opportunity that Nifty Gateway gave me.

That being said, being able to pivot is key. Not everything that I try to do is going to be a success. That's okay, though. This evening, I finally updated my website to remove the Publisher tab. It reminded me of the other opportunities I have in front of me. It reminded me of how I had no idea that any of those tabs would exist at one point. The world is full of possibilities. You never know what's going to happen.

As winter begins, I will start browsing more for additional work to do in order to occupy some of my free time and help distract me from seasonal depression. I would really like to increase my freelance business consulting. I haven't done any in a while and I think it's time to start looking for a new project to help with. Of course, this won't come in lieu of my other commitments. Usually, the goals and timeline of consulting gigs are rather specific and short-term.

I also recently got a new vehicle, which has been a personal pain point for a while. This has really tied up my funds for a bit, but the goal is to get these short-term expenses paid off and finally have some reliable transportation. This is something I really procrastinated, seeing as I don't do any work that isn't fully remote, but being stuck without transportation really limited my mobility and impacted my mental health. It's one thing to actively choose to stay home. It's another to be forced to. I would say that this distinction hadn't occurred to me before. This purchase also required me to liquidate some of my stock portfolio.

I'd like to talk about this briefly because I think it's important. I'm a big fan of the "buy-and-hold" investment strategy. I don't sell investments often. I feel that patience, which I generally lack in most aspects of my life, is essential to being a good investor and seeing success. While this is valuable to me, it also creates a sense of guilt any time I actually do want or need to sell something. It is not a decision I take lightly. It took me multiple months to get to a point where I wanted to sell stocks to fund my deposit on a new vehicle. This was very hard for me. I took losses on almost everything I sold. I think that the investments were sound, but the time horizon was shortened when I needed the money.

This post was originally titled "Q4 and 2024" and I actually scrapped that because I really don't have a clear vision of what's next. A new vehicle has taken up a good portion of my focus over the last couple of months. I've started paying back my student loans. Balancing out my budget to get car payments and loan payments each month without putting too much financial stress on myself is really the focus through the end of 2023. Meanwhile, I'll keep doing what I can. Looking for opportunities. Networking. It's really in times like these where the little things add up to the next big thing. Thanks as always for reading.

It's Been a Minute

(Originally published September 6, 2023)

I haven't done any of my own writing in quite some time. This year has been chaotic. I personally have lost my job and my long-term girlfriend. It's been a year of a lot of change. I've also picked up a new day job, thankfully, and have continued to do what I can to work towards my personal goals, as well as my goals for Depressive Hacks R&D.

For those who are new, welcome to my blog. You may have seen me write about various topics on other platforms. I love the work I do and I love being able to write about web3, crypto, investing, and all types of topics that interest me. People want to publish certain topics and create certain types of long-form content. This written content is what I specialize in. When I have things I want to discuss that don't necessarily fit the mold of published content by external parties, I'll write a blog here about it. I don't do much editing because I hate it. I just let the words flow. Welcome to the unfiltered fun.

It's no secret that markets are down unless you're watching home prices like a hawk. Seemingly, every other asset class has taken a bath this year. My stock portfolio, which is publicly accessible on this website, has been as flat as early explorers thought the Earth was back in the day. My crypto portfolio has really nose-dived and I've really only been putting money into Bitcoin and Ethereum. I've added additional NFTs to my diversified collection and have found a multitude of new communities to network in, hang with, and enjoy. That has really been the highlight of 2023 in terms of my investments.

I've also continued to slowly work on projects that align with my long-term goals for Depressive Hacks R&D. If you are unfamiliar with how this got started, check out this blog post: https://blog.depressivehacks.com/2022/10/welcome-what-are-we-doing-here.html. If you are looking for the most recent update, please read here before continuing: https://blog.depressivehacks.com/2023/04/dh-r-whats-being-worked-on-now-where.html.

My biggest focus over the past few months has been to work on things behind the scenes for Birdie Golf. OpenSea delisted the collection earlier this year, which caused a lot of headaches for myself and the founder of the project. Luckily, we think that things are looking up and we are excited to finish the year with some cool updates we've been toying with as the bear market has raged on.

I have put Publishing NFT collections on the back burner. I did do a drop for a photographer earlier this year, but the lack of demand was difficult and the way things are going right now, it's not a good time to be launching collections. I don't necessarily think that there's a need to never launch anything again, but I've never been in this to create dozens of my own NFTs.

Yondar continues to be a focus and figuring out how to put this amazing product in front of event coordinators is still a top priority. Marketing is such an underrated part of starting a business. This is magnified when you realize that many companies shell out thousands of dollars to get noticed and get off the ground. If you're not a fully funded operation that's looking to catch its big break, how do you take off without finding thousands to drop into social media advertising? This is a concept I've been playing with and continue to try to use across various projects.

I have also been in talks with Bugatti Group to become an ambassador for their travel bags. With high-quality gear that's available in a variety of styles, I look forward to seeing where this new venture with Bugatti Group takes me. More information will become available as the details are ironed out as to what I will be making available, but I was too excited to not mention it in this blog post.

I am currently trying to figure out how to go about getting a new car, as mine decided to tap out, while student loan payments are rapidly approaching restarting next month. These additional monthly expenses will surely reduce my investment totals. My hope is to pivot back towards stocks a bit as the year winds down. I don't plan on dropping any significant funds into anything, but priorities change. Priority number one is to get used to the new loan payments and try to pay extra on them every month to reduce the interest and lifespan of the loan. I can't achieve my dreams if I'm buried in debt. This becomes more and more clear every day.

For now, stay tuned. I've really taken a lot of the summer to myself to try to focus on my own well-being with such a roller coaster of a year. I continue to speak weekly with my therapist and try to discuss how I feel and why. Some weeks it feels better than others. It's a process, just like fixing your finances or getting a new job. I've often felt like just being in therapy is enough and the accomplishment of being there makes me feel good. I'm learning that digging into some topics and really trying to open up on deep-level discussion is so important. It's not that I don't talk to my therapist, but even people who self-reflect a lot don't want to dig into the jowls of their existence every week. Everyone has something that makes their eyes twinge when they look at themselves in the mirror.

I will continue to do what I can and bring updates, thoughts, and writing to anyone who wants it whenever I can. I hope for a blissful rest of your week for you and wish you nothing but the best. Until the next time.

DH R&D - What's Being Worked on Now & Where Are We Headed?

(Originally published on April 15, 2023)

I am happy to start this blog post off with some good news. Last week, I signed an offer for a new day job. This opportunity is one that I am very grateful for and should lead to some really great things going forward. It is back in the tech industry, which is obviously a bit of a concern seeing as I just lost a job there and things aren't going immensely smoothly right now, but I really am excited to get on board, work with the people on my team, and get back to it. I have enjoyed my time off but the ability to plan around a consistent paycheck is a luxury I miss.

As things get going, I'll likely need some time to adjust to the new job. There will be travel involved with this job as well, so getting used to a more mobile lifestyle will take some time, although I'm excited to be getting out and about. The base pay is better than my old job. The total compensation is better. Overall, I feel blessed.

