cputrdoc

Can ADD/AD-HD medication cause sleep apnea?

I've always had trouble focusing in school, and never really knew why.  I was never the hyperactive type so it took a long time before I got a diagnosis, and medication.

I've been on my current ADD medication (Strattera) for almost 10 years now.  There are some heartburn side-effects, but I manage them well enough with other medication.

Then, rather suddenly last year I noticed I was waking up almost every hour at night.  I got myself checked out, and it turns out I have central sleep apnea (typically people have obstructive sleep apnea where there is a physical blocking of the airways, central sleep apnea is when the brain fails to tell the body to inhale).

Every time I see my doctor for the Strattera medication, I'm asked whether I have any trouble sleeping, and I've just now put two and two together that, could my sleep apnea be caused by my medication?

I've been poking around web sites trying to see what people are saying.  Officially, no, that's not one of the published side-effects of Strattera.  ...but then again, neither is heartburn (which my doctor says is extremely common).

I Googled it to see if anyone else with Strattera had been diagnosed with sleep apnea, and I found a lot of people saying that they have sleep apnea and they are also taking ADD medication.  My knee-jerk reaction was to proclaim that I'd found the missing link, and that I might be the first to have associated Strattera with sleep apnea!

However, a Google search does not give statistically valid data.  Maybe only 10 people on the planet reported these symptoms together and all blogged about it, and even if it was common to find the two things together, it would be hard to determine a causality.  "Correlation is not causation," as my psychology professor would say, or in other words, just because you find two events or characteristics together does not mean one causes the other.

Consider this:  I might have had sleep apnea for a long time and not realized it, but the lack of sleep could have made it hard for me to focus, thus the diagnosis of "inattentive" ADD.  So perhaps I'm taking Strattera to treat the side-effects of what really has always been a sleep disorder.

However it would be interesting to find if the people who were treated for sleep apnea found their ADD went away.

Can ADD/AD-HD medication cause sleep apnea?

I've always had trouble focusing in school, and never really knew why.  I was never the hyperactive type so it took a long time before I got a diagnosis, and medication.

I've been on my current ADD medication (Strattera) for almost 10 years now.  There are some heartburn side-effects, but I manage them well enough with other medication.

Then, rather suddenly last year I noticed I was waking up almost every hour at night.  I got myself checked out, and it turns out I have central sleep apnea (typically people have obstructive sleep apnea where there is a physical blocking of the airways, central sleep apnea is when the brain fails to tell the body to inhale).

Every time I see my doctor for the Strattera medication, I'm asked whether I have any trouble sleeping, and I've just now put two and two together that, could my sleep apnea be caused by my medication?

I've been poking around web sites trying to see what people are saying.  Officially, no, that's not one of the published side-effects of Strattera.  ...but then again, neither is heartburn (which my doctor says is extremely common).

I Googled it to see if anyone else with Strattera had been diagnosed with sleep apnea, and I found a lot of people saying that they have sleep apnea and they are also taking ADD medication.  My knee-jerk reaction was to proclaim that I'd found the missing link, and that I might be the first to have associated Strattera with sleep apnea!

However, a Google search does not give statistically valid data.  Maybe only 10 people on the planet reported these symptoms together and all blogged about it, and even if it was common to find the two things together, it would be hard to determine a causality.  "Correlation is not causation," as my psychology professor would say, or in other words, just because you find two events or characteristics together does not mean one causes the other.

Consider this:  I might have had sleep apnea for a long time and not realized it, but the lack of sleep could have made it hard for me to focus, thus the diagnosis of "inattentive" ADD.  So perhaps I'm taking Strattera to treat the side-effects of what really has always been a sleep disorder.

However it would be interesting to find if the people who were treated for sleep apnea found their ADD went away.

A passing thought.

