Blog
Using recruitment agencies to find work, bad sleep and more from 10th April 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On 10th April eleven freelancers met in the Battle of Trafalgar pub in Brighton to talk all things freelancing, and many things about cooking too. Some of what we talked about: Clarity website visitor tracking Big companies and awkwardness – Microsoft, Google, Apple Spreading vacancies out to job boards E-learning Businesses we’ve worked in Going […]
Meeting notes for 3rd April 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On Wednesday 3rd April, nine freelancers got together in the Battle of Trafalgar to talk all things self employment, tech and… cooking kept coming up a lot too. It was great to see Mike for the first time in ages. Here’s some of what we all talked about: “Quit” by Annie Duke is very good […]
Meeting notes for 27th March 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On Wednesday 27th March, the Farm met in the Battle of Trafalgar pub, Brighton. Ten people came to talk all things freelancing and tech. Here is some of what we talked about: Being made redundant Life in rural Portugal Building boar proof fences (no, you can’t just eat them) Being a “technology tart” – learning […]
Discovery phases, self marketing and more, meeting notes for 20th March 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On 20th March 2024, thirteen freelancers met in the Battle of Trafalgar to talk all things freelancing and tech. I was delighted to see Elliot, who was visiting Brighton after moving to the West country five years ago, and Paul for the first time in ages. Here’s some of what we talked about: Building products […]
Meeting notes from 13th March 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 13th of March, 14 freelancers gathered in the Battle of Trafalgar pub to swap notes and chat. This is some of what we talked about: Mailgun and support Making websites low carbon A ‘responsive’ site that serves different HTML via PHP WordPress and getting speed from it Mt. Gox payments are trickling in […]
Learning new skills as a freelancer, our meet on 6th March
Posted by Paul Silver
On 6th March 2024, twelve freelancers got together in the Battle of Trafalgar pub in Brighton to talk all things freelancing. This is the topics I managed to note down: “Work no longer falls in my lap” – searching for work in the current economy Proxy header problems impossible to diagnose with Safari’s browser tools […]
Rokit AR demo, LLM use and ethics, and more – meeting notes from 28th Feb
Posted by Paul Silver
On Wednesday 28th February, 2024, ten freelancers met in the Battle of Trafalgar, Brighton, to talk freelancing and tech. This is some of what was talked about: Science fiction books and films The Apple Vision Pro A break in Thailand Oliver Sacks Reaction videos – the good and the bad Watching easy media when you’re […]
Working in VR, meeting notes from 21st February 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On 21st February, 13 freelancers met in the Battle of Trafalgar, Brighton, to talk business, tech, and random nonsense. This is the topics I managed to note down: Insight Time meditation app Politics and the economy Work levels Focusing down the services you offer The Rose Hill Tavern How disturbing are phone calls in coworking […]
Meeting notes for 7th February 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On 7th February, 11 freelancers met in the Battle of Trafalgar pub to talk tech and all things freelancing. This is some of what we talked about: Retrocomputing Living in rural South Africa Living with the wildlife in rural South Africa Online communities which florish on hate Brighton AI meet up Endless projects Politics and […]
Meeting notes for 31st January 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On 31st January, ten freelancers got together in the Battle of Trafalgar pub to talk all things freelancing. This is a selection of what we talked about: Project problems A run in with a local “character” Can an aged PhD in AI be turned into being an “expert” in the LLM world? Dealing with someone […]
Meeting notes for 24th January
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 24th January 2024, nine freelancers met in the Battle of Trafalgar pub to talk tech, business and various nonsense. We welcomed James along for the first time. Some of what we talked about: Don’t forget to “defer” your Javascript Teaching your spouse Python Chasing money? Use a “Letter before action” and a “Without […]
