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.

Dancing, Re-learned

I spent this past weekend having the time of my life at EDC in Vegas. For those not aware, EDC stands for Electric Daisy Carnival, is a multi-day event held in many cities where hundreds of thousands of people get together to listen to DJ after DJ play music on various stages, all through the night. Literally all through the night... it goes from from 7:00 PM to 5:30 AM each night(may-or-may not be a little sleep deprived as I type this).

But the most important part: all of us want to dance, so we danced.

Standing in the sea of 300,000 people, we somehow forgot that we were supposed to be self-conscious of our dancing abilities, that other people actually care whether we can actually dance or not. We learned that people couldn't actually care less about other's dancing abilities, because they were too busy being focused on what they really wanted to do.

And that was to dance.

Dance, If You Want to Dance

Like my last post, this is another about amazing traits we somehow lose as we grow up.

A few weeks ago, I went over to one of my old neighborhood buddie's, Steve(not to be confused with my uncle of the same name), house. Inevitably, his mom whipped out old an old VHS tape of the 8 year old versions of the two of us dancing our hearts out in the basement, not giving a care about who was watching.

We didn't care if we weren't the world's best dancers.

We didn't care what anybody else in the room thought of our awesome moves.

We just wanted to dance, so we danced.

Here, Uncle Steve, Open Your Shirt

That is what the 3-year old me said to my Uncle, whose name is Steve(if you didn't gather that much from the title), as I handed him his Christmas present, which just so happened to be a shirt(another thing that you hopefully picked up).

Kids have a knack for such amazing honesty.

If they love you, they will tell you so.

If you're not being very nice, they will also tell you(could have also named this post, Mommy, you're not being very nice, which I may-or-may-not have been prone to saying when she didn't get me a toy that I just had to have).

Somewhere along the way, though, we lose that amazing quality.

We stop building quirky cards that say I love you in macaroni and glue. We gossip to others about someone not being very nice, instead of letting them know to their face. We get a little better about keeping christmas presents secret.

Start tapping into your inner kid... let people know when you love them and when you're not so fond of them. Maybe even ruin a surprise every now and then.

Dragsters

You don't need a 2000 horsepower dragster to get groceries.

You don't need a Mac Pro to check Facebook.

You don't need the fanciest parallel algorithm to process a relatively small amount of data. Learned that one today.

Many problems get hard at scale, but many times things simply don't get there. Don't bother building(and maintaining) a dragster, when a simple one-speed bicycle will do.

Wander

"Not all those who wander are lost" - J.R.R Tolkien

I moved out to San Francisco 2 weeks ago, and it has renewed my love with a good wandering session, I actually spend my Sundays doing exactly that.

Wandering is the perfect solution to the problem posed by Seth Godin, in the Problem with Top 40 Radio, where the masses end up making your decisions for you; when you only listen to radio stations that play the top 40 hits, you effectively defer your decision making to others. Yelp has actually done similar things to dining out(eating is probably my favorite thing to do in the world), and it is very easy to fall into the trap of only eating at the highest rated places, taking your decision away from you.

Wander. You might to find the highest rated, but you will find what you enjoy.

My Beef with Rice Cookers

I don't always use a rice cooker to cook rice.

But when I do, I inevitably forget to flip the switch from warm to cook, and end up with uncooked rice when I am expecting to eat.

Maybe, I am just getting spoiled; so many things are doing "do as I mean, not as I say" incredibly well.

Maybe, fancier cookers do have the rice-cooking, mind-reading ability that I so desire.

Either way, I don't think it is too much to ask for my cheap, Wal-Mart brand rice cooker to know when I want to cook my rice, and when I want to keep it warm.

Closed Sign

Saw a really awesome coffee shop on Sunday, but unfortunately I stumbled upon it during non-business hours, which was made very clear from the closed sign hanging from the window.

Closed signs are great at letting people know that an establishment is, indeed, not open. However, closed signs aren't very good at letting people know when a place re-opens, which is the information we really care about.

Readings of 2014, May Edition, Part 2

Inferno by Dan Brown:

Another epic adventure through a day in Robert Langdon's life. This time Robert Langdon wakes up with amnesia in an italian hospital, only to shortly flee from the gunshots and troupes of armed men chasing him.

As the name suggests, this journey necessitates Robert and crew deciphering clues related to Dante's The Inferno(which I have unfortunately not yet read), to save the world from yet another (arguably not) mad genius.

Would you flip a switch to kill half of the world?

Obviously not.

But what if the whole world would die in 100 years if you didn't flip the switch?

Read it to see how it ends if that switch gets flipped.

The House of Hades by Rick Riordan:

Yup, I read children's books. Get over it.

And in my defense, it is a really good children's book, full of enlightenment of greek and roman mythology.

In this iteration, Percy and Annabeth try to escape from Tartarus(pretty much certain death), which they fell into during the cliffhanger of the previous book, The Mark of Athena, and seal the Doors of Death to keep the monsters from regenerating.

</end nerdout session>

Best Commercial I Have Ever Seen

And that tile belongs to... drumroll please... Canon.

Some commercials have jingles that get stuck in my head, but leave me not having any idea what brand the jingle is for.

Some commercials are all about showing off the brand.

Some commercials are all about people, but their is no connection from the people back to the brand.

However, Canon stated that they make epic cameras... but didn't leave it at that, they were able to perfectly capture how their epic cameras enable us to make epic stuff. Essentially, they show how they make us more badass. I am not really into photography and videography, but the below commercial might have just changed that.(Can't actually find the commercial online.... but when I do, there will actually be a commercial below)

Enough (or Enuf)

Stiving for Enough is simultaneously brilliant and lazy.

On one hand, doing more(or less) than Enough, is usually detrimental. If you eat more than Enough calories to support muscle gain,  they will likely be turned to fat... if you eat less than Enough calories to lose fat, you will lose muscle.