If distributed computing projects like the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC) project had a commercial, it would show people doing ordinary things in front of a computer, and wearing a transparent cape (obviously not really there, but there's something "superhero"-ish about this person)

* Coffee shop scene, reading email:  This person is solving world hunger
* Home video gamer:  This person is working on a math problem that will save millions of lives... in real life.
* Construction site architect with a laptop:  This person is looking for signs of intelligence on distant worlds.
* Woman sleeping, computer is on in the office performing backups:  This person is predicting the weather... 20 years from now.

Visuals:  computers of all kinds, phones, GPS's, data centers, medical equipment.
Even when you're using it, your computer still has the power to do more than it is now, and without slowing down.  Challenging problems are being worked on now by computers all over the world.  Donate your unused processing power to a noble cause today and turn this...

Scene:  Toddler watching badgerbadgerbadger.com

...into this:

Scene:
Doctor walks in and sees two parents with a bald girl (apparently undergoing chemotherapy)
DOCTOR:  Mr. & Mrs. Robinson, we've discovered a cure.
Parents look at each other, smile, and look back at the doctor, curiously.

Fade out, display logo and URL
"Learn more at (URL)"

In some ways, computers are like cars.  They're expected last for a certain amount of use, and then certain components start to fail.  For a car, it's about 100,000 miles.  For a computer, it's about 2-3 years.

The power supply shipped with an OEM prebuilt system is just enough to get by for 2-3 years of heavy use.  First indication of power supply problems is brief interruptions of power to the motherboard or the drives.  This is indicated by the drive sounding like it's spiinning up, by lockups, "blackouts" (screen goes black and stops responding, sometimes with screen artifacts), or by an unexpected reboot when the system seemed to be idle.  Power supplies are rated in terms of how many hours of use until expected failure, and they don't particularly like it when you add a couple more drives or other components.  The wattage delivered is just barely above what's required in the initial build.

The second thing to fail is usually the hard drive.  Again, the margins (profit) on computers are super-thin, so they use the cheapest hard drive they can find.  The margins on hard drives by themselves are super-thin, so HDD manufacturers sometimes cut corners.  Bargain hard drives do not deliver good value.  For that reason, RAID1 configurations (a pair of drives that mirror each other) are great investments, especially if you've got family photos you want to preserve.  When one drive starts to fail, replace both of them.  Some of Microsoft's more recent products will tell you when the drive is failing.  There's also a BIOS feature called SMART that can tell you if something is amiss.

I recently read someone's post about not using canned air to dust a system.  Actually, I find this useful, but you do have to be careful because dustbunnies can conduct electricity and short certain components.  The system should be off, should be cool (let it sit for a while -- the canned air is very cold and capacitors don't much like sudden temperature changes), and you need to blow the dust *out* of the computer, not into it.  I've also heard that canned air leaves corrosive residue on the parts that's possible, but I can't confirm it.  In all the years of cleaning out computers with canned air, they never failed any more quickly than systems that had never been blown out with canned air.


Is it worth it to replace the components instead of the PC?  Well, depends on your needs.  A PC with a better power supply and hard drive will last you another good 5 years easily.  Usually I have to buy a new machine when I start having compatibility problems with newer components or software I want to add, and not because of a failure.  If your old machine just isn't performing well with new software, or if you find yourself paying a premium for a memory upgrade to an "antique," you may be better off replacing the whole machine. 

Most motherboards, memory, video cards, sound cards, mice, keyboard, and monitors last practically forever.

Oh, and one more thing:  Buy the 5-year extended warranty for your printer.  It's worth it.

A common mistake I've seen startups make is that though they focus on their customers for feedback, they treat those customers as representative of what the entire market wants.  Current customers are a fantastic start for exploratory research when you have lots of customers, but to validate that feedback when you have very few customers, a startup needs more than just the customer contacts from their last product.  You need a sample that's representative of the target market as a whole, and not just the customers who liked the startup's last product (otherwise you might be limiting your scope too much).