Meeting notes for 17th January
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 17th of January 2024, 14 of us met in the Battle of Trafalgar pub to chat all things freelancing. This is some of what we talked about: Turning your competition into customers Advertising your services Being full of work (a nice change) Photography meet ups? Projects coming to an end Physio and recovery […]
Meeting notes for 10th January
Posted by Paul Silver
On 10th January 2024 we held our freelancers meet up in the Battle of Trafalgar, 12 people attended. My notes, although I missed a lot as a lot of conversations were going on: Overrunning projects Suddenly booked in with lots of new work (woo!) Klarna payments development Working out a mix of booked days and […]
Meeting notes for 3rd January
Posted by Paul Silver
On 3rd January 2024 we held our freelancers meet up in the Battle of Trafalgar, eight people attended, including someone who hadn’t come along for almost a decade. My notes: The Farm Christmas week special Xbox setup hassles Keeping tech for as long as possible WordPress development help Scope creep “My business consultant says kindly […]
Meeting notes for 20th December
Posted by Paul Silver
On 20th December 2023 we held our freelancers meet up in the Battle of Trafalgar, nine people attended. A small turnout but good for being just before Christmas. My meeting notes: Is it time to buy a house? Foundation series two and Asimov’s writing style ACF based WordPress development Referring work around Getting time and […]
Code library woes, Paul Walsh book and more – freelancers meet up 13th Dec
Posted by Paul Silver
Being close to Christmas, our freelancers meet up on the 13th December 2023 was a small one. Six of us met in the Battle of Trafalgar to chat programming, freelancing and various nonsense. Topics of conversation included… When you rely on a library but the maintainers are awkward about what they’ll support City Fibre rollout […]
Farm Christmas 2023
Posted by Paul Silver
Wednesday 6th December 2023 was our Farm Christmas meal and drinks at the Shakespeare’s Head pub. The food was lovely, the company was excellent. I’d like to extend a huge thank you to Laura and Chris for helping organise the evening, and especially to Laura for bringing in crackers and home made mince pies. After […]
Getting better at quoting, visitors from Basildon and more – the Farm on 29th November
Posted by Paul Silver
On 29th November 2023 our freelancers meet up was in the Battle of Trafalgar pub in Brighton. 15 people came along. Some of the topics talked about: Starting freelancing Invoicing Self promotion Finding work Finding networking events near you Learning a big, complicated system is hard and you need to remember that Learning Golang Recovering […]
Project comms, client acquisitions and Banter TV – freelancers meet 22nd November
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 22nd November 2023, we had our freelancers meet up in the Battle of Trafalgar pub, Brighton. 15 people came along. Here’s some of what we talked about: Project communication nightmares Old equipment, still plugged in and burning electricity Returning to the Farm Clients being acquired – can be good and bad Being a […]
Pacing yourself, Bluesky and virtual machines – freelancers meet up 15th Nov
Posted by Paul Silver
On Wednesday 15th November, 2023, we had our freelancers meet in the Battle of Trafalgar pub in Brighton. 13 people came along. As usual, conversation hopped around quite a lot, here are the topics I noted down: DDEV for building local development environments Lagoon and Docker Bluesky experiences Eternal September What has backend development got […]
DB migrations, AI use in call centres and personal projects – freelancers meet 8th November
Posted by Paul Silver
On 8th November 2023 our freelancers meet up was in the Battle of Trafalgar pub. Eleven of us came along. Our chat jumped around a lot, here’s the topics I managed to note down: Database migrations and ORMs Arundel / Worthing / living outside Brighton AI and call centres and realtime voice changers Coworking and […]
YouTube Ads at war, stopping procrastination and running groups – freelancers meet 1st Nov 2023
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 1st November 2023 our freelancers meet up was in the Battle of Trafalgar pub in Brighton. There was a weather warning out for stormy weather, but 15 freelancers joined in, as we’re a contrary lot by nature. Here are some of the topics we talked about: Brave and UBlock and the war on […]