However, Enough comes with a dirty side, Enuf, that comes from gaming of the metrics. If you are trying to fit more quotes into a paper for the sole purpose of inflating word count, you aren't aiming for long Enough, you are aiming for long Enuf.

Be good Enough, not good Enuf.

Readings of 2014, May Edition, Part 1

You are a Badass by Jen Sincero:

The perfect mantra for any twenty-something with a potent mixture of skills, debt, self-confidence and "WTF is going on with my life". So basically me... and almost all other millennials.

You are a Badass candidly tackles the issues in life that most millennials are facing daily... money, relationships, faith and fitness, just to name a few. These issues are tackled via bite-sized, quirkily titled("Your Brain is Your Bitch") chapters, that suck you in.

I couldn't really do it much justice, so I won't even attempt. Go buy it, or check it out from the library(those places are godsends, by the way), as long as you read it is fine by me.

Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh:

Welp, it looks like you can add Tony Hsieh to my growing list of badass dudes that I may have a man crush on. Seriously, it was rather eye opening how much awesome stuff he has done.

Delivering Happiness is one part documentary of Tony Hsieh, one part Zappos corporate culture, and one part science of happiness.

In the documentary section, Tony goes over some of his unsuccessful(earthworm farm and magic tricks), mildly successful(button printing and pizza selling) and uber successful(LinkExchange and Zappos). Interestingly enough, Tony thought his earthworm farm would make him insanely rich, while LinkExchange started as just a side project.

It is easy to assume that a company, like Zappos, had a smooth ride en route to being acquired by Amazon for a billion dollars. However, Tony candidly points out that that is not the case... he actually sold his penthouse apartment in San Francisco to keep the company afloat for just a few more months.

Alas, another book that my attempts at capturing its epic-ness would be futile, so go read it!

Templates

If you're following your template, and you're getting the results you want, stick with it. Don't fix what isn't broken.

If you're following your template, but not getting the results that you want, it's time to either change the template or your expectations. No template will add 100 pounds of muscle in a week, but if your expectations are realistic then it is clearly the template that needs to change.

If you're not following your template, it's time to change yourself(assuming you picked the right template).

Make Your Bed

My new life hack to start my day on the right foot: make my bed.

Perfectly.

Even when the day is going to be hectic or I don't feel like making it.

Particularly when the day is going to be hectic or I don't feel like making it.

At first, I didn't realize why making my bed seemed to be correlated with having better, more productive days; I just chalked it up to a snowball effect of sorts, completing one task just leads to completing other tasks. 

However, after reading Delivering Happiness, I feel like it is even deeper than that. In Delivering Happiness, Tony Hsieh(CEO of Zappos and all-around badass) lays out his framework for happiness: perceived control, perceived progress, connectedness and being part of something bigger than yourself. 

While making your bed will likely never connect you with others or be part of some grand scheme in life, it definitely meets the perceived control(you can make your bed however you want) and perceived progress(making it faster or perfect-er).

Start your day off right, make your bed.

(Oh and if you want more about the awesomeness of making your bed, check out this University of Texas commencement speech.)

V for Vulnerable

If you want to set a new personal record in the squat, you risk getting stapled in the hole.

If you want to go on a date with the girl of your dreams, you risk getting rejected.

If you want to start a company, you risk falling flat on your face.

You are at your most vulnerable when you are in the hole, or asking a girl on a date, or fully committed to your getting your business up and running; that vulnerability is the precursor to success.

Squat high, stick to harmless flirting, and leave your business as a side project and you won't fall flat on your face... but you won't get what you want either.

Edit: This title is actually a play on the movie V for Vendetta, not the Seth Godin book V is for Vulnerable, which I have actually not read(or even knew existed) prior to writing this post.

Readings of 2014, April Edition, Part 4

World War Z by Max Brooks:

Brad Pitt, an ex-government official, and his luscious locks try to save the world from fast-moving, disease-fearing zombies and relocate his family.

Oh, wait, that was the movie of the same title, which had surprisingly little in

common with the book. Particularly irritating was the amount that the book harped on the fact that the zombies move incredibly slow and are utterly mindless, while the movie seemed to go out of its way to contradict that.

The format of the book was rather unique, where a narrator conducts a series of interviews, painting a picture from the very beginning to the aftermath of the zombie war. Not the quickest read in the world, due to the unique format, but I would definitely say it was worthy of the time spent.

Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks:

This is a satyrical how-to guide for surviving a zombie apocalypse, covering everything from building an emergency shelter to weaponry to training.

The tongue-and-cheek writing style made it pretty entertaining, but I don't think it is a required read by any stretch.

Don't Write on Stalls

The easiest way to ensure that people write on your stalls: put up a do-not-write-on-stalls sign.

Gaming Metrics

I woke up, set down my scale and stepped on. It spit out a whopping 80.1.

That is pounds, not kilos.

In my sleepy stupor, I inadvertently placed the scale on carpet, making the scale think I weigh less than half of what I actually weigh. There is a big difference between actually losing weight and making the scale display a lower number.

Don't mistake gaming metrics for improving what they are attempting to measure.

Do As I Say

Usually, when people are labeled as living by the mentality of "Do as I say, not as I do", that label does not come in a positive light.

However, when asking for directions, great advice in that form may come along very often.

Maybe your coach sees that your techique is a weakpoint, so they recommend that you should squat 7 days a week, while they only squat once a week.

Maybe your business mentor recommends pulling 80 hour weeks at this stage in your business, while they are currently working comfortable 40 hour weeks.

The best coaches are usually in a different place in their careers than you, so don't just copy their actions, ask for their advice.

The Perfect Diet

The second most important quality of the perfect diet(or any plan): can it produce the desired results?

The most important quality: can it actually be followed?

Readings of 2014, April Edition, Part 3

The Money Code by Joe John Duran:

I feel most people(myself included) can always learn more about money. I have read a few books on money in the past, but they seemed to either be about how to save more money or how to make more money. None of them really dug into to the psychological reasons for why we want money in the first place.