Only trouble is, if you're a startup, getting a market research firm to asemble a sample, write a survey, and write up a report about the findings will break the budget for the year.  Might not be a problem if that's the only product you're going to launch this year but it is a problem if the offering is not accepted by the target market and you have to redo the study with some changes.

So here are six low-budget ideas (somewhat skewed but usually sufficient) for finding customers that will be willing to answer some questions.
1.  Reach out to contacts of employees to diversify the sample.
Beware of going to the well too many times, but the company's employees have probably worked places other than your company and many of their former coworkers have moved on to other companies too.  Encourage your employees to check their LinkedIn profiles to see just who might be a customer.

2. LinkedIn Groups
Post a discussion topic to an existing LinkedIn group that deals with your product's subject matter.  Or if you prefer (and this takes longer) create a new group that becomes an online advisory panel.  These discussions become a great way to conduct focus groups.  Still not as good as a real focus group because people who don't find value in the offering won't post, but you can use bit.ly or ow.ly to see just how many are interested in the pitch an compare that to who comments.  The question or research topic has to be carefully constructed to get valid results if you're measuring it this way.

3. Facebook Groups
Your company has fans.  Somewhere.  There may even be a Facebook fan group for your company right now, and all you have to do is post a question.  People on Facebook generally have more time to spare, so you're more likely to get ruthless feedback this way.  That is, people on Facebook are more likely to take the time to tell you their honest opinion (rather than ignore the post and walk away) than the busy professionals on LinkedIn. 

4. Toluna
Used to be called "Your 2 Cents" but now they allow anyone to post a question (though only one!, if you want more, you can invest in a Toluna panel which is paid for their time) to their board and get statistical feedback.  If you're good at writing your own research questions, this might be a great way to get quick opinions.  These people are at Toluna's web site to answer questions, so they will click on your post expecting to respond to a question.

5. Twitter
That's right; the same forum where your niece just tweeted what color she painted her toenails is a great place to search for what people are saying about any topic you can think of (and if you design nail polish, you might want to check your niece's friends' replies!).  Search for any topic and get instant feedback on what people are saying.  It's best to check the entire thread to put the 140 character tweet into context.

6. GetSatisfaction.com
Your India-based customer service team may not have been trained on where to send that feedback, your corporate phone operator doesn't know either, and there's no link on your web site for gathering product feedback, so they start a topic here and the customers talk amongst themselves.  So where do they go?  They Google for you, and find your free focus group on GetSatisfaction.com.  Lots of benefits for a free account of course, but people post there because they want to.  Doesn't even cost you ten $25 gift certificate to Amazon.com.

The problem with all of these, of course, is that this is an "opt in" sample, but if you ask the right questions to attract responses, it can be just as valuable as a truly random sampling.

I drive my wife crazy with my GPS.  My GPS is a form of safety (I can use the traffic kit to determine the best way around known road hazards), it's how I get to appointments on time even when I don't know the area, it's my yellow pages, and it's how I know I will find a gas station or a restroom when I need one.  So I use it on every trip, even the trips I've done a hundred times.

When I get home, I upload my GPS traces to openstreetmap.org so that others can benefit from my wanderings including the average speed on roads I routinely travel on, the location of obscure roads, and the locations of key points of interest.

Yeah, she accepts it.  It's just one of those things... can't start the car unless I have my GPS, gotta' wire up the traffic kit, etc.  ...and there are times that she's thankful for having one.


Things I want on my next GPS:
* Voice-activated everything
My GPS is my guide.  Turning features on and off through deep menu systems just isn't helpful at 70 mph.  On my existing GPS I've reduced the menus, but it's still not safe to have to lean over and use the touchscreen.

* Traffic kit without suction cups
"Hello everyone, I have a super-duper GPS."  I've got suction cups all over my windshield, and even if I put it away, it leaves suction cup markings, which is another way of saying, "check the glove compartment."

* Offroading
Though maps show trails, my GPS was not made for hiking, offroading, etc.  The battery lasts about 5 minutes when not connected to a charger, and the marker snaps to the nearest drivable road.  I'd like to be able to go on openstreetmap.org geocaching trips and map this stuff out, but I just don't have the equipment.