Given this news, I have been taking some time to think about the next steps for DepressiveHacks and where we go from here. A solid base has been built. Approaching 1,000 followers on Twitter. Writing for Dgen Network with other writing opportunities in sight. Nifty Gateway Publisher. Yondar Reseller. Investment in a variety of assets across a variety of platforms. Things are in a good place considering what a roller coaster 2023 has been so far.

So what's next? Well, there are a few things. On the Publisher front, the next step is to get business cards made and get them distributed in my local area. The word about being able to help onboard local artists and creatives needs to be spread. I will continue to do occasional drops of my own creative work, but helping others was the original goal. I so appreciate anyone who purchased the "First Drop", some original photography of mine. There are less than 100 in the collection and I will be visualizing how to reward the community of holders who bought in down the line.

I have gotten a formal business email set up for Yondar and am now ready to take on potential clients for initial consultations. Please visit yondar.me to check out the product. I am very excited to be helping the team at Yondar to grow the uses of their amazing mapping software and hope to bring it to resorts, campuses, and real-life events. All throughout NFTNYC, I thought of how cool it would've been to utilize their product to help various attendees get to where they were going.

I will continue to work on growing my writing under DepressiveHacks and couldn't be happier to be able to freelance pieces for Dgen Network. I am looking into Mirror as an option for future use and see potential in continuing to create pieces for various outlets.

This list is not comprehensive and I am always looking for ways to grow. The goal is that as different projects, work, and incentives under the DepressiveHacks umbrella develop and start to create revenue streams, that money will be used to build further, outreach more, and continue to grow. Ideally, there comes a time down the line when DepressiveHacks can become a legal corporate entity, but we are very far from that still. It is encouraging to see hope and potential and I am excited to be able to continue to learn and grow. Writing, Yondar, and Publishers will be the main focuses for now, aside from continuing to be a community manager for Birdie Golf and investing. I see a lot of upside potential in the rest of 2023 and look forward to bringing further updates on the progress I am making toward the goals I have for DepressiveHacks.

Tech Layoffs

(Originally published April 5, 2023)

So I know that I've disclosed in some communities and spaces, but March was a very disruptive month, hence no blog posts the entire month. I had been focusing on some paid writing and while I love this blog and everything I imagine it becoming, it sadly does not help me pay the bills yet.

The final week of March, specifically on the 29th, I went to my day job office like I had done almost every Wednesday for the previous year and almost eight months. It seemed like a pretty average day. I had just completed a call when I got whisked away for an emergency meeting with my boss. The door opened to the conference room and I met an HR representative whom I had never previously seen. I was informed that it was my last day on the job and that despite the company trying its best to avoid letting people go, the tech crunch has been brutal, and having worked for a tech distributor, there was an inevitable fate that had been prolonged as long as it could be.

I was hardly alone that day in getting let go and I'm hardly alone overall. Many people have found themselves in this boat recently the way that things have been going. I am fortunate that I have such a helpful support system. I should be getting severance and I still have my second job and some gig work / freelance work to help bridge the gap in the meantime. Things could definitely be worse.

It's really been interesting this week waking up without a day job to go to. As someone who has always had too much going on, I've simply adjusted my attention and time elsewhere. Obviously, applying for new positions takes up some of that time. As much as I enjoy not having to report to a day job and hope someday to work towards making that a realistic goal, my current situation is not sustainable without finding a new position. Interestingly enough, this experience has helped me solidify my goal of being able to focus on work that I want to do when I want to do it that isn't a day job. It also has helped me do some math and realize I have a long ways to go before I can do that in a practical sense.

Writing has been more of a focus since last Wednesday. As a freelance writer, I write doxed under my real name, ghostwrite, and now also write under DepressiveHacks. I am actually very happy to announce in this blog for the first time that I recently had my first piece regarding the web3 space published by Dgen Network. I hope to continue to work on covering the space for them and other publications. I think that taking my real-life talents and applying them to the space will only help me grow DHR&D and find better ways to add value and create a conglomerate of various activities and offerings, which is the dream.

I think that despite this misstep, the whole experience in the long run can end up being a blessing. It is really nice to be able to wake up and have the autonomy to work on whatever I am feeling that day. I have been able to take extra shifts at my second job, selling golf clubs, which is something I thoroughly enjoy, and have been able to spend more time doing it on the week of the Masters Tournament nonetheless. I have had days that have mostly focused on writing and being able to spend my day in a way that maximizes my creativity and writing has been very refreshing. The weather has finally turned around and spring is slowly coming each day.

Life is beautiful and things will work out. Short-term stress is inevitable, but I am so grateful to be where I am and have done the things I've done so far to get to this point. Change is a time for reflection and I feel that it's important to acknowledge my appreciation for everyone who reads this blog and engages with me in this crazy space and life. Nothing but the best for all of you. We will get through this together and be better for it on the other side. Onward & upward!

Thoughts and February

(Originally published February 28, 2023)

So this time of year is tough. February is arguably the worst month for seasonal depression and it has not been easy this year just like most. It's essential to try to continue to do what I can when I can despite my pivot from being hyped and ready to go for every aspect of my life to needing o kick myself out of bed in the morning and struggling to make it through the day. It's a real challenge. I haven't felt up to writing, consulting, building, learning, or growing. I just want to sleep. If you aren't familiar with depression, this is very common.

The overall economy has not been pretty. I've spoken at length about my struggles financially to start 2023. It has really hindered my progress and work so far this year and I am hoping that as the year continues, things loosen up and start to flow again. I am working on some things that could help and doing what I can with the energy I have to make progress. I also understand that there are not an endless amount of things that I can do in order to fix this and am working on accepting that things aren't the same as they were at the midpoint of 2022.

I am really happy though that this post looks like a third for February. There haven't been many months since starting the blog that I've had more than two blog posts in a month. I see this as a win, no matter how small.

My goal going into March is to be more in tune with myself. I have some time away from the snow and darkness next week and I am excited to get out of my normal day-to-day. I think that this will provide me with some energy and help me to move into spring with a better outlook and energy than I have now.

As far as DepressiveHacks, the next goal is to figure out the next steps for onboarding artists and doing more Publisher drops. I am writing this on the day Awkward Astronauts celebrated its anniversary with a birthday party. I think that despite slow progress, the promise of this project is extremely impressive. I am also working on best practices with Yondar in order to represent their company and product as best I can. Both of these aspects of DepressiveHacks are relatively new, especially compared to the blog, but I feel that both carry a lot of upsides to bring DepressiveHacks into this year and beyond.

The goal of DepressiveHacks started as an education platform. I still love education. I think that the avenues available for adults to learn, especially if they aren't receiving proper nurturing in their work, are limited. I aim to work education into the model at some point and try to focus my efforts there better, as they never really expanded beyond getting some good material I'd read and sending it out to followers on Twitter.