Until I read this book.

Duran proposes that everybody seeks money for varying degrees of the three reasons:

    1) To provide a sense of security.

    2) To obtain things that they want.

    3) To provide for others.

He proposes that until we look within ourselves to figure out where we fit in in the above 3 types, and translate those to tangible goals, quantifying how much money we actually need, we will forever be stuck feeling like we don't have enough money.

I would highly recommend reading this book to anybody even slightly confused by the role that money plays in their life. It is an extremely quick read, most could probably read it over a few cups of coffee.

The Twitter Book by Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein:

Not unlike money, Twitter is a tool that I never felt totally comfortable using, always feeling like others are using it much more effectively than I.

Maybe, I was using it wrong.

Maybe, I wasn't fitting enough wit into those 140 characters.

So, I figured I would give this book a read and see if I could get to the bottom of it.

Unfortunately, the book was a tad bit out of date so most of the stuff I either knew(how to use hashtags) or behind the times(suggested third party twitter apps, and need to use metacharacters for retweeting).

It was a pretty quick read, so I didn't feel like I wasted much time reading through it, but I don't think I would suggest it.

The Move

So it's really happening, I found a place on Airbnb, took my own advice to be the small fish in a big pond and am moving to San Francisco.

Don't get me wrong, San Francisco seems about a billion times larger than any city I have ever lived in, I am scared shitless and will miss Boulder and all of the truly awesome friends I made while I was here! However, I know I have to surround myself with the largest startup and technology culture in the world if I want tot truly push myself.

So it is time to put the best advice I have ever received to the test, and get a little uncomfortable.

Correct-Amount-Of Information Diet

Have you ever notice that as soon as you start dieting, everybody seems to becomes a diet guru?

Or how about when you're about to quit your job, everybody seems to turn into a career coach?

Unfortunately, most of the time the advice is pretty horrible. Usually, it is for innocent reasons; they want to feel like they are helping, but they simply lack the expertise to provide quality information.

However, sometimes it is for not-so-innocent reasons. Maybe they hate their job, but are too afraid to leave it, so they project those insecurities on to you. Or maybe they are insecure about their bodies, so they try to consciously(or subconsciously) attempt to undermine your attempts at obtaining the physique that you desire.

Not everybody needs to know the whole story about why you're quitting your job, for most people it can simply be "it wasn't a great fit" and leave it at that; the less that they have to go off of, the less inclined they will be to "help". For people who can genuinely help(manager, actual career coach), the story should be much more detailed.

Give people the correct amount of information; not too much, and not too little.

IPhone Chargers

IPhone chargers are great at their primary goal: charging phones really fast.

However, they really blow it when it comes to their secondary goal: universality.

If I lose the charger for my Galaxy S3, I can use a charger from any other Galaxy device. Or any Android device. Or any Kindle device.

Any generic micro usb can charge my device.

That is the beauty of conforming to standards.

When you forget your iPhone charger, and you are only surrounded by Droid users, you will wish that Apple had sacrificed a little performance for accessibility.

The Best Coach

Imagine you're trying to hire a new coach. Also imagine that the only information you have to go on is their relevant athletic career.

Would you hire the hall of fame athlete?

Chances are you would.

But you'd probably be wrong.

How about we rephrase it. Who do you think knows more about losing weight: the guy who came out of the womb with chiseled abs and bulging biceps, or the former pudgy guy who is now pretty lean?

Not to bash the work ethic of hall of fame athletes, chances are the worked their asses of to obtain that title. Chances are also pretty good that they also happened to always just be a little bigger, stronger, faster, and their sport just generally came easier to them; they can't really pass that knowledge on to others, because they never had to learn it themselves.

If you want to find the best coach(or professor or manager or...), look for the loser who made themselves pretty damn good.

Readings of 2014, April Edition, Part 2

Remote by Jason Fried:

Jason challenged the successful business status quo in his last book, Rework. In Remote, he does it once again.

In Rework, he mentions in passing that it is possible to have a majority, if not all, of your work force working remotely; in Remote, he expands upon the benefits and pitfalls of doing so, and offers suggestions for companies or employees looking to transition towards remote work.

It is a rather quick read, so I would definitely recommend it for anybody even remotely interested in working remotely.

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg:

Why do you grab that 3 o'clock cookie?

Why do you go on a morning jog, rain or shine?

How can people with amnesia, walk around their neighborhood without getting lost?

We all have habits, beneficial and detrimental alike, that guide us through our day-to-day lives. In the Power of Habit, Charles guides us through the how-to of habit formation, distilling research and anatomy into easily relatable text.

Before reading this book, I was a firm believer in the driving force of habit, which has only been reinforced since reading it. Above I alluded to the biggest testament to habit's power presented in this book: an old man with amnesia could walk around his neighborhood, without getting lost, yet he had no idea where he was going or where his house was.

Another book that I would definitely recommend for anybody looking to make positive change in their life, and understand why that change is taking place.

The Long(and the Really Long) Journey

Some journeys are long. The route may not be so clear, but they have a clear beginning and end.

The road trip from Illinois to Colorado that I am about to take with my mom is a long trip.

On the other hand, really long journeys have no destination, maybe some landmarks along the way though. In a sense, the journey is the destination.

Each training session, powerlifters are trying to make themselves stronger, more technically efficient or healthier. They may be working towards a personal record, world record, or some other benchmark, but those are just landmarks; as soon as they reach it, another will be placed just off in the horizon.

Long journey's shouldn't necessarily be enjoyable(of course my upcoming road trip will be, though), think about about that college class that you despised; grinding through was manageable as long as you got your degree. On the other hand, if you're not enjoying your really long journey, you better take the next off ramp.

Customers and Marriage

Switch to <insert cell phone service provider>, and we will pay off the remainder of your old phone contract.