* Processing power
Thanks to my GPS, I have a computer in the car.  However this computer isn't very powerful.  I've tried adding aplications to it, but it really just can't keep up with that and me driving at the same time.  I've had to dumb down my openstreetmap.org tracing application, and videos for the kids?  Forget about it.

* Internet access
I would love to be able to access GasBuddy on my GPS for accurate gas prices and save some money.  ...and yes, I can do that with my current GPS but it involves a fee to my cell phone carrier and a very intermittant success rate with the Bluetooth connection.  What a hassle.

* Intuitive interface
Seems like half the devices on the market were never street-tested.  Can you do it while driving?  Even as the passenger?  Is the screen visible when the sun hits it?  How about, "show me on the map all gas stations within 5 miles"?  How about, "I'll take a GPS-fixated picture to prove that this street is permanently closed so that the next rev of the map is accurate"?  Lots of room for improvement here.

If you've been poking around for job hunting tips for more than a month or two, you'll notice a theme -- the key to finding a job in this economy is business networking.  It's not about what you know, it's who you know.  All of the literature says the right person recommending you at the right time will get you a job offer, and that 80% of candidates are hired this way. 

There are at least four ways to go about this.  No one way of doing it will yield you results; the key is really to combine them. 

Large business networking events:
If you you're looking for your next boss, he's likely to be here.  Your mission is to figure out where he is by asking targetted questions.

These could be job-hunter events, they could be industry-specific, or they could even be role-specific.  For me, examples include Pink Slip Mixers, Silicon Valley Product Managers Association, and even the annual trade shows like the RSA Conference and Open Source World.  These events are attended by large groups of people (>100) who have something in common with you.  Tactics that work:

• Know what companies you want to work for, and ask around, name-dropping those companies.  People will volunteer contacts.
• Network with other job-seekers.  They know what the job market is like and are more likely to put in the effort.  Of course, they're hoping you'll return the favor.
• Business cards.  You can print them at home, or you can get near-free ones made through VistaPrint.com. 
  
  • They should list your top 3 unique skills.  If you're not sure what skills to list out, print them at home in batches of 20 instead of ordering a box of 200 of them from VistaPrint. 
  • If possible include your picture to make you memorable.  It's easy for people to forget you if they met a lot of people during the event.  At least the picture will increase the odds that they'll remember you.
  • It should include a link to your LinkedIn profile or another site listing your job history. 
• Resumes:  Bring about 5 of them to the event.  In most cases, you'll hand out business cards and people who are interested in you can look you up.  The resumes are for the people who seem genuinely interested in hiring you.  Print it on nice resume paper.
• Know your elevator pitch!  You'll be saying it a lot, so get it right and memorize it.  Remember, if it's not short enough that they know who you are by the time the elevator door opens on the 3rd floor, it's too long.

Small business networking events:
These include small job-hunting support groups you'll find on meetup.com.  These are your support groups that have semi-regular attendees.  These people have a good idea of what you're looking for and they'll watch for opportunities that might be relevant to you.  Of course, you're expected to do the same for them.  Tactics that work:

• Bring some business cards (see above).  A picture on your card is not quite as important for this setting since everyone will get to know each other.
• Bring about 5 resumes (see above)
• Bring LinkedIn for iPhone -- if you have an iPhone and your LinkedIn profile is fairly comprehensive, you'll find it handy to bring you network with you so that you can talk to people about who you know.
• Know who you want to work for.  Someone at one of these events once told me she was looking for a Software Quality Assurance Manager position.  I couldn't think of anything.  Then she said she was thinking she'd like to work for Visa.  I've got several contacts there, but never thought about them needing SQA Managers.  ...and then I remembered someone who used to work at Visa but now works elsewhere in the industry.  Like I said before, specific targets help jog people's memories. 