Running web agencies, renting and design systems
Posted by Paul Silver
On 25th October 2023 we held our freelancers meet up in the Battle of Trafalgar pub, 13 people came along. Some of our topics of conversation: The importance of design systems Making websites for comedians Building up a product then selling Right wing comedians The rise and rise of Tiktok When language changes break your […]
High randomness – freelancers meet on 18th October
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 18th October 2023, the Farm meet up was in the Battle of Trafalgar pub in Brighton. Ten people attended, which was good given the terrible weather. Our conversations bounced around a lot of random topics, these are the ones I noted down: WordPress and React Keeping clients who are good to you When […]
Twitter’s decline and “selling” code – freelancers meet 11th October
Posted by Paul Silver
This week The Farm met in the beer garden of the Battle of Trafalgar pub, then moved inside due to rain. Hopefully, we’ll get a little more outside time before it gets too cold. 18 people came to the meet up. Some of what we talked about: Coworking in Brighton O2 data in Brighton is […]
Meeting notes for 4th October
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 4th October 2023 we had our meeting in the Battle of Trafalgar beer garden. 12 people attended. Here are some of the topics we talked about: Updating iOS apps The different cultures of tip giving A Canadian town with a cat as mayor The Sam Bankman-Fried trial The problems that come up in […]
Freelancers meet 27th Sept: Lack of leads and random nonsense
Posted by Paul Silver
On Wednesday 27th September 2023, the Farm freelancers meet up was in the Battle of Trafalgar pub in Brighton, 12 people attended. Topics of conversation: The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb Pens with torches in them What has stopped you investing when you’ve done well? Getting your head around finances Brighton property Do you […]
Freelancers meet 20th Sept: Finding freelance development work
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 20th September 2023 we had our freelancers networking meet in the Battle of Trafalgar pub, on an evening of very bad weather. 12 people came along. Topics of conversation: Is Chat-GPT helping inexperienced programmers get better or just advanced ones code faster? Going freelance Is there Go work around as a contractor / […]
Brighton freelancers meet on 13th September 2023
Posted by Paul Silver
For this Wednesday we met in the Battle of Trafalgar pub in Brighton, inside as the weather wasn’t great. 21 people attended. Some of our topics of conversation: Clients trying to get you to sign contracts with impossible clauses What’s the current freelance market like? PHP Sussex on YouTube UK work being affected by the […]
Freelancers meet up on 6th September 2023
Posted by Paul Silver
We held our freelancers networking meet up on 6th September in the beer garden of the Battle of Trafalgar pub, Brighton. Ten members came along. Topics of conversation: Designing in Photoshop vs Figma vs Webflow Looking for WordPress work How easy is it to find freelancing work at the moment? Supabase – an open source […]
Freelancers networking on 30th August
Posted by Paul Silver
On Wednesday 30th August 2023 the Farm freelancers networking event was in the beer garden of the Battle of Trafalgar pub, Brighton. 14 people came along. This is some of what we talked about: Motivation and regaining it Controllers and synths Holidays Finding clients Anti-work and David Graeber The exploitative aspects of work (both for […]
Farm freelancers meet up on 23rd August
Posted by Paul Silver
Our meeting was once again in the Battle of Trafalgar pub. Sam kindly filled in for me and gave me these (rather brief) notes: Did Paul unbook the table 😛 New member came all the way down from London Teaching in China Not writing down the notes… Watching videos that make you happy (or not) […]
Farm 16th August 2023: AR glasses demo and dev chat
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 16th of August we had our freelancers networking meet in the beer garden of the Battle of Trafalgar. 16 people came in all. Here is some of what we talked about: Freelancing work levels Taiwan Wanting both change and no change Getting your head around programming in Rust Sketch-a-Sketch AI drawing app Rokid […]
Farm freelancers networking on 9th August 2023
Posted by Paul Silver
