A dump of thoughts

A dump of thoughts to remind myself to be better. Or just things that are interesting to me. Take these with a grain of salt:

1. Having hobbies outside of work is productive.
2. Bugs are cool depending on how you view them: They can either offer deep insights or make you feel restless. I think they offer both.
3. Routines should NOT be boring.
4. When using something from the net: Test it through, and test it right.
5. No surplus value is generated when people keep hoarding houses for rent.
6. The answers are in the code. The computer is always right. Sometimes you just need to take a step back and view the code from a different angle.
7. (Similar to #6) Strong desire fogs up even the best minds. Clear your head before clearing the code.
8. Teaching your kids could be a great co-learning experience
9. As a manager, you work FOR and ON the company: You are responsible for honing, shaping and tuning it.
10. Ikigai is not the “joy to work” but “wake up to joy”. Doing silly things could be ikigai.
11. Think of the feelings when you achieve your goal as you grow tired of reaching it.
12. It is always worth it to learn something even though you might never use it.
13. Google Docs is a feat of engineering with that fancy CRDT stuff.
14. Foundations are important and they are not “just theories” or “unpractical”. Do not build your home on quick sand.
15. Hands dirty & mind clean is the way to go. Experiment stuff and see how high and low-level things are connected.
16. Cramming your deadlines results in some worthy sweat and tears, but do not exhaust yourself because of it.
17. Soft skills are not soft at all! They are HARD to master.
18. I want my work to count. If it doesn’t, why bother?
19. Fix the leak, not repaint the wall every time it has a problem.
20. Whenever a new album of my favorite artist is out, I want to go through all the songs at least one, but sometimes one particular song is just to good. I fear that the later ones might not be as good.
21. Your code should first solve the business problems, then be a fantastic technical piece of work.
22. Giving estimation despite tons of uncertainties will get you far.
23. I expect my coworkers to be critical of my actions, not my personality.
24. Maturity is when you give the tedious tasks your best shot. Coding does not always consist of rock-star work.
25. “Following the best practices” is not an excuse to exceed your development timeline.
26. A good engineer knows how to the most advanced system, but the better engineer knows when NOT to build that system.
27. The best and foremost thing to do when enhancing performance is to race your horses. See it yourself and consider if it is worth it.
28. A hill I am willing to die on: Product/project managers in the tech field should be technical.
29. I like this old saying: We cannot make a computer go faster. We can only make it do less work.
30. It takes time to think deep.
31. I am always indebted to people whom I have never met, and they have never met me as well, but their willingness to share their work online is what i will always remember.
32. A good clothes retailer can simply look at you and give you the size.
33. Not a big fan of Apple but: Microsoft hired a consulting firm to design their store and barely anyone remembers Microsoft store; Apple hired an architecture firm and now their stores are known by everyone.
34. Things can change if you care to change them enough. Do not show the frustration.
35. The code you wrote is part of your identity, and that part always yearns to be visible. But a good system needs periodical clearing, like a pristine beach needs a cleaner or it will be filled with trash. I think the people who remove code - the silent heroes - are brave enough to erase their identities for a greater good, and we should always appreciate them.
36. A good codebase should shred regularly. Its parts should be torn down from time to time but with calculated bashes, like controlled fire clearing out the underbrush.
37. To have modest resources but immodest notions. That way you can utilize what you have.
38. An architect will find hunting and laboring for the proper answer fascinating.
39. Be good at something for it to be good. Then it is a treat.
40. You can hate Facebook all you want, but The Hacker Way deserves a read from every programmer out there.
41. It takes strength to be an optimist.
42. Learn like a sponge in the water. No time spent learning is time wasted.

(The list will extend as I mature)