Online networking:
Twitter, LinkedIn, and even Facebook present opportunities to brand yourself.  Recruiters now can look everywhere to find the right candidate.  Job boards are only for finding those very unique people because they have to pay for access to those boards.

• Before posting a resume online, review it with someone who has hired for your position before.  They know what they look for in a resume, and probably cost you less than those so-called "professional resume writers," though if you can find a professional writer who used to be a hiring manager for your role, that's worth every penny.
• This is the resume for your ideal job.  Highlight what makes you unique, and the job skills for the position you would most want to have.  That's the only resume worth broadcasting.  All other resumes you send out need to be tweaked to match the language of the job description you're applying for.
• Your next job probably won't come from a job board unless you're a very unique individual.  Recruiters turn here to find those hard-to-find candidates.  People with 5+ years of experience in solar technologies, the mobile expert with a background in enterprise server technologies, the IT pro who is now a medical doctor, etc.  It doesn't hurt to post your resume there.  If you're an exact match, the opportunity is likely to be lucrative.

One-on-one:
This is perhaps the most important type of business networking you can do.  If you need to, stop doing the others so that you can spend more time here.  The people who know you best are the most likely people to give serious thought as to how they can help.  You should touch base regularly (at least once a month, preferably more frequently than that) with people who can tell others about the high quality of work you do.  They're your best bet for finding a job.  If you find a compelling match between you and an employer using one of the previously mentioned methods, it's these one-on-one interviews that will give you the job references you'll need later to get the job offer. 


Is there anything I missed?

I'm posting this in hopes that the appropriate product manager gathering customer requests and requirements for child safety seats and automobile seating layouts will find it.  I'm in the market for a child safety seat, but I've got a big problem.  We'll call him TJ.  TJ is over 23 pounds.  That makes him just over the limit as far as safety of the Graco Snugride carrier he has been riding in since he was born, which was less than 6 months ago.  That's right; he's a 6 month old at 23 lbs.  He's too young for me to flip him forward (bones not solid enough yet), so that means upgrading to a convertible car seat.

We have two cars, so we'll be buying two seats.  One car is an Acura SUV.  I expect just about any convertible car seat to fit in the SUV, so that's not a problem.  Our other car is a 2002 Honda Accord.  That is a problem.  The Eddie Bauer convertible car seat we use with TJ's big sister would only fit (at the correct angle per the instruction manual) rear-facing if it's in the middle, with the front between the two front seats or if the passenger seat is flipped forward.  It won't fit behind the driver at all.

Check the statistics and you'll find the average SUV is expensive to drive.  For going out to dinner or errands in which we're all going, we prefer to take the Honda because gas and maintenance costs less on the Honda, meaning that per mile, a trip is cheaper.


There might be quite a few compatible convertible car seats, but I'm in the research phase of my purchase.  I can't find anywhere how much room the car seat needs to fit in the rear-facing (reclined at a 45° angle) configuration!


Now that we've covered the chief concern, let's move on to other requirements useful to a PM.  Rather than be the typical customer who only says only what they want, I'll give the PM reader some tips about what I don't need in hopes that the R&D resources will be better used.  I don't care about carrying the baby in a car seat with two bases.  My wife was interested in two bases because it would cost us less (at $200 a piece, it's going to cost us $400 for the upgrade).  ...and right now I'm part of the 11% of Santa Clara County that doesn't have a job.  Safety first and all that, but I have to be as frugal as I can.  However, I *do* want a handle.  TJ's sister's convertible car seat is a pain to carry through the airport and TSA isn't consistent between airports about whether I can take a luggage cart past the security check point.  

I don't care about cup holders.  They get in the way, and besides, my cars already have cup holders.

Consumer Reports ratings are very important to me. 

Trade-in options would be appreciated.  The only reason for going with a convertible car seat is that I figure it will cost me less in the long run.  ...but if I could get a rear-facing seat that will last me until the kid is 4 years old and trade it in for a bigger seat to get a discount, I would *love* that.  Babies R Us is running such a promotion right now that I'll probably take advantage of for trading in the Graco seats.