The new goal is to turn DepressiveHacks into a catch-all conglomerate. Everything that I have done with DepressiveHacks and in the online space is self-funded. The biggest thing about the DHR&D Publisher project and having DepressiveHacks become a Yondar Reseller is big in the development of this vision because they have the potential to actually generate revenue for the project. By no means am I here to steal from the ecosystem. I think there is so much potential in being here and despite DepressiveHacks maybe looking completely different this time next year, there's something to be said for not having to create everything out of my own pocket and having the progress of DepressiveHacks be so limited by the pay of my real life personal work and circumstances.

As the vision develops, I will continue to create updates about what is happening and where you can find DepressiveHacks hitchhiking across the virtual galaxy. It has been really humbling to start this and I will continue to work as best I can. There are a lot of awesome places where I can see this going. I am going to wrap this up now but I appreciate all of you readers who continue to lend your eyes and time to this blog. Nothing but the best wishes for you all.

Seasonal Depression Meets Financial Reality

(Originally posted February 16, 2023)

So, as I've been very open about, 2023 has not been a great year to start for me financially. I aim to be honest about this because it has drastically hindered my plans for the year for depressivehacks and my personal life. I aim to improve this as the year progresses and hope that sharing some of the stories can help inspire others.

I was able to complete my first drop as a Publisher on Nifty Gateway, which was a fantastic experience. I learned a lot and was so flattered that so many people would spend even $1 for a photo I took. It was eye-opening. I also learned a lot about drop mechanics and how much more difficult it is for creators in the space to make money than I'd initially anticipated. Having never done a drop of my own before and only purchased drops of others as an investor, this experience really opened my eyes. My drop was an Open Edition and I let it run for quite a while compared to a normal drop length. At the end of the day, it was quite difficult to successfully get the word out. I ended up netting about a $7 profit on the drop as a whole, which wasn't really amazing compensation for the time but as my trial run, I was just happy to not have lost money on the process.

This experience will help me as I prepare to speak with real-life artists in my area and discuss web3 with them. These are creatives that have no experience with the space and only have heard the best of the best, as we all know, from the media. It will be difficult to onboard them and bring success to them as new talent. It will be time-consuming. At this current time, I have so much going on that I can't predict when my next drop will be. I may try to drop more of my own photography if I find that there is demand. I would love to do drops for artists in my area, but the recruiting process will be long and time-consuming. I don't know if this is going to go as quickly as I'd imagined, but I am excited to begin and see what happens.

I am in the process of interviewing for a new day job. Through the start of this year, it has come to my attention that everything I do outside of my day job is sporadic income at best. When things are popping, this is not an issue. However, over the last couple of months, things have been slow as the economy has cooled. This has left me with significantly less free cash flow than ideal, causing me to evaluate what I can do. A higher-paying day job that still allows me the time to work on my side work would be an easy answer. I am hopeful that the position I currently am in the hiring process for will pan out, but understand that there are no guarantees and I may have to go back to the drawing board.

I am eager to get going on Yondar Reselling and look forward to working with the team to help broaden the scope of opportunities and resources available to help to close sales. I think that the opportunity to help facilitate the use of such a great program is a great opportunity.

I have yet to rely on any investments for income. I have a set amount that gets invested every year through dividend reinvestment into the stock portfolio and I aim to increase the dollar amount of dividends going into the portfolio this year once cash flow improves. I also am looking to branch out my investment focus this year and continue to learn about new and exciting opportunities. As the seasons change, my side work will pick up and hopefully, things will improve.

In the meantime, I have taken a small amount of space from being online and have been trying to focus on my daily life a little more intently. It is not easy. I have been getting over a cold the last week and my winter seasonal depression has been rearing its ugly head after being significantly more dormant for a good portion of December and January. As I slowly accept that my output and energy levels each day are dwindling, I am faced with the continuous shortcomings of my own expectations. In due time, things will continue to improve and I will start to feel better again. I thank you all for your patience and continued support. DHR&D is a project and vision of love and passion. I will continue to be here in whatever capacity I can.

February Updates

(Originally published February 7, 2023)

Super thrilled to report that quite a few things have happened since posting the year predictions. Things have been busy, so blogging has been a little slow, but I am excited to be able to bring these updates to everyone. Some things that were long works in progress have come to fruition.

First, Depressive Hacks has been accepted as a Publisher for Nifty Gateway. This is great news, as it means that I now have the means to easily help start my mission of onboarding local artists and creatives in my region and network to the web3 space. The most exciting thing for me about this is that creating in the web3 space can help artists find another means of income through their work and support themselves doing the type of work that they love to do. DHR&D will help these artists by providing the background information and basic education to the space, as well as assist with drops and consult on web3, crypto, and NFTs in general so that artists don't need to learn everything themselves and overcome significant learning curves just to participate. More information can be found on the Nifty Gateway Publisher page here at depressivehacks.com.

The next exciting announcement is that Depressive Hacks has been onboarded as Reseller for YondarNFT. Yondar sells AR mapping software that both allows for a custom overview map of different locations, marked with beacons, within an area, as well as an augmented reality experience where users can see beacons in their actual locations, interact with them within a certain range from the location, and receive rewards for visiting. Beacons can contain audio or visual files, so Yondar can be used for self-guided tours on campuses and historical sites. Beacon locations can also be hidden outside of a certain distance, so scavenger hunts and mysteries can be run automatically through the software; there could even be a reward for completing these events, like a discount coupon to whatever business is in charge of the custom map. More information can be found at the Yondar page here at depressivehacks.com.

Personal finances are still a problem area, but that is slowly being worked on so that new investment opportunities can be realized later in the year. Resumes are still being accepted for free listing on depressivehacks.com. Not many new projects have been joined but existing projects have been kept, which is a huge step at this time.

As far as the space as a whole, I think that the start of the year has been pretty stagnant. Individual projects are building. The market is trading sideways. Every market in the world is waiting on some decisive action from the Federal Reserve. I think that patience will be rewarded in 2023, which is difficult since there are so many awesome opportunities out there.

I've only made a few moves in the stock portfolio. Last year's tax loss harvests were reinvested in January, with QuantumScape being repurchased for the portfolio and the rest going to Innovative Industrial Properties. Neither are close to risk free, but QS has been a long term long position for me as I feel that they will change the game when it comes to electric vehicles and the issues the industry faces in charging infrastructure and length of charge. IIPR has been a safer way to play the marijuana industry without owning any of the companies trying to keep their heads above water during this difficult economic downturn. IIPR has been down quite a bit but as a REIT, it will still pay a healthy distribution and provides a way to play the space on a more holistic basis instead of betting on individual marijuana companies to make it until further legalization and proper business infrastructure and processes are widely available.

That's about all I got. If you recently got laid off due to the major headcount cuts at technology firms and other companies, please reach out. I'd be happy to suggest anything I can to help. Thanks as always for your readership. I will try to not get so behind on writing for work and pay that I can't provide at least something here every so often. Onward and upward in 2023!

What's Next? 2023 Predictions You Didn't Ask For

(Originally published January 16, 2023)

2022 has come to a close. Assets were down. Almost across the board. The economy was flying for the first half of the year. It then started a rapid slowdown. The Federal Reserve raised rates. Then, they did it again. This was repeated over and over again.

