I’m pretty new to backpacking, but from what I’ve read/learned, I wouldn’t think there is any one best pack to get. There’s several brands making good packs, and the variances between any two different people make for a lot of variability in which brands make packs good for any particular person. Then there’s the goals of that person that further influence which brands and which packs within a brand are good.

If you have access to a bigger camping/outdoors shop to try things on, get the pack fitted, and wander around the store wearing it with some weight in it, that would probably give you a good place to start.

Beyond that, how much gear do you tend to carry? Do you have a budget? How long do you tend to stay out when you go? What activities do you enjoy doing while out: do you tend to go out and base camp for a bit, do long marches and cover lots of miles? What kind of trips you make adds in a lot of variability on what you would want in a pack for your trip!

So, do you have any further details about the kinds of trips you’re taking, how long they last, and what you enjoy doing while out? That would go a long way to helping get decent recommendations!

If you’re unfamiliar with them: Moosejaw, Backcountry, Garage Grown Gear, and REI are some pretty good sites for new equipment, and REI tends to have physical locations in various places around the country too, as well as periodic “garage sales” of used equipment. There is also Geartrade to buy used or overstock equipment from both retailers and direct from consumers.

Hope you’re having fun out there!

Ah sorry, I didn’t so much mean to push for switching entirely from developing software to designing hardware. I was trying to suggest aiming for developing software for low level hardware, like embedded development. If you’re comfortable with C#, it likely will be simpler to at least start reading C++. I went in the opposite direction there myself though.

I started learning programming by playing around with TI-Basic on Texas Instruments graphing calculators. Then I learned Z80 Assembly to get around a common bug with hitting left and up at the same time in writing games on the calculators. Then I got a different calculator that had a Motorola 68000 or something CPU in it instead of a Z80, so I attempted to learn that assembly, but noped out of it and learned C instead. Then naturally progressed into C++ before I ever took a programming course, which ended up being on Visual Basic.

It only took me a mere 9.5 years to graduate with my four year bachelors degree, so I started in tech support with no degree, then moved into Operations with no degree as an internal promotion. I’d been working in Operations helping with testing for years before I finally finished and got my degree, then just kept working there for several years more. So I think I get the self taught part pretty well at least. All of the things my degree tried to teach me, I had already learned either on my own directly, or by being pushed there for work.

I’m unfamiliar with that ISTQB certification, but if it is that expensive, they very well may be willing to pay for you to take the certification if you ask about it. Especially if they’re having trouble finding people to hire.

I guess just to try and describe my own experience with “testing”, although largely focused on testing hardware. The developer/engineer provided information on what the thing was supposed to do and how it should act. Sometimes they even had documentation instead of just a verbal discussion and a whiteboard. They would often provide a software tool or API to get into some portion of the hardware and allow access to various things to verify whether they were working. This often involved physically connecting various components to the device and trying to send data across. So there was a lot of send this thing, then try to read it back and see if it came through the same as a basic test that everything was connected. Then drivers/firmware would get installed/updated and we’d try some higher level functional usage of the device as best we were able. Depending on the purpose of the hardware, this wasn’t always possible to test in actuality, so a lot of the time this would be running more things in a loopback mode that the drivers supported, even by customers in the field. We used Linux, bash, perl, python, and various other things to try and automate as much of this procedure as possible for the hardware. By the time we were done automating, testing most of the hardware was as simple as install it in the test fixture and connect it according to a diagram, then turn on the test fixture. The fixture would identify what was installed, load the correct test, and report whether the results were nominal. If they were not, it would at least outline the step that failed so the test operator knew what to inspect if possible.

As for more direct me testing, that would be the returned field failures. Much of our hardware ran in a regular PC, so there was a lot of regular PC troubleshooting steps to reproduce/verify a failure. Then I eventually learned soldering and was taught some PCB/hardware stuff to do deeper dives on the boards, but that was all taught/learned on the job.

I basically got the operations position because I had shown I was good at troubleshooting and problem solving in general, and that I was capable of learning a system enough to be considered the local “expert” on it. Then I was taught or learned anything else I needed to know after I got the position.

So, hopefully you haven’t given up too much yet, and perhaps you can try out applying for some positions where you don’t quite meet all the “requirements” for it. Then just describe situations that show your general capabilities, and that you can learn what they need after you get onboard. Hopefully your luck will turn soon and you can get on into something somewhere.

oh. I forgot to cover a bit more of the portfolio angle. The closest thing I’ve probably managed to a portfolio is just this one ancient project I worked up where I was reading lots of serialized publications on websites, but wanted to be able to read them on my kindle, offline, instead. So I worked up a python script that would download the serialization, either from the main table of contents, or by feeding it the first page and then having it track down the “next” and just scrape the contents. So I’ve this project that ballooned a bit, that is basically just a web scraper to epub python script.

