I’ve always kept a line between “work” and “home” when it came to blog posts, and social media platforms – for all sorts of tremendously sensible professional and ethical reasons – never getting into who I have worked for, what projects I have worked on, how those projects have gone, or anything else. The majority of the “world according to my blog” has always been quite vague when it came to what I get up to “at work”.
I’m about to lift the lid on that part of my life, because (as the title implies), my life is about to change pretty spectacularly.
First, a story.
A little over thirty years ago I had finished college, and was working for the family business when the company accountant called and asked if I would like a “proper job”. It turned out he was also the accountant for a growing manufacturing company nearby that needed help setting up computers for their staff.
For the next five years I built the database the business ran on, wrote bespoke software for them, and eventually led a small team from an office not unlike the “IT Crowd” TV series.
Eventually the business got into financial trouble (not their fault – a story for another day), and around the same time I had met a girl. Within perhaps six months we were living together, and after trying out freelancing for a while, I was scouting around for a new job. A call with an agent led me directly to a company with offices a couple of miles from where I was living.
Following informal chats with directors and project managers, and passing a software development test (on paper!), I started immediately. Over the next twenty four years I worked on projects for all manner of clients up and down the country, and across Europe. I also ended up teaching how to use various technologies and products – leading rooms full of business people down all manner of rabbit holes.
When the pandemic happened we sold the office, and the couple of mile cycle to work each day was replaced with a walk between the kitchen and the study at home. I had always wondered what it might be like to work from home – and now I found out.
As the world slowly resurrected itself after the pandemic, the little company I worked for got acquired by a significantly bigger company. I was still working from home, and still working on the same kinds of projects – but now a very small cog in a very large machine.
I have thoughts about the differences between working for smaller and larger companies. Another story for another day.
So. How does this all lead towards me handing my notice in?
About six years ago – towards the tail end of bringing up children – my Dad gave me his old computer. Given that all of our efforts at home had been concentrated on the kids for so long, my own computer was something of a curiosity – built from bits of long dead computers that somehow kept working if you nudged it appropriately from time to time in just the right manner. I affectionately called it “Trigger’s Broom” after a scene in a famous British TV series called “Only Fools and Horses”.
As soon as the computer arrived, I installed a flight simulator on it. I’ve never been a huge fan of modern “first person shooter” video games – my era was more Pacman, Space Invaders, and Defender – but flight simulators were a different matter. I had grown up near RAF Brize Norton, and had a brother that built numerous plastic model kids of aircraft. There was always a huge red aircraft encyclopedia knocking around at home too (I still have it!), that I read endlessly.
After my Dad retired he got interested in flight simulation, and ended up joining a group online that “flew” together online every week. I had never really taken much notice – kids, remember – but remembered him retreating to his study while we were staying while on holiday – wearing a headset, talking to air traffic controllers, referring to maps, writing notes down – I really had no idea what he was up to, but it looked liked fun.
So. I installed a flight simulator on the new computer, and got in touch with my Dad. After being arm-twisted into joining his group of friends for a “flight”, and winging it (pun intened) throughout the session, I ended up being asked how I had managed to get a particular aircraft working within the simulator – a pretty faithful recreation of a Boeing 737.
I wrote some notes down, and recorded a video to share. I already knew it was free to store videos at YouTube, because we were already using it to keep videos of the kids when they were young – so uploaded it to YouTube and made it public.
I kept at it as I learned more – making more guides, recording videos, and sharing them – and then one day YouTube turned around to me and said “you have a thousand subscribers – would you like to monetise your channel?” (which means YouTube give you some of the ad revenue).
During the first month the channel made enough money to buy a cup of coffee from Starbucks. My other half thought it was funny.
I kept at it though – because this was essentially money falling from the sky, for something I did in my spare time for fun. It did become a second job though.
Most nights after work and most weekends for the last six years, I have either uploaded or livestreamed all manner of content across just about every facet of aviation you could imagine. I’ve taught myself how to operate and fly hundreds of different aircraft – everything from Boeings, to Airbuses, all manner of warbirds, helicopters, general aviation planes, and everything in-between. I’ve written up how to operate them, and recorded probably over a thousand videos doing just that – either demonstrating, teaching, or just flying here, there and everywhere.
I share everything I learn, and it turns out I never stop learning – there’s always a new skill to master, a new technology to wrestle with, a new aeroplane to test fly, or a new destination to visit. As the old saying goes – “every day is a school day”.
It’s probably worth noting that along the way the technology evolved. Where simulators started out looking like 1980s video games, they now look almost indistinguishable from the real world. AI has arrived too, proving a virtual world filled with aircraft sharing the airspace with you, crewed by an international cast of pilots and air traffic controllers – all of which you can see and hear talking over the radio – and you can talk to them too.
It’s a lot. Somehow that first thousand subscribers became over fifty thousand subscribers, and enough revenue fell from the sky that my other half got involved along the way to save me from myself – to make sure I was paying the correct amount of tax (in the world before children she was a chartered accountant).
And that’s why I’ve handed my notice in.
I’m calling time on a thirty-odd year career in IT, and going full time with the content creation on the internet – to devote more time than a couple of hours most evenings to what I’m already doing, and to be honest love doing. Conversely, I’ll be getting some of my life back. I can’t remember the last time I read a book, watched TV, or even went for a run.
I’ll shut down the work computer for the last time in January next year (I have to work three months notice).
It’s going to feel very strange.
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