NOJ ON EDGE

Lessons at the Edge of Life

[nojonedge]

Super awesome fun club

[nojonedge]

Some useful thoughts

In the last few days I've had the opportunity to meet CEOs and VPs of a few influential companies.

One of the folks has started and sold 4 companies.

The way they think has been very interesting and I have taken a few notes.Everything below is quotes.

The way someone thinks and sees the world defines him/her. Sometimes I wished I could borrow the neural net of someone's brain and apply it to mine. It would be very interesting.

Its okay to get to the path to the mountain wrong, but if a company gets the mountain wrong, then the company is doomed. If the path is wrong, then its just a matter of time before they figure out how to get there.

In my professional life, I have never failed. Personally I have failed a lot. I just saw failure as an opportunity to learn and move towards the mountain. I like to fight and win, fight until I win.

A lot of folks who are very succesful, are succesful because they had no other option. Taking the risk was the only option. It was a matter of survival.

I just like solving interesting problems.

Being able to ingest vasts amount of information and distill them into very logical chunks is something that I am very good at. Being able to take those pieces, form a team and strategy around it and execute it. I have done that multiple times over. I don't know why but I am good at it. May be its 35 years of training and getting my ass kicked.

[nojonedge]

What my dog has taught me

We got a month old puppy. His name is Hiccup. We've had him for about 6 months now and he has definitely grown on me. I was first skeptical about it but wifey definitely wanted a dog so I agreed.

1) In the 6 months, training him to pee on the pad and potty outside. He has learnt commands like "sit, wait, rug, down, shake, drop it". Its like having a little child who will never grow up. Training him as been a lot of fun. It makes we want to be a part time tutor. There is a different kind of joy and seeing someone grow as you teach them.

2) I have to say my quality of life has greatly improved, the only thing he cares about is we spend time with him, gets well fed and plenty of walks. He gives me another perspective on happiness. Got problems climbing the corporate hierarchy, doesn't matter! You broke the build and the manager is shouting at you. Doesn't matter! All that matters is that you are willing to learn and move on. I've shouted at him before, he is a bit reserved for a minute and back to wagging his tail and jumping around. Its amazing what dogs can teach you about love.

3) Positive reinforcement feedback - Always reward for the correct behaviour, don't punish for the incorrect behaviour. It took me a while to grasp the concept. I used to give him max 1 or two treats a day and a lot of "no! stop it! uh uhhhh!". I've increased the number of treats and every little good behaviour gets him one. If he does potty on the wrong place, I ignore him for a minute and he gets no treat. It has worked wonders, he geniunely wants to do the correct thing now. In terms of my interaction with humans, I have learnt always to praise someone when they do good. Help me, "Thank you kind sir/madam! you are awesome". Good architecture, "this is the work of an artist!". Bad code, "most of it is good, but please fix this".

Hiccup taught me to always focus on the positives and it has definitely changed other aspects of my life.

[nojonedge]

State of Software Engineering

I’ve been working at a large software company for 2 years now. I have been part of a project with 200+ engineers, 50+ designers and PM’s over two years.

Software is complex, although Microsoft likes to makes things a lot more complex than they should be, but that is another story.

The same story is at Google, Facebook or other behemoths. Thousands of people building software products. I have been grateful to have gone to the Valley and taken a tour around the companies’ buildings.

It makes you wonder, what do all these people do? The freshmen salaries of kids fresh out of university in software industry is 100k+. Senior engineer salaries can reach 200k in the valley. Its crazy.

The process goes something along like this. There is an idea in someone’s head. The Project Managers and designers are engaged to draft up some experience. The designers work with Adobe tools to create high fidelity designs and the project managers use word or some text editor tool to flesh out their specs.

Then the big boys/gals approve the specs and designs. Then the engineers get shown the designs and they are like “WTF! we can’t do this?” the design makes a couple of iterations.

Everytime they make iterations, Engineers have to translate a psd or picture to a css/html layout. The design is not dynamic, it can’t show how design will work responsively. So after a week of coding the engineers say “oh this looks aweful” or “the behaviour is undefined for this and this interaction”.

So iterations are made, weeks go by till you arrive at something that works. Then the big boys/gals say “oh no, you have to slide this little feature in and put this text here/there”. The little takes a week.