Buy this new truck, and we will pay off the remainder of your previous car loan.

Get cable/satellite service and save 50% for your first 12 months.

Get married to me, and I will give you this huge ring, an amazing wedding and a loveless marriage.

Wait, that last one sounds horrible, yet it is oddly similar to the messages sent in many of the advertisements I see on TV.

Instead of worrying about what sort of trick we will use to get out our next customer, or, if polygamy floats your boat, next spouse, how about we start taking care of those we already have.

Better than Perfect

Solid state amplifiers create a less noisy signal that tube amplifiers, yet many audiophiles prefer these imperfections.

Perfect form and technique are preached while lifting, yet while performing maximum effort attempts form usually deteriorates slightly.

Perfectly seared scallops and julienned vegetables prepared by a master chef just won't cut it, if your stomach truly desires a greasy cheeseburger, thick chocolate shake and salty fries.

Cindy Crawford's mole and the gap in Michael Strahan's teeth are both imperfections, but those imperfections have allowed them to be more relatable to regular people, making them more perfect in a sense.

Sometimes you need to be less perfect in order to be more perfect.

Asking for Directions

How do you get to Kaneohe, Hawaii?

If you were to ask most people in America, they would probably tell you 2 things:

1. Head to the South-West.
2. You need to head there by plane or boat.

If you are in most of the United States, that would be a great start. But what about those who are in Honolulu?

In fact, to get to Kaneohe from Honolulu, you need to head to the North-East by car.

Knowing where you currently are is just as important as knowing where you want to go, be wary of blanket statements that don't take the former into account.

Readings of 2014, April Edition, Part 1

The Circle by Dave Eggers:

What happens when social media becomes so deeply ingrained with our day-to-day life that we begin paying our bills, voting, and even (literally) display every moment of every day for the world to see?

The Circle documents a new Circler's(that's what the employees call themselves), Mae, rise through the company the most influential and controversial company on the planet.

The Circle's intentions begin innocently enough; they begin as essentially a mixture of PayPal and Facebook, which requires a verified social security number to fight online fraud. Mae begins at the company a few years into it's life, and The Circle is now even more deeply ingrained into everyone's life, which Mae is slightly torn about.

As the story goes on, this only increases, as The Circle takes the Silicon-Valley buzzword, transparency to another level; Mae actually begins wearing a video camera, which documents every second of her day for the world to see.

I am not going to give any more spoilers out for the book, because I believe that you should go read it. It is an amazing insight into some of today's fictional technological and moral problems that could very well be the facts of tomorrow.

Dot Complicated by Randi Zuckerberg:

Yes, that Zuckerberg.

Where The Circle focuses on future fictional implications of the growth social media and technology, Randi Zuckerberg focuses on the present: beneficial, as well as negative.

Like I alluded to earlier, Randi Zuckerberg is Mark Zuckerberg's sister, as well as one of Facebook's first employees, where she led the marketing efforts.

Throughout the book, it is apparent that Randi is torn between all of the benefits that social media has to offer(connecting people, sharing of information, etc) and all of its obvious and subtle drawbacks(never being truly present, feeling the need to document all aspects of our life for the world to see, trying to maintain multiple online personalities, and the need to learn a constantly evolving online etiquette).

Again, I won't ruin the whole book for you. I would definitely recommend reading both... there are some very interesting connections to be made between the two.

Finding What You're Looking for

If you know what you're looking for, it is easy to find.

Just look at supplement companies. Increase muscle mass by 200%, decrease fat by 30%, increases testosterone levels 50% greater than the competitor, and clinically shown to increase growth hormone level by 1000% in 16 year old asian males. The claims on the packaging have to come from research somewhere. 

Not everybody responded positively? Let's just focus on those who responded well.

The control group generally performed poorly, with the exception of a few outliers who outperformed everyone. Eh, let's just throw out the outliers or re-run the experiment.

We all have supplement company-like tendencies from time to time.

Worried that indeed your ass looks fat? Ask your spouse if those jeans make your butt look big... they won't dare to tell you that it does.

Want to hear that your new business is the second coming of Facebook? Vet it by your friends who worship the ground you walk on.

I am guilty of it. It feels great, but it doesn't get us anywhere.

Most of the time, we need to find what we're not looking for; we need to hear that we could lose a few pounds or that our social networking site for cat lovers is not even remotely viable.

If you want to grow, surround yourself with those who will be completely honest with you... or you could pretend you are growing and surround yourself with those who are kinda-sorta honest with you.

Which will you look for?

Mission Statements

The two things that all successful organizations have in common: having a tangible mission statement and empowering everybody to do their part to make sure that the mission statement actually manifests into reality.

Zappos mission is to provide the best customer service possible. It works because their is no customer service department; everybody, at every level of the organization, is empowered to provided that customer with the best service.

Similarly, Starbucks has a very tangible, albeit slightly longer, statement consisting of sourcing the finest coffee, the promise of a perfect beverage, highest quality customer-employee interactions and welcoming stores that "are a break from the outside". I bet you could have paraphrased their mission statement just by your experiences in the store. 

"Put a computer on every desk and in every home." That was Microsoft's old mission statement, and the evolution of computers clearly reflect it. In computer's infancy, they were expensive and impossible for all but experts to use. Microsoft solved these issues by driving the commoditization of hardware to bring down prices and continually making the operating systems easier to use.

Now that a computer is essentially on every desk, and has been for a few years, Microsoft has had to create a new mission statement. This one consists of many fancy sounding phrases like "Interoperability among assistive technology products". 

What does that even mean?

I wouldn't go so far as to say that Microsoft's decaying public perception is a direct result of their hand-wavy mission statement, but I would imagine it definitely plays a part.

If having tangible mission statements work for companies, imagine what a personal mission statement could do for all of us...