On 9th August we had our freelancers networking meet in the beer garden of the Battle of Trafalgar. 12 people attended across the evening. These are the topics I heard talked about: Pride! Living in Taiwan The many coworking spaces in Brighton Making videos of your product Karaoke experiences LINE (Whatsapp alternative heavily used in […]
Freelancers meet up in Brighton on 2nd August 2023
Posted by Paul Silver
Last week we had our freelancers networking meet up in the Battle of Trafalgar pub in Brighton. Ten people attended, including James for the first time. Here is some of what we talked about: When to look for rental property Working on your own projects React and React Native Controlling your expenses The room that […]
Freelancers meet up 26th July 2023
Posted by Paul Silver
We had a special meet up on the 26th July. We started with member talks at our Show and Tell special at The FuseBox, then departed to the Battle of Trafalgar pub to continue the conversations. Here’s what we talked about: StackOverflow traffic halving – all down to AI/LLM use? About to go freelance I […]
Show and Tell, a Farm special
Posted by Paul Silver
Last week we started early at The FuseBox for a Show and Tell by members. Many thanks to Wired Sussex for letting us use their amazing facilities. The Show and Tell format (borrowed liberally from the version run monthly at The Skiff) gives each speaker five minutes to talk about their subject, then a few […]
Freelancers meet on 19th July 2023
Posted by Paul Silver
For our Farm freelancers meeting on 19th July we met in the beer garden of the Battle of Trafalgar, Brighton. 12 people came along. My list of what we talked about is shorter than usual as there were several topics covered that were private, here’s what I can list: The Albion Hotel fires Worthing Digital […]
Farm meet 12th July 2023 – Reflections on VR night, Brighton tourist attractions and PHP musings
Posted by Paul Silver
This week the Farm freelancers networking took place in the Shakespeare’s Head pub near Seven Dials in Brighton. 14 people came along. Farm VR night Farm website plans Colour e-ink Android tablet demo (very fancy!) VR and motion sickness Sidequest and streaming content out of VR Tilt Five Augmented Reality – useful or not? The […]
Freelancers in VR, a Farm special
Posted by Paul Silver
Andy sweeps down a river in Banter Last week we were invited to The FuseBox by Wired Sussex to enjoy several Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality experiences. It was great fun! Some Farm members are very into VR and are well known to The FuseBox, they and Jay from Wired Sussex and Peter from VR […]
Freelancers networking on 28th June 2023 – WP development, paying tax on account and more
Posted by Paul Silver
We had our freelancers networking meet on 28th June in the beer garden of the Battle of Trafalgar, Brighton. 17 people came along. This is a little of what we talked about: Very modern WordPress development Twitter API use in mid-2023 Where to try vertical mouse/mice in Brighton? Ergonomic equipment and reasons to use it […]
VR Special next week!
Posted by Paul Silver
Our meeting next week is a special you don’t want to miss! We will be at The FuseBox using their Immersive Lab to explore the possibilities of Virtual Reality. Freelancer? Join us to try all sorts of VR experiences and to talk over both development and the implications of VR technology with experienced users and people […]
Farm freelancers meet 21st June 2023 – UX Brighton, RSI friendly equipment and pets
Posted by Paul Silver
This week our freelancers networking meet up was in the Battle of Trafalgar pub, Brighton. I couldn’t make it and Laura kindly held the fort and took some notes for us: The Battle of Trafalgar is changing hands soon Puddings How can you photograph yourself with your eyes closed? UX Brighton Vertical mouse Keyboard for […]
Freelancers meet 14th June – Mac hassles, Vision Pro, and causing technical chaos
Posted by Paul Silver
This week we had 14 people at our freelancers networking event, spread across three tables in the beer garden of the Hampton Arms in Brighton. It was great to be outside for the whole meet up. Here are my notes of what was talked about. I missed lots of conversations as I was deep into […]
Notes from 7th June 2023
Posted by Paul Silver
We had our meeting in the Battle of Trafalgar pub. Seventeen people attended. Haze kindly hosted as Paul couldn’t make it. These are his notes on what was talked about: Starting work on an undocumented codebase Spending days trying to get one thing to work Supporting elderly parents Apple’s insanely expensive VR headset! Which laptop […]