I previously did a post about the year in review. I'll be honest, January has been a pretty difficult month. Things were busy in December, my budgeting suffered, and January has mostly just been an effort to catch up. In fact, I have put any and all new investing on hold to start 2023, which pains me to say, but is completely necessary to ensure no serious setbacks in my overall plans. The year, as a result, will be starting on a slow note, but that doesn't mean the whole year will have to be this way. I look forward to further work on so many awesome opportunities once I have things more normalized.

So what's first? Well, for one thing, I got behind on my credit card debt. I hate admitting that. I've been so good about it for 2+ years. Always paying everything off at the end of each month. Now I finally have a balance that I can't pay, and that's the first thing that needs to be taken care of. It's been a focused effort and I hope to only need the month of January to resolve this problem.

After that, I need to rebuild my emergency savings. I feel comfortable funding all the things that I do because of this emergency savings buffer. It is crucially important for all people to maintain some type of liquid cash account to ensure that they can cover unexpected expenses in life. Some unexpected tax issues and unplanned expenses caused my savings to diminish. On one hand, I'm grateful that the money was there to take care of the expenses when they arose. However, the inability to do this again in the future as of this very moment must be fixed. This is the second priority once the credit cards are caught up.

I'm almost embarrassed this happened because I know that these things are Personal Finance 101 and any good financial planner would tell you that these are the things to start with and immediately take care of when trying to right your finances. This is why I called a complete audible on my finances and decided to halt all investing. There's no replacement for fundamentals and trying to tell yourself that a good investment can fix these errors down the road someday is just not fiscally responsible to yourself.

So, once I get these things taken care of, what are my focuses for 2023? What do I think will provide the best opportunities?

This is solely me speaking my own opinions. I am just a guy who blogs on his website. I by no means intend for anyone to follow my advice or use this as a definitive guide.

I think that 2023 will be a difficult year to invest. There is not going to be an ease up on the economy until things stabilize. Every single bank last week in their earnings report listed their outlook for a mild recession in 2023. Things are not just going to turn around on a dime. I expect the year to continue to be choppy and difficult. In fact, I have cash in my stock portfolio for the first time basically ever. I intend to be patient with this. I want to increase my dividend income this year and make that a focus of my investing again.

In 2021, I focused a lot of attention in publicly traded stocks. Investments started in 2020 and a lot of that was also in public stocks. 2022 was likely the first year that the majority of my investments did not go into publicly traded stocks in my brokerage account ($4,225 in brokerage, $6,927.64 between crypto & NFTs). I would anticipate that that heavily weighted investing into crypto and NFTs would not continue in 2023; however, I'd be lying if I said I didn't think there were a lot of opportunities in the space while prices to purchase/buy in are cheap.

One area that I'd like to move into further in 2023 is real estate. I personally think that 2023, as with most asset classes, will be a bad year for real estate as the huge price hike we've seen across all real estate markets slowly comes down as the year continues. I believe that this year will end up being a good longer term opportunity to put money into both public and private REITs, which can help create cash flow for future investments down the road.

I'm also always interested in exploring new asset classes and investment opportunities. I look forward to continuing to learn this year. Outside of investing, my biggest focuses for this year are to continue to grow my irl work, as well as my work here in the web3 space. I believe that the best is yet to come despite some serious headwinds and problems over the first year, but honestly it took this type of market reversal to get my interest and efforts to begin with. I don't enjoy investing at all time highs, just like most people, so I waited for a good portion of the air to come out of the tires before beginning to explore web3. 

I want to continue to work on depressivehacks.com and grow what this entity has to offer. I love providing random updates of things that peak my interest and having somewhere to share that and express that with others. I truthfully just want to be able to afford to try a bunch of random ass shit and review it or post it or whatever. I just invested in a solid upgrade for my work station at home and that has me excited for my next series of irl upgrades. Hopefully that also comes in 2023. I also am excited to continue to work on Birdie Golf and partner with more people and projects in the space. Even if I can't be an investor all the time, I can still contribute despite my personal finance situation and add value.

I thank you all for your readership and following along with this journey. I look forward to further blog posts in 2023 and seeing where this goes all the way to the end of the year for another summary. I can only imagine what is in store given where I went in 2022...

2022 Year In Review

(Originally published January 3, 2023)

Alright, so I'll be the first to admit that I'm not very good at this sort of thing. I've also been in the midst of a difficult depressive episode (not to be confused with a Depressive episode, which would be a tv show about Depressive Hacks). So, in an effort to try to summarize & lift my spirits, I'm going to discuss 2022 in a very open manner and hopefully get some closure on the year.

Nobody needs to be told that 2020 was a difficult year. 2021 was also a residual difficult year as the world figured out a way to wrap existence around the existence of Covid-19. I'd say that 2022 has really been the most "normal" year since 2019, which we should all be grateful for. I wouldn't say 2022 was particularly enthralling personally, but I am very grateful it felt more typical than the previous two years and that things have improved on the pandemic front.

Now, what to talk about. So I started a new day job in 2021. 2022 I spent the whole year at this job. I'll be honest - I tend to get bored pretty easily, so spending the whole calendar year at this job I see as an accomplishment. The first half of the year went solid when the economy was doing better. The second half left a lot to be desired. I work a job with commission, so obviously Q1 and Q2 were a lot more fun getting that pay check.

My second job is entirely commission, unlike my day job which does have a base + commission. Things at my second job this year went really well. So well, in fact, that I got to learn about quarterly estimated taxes and knock out a good chunk of money I had set aside to pay the government. I earned a personal record amount freelancing as well (the bar before was pretty low, but still worth celebrating). Next year, tax planning will be better as I now know what to expect, but let this be a lesson for all of you internet income earners. Nobody is there saying "oh, here's what you need to know if you start making more than a few hundred dollars on the side" when you're working. I work some other side things that can help sometimes, but those are the three areas I'd really like to focus on most.

Now, what happened with this money? Obviously, I had to use some of it for existing. Things got expensive with inflation and so more than anticipated went to regular things, rather that's an evening out for a date or groceries or even presents for the holidays.

A good portion went to investing. I do all my own investing and this year was one to forget. I even tax loss harvested to try to lower my income tax. It was pretty easy to do because I was down sizably.

I will not sit here and tell you "everything is going amazing" when it isn't. I'm a big proponent of buying and holding, so my time horizons aren't really in question yet, but it would be a lie to say that this year went well. As someone who is risk tolerant and has long timelines, I was and still am pretty heavy on SPACs and crypto. If you know anything about how the year has gone, that hasn't been a particularly fun trade. I will say that some pluses occurred in my Fundrise portfolio, which held up quite well compared to my stocks. The diversification into that alternative was good and I see why I did it after a year like 2022.

I went through my first IPO with private stock I held in the beginning of 2022. I also purchased some additional private stock, invested in wine with Vinovest, and dove into the world of NFTs.

Ah, yes, the part where I discuss what NFT world has been like. As someone that has been investing since 2020, I can hardly tell you that I'm SUPER experienced, but NFTs are so different than most other markets. I have really ate it on a few projects that aren't looking spectacular this moment (I won't throw any under the bus, but have you really invested in an NFT project if you haven't gotten rugged?).

