Juha-Matti Santala
Community Builder. Dreamer. Adventurer.

Blog posts in category “Personal life”

Posts that are about my life as a human being on a space rock.

  • Dec 18th, 2024
    Writing is my canary bird

    I write enough daily these days that I notice when I struggle with it and it has become a canary bird of other issues in my life.

  • Dec 11th, 2024
    Struggles with believing in myself

    For this month’s IndieWeb Carnival, I write about my struggles with self-confidence, impostor syndrome and believing in myself.

  • Nov 27th, 2024
    I like the person I am when I travel

    When I’m out there, I flow with the universe and enjoy the ride.

  • Jul 27th, 2024
    My desk setup, 2024 edition

    My setup has changed quite a bit since the last post in 2021

  • Jul 17th, 2024
    Advocate for your colleagues

    If we don’t advocate for each other, nobody will. Also includes a few good resources to learn how to advocate for yourself!

  • Apr 10th, 2024
    Prepare, Perform, Ponder

    I like a tight feedback loop that helps me improve what I do in life. Prepare-Perform-Ponder is a solid trio that helps me learn from my successes and mistakes.

  • Mar 27th, 2024
    Chance of serendipity

    A lot of positive things in life happen by accident. But for them to happen to us, we need to be active, get out there and have an open mind for learning and meeting people.

  • Feb 19th, 2024
    Thank you, Startuplifers

    After more than a decade of sending students to intern at startups in Silicon Valley - and changing my life - Startuplifers is sunsettings its operations.

  • Feb 14th, 2024
    Stickers tell stories

    Some like their laptops clean and sticker-free. I’m the exact opposite and have multiple layers of stickers on mine and each one tells a story.

  • Feb 10th, 2024
    Anonymous, asynchronous friendships

    This month’s Indie Web Carnival took me to think about digital relationships and I ended up on a nostalgia trip back to early 2000s and friendships I made in the IRC and discussion forums - anonymously and asynchronously.

  • Jan 20th, 2024
    A few core memories

    foreverliketh.is challenged Indie Web Carnival to dig on some core memories and find some that remind of the good parts of myself

  • Dec 27th, 2023
    Year in Review 2023

    Time for my annual look back at the rather eventful year of 2023.

  • Dec 20th, 2023
    Merry Christmas!

    And happy holidays!

  • Dec 13th, 2023
    Two months with Obsidian

    I’ve been experimenting with taking notes with Obsidian for two months now, here’s a retrospective of that experiment.

  • Nov 25th, 2023
    Three travel essentials

    I never leave home without these.

  • Sep 27th, 2023
    Traveling Europe on land: Turku to Prague

    This month, I visited PyCon CZ conference in Prague and spent over 80 hours in public transport to get there.

  • Aug 25th, 2023
    6 months of recovery, how is life?

    It’s been about six months since I last wrote about how things are going. Time for an update.

  • Aug 13th, 2023
    Desert Island Discs

    Desert Island Discs is a BBC radio show where people share 8 songs, a book and a luxury item they'd take with them on a desert island. Here are my picks!

  • Mar 22nd, 2023
    A quick life update

    9 weeks ago I shared that I'm leaving Mozilla and moving back home. A lot has happened and I'm blown away by how well everything has gone since.

  • Mar 10th, 2023
    I combat impostor syndrome with building in public

    I suffer from impostor syndrome but I've recently found an unexpected way to combat it: learning and building in public

  • Feb 15th, 2023
    The imperfect mess of note taking

    I like to take notes and for years attempted to find the perfect solution. Once I embraced the imperfect chaos, I started to get good at taking notes.

  • Jan 18th, 2023
    I'm leaving Mozilla

    I resigned from Mozilla. The time has come for me to take a break and make my mental and physical health a top priority. I'm also moving back home to Turku.

  • Dec 21st, 2022
    Merry Christmas

    Merry Christmas friends! This week I'll spend with friends and family, away from online.

  • Nov 5th, 2022
    I joined Mastodon

    As so many others, I decided to join Mastodon in preparation for the possible downfall of Twitter.

  • Sep 21st, 2022
    Traveling in connected, digitalized world

    I love traveling. And in a world with digital services, easy connectivity and friends everywhere, it's easier and more fun than ever for me.

  • Sep 14th, 2022
    Why I do what I do?

    I have two main beliefs that led me to building communities for developers: 1) technology can be used for the good of humanity and 2) technology is everywhere and you can't opt out.

  • Aug 31st, 2022
    The Firehose

    It's been a while since the last update on this site, either on this blog or in the weeklies. I started a new job as a Senior Developer Advocate for add-ons at Mozilla in the beginning of August and it has pretty much taken all of my energy to create anything.

  • Jul 20th, 2022
    Embracing failure

    When I grew up, failing or being wrong wasn't something that was encouraged. It led to me only wanting to try things I already knew I'd succeed in. It took me until my late 20s to realize that it's hindering and slowing me down a lot. Luckily, I learned to start failing.

  • Jun 22nd, 2022
    A lighthouse

    On top of a small hill, there's a small lighthouse. At the base of the lighthouse, there's a small house, and at the heart of it there's a fireplace that brings light and warmth to the entire house. Even on the rainy days – and there are plenty – the house stays dry and comfy.

  • Jun 15th, 2022
    Goodbye, Futurice

    Time for personal news. After 4+ years at Futurice, it's time for me to graduate from Ultimate Learning Platform and move on. Here's a retrospective of the good stuff.

  • May 4th, 2022
    A week in life of a developer advocate

    So what do I as a developer advocate actually do? What's hidden beneath the title? I wrote a journal for a week about the things I did to give you a peek into the life of an advocate.

  • Mar 23rd, 2022
    Last two years have been awful

    CW: burnout, depression, stress. These past two years have been incredibly tough and I've been struggling more than I ever have. And I want to share it so that if you're going through something similar, you can know you're not the only one.

  • Dec 22nd, 2021
    Merry Christmas!

    Merry Christmas everyone!

  • Sep 22nd, 2021
    Where do you see yourself in five years?

    I was recently asked where I see myself in 5 years and it sparked the need in me to write about why I think it's a horrible interview question but a great topic to reflect on.

  • Jun 16th, 2021
    My (career) story in tech and developer relations

    Everyone's career story and progression is different. Since in social media stories about fast learning and advancement pick up a lot of attention, I wanted to share my slower path.

  • Feb 24th, 2021
    Learning in public

    It's a great feeling when you write a blog post or give a talk about something you're doing and learning and people participate in the discussion, allowing you to learn more. Join me to read how you can get into the mindset of learning in public.

  • Feb 10th, 2021
    My home office setup

    During the pandemic, I've made some additions to my normal laptop-only setup as I end up spending all my days sitting at my desk. Macbook, alpacas and Nintendo Switch – and a tiny bit more.

  • Dec 23rd, 2020
    Merry Christmas my friends

    Merry Christmas! This week I just want to take a moment to wish you all happy holidays.