The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things. -Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Connecting The Dots
Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. – Steve Jobs
And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. – Steve Jobs
Thinking a lot about the words from Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement address recently. About death and connecting the dots.
Value Stream
The Phoenix Project – what is the value stream of IT processes?
How to make value visible?
- development
- operation
- infrastructure
Calendar
Even play a video game where the ceiling is steadily dropping lower and you have to clear out the bricks to clear the way before the ceiling crushed you? I felt like my calendar is just like that game. With 10+ meetings a day it is a nonstop battle to clear the path before getting crushed.
Over the last year, the all remote working mode had created more “check in” meetings. Even when I put 5-minute gap between meetings, they got taken up by meetings anyway. My days are typically sitting in the booth dialing into one meeting after another. Sometimes I even need to excuse myself for bio break or walk to get water while on the call. This is out of control.
Downtown
I always wanted to work and live in the city, especially in Chicago. Since I started at the Tribune Company I have always worked in some sort of famous building, the Tribune Tower, Prudential Tower, Merchandise Mart, etc. Only until Zoro, where I had an office in the suburb and a desk in the city in a shared space.
In Shanghai, I lived about 20-minute walk from the office. Still Pudong is not really in the downtown area.
In San Antonio, it is truly downtown living. The office is right next to the main tourist attraction, River Walk, and the apartment is a 20-minute walk along the river. On weekends I can take an easy stroll along the river, either south to River Walk or North to the Pearl. Recently, we also discovered the Historical Market Square with lots of interesting shops and restaurants. It does get old after a few weeks. Unlike Chicago, where there are endless places to go and things to do in many diverse neighborhoods. Also, it is currently 93F with heat index of 104! Even sitting in the shade under a Big Ass Fan I feel the inescapable heat and humidity.
Passport Stamps
Coming back from an oversea trip, I’m always looking forward for that stamp in my passport from the U.S. Customs. It’s a stamp to conclude the trip. The final period for the chapter. When the Customs started using the self-service kiosk, they stop stamping the passport. I miss that. Last time I passed through the border was driving back from Vancouver, Canada over the New Year’s holiday. Not sure when I will pass through the Customs again. Maybe I will ask for a stamp then.
Cultish Language
In her post the writer Alida Miranda-Wolff discussed How Cultish Language Shuts Down Conversation in DEIB. However, I feel that the same applies to team dynamics in general.
We want a competitive but aggressive team. The thin and sometimes vague distinction between competitive and aggressive often causes friction among team members and damages positive team dynamics. One of the sign of aggression I often observed is the cultish language and gesture.
Team Culture
What makes up team culture? How to grow and evolve it? How to spot a misfit before joining a team?
Good culture signs
- Compassion – attention to candidates in every details. Care to get to know each person as individuals.
- Welcoming – make people feel welcomed the moment they step into the office, even in virtual environment. Acknowledge Interviewees or anyone waiting in the lobby.
- Make new comers feel belonging and inclusion, especially those from far away
Not so good signs
- Signs of the bro-culture – often seen in the trading firms and engineering teams.
- Signs of disrespect – cutting off, not paying attention, super ego. Dismiss own teammates. Don’t care much about candidates as individuals.
From the book “Extreme Ownership”, the authors Jocko Willink and Leif Babin stated that “It’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.” What you’re willing to tolerate sets the tone for your company culture.
Other interesting books about team cultures
- The phenix project
- Culture code
- Powerful
Debugging
To debug and tune the app, I cannot do it myself. I can only talk to an engineer and ask him to do what I want. Watch the result, then repeat. It’s so hard and waste of time.
Like when I was in the service, where I have no access to a computer. I would “write” the code in my head and code it into computer when I am home on leave.
Observers
In the TV show, Fringe, the observers are human from the future came to conquer the present day earth. They love eating super spicy food because they have lost sense of taste and smell in the future. Coincidentally, those are the COVID symptoms. Is that another attempt to warn us about the pandemic from our future self?