What's most interesting to me is that each project is so unique. Some are basically IP investments, which is an area I've learned a lot about and found you can also invest in outside the NFT space with sites like Royalty Exchange (which I'd love to use someday when I can afford to). The confidence in whomever founded the project to maximize the IP is really why you'd stay, unless you have a plan for monetizing the IP yourself (or if you just like the art & don't care about the money).

Others are basically investments in startup businesses. It's so interesting to me to get to speak directly with visionaries trying to kickstart their dreams through a new method of raising funds. Still, others are social or utility driven with holders benefiting from different perks the project promises. Many companies who existed prior to NFTs use this model to enter the space and offer some type of benefit to their real life entity that's associated with their NFT project.

No, I haven't made money there either. This whole year was a huge learning experience in investing. It's hard to make money in a down market, especially when you're not a super active trader. Instead, I'm going to focus on some other highlights from joining this area of investment.

I was brought on to community manage for Birdie Golf. Now, if you know anything about me as a person, you'd think "why would Depressive be hired as a Community Manager where talking to people is a part of the job?". I'd normally agree with you, but I work every day to overcome my terrible social anxiety that seemingly has just gotten worse since Covid-19 started in 2020. Coming up with different ways to work on the project, add value to Birdie, and engage others has really helped me to learn a lot about the space and I look forward to where Birdie can go in 2023.

Another major highlight was launching this website. Sure, right now it's just a blog where I ramble on about stuff and yeah, there's a little portion where you can find what I, the creator of Depressive Hacks, would list on my resume and work I've done both in an organized job and on my own. However, I feel that getting started was a big step and am excited for what could be in store for 2023. I will also share that I invested my very first money into this site (beyond the $10 for a domain name). I have invested for two years in all kinds of other people, projects, companies, entities, and ideas. This is the very first time I've put money into one of my own concepts and I am excited to see where it goes. 

Along the way, I've met countless people. I am grateful to know so many people who are working on developing different things. I was even so inspired that I majorly upgraded my work station and now am working away on multiple screens with all kinds of gadgets and tools to help grow all areas of work that I participate in. In a weird way, web3 has turned into my social outlet since I have such a difficult time trying to engage in real life anymore. I hope to work on that in 2023 but I appreciate so many of you helping me get through 2022. It was a hard year.

Work stress. Money stress. Relationship stress. 2022 was the culmination of a lot of stress. It's cliche but I hope to improve my quality of life in 2023. One major thing that I will share openly that I'm so happy about is that I was able to go back into therapy in 2022. That has made a major difference and is likely the reason that I'm still able to sit here and type about such a hard year in the midst of such a hard depressive episode. Winter is here. More depressive episodes will come. This blog will be here for me when they do. Not that I want to turn this into my therapist because I pay my actual therapist too much to do that, but it's been nice to focus my attention and efforts here in times of distress and have an outlet for my creativity, whimsy, curiosity, and learning.

Now: 2023 goals. I hope to grow this site. I want to be able to make more connections and collaborate to bring better reasons to visit depressivehacks.com beyond just listening to my ramblings. I appreciate every person who takes the time to read my content, but I'll be honest, it's not a ton of people. Creative new ways to engage and grow the brand, the site, and everything that this stands for since I launched it in early 2022 excites me.

I want to make real progress with my work. When I say that, I'm excluding the site for now. I want to figure out if my day job is where I want to stay. I want to continue to grow in my second job and hope to see even half the jump in success I saw from 2021 to 2022 during the course of this upcoming year. I want to continue to invest in things that fascinate me and that I believe in, as well as hopefully make some money. Cash flow was a HUGE problem in 2022 and I hope to correct that a bit this year. I want to continue to work on Birdie and help grow that year over year. I want to capitalize on opportunities that come my way. My sibling just did a vision board for 2023 and despite teasing them about it, I honestly don't hate the idea. I've never been a good planner and struggle in being concrete with my goals. I prefer to under promise and over deliver.

Anyways, I really appreciate it if you made it this far in the post. I'd hardly say that this encompasses everything that happened last year, but it seems like a good enough wrap-up, so we're going to call it. Please don't forget that I'm actively accepting resume applications to have your resume (anon or not) listed on depressivehacks.com FOR FREE so I can try to connect you with others who may benefit from your skills. Always open to ideas, collaborations, brainstorming, whatever. Just look for the pink Awkward Astronaut (#9179) across platforms; that is the face of Depressive Hacks and branding is important, so it's consistent (homeostasis). Thank you for your viewership; I hope to bring you even better stuff to scroll through on the toilet in 2023. 

Synergies & How Can I Help?

(Originally published on December 18, 2022)

So, the other evening I could not sleep and I was thinking about the website and what to do next. I've really enjoyed having the ability to write here and express my thoughts on whatever topic I like, but I envision more for this page and I would love to help build in a way that can benefit others as well as myself.

This whole idea started as a way to focus my energy and attention into something productive during the winter months. I can attest it has been successful thus far in that goal. I think that it can be more, though.

A lot of people right now are struggling through the holiday season. Rather it be emotionally, financially, physically, spiritually, or otherwise, you never know what others are going through. Be understanding and lead with empathy. It's easier said than done, but I truly believe we can make a difference if we try to keep that in focus.

To that end, here is what came to me as an idea & I am writing it as a blog post to try to gather feedback. I can better spell out my vision in long form and I am curious if there would be demand for this concept.

I want to create a page where your resume can be listed. This would not be a job board in a traditional sense, as it wouldn't contain any way for you to apply to a position. Maybe someday, that concept could be added, but that is not the original vision. Instead, I would like to create a resource where a resume can be posted anonymously.

I would maintain contact information for each listing and create a way for the resumes to be reviewed. The idea here is that it could provide a place for the network of entrepreneurs, investors, intellectuals, and others to seek talent for their project. This could be of value to a small business owner, project founder, or anyone who is at the very lonely first stages of going out on their own to start a business.

Being able to utilize the scalability and value that the internet provides to help the growth potential of whatever it is you invest your time into is essential, especially during such harsh times across the globe. In times like these, much of what we turn to is community and those around us to continue to support our efforts and spirits in difficult times. For that reason, I want to be of value to those in the Depressive Hacks community and do my best to create synergies that can help others, as that's really one of my biggest strengths.

I will continue to work to expand my network and find more areas where I can be of use to others, through Depressive Hacks and in my own actual life. Should this idea for a resume archive be in demand, I will begin by creating my own freelance resume and posting it on the site as a trial. I would be happy to lend my skills set to help others and am always happy to listen to an opportunity. I envision the ability to give better recommendations to others as I learn more about the real life skills of my network and what types of things can be brought to the table and are in demand for others. As a freelancer myself who works a multitude of jobs, as well as an investor, I believe I am in a unique position to see ways that I can pair things together to create positive change. I try to do this as much as I can with synergies I find in my regular life and I am excited to try to bring this practice to web3 and the Depressive Hacks brand.

Please feel free to reach out with feedback and I look forward to the thoughts of my readers. Nothing but the best wishes for you all this time of year and always.