Jump In

Question. If you want to learn to swim, do you think you would learn faster by standing around the pool watching others swim or by jumping in?

Hopefully, you answered jumping in.

However, I can understand if you answered watching others. Sometimes, it is easy to feel the need to know everything before even beginning. Unfortunately, for anything more complicated than brewing a pot of coffee, knowing everything before getting started is utterly impossible, leaving you perpetually on the side of the pool.

Most of the things you pick up while trying not to drown.

The Best Piece of Advice I Ever Received

Back in the Summer of 2012, I was an intern at Qualcomm's Boulder office. My internship was almost over, so I put some time on my calendar to go chat with some of Senior-Staff/Director level folks who had been around for a while, to get a feel for their experience throughout their years with the company.

One chat really stuck out in my mind. That chat was with my team lead, Tim. Tim was a Senior-Staff manager who had been around as long as, if not longer, than the Directors at the Boulder office.

During our chat, he seemed particularly animated about one decision that could have put him at a much higher level. Midway through his career at Qualcomm, he got approached to switch teams from his current team(the first team he led) to a brand new, promising yet experimental team.

He was comfortable with his current team, so he decided to stay there.

That new team now makes up the majority of the current business.

His piece of advice: "If given the choice, the comfortable choice is usually the wrong one."

Building Sh*t

The hardest part about building shit is getting started.

The second hardest part about building shit: finishing.

Perfect Practice

"Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect." - Vince Lombardi

Practice is easy.

Mindlessly going over the pentatonic scales, or copying examples from a programming book is practice.

Learning your favorite bands' songs or looking through open source projects is a little better, but, alas, still just practice.

Taking what you know and applying it to writing your own music or programming projects is getting really close. But its still just practice.

Now, take the result of the previous step, and show it to a mentor or a group of knowledgable people and have them critique it. Have a meaningful conversation with them as to why the various pieces don't fit, truly internalizing why it doesn't work(this will probably involve digging deeper into theory or programming language, or drawing from examples of other musicians or open source code), and hammer the jenky pieces until they are flawless.

Perfect practice is a bitch.

When I was younger, I never made it past playing mindless pentatonic scales and learning easy parts of songs.

I still have plenty of jenky pieces left in powerlifting, bodybuilding, and software development but at least I am hammering in the right pieces.

Choices

Ham or bacon(or sausage or steak or ...)?

Vanilla or chocolate(or twix or chocolate waffle cone or ...)?

Apple or Samsung(or HTC or Sony or ...)?

Pre-med or Engineering(or Philosophy or Underwater Basket-weaving or ...)?

Our choices are seemingly endless, essentially paralyzing our decision making from sheer information overload.

I saw a recent episode of The Big Bang Theory, where Sheldon Cooper demonstrated exactly this... and he only have to choose between 2 items: the Xbox One or the PS4. A tough decision indeed.

Fortunately, all that competition to be the best has created a vast surplus of things that are good enough. Any smart phone we get will be able to make calls, send world-class selfies, and run candy crush until our fingers bleed. Any car we purchase will get us from point a to point b, have decent gas mileage and probably not spontaneously combust.

We(I am definitely guilty of this!) all need to learn to take less time on decisions where good enough will suffice so we can spend time on making the choices that truly matter: what am I looking for in a partner, where do I want to live, what do I want to do for a career, and who do I want to spend my limited time with. 

Oh, and Xbox One or PS4.

Labels

When can you label yourself a bodybuilder?

When can you label yourself a powerlifter?

When can you label yourself a surgeon?

Is it when you first start caring about what food you put in your mouth? How about when you really start caring, when you stress over every little detail?

Is it when you pick up your first weight? How about about when your lifts start reaching some arbitrarily large number?

Is it when you pick up your first biology book? How about your first day in med school?

No, in my opinion, none of those things will qualify you as a bodybuilder, powerlifter or surgeon. You don't earn those labels until you put yourself out on a limb, completely vulnerable.

You're not a bodybuilder until you step on stage, rocking the banana hammock for the whole world to see. No more hiding those last 5 pounds or touch-ups with instagram filters.

You're not a powerlifter until you suit up in the singlet, putting your lifts at the discretion of the 3 judges and lights. No more hiding that "parallel" squat, touch-and-go bench press and hitched deadlift.

And you're certainly not a surgeon until you operate on your first patient, accepting full responsibility that this is a real person's life on the line. No more hiding behind textbooks and cadavers.

As Ronnie Coleman is famous for saying, "Everybody wanna be a bodybuilda, but don't nobody wanna put on the banana hammock." Or something like that.

The Badass Economy

Even though we already have our fair share of coined economies(Sharing Economy, Connection Economy, Thank You Economy, to name a few), I feel compelled to add another, because why not.

I dub it: The Badass Economy.

As a millennial, my main criteria when looking for a job is the degree of impact I will be able to make on the world, the amount of training available, and amount of challenge the job presents. Essentially, I am looking for a job where I will be more badass each day.

Obviously, employers are looking for only the most badass employers. The whole purpose of the interview process is to answer the question: is this person badass?

Companies even have formal badass ratings given to them by investment banks: their valuation.

Finally, consumers buy products for the sole purpose of becoming more badass. Those new clothes put a pep in our step, that new gaming machine renders pixels just a little faster, and obviously we all want to lose 10 pounds of fat and gain 10 pounds of muscle without breaking a sweat.

Even beating a level in Candy Crush leaves us feeling just a tad more badass, it even compels us to tell our friends on Facebook exactly how badass we are. Speaking of Facebook, social networks even have more metrics to determine your badass rating: number of friends, followers, and they even allow the "influencers" to have their own fan pages and verified pages(obviously, they are so badass that people would want to pretend to be them).

Okay, maybe some of that was a stretch, but there are definitely worse goals than making ourselves and the world around us just a little more badass.

Readings of 2014, March Edition, Part 2

Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyasaki:

I received this book from my aunt about a dozen years ago, and just now finally got around to reading it.

