Nice (Wo)Men do Finish Last

And not because "jerks" finish first.

If someone is genuinely funny, witty, or just a blast to be around, they will end up being known as the funny guy, the witty girl, or by a slew of other adjectives(none of which are nice). Funny how that works.

Work is another context where nice is a death sentence. Roughly translated, it means, "This person isn't very talented or hard-working, but at least they aren't an asshole."

Nice isn't nice. Strive for better.

Balance of Imbalance

"If you have more than three priorities, then you don't have any." - Jim Collins

We all would like a little more balance in our lives, however, we grow when we are most imbalanced.

When on a serious diet, partying, drinking and even dinner dates will have to be put on the back-burner.

When approaching a looming work or school deadline, all of the above, plus sleep, may be at serious risk.

However, on vacation, those imbalances are skewed in the other direction; mental and physical recovery trump everything.

In order to grow, we need imbalance on the minute, day, and week scale; in order to achieve sanity, we need balance on the month and year scale.

Simple Works

In the event of a fire, we take the stairs, not the elevator.

Subaru Outbacks seemingly last for centuries, dragsters tend to blow up while going down the track.

Bubble sort lacks edge cases, almost all merge sorts are broken more than 60 years after the original algorithm was proposed.

Don't discount a product just because it is simple. When the complicated, fancy things are broken down, the simple ones will still be chugging along.

Today's Problem, Today

Cancer and diabetes are 2 of the largest causes of death in the U.S.

Immense amount of time and research is being devoted into helping those affected, as well as finding a cure. Not-so-ironically, not much time is devoted to treating and find a cure for diseases that do not exist yet.

However, in the software engineering world, much time is wasted at the infancy of projects in speculating and attempting to find solutions to problems that may exist at scale... if they get there.

Let's take a lesson from doctors, and solve today's problems, today.

Scale

Almost all problems(at least those worth solving) become hard at scale.

Fortunately(or unfortunately?), many of the people and organizations worried about how they will solve the problems when they get to scale, never get there.

Why I Will Run a Food Truck

If you have the luxury of doing so, go checkout the line at the nearest food truck.

If you don't have that luxury, I will sum it up for you: a large amount of happy folks, waiting to be served some delicious, unconventional food, by people who are ecstatic to be doing so.

It's a win-win situation for everybody... the net joy in the world had increased because of that one interaction.

Now contrast that to, say, my gambling experience in Las Vegas, where there needs to be a winner and a loser(hint, that was me). I almost certainly suffered a much greater loss in joy from losing than the house did from winning... a net loss in joy.

You probably won't see me becoming a professional gambler(or financial trader or politician or...) anytime soon, but one day I will run that food truck.

Sharing Joy

It's about 3 A.M and 100 degrees in the Las Vegas desert at EDC, I have been dancing my heart out since about 9 pm, and in that time I have only had about a pint of water. My lips were chapped, my tongue felt like sandpaper and I didn't feel like there was an ounce of water left anywhere in my body.

Then my new friends came back from the water refill station with camelbaks and water bottles galore.

I have never seen so much joy experienced from water, not just from those of us that were receiving the water, but from those that came back with the water. It felt like the modern-day, edm version of Thanksgiving.

Another take home lesson from EDC: joy, like water, is best when shared.

Readings of 2014, June Edition

As you may have noticed, the title does not have a "Part x" element. That is because I slacked off this past month and only finished 1 book. Fail.

The Ten Faces of Innovation by Tom Kelley:

The most common role played during meetings in large companies: Devil's Advocate.

In this book, Tom Kelley points out how the Devil's Advocate is a dangerous role to be played, as well as introduces us to 10 roles that are much more beneficial to organizations. Not going to go over all 10 of the roles, but will go over the ones that I found particularly interesting.

First up is the Experimenter. I find the Experimenter role particularly interesting primarily because it is the role that I feel closest aligned to. The Experimenter has to be willing to take risks, and be able to fuck stuff up over and over without taking it personally when things don't turn out how they expected(if there is even an expectation of the experiment). The quintessential Experimenter, Thomas Edison, is credited with what can most accurately sum up the Experimenter's role, "I have not failed 700 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work."

Next we have the Cross-Pollinator. The primary strength of a Cross-Pollinator is their ability to apply lessons that they have learned in one endeavor to something that is seemingly unrelated. I commonly find myself drawing analogies among cooking, software development, lifting, and the meaning of life, so relating to the Cross-Pollinator role was far from a stretch for me.

Finally, we have the Storyteller role. I love this role, not because I find it a strength, but because I am extremely envious of those who do. Being a great Storyteller can strengthen pretty much any role; a realtor who can more effectively paint a picture of the potential in a house, an engineer can more effectively communicate painpoints in a project, and comedians can suck their audience in(Dane Cook isn't the funniest comedian in the world, but he is second-to-none in his role as Storyteller).

Happy Birthday Ma

My ma already(hopefully) knows that it is her birthday, but I figure I would embarrass her in front of my other 1 or 2 readers by wishing her a happy birthday here.

I will unfortunately not be back home for her birthday, but it will just make us cherish the time (and Eggslusive meals) that much more when I am home next.

Possessions, Un-learned

I may have been ranting and raving lately about how we tend to lose some awesome traits as grow up, but I have also noticed that a lot of folks my age are losing a not-so-awesome trait: our desire for possessions over experiences.

When I was a kid, I was always wanting the next shiny toy, the next video game, or the next pack of Pokemon cards(sorry for spending so much of your money mom, but they're going to worth something someday, promise). Almost as soon as the wrapping was off of the first one, the newness would wear off.

When I moved off to college, I was struck with the realization that I couldn't possibly bring everything with, some of my oh-so-important possessions would have to stay(the Pokemon card didn't make the cut); the most important stuff that could fit in a U-haul and truck came, the rest stayed. When I moved to Boulder, that amount shrunk from what could fit in a truck and U-haul to what could fit in a Jetta and suitcase. In my latest move, San Francisco, that Jetta(rest in peace :'() and suitcase shrunk to a backpack and suitcase. If I keep it up, I think I may be moving with just the clothes on my back, if that.

On the flip side, I am replacing those possessions with experiences, and so are a lot of other 20-somethings. Crossed a couple off my list this year, EDC and Spring Break, but still have many left to go: lifting at a national-level powerlifting meet, Burning Man, Coachella, Oktoberfest in Munich, and some serious overseas backpacking to name a few.

Granted we do still want things as we get older, and they do tend to be more expensive, like cars(I will eventually blow a stupid amount of money on my dream Toyota Supra), cell phones, laptops and homes, but at least those have some utility outside of just being a shiny toy.

Shiny toys only stay shiny for so long, but experiences will last as long as your memory.