How to Take On A Second Job

(Originally published December 3, 2022)

So for years now, I have done a lot of various different types of work in my personal life. The extra work I do helps to finance some of my ideas, projects, investments, and concepts. This work has helped to create this blog and given me something else to start investing in, as if there weren't enough options already.

In my own life, I've held more than one job at a time for the majority of the last decade. When I was younger, it was out of necessity; now, it is risk management. During these tough economic times, plenty of people are trying to think of ways to make more money. Maybe you'd like to change your career entirely. Maybe you just want to be able to have something on the side that would help you pay for presents for your kids. Whatever your financial goals are, you've likely heard time and time again that you can only cut expenses for so long before having a real impact on your quality of life. The "easiest" thing to do is to generate more income - this is in quotes because it STILL IS NOT EASY.

Now, what I do is a bit excessive. My friends make fun of me and ask me: "how many jobs do you have again? Why not just get one job that pays better?"

This is totally fair and I will admit that my day job doesn't pay amazing. What it does do, however, is give me a great work-life balance. This balance has allowed me the time to work on additional means of income outside of work. Sure, some of them might not make money this second. Maybe they'll never make money. Some of them, however, do make additional money. In fact, I just had to make my very first quarterly estimated tax payment this year because I needed to avoid having a huge tax burden come next April, as well as avoid paying fees and penalties for not being up to date on things.

It may not seem like it, but this is actually a good problem to have. Now the majority of it comes from maintaining a second job, but there are other things that I do that factor into my taxes. This isn't really supposed to be a self-portrait though, so let's move on.

I've worked a lot of day jobs, part time jobs, and structured employment. Those experiences have given me a diverse background - highly recommend reading the book "Range" by David Epstein for anyone looking to explore the distinguishing factors between generalists and specialists in a professional setting. Through this experience, I have found ways to expand outside of my immediate work experience.

I want to share some of this experience in branching out. Hopefully it can help someone to find a way to further support themselves or their loved ones. Maybe it will help someone to move out of their job into an area of work they find more fulfilling.

I started working multiple jobs when I was young, but if you're just now thinking of taking on extra work for the first time, here are some of my tips:

First, pick something that you really enjoy. Do you have any hobbies that you really like? Any certain aspect of your job that you find particularly interesting? What is something you have a good understanding of from some amount of passion? Working more than one job when you're used to 40 hours a week is going to take some adjustment, but it will be easier if you enjoy whatever it is that you're doing.

Second, determine how long you need some extra money for and how soon you need to start earning it. Could you pick up some seasonal work or part time work for a short period of time? It's always a nice thought to start your own side hustle, but realistically, this takes more time than people realize and isn't going to provide you a boost to your income in the short term, which is especially important if you need extra money quickly.

You'll want to examine both local options to your area for extra work, as well as check online. I personally have had some good luck finding extra work in sales, writing, freelance work and consultation work. However, I'm always curious and looking for new ways to add income to my bank account. I've worked multiple jobs in seasonal industries and temporary positions. Before and even during my time as a corporate employee in an office, I worked a multitude of part time jobs that included being a secret shopper, a caddie at a golf course, a delivery driver, a tutor, a business consultant, and many others. At no point did any of these jobs provide me with enough money that I could've done them as stand alone opportunities, but there are a lot more opportunities than people realize to try to use some extra time that they have to make extra money and help boost their income to better balance their finances.

I hope that this helps to motivate someone to start diving into alternative ways to add some income on the side and help get through some rocky times ahead. I would be happy to write more on this topic if there is a need and always am happy to help use the experience I've had finding work in various ways to assist others in their search. 

Leverage

(Originally published November 15, 2022)

The last week has been pretty chaotic. Personally, the economic slowdown has shown itself at my day job, second job, and freelance work. Money just isn't being spent the way that it was six months ago. Maybe that's for the best after what has happened this week in crypto. If you aren't familiar, the world's third largest exchange became insolvent after they got over-leveraged.

This terminology may not be something that you're familiar with or you may not see how this applies to crypto, so I'm going to take a little time to explain. Many people all around the world maintain a bank account. You open a consumer account, deposit your money, and the bank holds your money for you until you go back to get it again. That's the basic format of how banking works for the consumer. However, it doesn't explain what is happening behind the scenes.

The bank uses the money that is deposited to finance other operations that make money. For example, small business loans from a community bank are generally funded from the deposits that community members have made to the bank. The bank uses cash to generate returns and then pays a VERY small amount to account holders in interest.

The reason that it's possible to confidently put your money into a bank account is that there is typically some type of guarantee of deposit by an overlying entity. In the United States, the banking system is backed by FDIC insurance, which guarantees a deposit into an account up to $250,000. This means that if the bank is unable to pay out your account due to overextending the money they get from deposits into risky assets, the FDIC will help by guaranteeing your money and making sure that you get it back despite the individual risk of that bank going under. This was instituted after the major bank runs of the Great Depression and is what allows confidence to keep funds in the bank.

Banks typically carry responsible leverage; however, there have been historical exceptions that have created turbulence in the economy. The subprime mortgage crisis of 2007-08 comes to mind immediately. The checks and balances in the established banking system create a more stable economic force.

This is relevant because crypto is not FDIC insured, meaning that there is no guarantee of deposit of funds on an exchange or brokerage. Customers of FDX, the exchange that went under due to being leveraged too far (among other things), won't be able to claim FDIC insurance and will have to wait for bankruptcy courts to unwind the assets and hopefully get SOME of their money back.

Leverage at the scale of major financial institutions can create serious problems in the economy. Most people aren't heading one of these organizations and aren't going to be in this position. That doesn't mean that there aren't lessons to be learned though. For sake of beating a dead horse, I won't turn this into a rant on self custody of assets.

A big takeaway for individuals is that using leverage is very risky and that purchasing ANYTHING on credit comes with risk. Even something as simple and common as credit cards can really escalate and cause consumers to feel like they're fighting an uphill, if not impossible, battle. Debt can be a bear to overcome. Debt based on leveraging an asset, like a home equity line of credit (HELOC), can be risky if the asset that the loan is based upon (aka the leverage) starts to decrease in value.

Home prices can bottom out and cause serious liquidity crunches (2008 showed us that). It is more common, however, for this to happen with a more volatile asset. When it comes to volatile assets, crypto is at the top of the list. The use of fungible cryptocurrencies to be used as leverage for any type of loan is an extremely risky practice. We've seen enough blowups (Terra/Luna, Three Arrows, Celsius, Voyager, FTX) to know that this type of practice needs to stop AND mirrors what has happened in TradFi.

Moral of the story? Don't get greedy. If you want something, earn the money to pull it off. Be patient. Easier said than done, but that's my $0.02. Hopefully, the next post is a bit more cheery.

Depressivehacks.com & How You Can Help

(Originally published on November 7, 2022)

This post isn't going to be a long, drawn-out ramble like the last one. Instead, I want to call you, dear reader, into action.