It is of *great* concern that there was a study earlier this year that kids should remain rear-facing until at least the age of 4.  I've already turned my daughter around at 24 months, but I'm willing to keep TJ rear-facing for much longer "just like they do in Sweden" (referencing the Car Seat Lady's web site) since, as I say, safety first!  (Especially the way I drive...)

Since we are now talking about a rear-facing car seat for a 2-4 year old, it would be great if TJ could buckle himself in when he gets the fine motor control.  It's fine for it to be difficult to unbuckle, but my daughter loves being able to climb up into her car seat and already tries to buckle herself in (she's our "good helper" who tries to do everything all by herself!).  It's going to be harder for rear-facing seats.

I'm not going to tell you how to write your resume.  Why?  Because writing a resume is a lot like raising children.  Everyone has an opinion, but even the professionals can't agree amongst themselves.  If you're supposed to ask your doctor what they think about your child and you get the doctor on call instead, it's almost guaranteed they won't say the same thing your doctor will say when you go in for the checkup.  Same thing for resumes, everyone has a different opinion, each with facts backing up their stance:

Do you include an objective at the top?

• Of course!  That's where your searchable keywords are and how they get to know something about who you are and what you're like.
• Don't bother.  Recruiters are not interested in getting to know you; they have 5-7 seconds to spend on each resume, and those seconds will be spent checking off your qualifications, not your personality.

Tagline under your name?

• That's the best way of making a quick first impression.  Find a short sentence that represents your personality and what you enjoy doing.  Remember, you only have a few seconds to make that impression, so make it count!
• That's an awful idea.  Taglines are often misinterpreted.  Don't take that risk.
• Rebuttal:  So is clothing.  At least it's your own words; it's hard to design your own business attire.

Do you print on resume paper?

• Yes, it's representative of your self-confidence and your presentation of yourself.  Cheap paper means you're just that -- cheap and boring.
• No.  It creates complications when scanned into a computer.  You don't want the computer to miss a keyword because of something it sees in the texture of the paper.  Stick with good old fashioned white copy paper and you'll be fine.

Skill-based or chronological?

• Skill:  They care more about what you can do than where you worked, so list your skills and organize them in groups.  ...but include an abbreviated chronological at the bottom that shows your work history.  They're looking for unexplained gaps.
• Chronological:  If you worked in the field before, they want to see your work history.  Where you worked, and what kind of work you were doing when you were there.  It's too hard to find a specific skill in a skill list, and the most recent skills are the most important anyway.  Plus, if you use a skill-based, they'll think you're trying to hide something.

Personality or accomplishments?

• Accomplishments with metrics.  They're comparing you against filtering criteria or an "ideal candidate" qualities list.  Being able to quantify your accomplishments makes it real and verifiable.  Don't bother with personality words, everyone uses them to the point of them meaning nothing.  They'll get to know you during the interview.
• Soft skills are important!  Are you good with people?  Are you a leader?  They're looking for a personality type, not just skills so don't leave out words describing your personality.  You need to be a good fit for their culture.

Education, bottom or top?

• Bottom:  Unless education is the only thing you have to show for your qualifications, your resume should be focused on your skills.  What you can do for them and your real world experience is far more important than your education.
• Top:  College degree is almost always a requirement and it needs to be easy to find.  That's especially true if the degree is relevant to your occupation or you're a recent college graduate.

Name and address?

• You only need a name and address if you're handing someone a paper copy.  Otherwise you'll want it to be anonymous so that a head hunter or recruiter can present you.  Remember, an independent recruiter holds back your contact information from them (and their contact information from you) until payment is complete.  If you're submitting to monster.com or any other job board, you'll have your name and contact information entered into the service anyway.
• Of course you should have a name and address on every resume you send!  The recruiter and hiring manager will be forwarding around resumes.  You need them to know who you are every time that resume attachment is forwarded.