The namesake of the book comes from Robert's childhood, where he had his biological dad(poor dad) and his best friend's dad(rich dad) who both acted as mentors as he was growing up. Poor dad came from the conventional mindset of getting a college education and then making a career out of working for a company; on the other hand, rich dad(a high school dropout) held the mindset that one must acquire assets and then have those assets work for you.

The only thing that I found mind-blowing was Robert's advice to always pay yourself and further nourish your investments first, before paying off things like bills. His reasoning: bill collectors will always scream louder at you then you would scream at yourself, hence he is forced to come up with creative solutions to make extra money on months that he is running a little short.

The 9-to-5 Cure by Kristin Cardinale:

Have you read The 4-hour Workweek? Well this is pretty much the same thing, albeit Kristin Cardinale didn't seem to draw me in quite as much as Tim Ferriss(man crush).

Abstract: do work you are truly passionate about, and take periodic "mini-retirements" throughout the year.

Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman:

Have you ever pushed on a door, only to realize it needed to be pulled?

How about attempted to turn on a light, only to chew up the silverware that was sitting in the garbage disposal?

Well, then this book is for you. Norman spends the entire book looking at everyday things, and providing examples of how they are done poorly as well as how they are done well.

Abstract: design != aesthetic, it is perfectly possible(and frequently done) to make a pretty thing that is completely unusable. Additionally, if you want to provide the user with the most usable design, put the knowledge into the world and not the user's head, for example: push pads on doors, and natural mappings between dials on stoves and their respective burners.

What Does the Fox Say? by Ylvis:

Yes, a children's book adaptation of the youtube sensation. Literally, a 2 minute read.

Dots: When to Connect and When to Collect?

In Seth Godin's post of a similar title, he argues that the connecting the dots is becoming more important than ever.

I don't disagree that connecting the dots is becoming more important, but I would like to argue that knowing when to stop collecting and beginning to connect the dots is by far the most important.

Case in point, just now, I randomly typed in 2 symptoms(fever and bloating) into WebMd and 75 possible conditions, all relatively equally likely, were listed as the cause: everything ranging from the flu to Hepatitis to Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Chances are you'd be wrong, if you were to give a diagnosis based on those 2 symptoms alone.

It would be like trying to have someone replicate a circle by providing them only 2 dots on that circle; reproducing the circle is possible, but the most likely result is that the other person will simply draw a line. They connected the dots as any perfectly logical person would, yet came up with the completely wrong answer, simply based on lack of enough information.

On the other extreme side, there are many people who are in very long relationships before deciding that the other person is, or is not, the one they would like to marry. Granted, sometimes that is due to other reasons, but after a time of about two years, there isn't really anything significant left to learn about the other person. As my mom would say, "It's time to shit or get off the toilet."

I don't think the true magic is in either collecting or connecting dots, but in the ability to know when which is appropriate.

Thank the Batmen

In "The Dark Knight," Batman took the fall for the murder of Harvey Dent, Gotham City's largest symbol of hope. Even though Batman did kill Dent, it was only after Dent had gone insane as the villain Two-Face. That final part was left out in order to preserve Dent's status of hope.

As a result, Batman instantly became viewed as a renegade in the city.

In "The Dark Knight Rises," it was clear to see the mental toll that being viewed as a villain was taking on Batman, despite all the good he was doing. That, combined with the physical toll of crime fighting, caused Batman to become a recluse. This disappearance allowed a new mega-villain to step into Gotham City and almost destroy it, until Batman finally came out of retirement to save the day.

We all know real life Batmen, those who take a bunch of heat for others, yet live a rather thankless life.

At work, our managers absorb a lot of heat for us, yet it is a commonly held notion that manager's jobs are just to make our life a living nightmare. Similarly, the sys-admin and IT folks receive a lot of flack for all the process employees must go through as well as when things go down, yet receive little thanks for the amount of good that results from that process and for the vast majority of the time that things are up-and-running flawlessly.

However, the most important Batmen are clearly our parents. During our teen years, we view them as ruthless dictators who make arbitrary rules for the sole purpose of making our lives's a living hell. Yet we don't see what those rules save us from, and how little we actually miss out on as a result of those rules. They drive us around from practice to practice to social event, yet we always expected more of them.

Fortunately, when we reach the wonderful twenty-somethings stage of our life, we begin viewing our parents as the Batman that saves Gotham City, and not the Batman who killed Harvey Dent.

We all need to stop and take the time to think the Batmen in our lives, because we need them all in our lives(even if we don't know it yet).

The Best

Chances are, we won't be the best in the world at everything(or anything) we would like to be.

We probably don't have the best genetics.

We probably aren't smart enough.

We probably aren't pretty/handsome enough.

We probably didn't get started young enough.

We probably can't train all day every day.

And a few lucky SOB's do/are/did/can. Get over it.

Even though we probably won't be the best in the world, that shouldn't stop us from being the best version of us.

It's Okay to be the Big Fish, too

Yesterday, I wrote about subjecting yourself to situations where you are the little fish being necessary for growth. But what happens when you now become the big fish in that pond?

Well we really only have 3 choices:

1) Eat all the other fish in the pond. This is analogous to the rockstar/stud/ninja/<insert other buzzword> who expects everyone around them to kiss their ass and worship the ground they walk on. Hopefully, I don't need to let you know that this is the wrong choice.

2) Find a new pond. Just because your surroundings initially provided a challenge and facilitated growth, doesn't mean that it always will. That is why many of the successful companies in Silicon Valley make it easy to switch teams and projects; they know the great employees are constantly seeking to learn and face new challenges, so it is much better to keep them within the company on a different team, than to have them go to a different team outside of the company.