Depressive Hacks came about as a concept drawn upon my need for an outlet for my creativity and my love of learning and education. I don't know if I will ever run out of random things I find fascinating to discuss here and I absolutely love that. However, this blog isn't meant to be just a space where I can yell into the void of the internet with more than 140 characters. I want it to be a collaborative and creative learning space for everyone. With that being said, I am officially opening up this platform to anyone who would like to do some type of Q&A about any topic they find fascinating and have expertise in.

Some qualifying rules and regulations. First, it doesn't need to be something you do professionally. It's great that people can take their passions and make them their jobs, but most people have more passions than jobs. If you have worked as a plumber for 20 years and want to discuss tips for rental property owners, that's great. If you're a plumber who wants to talk about your passion for priceless comics and how you feel about the collectibles market as a long-term investment, that's amazing too. The goal is not to pigeonhole you into whatever you feel best fits your resume. In fact, think of this space as a way to expand your resume and show your expertise to the world.

I will maintain the final publication and edits; however, I'm going to give you a chance to triple-check whatever you respond to my questions to make sure that you are completely content with your portrayal. I will even provide a final approval opportunity after I make edits, which will mostly be for grammar, punctuation, formatting, and flow of content.

I am happy to have a discussion with anyone regarding your topic of choice. You may choose to provide your expertise anonymously or as yourself. If you wish to link anything in your post, such as a website for your business or your social media, I am happy to provide you an opportunity to add your links to your Q&A. I will not be charging for these digital interviews and would encourage anyone with a small business, especially in a niche area, to reach out and utilize this platform to the fullest to get some free advertising.

I do maintain final creative rights and I must say that while I am very open-minded about the content of the Q&A discussions, not every topic is going to be a great fit. I will occasionally have to either tell someone to go back to the drawing board or outright reject a topic if it doesn't fit the greater scope of learning and education that I have in mind. I am hoping to keep this to an absolute minimum. Unprofessional topics of discussion would be really the only immediate rejection.

With that being said, DMs on Instagram, Twitter, or email at depressivehacks@gmail.com are all good ways to reach out if you're interested in collaborating for a Q&A. I look forward to launching this structure to the blog and can't wait to work with so many talented people out there!

Nonprofits, NFTs, and a WHOLE Lot of Rambling

(Originally published November 1, 2022)

Alright, so bear with me here. I've been investing for a few years. I went to business school, got an MBA, and have worked in a few different corporations. Just before COVID, I had started trying to allocate some occasional extra money to a TD Ameritrade account. Then, nobody could do anything for months and months. Eventually, my lease ran out and I moved back home for a short time. There, I started putting money away into public stocks and my investing journey was in full swing.

I have zero intentions of talking about specific investments in my blog. If you want that type of content, Twitter is the place to look. I'll happily discuss my holdings and any details. In fact, my whole public stock brokerage portfolio is posted on www.depressivehacks.com in an effort to provide transparency. 

As I began doing more and more research, I started to learn more about alternative investments. I started diversifying into crypto in early 2021 and have just become super interested in what's going on in the space. The technology and innovation are fascinating and I think it is so invigorating to learn more about them. I've thought about writing about the space, which would be so fun, but there are already a lot of great educational tools for people who want to learn. I am currently happy to use my Twitter to provide information that is both valuable and useful.

No, this post is meant to be about nonprofits. The work that these 501C3s do is invaluable in many cases. I have seen some lives changed in my day by the efforts that nonprofits provide around the world. Two nonprofits that I personally donate to or work with, since I can't go a few paragraphs without a good plug, are Kiva and BonaResponds/Positive Ripples. 

There are a lot of different nonprofits out there, both big and small. Most at least start out with donations being the primary means of bringing in revenue to then disburse to whatever they deem as their worthy cause. One thing that has always stood out to me is the limitations of a donation-based model to charity. There is a limitation that exists when there's only one means of income for any entity or even individual person for that matter. Adding an additional revenue stream in case something happens to the first is not only good risk mitigation but can help fuel growth.

Not only does your average nonprofit not have multiple streams of income, but donations aren't a very consistent means of income. It's totally fair that donations remain part of the equation and a sizable one can make a large difference in the impact of the nonprofit's work. However, an additional income stream can not only help advance things that much further in good times, but can keep the wheels turning during times of limited donations as well.

The question becomes how to raise money aside from donations. There are examples of 501C3s creating some type of product to sell. They use the product to generate revenue, cover the expenses of creating the product being sold, and then take the profits and funnel them toward their cause or current project. In fact, today at the grocery store, I purchased some pasta sauce that is manufactured by a church organization that donates all of the proceeds to their charitable arm. This idea is great, but startup costs to create a product offering generates a barrier to entry that many nonprofits can't overcome without either a majorly generous donation or redirecting donation money away from the cause at hand towards product development. This tradeoff is difficult to justify in a nonprofit, even if the long-term outcomes could lead to more revenue to direct the cause down the road.

Where am I going with all of this? I think that there is a huge potential for this barrier to entry to be lowered, especially for smaller nonprofits that aren't swimming in donation money. It's probably evident from the title of this blog post, but NFTs I believe are a great opportunity for nonprofits.

Stick with me for a bit. 501c3s regularly do fundraisers. Plenty of things are done to raise money for charitable organizations. Fundraisers, galas, charity auctions, and golf tournaments are just a few off the top of my head that I can think of. Imagine curating an NFT collection that is made for a charity. Even a small collection of say 10 pieces could be auctioned starting at $100 each. That creates a minimum of $1,000 for the charity, which can be significant for the cause. Hopefully, the auction raises even more than that floor of $1,000.

The big difference is what happens after the auction. The contract for the NFT collection can include royalties for the creator, which in this case, is the 501c3 or a representative of the nonprofit. This means that any time that one of the NFTs originally auctioned off gets resold, a percentage of the proceeds goes to the nonprofit. If a full collection of NFTs were to be launched, that's a resource for secondary sales profits to create a revenue stream for the nonprofit.

I hope to someday actually test this out, as I feel that it would be a beneficial fundraising mechanism with long-term benefits for the 501c3. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.

Welcome! What Are We Doing Here?

(Originally published on October 23, 2022)

I've often wondered what starting a blog would look like. It was over two years ago that I started researching what blog ownership and creation entail. After much consideration, as well as some key discussions with different connections I have made since launching Depressive Hacks on Twitter and Instagram earlier this year, I finally decided to pull the trigger and launch a blog.

When I first thought about the mission of Depressive Hacks, I had no idea what I was looking to do. When people talk about launching a business or work in general, the phrase "do what you love" is thrown around a lot. I greatly admire anyone who is able to make their passions and their work match up. This is not an easy task and should be applauded. Writing has always come naturally to me and over a year ago, I started writing for hire online. It's now been almost 20 months since I started this process and this is the first thing I have written that is not for a freelance contract for a customer.

It's strange honestly. Every sentence that I write is something that I have full autonomy over publishing in a public setting. I am so excited to write for myself though and to bring an inside look at my journey and all of the different areas that I explore in my life out of interest and passion. I spend so much time learning and acquiring knowledge that I cannot wait to have somewhere to share some of it.