Then you have perf issues, and security problems, code refactoring, testing. None of this is visible to non-technical managers and they think Engineers are wasting time. So sometimes Engineers who don’t to the correct thing and move fast to get rewarded but the ones who are building for long term solution don’t get rewarded (Sadly that’s how it is at times).

Then after months, the user sees something and they are like, WTF! it takes me more clicks to do something now. They might appreciate some new features but in general they are like “If I knew how to code and design, I would create a much better system, I can’t beleieve they spent months and millions to create this”.

So they complain, new iterations start to address the feedback, everyone is thinking “why is this taking forever to finish?”. So much hacky code is added, the bugs have piled up. So everything stops for a month for code to get cleaned up. Then Engineers realize what a pile of shit they’ve created. No one can figure out why a bug is occuring.

I could continue, but this is the state of software. In my 6 years of experience in software, it is the same story again and again.

[nojonedge]

I've moved to Juanita, Kirkland now. This is my rooftop view of the beach.

There's a park nearby and lots of running trails. I've always wanted to live near the beach. Next task - Get a convertible for the summer.

Thanks to Microsoft salary I can afford living in nice places like this. Also its a lot cheaper than similar places in Sydney and Vancouver.

I'd love to try out some Kiteboarding. I see Kiteboarders out every now and then.

[nojonedge]

African Savannah

[nojonedge]

Meditation

I've been doing on average about 10 min meditations every morning. Some mornings are rushes so I tend to delay it to night or keep it to 5 minutes.

For the first one month I did not feel any difference, but after 2 months I can definitely see a change.

I have a very simple technique. Put on a nice ambient track on the background and try to just focus on my breathing. Breathe in, hold it for few seconds, breathe out and relax all your muscles.

My mind still wanders around in the first 1 or 2 minutes but after that I tend to be conscious about the wandering and usually be able to bring it back.

It doesn't require much effort. The first 1 or 2 minutes I am usually planning my day ahead or just brainstorming on some ideas that I am working on so I don't mind the lost focus while I get into the breathing rythym.

I have a standing desk and try to stand up during most of the day. I'm also trying to eat healthy. Thanks to my awesome wifey, I have my healthy breakfasts and dinner ready for me.

During the day, I can now consciously catch my mind wandering to sit down, check facebook, or try something unhealthy. I couldn't previously catch it.

I believe the effects of this are compounding. They add up over time as I am better able to control your mind and put it to focus where it matters.

[nojonedge]

[nojonedge]

You begin to deteriorate, staring at that flickering hope, and you watch everybody around you shake their heads and give up on you.

[nojonedge]

Insecurity

I have realized that I am a very very insecure guy especially in social settings. I just always feel that I don't fit in the crowd. I'm not good looking or just not very like able because I'm brown nerdy skinny guy. Sometimes I absolutely have no words to say and I go into a self hating loop. I have been doing 50 hour weeks isolated from people writing code, or snowboarding on weekends and it feels comfortable. Getting invited for social gatherings, not so much. Sometimes I honestly feel super lonely and lost and have no idea what direction life is heading. How do I make myself more likeable? When I attend parties girls will flock to my white friends and I'll be blatantly ignored. Sometimes I think, I wish I was white. I'm not proud of who I am at times. /rant over.

[nojonedge]

Ideas for 2015

A great JSON editor - with smart data type recognition

DBEditor - Like sequelpro for the web that works with many different datatypes

HTML/CSS - component editor

FB React based View controllers

[nojonedge]

I can't imagine what happens when you fall down

[mikenudelman]

[nojonedge]

[nojonedge]

What drives change?

Looking back two years I think this were the biggest change makers that have driven interesting changes in my life.

1) Reading. You actually get inside the head of someone who was amazing at his field. Its like a though-transfer from the author's head to yours.

2) Action. Action leads to motivation, which leads to action. The loop repeats. The first step is showing up.

3) Peers. When you have friends and mentors who you you look up to you around you. You get the advice and the support to excel at the field you choose. You need to be part of the ecosystem.

4) Meditation & Will Power. Its probably one of the greatest life's lessons. To be able to push through your comfort zone. To convince yourself to do something when you least want to do it.

5) Discipline & Habits. To be able to do something over and over again and follow your set plan.

[nojonedge]

The Big 5 Habits

[nojonedge]

Interesting how a blackout happens. Quite amazed!