Then I’ve several times done Advent of Code as a problem solving thing, although I’ve never made it past about 10-15 days. I enjoy the challenge for a bit, but generally pick a language I’m not super comfortable in, and then learn more about that language while working through the problems. I greatly expanded my python library knowledge one year, and have worked on building up comfort in Haskell and Rust via those challenges.

Those are really the closest things to a portfolio I can offer, since I put all of them on my github. So finding a set of puzzles you can program your way through in various languages, or some other problem that you have that you can use programming to solve might be ways to shortcut the logic on building up something public to display.

I’ve never been diagnosed with anything, but I strongly suspect I’ve got ADHD, so perhaps at least a similar head space as where you’re coming from. My main drives have often been solving problems, troubleshooting, creativity, variability from day.

There are options for programming that aren’t web pages. If you find a company that makes a software application rather than a website or a web service, there would be easier to find options there. Several things in private sector as well as in government if you’re close enough to a government site for that to be an option.

How are you with hardware? You could do stuff a bit closer to hardware potentially, like firmware development. Also an option could be QA for a company that makes hardware. I spent almost 7 years in “Operations” at a company that made hardware and software. I helped write functional tests that tested new hardware as it came off the assembly line, I inspected returned hardware to identify the failure (or if it was user error). I was a little linux sysadmin and managed my own VLAN off the main corporate network. The task needed had TONS of variability, and lots of problem solving, which very much helped me last as long in that job as I did. I can do hyperfocus on things I enjoy, but stuff I don’t enjoy is incredibly difficult to even get started in. Doing the “same thing” day after day gets old and becomes difficult. But if I’m doing one thing half of one day and then switching after lunch to something else, then spending a couple days fiddling with a functional test, then finish off the week by troubleshooting returned equipment. That kept me occupied and engaged for years! I don’t know that I would do as well in pure QA, but a smaller company where it required wearing multiple “hats” in just the one position offered the variability that kept me engaged.

I finally left there for better pay doing embedded firmware development for a primarily hardware company in the IT space. I enjoyed that a lot, but they didn’t quite come up to the amount I asked for, and had to leave to better support my family. So now I’m doing a bit of government contracting type stuff. But I wouldn’t have been able to get this particular position without all the prior software experience I had. They’re currently open for people with less experience now though, so it would be an easier time to get on board at many places.

So you could also consider things that have the ability to be programmer adjacent. They have programming bits, but it might not be the sole focus of the position. IT, Sysadmin, Tech Support, QA, Engineering, just to name a few potential options.

I can do short bursts of web backend stuff, but web service and DB stuff just wears me out faster than almost anything else I’ve tried so far. I’ve never made a “portfolio” myself, but I also have been avoiding the web sector of programming, which is where that seems more beneficial. So it might just be that you need to shift directions out of web services and web sites for a bit to see if you have any better luck?

Hopefully this helps a bit with ideas at least!

hah, yep. Very much sounds similar.

It was a bit disheartening that when my eldest was diagnosed with dyscalculia, they were just like: It sounds like you’ve already taught her some workarounds for it, and that’s basically all you can do. It’s not as well understood yet, so we don’t really know what else to do to help still. The linked article kind of implies there something for young enough children, but doesn’t go into details at all. The clinic we saw though, just makes it sound like those one on one treatments are just learning these workarounds…

I’ve never been diagnosed with anything myself, but hearing all the things that were pointed out as symptoms for my child, and it’s all the same stuff I did/do… I imagine I probably could get diagnosed, but I don’t think it would help with anything at this point.

No official diagnosis, but I’m pretty sure I have it. My eldest was actually diagnosed with it recently though.

I’ve learned some shortcuts that let me do math in my head, albeit incredibly slowly as compared to others. If I’m at a computer then I just use that for math instead though whenever possible. It wasn’t until I took calculus that I really became able to do any of the basic math operations in my head as anything beyond memorization though. I have to break up the simplest of math problems into an algebra equation to solve it, and doing that just takes time.

I only wear an analog wristwatch now, because I’ve realized if I go about a week without having to read an analog clock face, I have to re-learn how to read it. It’s never a quick glance and know the time though. The hour hand close to the next hour throws me off about 100% of the time.

I also just can’t track the month and day of the month in my head. Tracking the day of the week works fine, but the date doesn’t just update for me. I have to look up what the current date is and then just remember it as best I can for the rest of that day. If you ask me on the following day what the date is, I will just give back the prior date unless I’ve looked it up again though.

I’m also hopeless with directional navigation. North, South, East, West? I’ve memorized the directions some roads run in, but it’s taken me years to have any chance at all of going the correct direction on the road with GPS navigation running.

I also recently learned about hyperlexia, and I suspect I have that as well. Super great at reading/literature stuff. Super bad at math. Everyone flabbergasted. heh.