What's exciting is that I can focus the blog on whatever has my attention at the time. I really hope to utilize it to expand the focus of Depressive Hacks, especially when it comes to a broader mission of learning. I came to this idea through the love of spreading information I've learned and the broader goal of doing something productive to preoccupy my time during the winter. As someone who has clinical depression and experiences Seasonal Affective Disorder as well during the upcoming months of the year, I have found that productivity really helps me to get through the winter months.

I have a wide variety of topics that I want to cover and some will likely interest you more than others. Ironically, I've read a bunch of articles about what the best practices are to do in order to scale and grow your blog viewership. I've done enough SEO (search engine optimization) writing for hire to know what's appealing to the algorithms and increases the activity you get from Google and other search engines. In fact, I pay Google for the rights to my domain name, which is a purchase I'm very excited about.

However, I'm currently being pulled in so many directions that the thought of trying to SEO Optimise my own blog for free makes me feel instant nausea. I guess someday if I really needed to try to generate income, I could try to do some of my own SEO writing, but I'd prefer to make a blog for what I want and for my own enjoyment before making a blog with the sole goal of making money. It's important that I try to balance my work with the rest of my life and give myself a lot of leeway going into a difficult period of the year.

So this is the part where I talk a bit more about what to expect going forward since I'm sure if you've come here and you're familiar with Depressive Hacks, you're wondering if every post is going to be like this one. The answer is no. I will add more formatting and structure going forward. Each post will be focused on something specific that I want to write about. The topics will vary greatly but each will be specified within the post title. I am not sure where the first direction will be yet, so we'll see where that goes, but I am excited to have started somewhere and appreciate any early interest at this point. I bless you for reading this and wish you well. 

Let’s Talk About It - Depression

(Originally published October 23, 2022)

As I sit here having decided I want to write about this, I'm still not exactly sure about the end goal. Here is what I know: I have had clinical depression since about 2008. It was most likely earlier than that, but a fairly passive attempt at your own life kind of sticks out to you, even years later, so that's generally where I ballpark things. I can remember walking from school to the babysitter's and just being over everything.

I grew up in a very small town. We didn't get a ton of traffic. There are two main roads that come into town and on this fateful day, there happened to be a semi-truck coming down the road. It was the dead of winter. Absolutely freezing outside. There was this massive vehicle coming my way and I had to cross the street. Any reasonable person could've figured out the timing correctly to cross without any issues. Truthfully, it was the only vehicle I'd seen in a couple minutes anyways. Then, I got this idea: fuck up the crossing on purpose so you cut off the semi. It's freezing out and the roads aren't good. If the semi can't stop in time, then that'll be that. If the jake brakes work, then I still need to be here.

Obviously, you can figure out where things went from there. I don't remember as much from my childhood as I should and it's 100% due to memory suppression. What's interesting about that is that the things I do remember stick out for very strong reasons. I had never played chicken with cars before. I haven't again since this one day.

I could discuss so much more detail about my lived experience, but I'm going to stop there for a few reasons. The first is that I love my family and friends and in the event that anyone I love reads this, I don't need to further break their heart with the level of darkness you get comfortable sitting in after a decade-plus of clinical depression. The second is that I didn't create this blog for the purpose of therapy. I am happy to report that I attend therapy once a week and the ability to talk to someone has become something I appreciate so much more as an adult. I had to go to court-mandated therapy with a psychologist as a teenager and I really hated it. I really hated everything though, so I never gave myself a fair share with psychology. It took another full mental breakdown and more mandated therapy to actually realize that I was wrong.

Instead, I want to talk about why I'm writing all of this very personal information in the first place. For a long time now, I have enjoyed writing. When I go visit my grandma, she still has some of the work I did in school. It's all dark. All of it. At the time, I just thought I was naturally good at writing. It came naturally. My vocabulary was always very solid because my mom made it a point to read to me a whole bunch as a kid. I also knew from trial and error that writing with depth was something I was capable of doing that escaped a lot of my peers at the time. The more I could really hammer home the emotions of my writing, the better grade I would get and the more revered my work would be. Ironically, I could never win an award for my writing in the annual writing contest we had in our county for all the high schools. In hindsight, the prompts just weren't dark enough. I also have some very strong memories of my mom wanting to be a writer. She took classes and worked on the craft all the time when I was a kid. When my parents divorced I stopped hearing about writing professionally, but to this day, she still writes in her journal every morning.

Fast forward many years and I'm in the process of trying to piece together some level of functionality in my life. Everything is difficult. Getting out of bed is difficult. It is extremely difficult to describe what the lowest lows of depression feel like. Unfortunately, most people don't need a description, as life generally hands everyone their ass at least once. So we'll do a quick exercise: remember how you felt at the worst point in your life. Whatever that time was, I am sorry for your experience. My depression and my empathy go hand in hand. I know what that feels like because I have been there. The easiest way to describe the experience of clinical depression is that you're overlooking that cliff of the depths of despair at all times. There could be no feasible reason why you feel so terrible, yet you're looking up from the bottom of that cliff. It doesn't have to make sense. That's what makes it clinical. There doesn't have to be a reason for it. That isn't to say you can't figure out a reason for it. Sometimes there is, sometimes there isn't; sometimes you just feel lost.

I should clarify - this example from the previous paragraph is a few years old. I wouldn't be able to function at the level I do now with everything I have going on if I were in the same space mentally. The reason I bring it up is that in all the time I've spent sitting with myself trying to figure out a way forward, there's always been that voice of empathy in my head. The invention of the internet has meant so much to so many people. The awareness that has been generated for mental health since I was a kid is incredible. It is so nice to know that I am not alone, as none of us are. Everyone struggles with something and even with a clinical condition, there are so many people who know how I feel because they share the same struggle. The empathy in me has always known that I need to do something to reach out and share. I found a lot of peace in music, listening to lyrics from artists who experienced similar things to my lived experience. If my experience can help even one person in the depths of their depression hell, it's worth putting out there for people to see.

I've had a lot of different ideas as to how to do this. Ironically, Depressive Hacks R&D was not made for this purpose. I have a lot of ideas for the future of DHR&D. This isn't about that. This is about trying to do something to help someone.

I've always wanted to write a book. Hopefully, someday, I will accomplish that. I've always thought that depression would somehow make its way into the book if I decide to write realistic fiction. I struggle with the genre; I don't like labels. I've also thought about making some other creative production about it. Creativity really seems to help. Music always has helped. Writing now helps too. There's something about it that is both therapeutic and humanizing.

Sharing my experience is the first time I've ever written about my depression in a structured setting. After years of thinking about it, I felt it was important to do it. Even if it isn't in the medium or format I'd always dreamed of, I'm still accomplishing a long-time goal the moment I hit publish on this blog post. That's good enough for me. Maybe someone reads this and feels less alone. That'd be an extra bonus. This post is for me, and for you, dear depressive reader, when you find yourself feeling the darkness close in with nowhere to run. You aren't alone. For everyone else who has their own battles to fight that aren't clinical depression, know you aren't alone in that either. We are stronger together. Hopefully, you gained some insight from reading this that you didn't have before. Hopefully, you learned something. That's the whole point here at Depressive Hacks R&D. Thanks for your time; bless you, dear reader.