One resume for all jobs or one resume for each job?

• One.  You need as many people to see your resume as possible because you only need one (though two would be nice) to make you an offer.  Don't waste time customizing, spend that time distributing!  It's called playing the odds.
• Many.  You'll probably run into three or four similar descriptions of your job, each of which you're qualified to do.  Submit the one that's the closest match to what they're looking for.  It's called playing the odds.
• Custom-build each one..  You should customize the resume for every job you apply to, demonstrating that you are the perfect candidate to satisfy their needs.  That means you're less likely to get discarded, and each submission is likely to get intensive review.  It's called playing the odds.
• Rebuttal:  If you write the right one resume and it truly represents your qualifications for the job you most want, you'll get the job of your dreams and save precious time interviewing for the wrong jobs.

Finally, and most importantly, your professional resume writer will tell you that their way is proven and correct, and that all others before them don't have the expertise or experience that they do. 

I hope I don't end up kicking myself for the next 5 years, but I had to make a difficult decision today.  I received a job offer, exactly what I wanted to do, at the type of company I wanted to work for, in a part of the world where everyone is friendly, kids are safe, medical care is paid for, and at a company that would really appreciate what I can do for them.

First, the job:  Director of Product Management for an open source software company.  This is a type of software I understand very well.  I have both experience and training in some of the newest techniques to determine what a customer will buy.  I have leadership skills that can be used to focus a group on the needs of the customer.  The company in question has never had a product manager before.  I know I could make a measurable difference.  

...but I'm afraid I have little choice but to turn it down. 

First off, it's expensive to get up there.  The employer was going to help with that, but we would still wipe out our savings to get through immigration and move up there.  For the right opportunity I was willing to do that.

We would be far from friends and family, but I expected we could make new friends to be our support system.  Family that relied on us could probably manage without us for a couple of years, and of *course* they would miss us, but I've always said I would do almost anything for the right opportunity.

It would be insanely cold in the winter.  Colder than I knew was even possible; I can't even imagine -40°C (which translates to about -40°F).  The clothes required for a Californian to survive a few minutes out there might add up quickly, but I figured eBay, garage sales, and "freecycle" events could take care of that.  The cars would need block heaters and snow tires.  We might have a few medical problems as we adjust, but we would adjust.

We would only be able to afford a small townhouse/condo on the outskirts of town because I knew that we wouldn't be able to cover all of our property expenses in San Jose.  Sophia would gets cabin fever after 1 day inside as it is, and we would be asking her to stay inside for several months in a much smaller home.  ...but there are indoor activities, some of them are even free, and she would adjust.  Even if we sold our home at a loss, we would have leftover loans for the amount not repaid from the sale of the house.

Alas, I underestimated this last point.  We had someone give us an estimate on what our property would be worth to a renter.  It's worth far less than we expected. 

The only way we could afford to live there would be if we walked away from our financial obligations.  It would ruin our credit history, and more importantly, it's against my ethics.  I'll do almost anything for the right opportunity.  Almost.  Ethics are too important.


Expensive relocation, expensive to either maintain or sell the property I have in California, we have family who wants us to stay,... and yet, EXACTLY what I was looking for in a job.  This is the kind of job I've been trying to create for myself at multiple companies.  ...and there it was!  A job offer to do exactly that!  ...and I have no choice but to turn it down.

I have a lot of competition for that kind of job here in the silicon valley.  I really, really doubt that I can find that kind of job here.  Far more senior product managers are doing the same kinds of things. 

If I moved elsewhere in the United States, might I find the same opportunity?  Perhaps.  We'd still be down a lot of money every month, but if the cost of living is low enough and the salary high enough we could manage it.  Unfortunately, low cost of living usually means low salary.


On the brighter side, maybe this had to happen.  I had to have a taste of what's possible so that one day I could be the more senior PM that can get that job.  So in the mean time, who's hiring people like me?