3) Help out the small fish and give back to the pond. When you are the small fish, your only job is to learn and not mess stuff up too bad, but after a point you must begin paying it forward. More experienced powerlifters bring the newer guys under their wings through coaching, angel investors sit on boards and help to groom the next generation of entrepreneurs, and software engineers contribute to open source projects . And let's be honest, being the big fish feels amazing, so pushing the smaller fish will in turn push you, if you want to keep that title.

Switching ponds isn't always an option, but bringing others under your wings(or should I say fins?) is.

Be the Small Fish, for a Bit

If you want to be the best financial analyst you can be, move to Manhattan.

If you want to be best country singer you can be, move to Nashville.

If you want to be the best actor/actress you can be, move to Los Angeles.

If you want to be the best software engineer you can be, move to Silicon Valley.

If you want to be the best powerlifter you can be, move to Columbus.

Contrary to the belief held in Malcolm Gladwell's book, David and Goliath, which states that college students you have a greater chance of success by going to a less competitive school, powerlifters have the mentality that is a horrible thing to be the strongest guy in the gym for a substantial period of time.

In order to grow, you need to be pushed, you need to be a little afraid of getting eaten alive, you need to learn from mentors that are better than you in every way. It feels nice being the big fish, but if you want it bad enough, put yourself in a position where you are the little fish, and then make yourself grow, even if just a bit, everyday.

The Important 20%

It's all important, particularly the end.

But let's say you want to broaden your horizons, and insist on putting Pareto's Principle to the test. On which 20% should you focus?

The 20% that scares the shit out of you.

The 20% that you are putting off.

The 20% that requires being fully present.

If you want to get stronger, a heavy squat is going to do more that the half-assed leg curls. If you want to get the promotion, turn off the email client and get to work on solving the difficult problems.

Knowing Versus Doing, the Follow-up

You have been dieting and exercising for awhile, the weight has been coming off great, but it is slowly creeping to a crawl. So you cut calories and add in more cardio, kickstarting the weight loss again, but eventually the weight loss stalls again. So the cycle continues. Slowly the weight loss comes to a screeching halt, or even some weight gain happens, and you have no additional calories to remove.

Now what?

You have been working at a company for years, rapidly rising through the junior and mid level positions, through a combination of talent and tenacity, but have been stuck at staff level for an eternity.

Now what?

I have been in preparation for a bodybuilding competition since November 11th of last year, losing about 12 pounds in the first 10 weeks, but in the 12 weeks since then my weight loss has been negligible. Maybe it has even been a swap of muscle for fat. Judge for yourself: January 3rd and April 8th.

I finally reached a point where I couldn't cut any more calories or add anymore cardio, even though the scale still wasn't moving.

Now what?

We threw a monkey-wrench into the mix by adding calories and decreasing cardio.

Do we know it will work? No, but we knew what we were doing wasn't working.

We all know how to get from point A to point B, but doing more of that may not get us from point B to point C. In the beginning, what we do is driven by what we know. When we reach an advanced stage, what we know is driven by what we do.

Knowing Versus Doing

We all know how to lose a little weight.

We all know how to better our general fitness.

We all know how to advance our careers.

Unfortunately, knowing is never enough. That is why so many are stuck at our current weight, fitness level or job.

Doing is scary, we have to put ourselves out on a limb, with the possibility that we will fail. But if we don't do, we are guaranteed to fail.

Not-So-Urgent Care Clinic

Last weekend, I felt an oncoming sinus infection, and couldn't get into my typical physician, so I was relegated to going to the Urgent Care Clinic. Let's just say my time spent waiting stood in stark contrast to its namesake(on the bright side, that did allow me to get in 2 hours of reading).

Why do we put up with this?

Why do we put up with Comcast?

Why do we put up with jobs we are generally dispassionate about, or, worse, genuinely loathe?

Because, at the time, no viable alternatives exist, or at least appear to exist.

Finding a new job is always a possibility, but the fear of jumping into the unknown causes many to rule it out as an option.

Comcast, on the other hand is definitely giving the appearance that they are fighting claw-and-teeth to remain the only viable option for cable and internet(but what happens when someone rises up to contest them?).

Fortunately, services like MDLive are beginning to pop up, that will allow doctors to swiftly provide elementary diagnoses over the phone, as opposed to the hours and hours of waiting room time spent in Urgent Care Clinics around the world.

Now that I no longer have to wait to talk to a physician, I can return to waiting for my Comcast repairman.

Frat Houses and Companies

Companies have presidents, heads of marketing, recruiting and even philanthropy.

Fraternities have presidents, heads of marketing, recruiting and even philanthropy.

Companies have monthly or quarterly all-hands meetings, where the entire company gets together, praises their collective victories and points out areas of improvement.

Fraternities have weekly chapter, where the entire local chapter gets together, praises their collective victories and points out areas of improvement.

Fraternities and companies both share the same central problem, the majority of the people that are responsible for the future success(or failure) do not feel that they individually make a substantial contribution.

If you have ever seen a kitchen in a Fraternity house, it would be instantly apparent that the mess was the collective work of many individuals over time, yet the blame for the entire mess can be placed on nobody. Additionally, many Fraternities suffer from recruitment problems; pledge classes slowly dwindle in size from lack of involvement and deteriorating reputation, and next thing you know the chapter needs to bring in nationals to prevent them from closing.

Similarly, the fall from grace of Fortune 500 companies rarely results from a particular, catastrophic event, and is instead a gradual deterioration in relative quality.

As Seth Godin would put it, the deterioration of both organizations happens gradually and then suddenly.

The simple(but not easy) solution is to make sure your members or employees are actively involved and feel a sense of personal responsibility. Otherwise, you may end up with a messy, or empty, kitchen.

Contextual Lessons

As a Computer Engineer student, the notion of adding redundancy to systems was harped upon us almost daily. We became pros at making systems as fail-proof as possible.

Sidestep to other areas of life, namely setting my alarm clock. My alarm clock has failed me on numerous occasions, seemingly always when I have an early flight or day of work to attend to. The most recent occurrence was for a 6 am flight leaving La Guardia; I set my alarm for 3:30, and didn't realized I had slept through it until 5:15 am.

There are numerous reasons for failure of an alarm clock to accomplish its intended job: power outage, mixing am and pm, setting it for the wrong time or day, forgetting to enable the alarm, and simply sleeping through it.

It would be logical to assume that I would instinctively set multiple alarms, seeing as redundancy was so deeply engrained into me, yet I never contextually connected the two until my most recent failed alarm attempt.

Lessons in particular area usually applicable to many other areas of life, but aren't obvious. In my case, I feel particular oblivious to them, until they hit me over head multiple times.

At least I have finally learned to set multiple alarms.

Readings of 2014, March Edition, Part 1

Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder:

Ok, I have to get something off my chest... in 2008, all incoming Freshman of the University of Illinois received a copy of this book, with instructions to have it read by the time we arrived on campus. I had attempted to read it then, but failed miserably, and it was apparent that a vast majority of my peers were in the same boat.

However, now that I have read it, I can see why a University Chancellor would recommend it for incoming freshman.

Well as they say, better late than never.

Onto the take home lesson of the book, and why I believe the Chancellor wished that all of us would read it: if you want to make a change in this world, you will have to work really, really, fucking hard.

The book revolves around Paul Farmer, a Ph.D in Anthropology and M.D from Harvard, who splits his time between Boston and Haiti, as well as a bevy of other third world countries and shitholes(like Russian prisons), trying to fight HIV and Tuberculosis. In his free time, while he is not seeing to patients in clinics, he is taking multi-day long treks into the remotest of remote regions of Haiti to make house visits to patients who are too weak to make the treacherous visit themselves, and to assess his patients living conditions.

Oh, and he hardly ever sleeps.

Yeah, you could say he works really, really, fucking hard.

The Nickleback Effect

Hardly anybody truly loves Nickleback.

Just like hardly anybody truly loves McDonalds.

Yet, Nickleback is consistently selling out shows, McDonalds is always packed, and both are making more money than I could fathom.

There is nothing wrong with money being the end goal, but in order to do so, consistency and accessibility usually win out over quality and creativity. Every time I buy a burger from McDonalds, I can be fairly certain of how it will taste: not bad and not great, just burger-y. Every time I hear a Nickleback song, I can be fairly certain of how it is going to sound: not bad and not great, just sing song-y.

In order to make something truly great, you will risk losing some of that accessibility. Not everyone will understand a truly magnificent piece of art, and truly talented, risk-taking artists are bound to have a few pieces that don't turn out well. Not everyone will enjoy the menus of world-class chefs, and they typically change daily or seasonly, so chances are a few of those may be busts.

However, with that lack of universal accessibility comes an increased risk of failure. That is why we have so many restaurants closing daily and starving artists; relatively few McDonalds close and Nickleback is at no risk of starving.

There is nothing wrong with choosing to be Nickleback, just like there is nothing wrong with choosing to be the (potentially-starving) talented artist. However, there is something wrong with the chef trying to lead the McDonald's kitchen.

Praise for Microsoft

Microsoft has finally put the last nail in XP's coffin. They had been pushing users to upgrade for a while, by offering some pretty serious discounts; but now it is official, Microsoft will stop supporting XP.

Windows XP came out in 2001, that means that it is almost 13 years ago. I don't point that age out to be a sign of weakness, I point it out as a testament to XP potentially being the greatest operating system of all time(relatively speaking); operating systems that work extremely well stick around for a while, those that do not are quickly slain... I'm looking at you Vista and ME.

With that said, I fully support Microsoft announcing that it is ending support on XP.

I hear the criticism's now, "My XP machine works perfectly fine for my needs, so they should support it." My response to this is an analogy... an old 1969(same relative age as XP) Camaro would work perfectly fine today if it was maintained, but GM feels no need to keep turning out replacement parts, and we as consumers are completely fine with that. There are definitely still old Camaros on the road, but those owners must go to aftermarket dealers for custom parts.

Additionally, Operating Systems are some of the most technically difficult systems in Computer Engineering, so I have no doubt that the engineers that were left supporting XP were extremely bright. Keeping them on support of XP is taking away valuable resources from creating something that truly pushes today's boundaries.

Microsoft has definitely had their fair share of flops in recent years(Zune, Surface, Windows 8 to a degree), but I truly believe that this is not one of those. As Henry Ford famously said, "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."

April Fool's Day

What would you do if you woke up today and it was yet again April Fool's Day?

The exact same song is playing on your alarm clock radio. Certainly, you wouldn't believe yesterday hadn't repeated itself, but, lo and behold, it is not just the radio show that is repeating itself, but everyone's fake pregnancy stories on Facebook are also repeating themselves.

So you go to bed hoping it is all a bad dream.... and in the morning it is April Fool's Day again.

Now what do you do?

Do you steal money and live it up, or do you hone your skills?

Do you brush all people off because they won't remember you when you wake up, or do you take the time to truly get to know people?

Do you try and off yourself, or do you try and live life to the fullest?

The same thing happened to Bill F*cking Murray(Chive On) on Groundhog's Day. Spoiler alert... the first choice is the wrong one.

The Interesting Behavior of Spring Break

First off, I want to apologize to my 2 readers for the long gap between this post as my previous. Both of you already know this, but I was Wifi-less in Florida for Spring Break.

I have never been before, and definitely had a blast... and also witnessed activities that I couldn't believe(for reference, I lived in a Fraternity house, so I have seen some pretty outrageous events).

I heard guys call girls sluts almost by the minute, saw girls live out that name almost as frequently, saw a beautiful beach begin to resemble a landfill, and even saw a guy try to go from the 9th to 10th floor of a condo.... by climbing it on the outside.

Why do I think Spring Break is the perfect breeding ground for this? One of the guys I was staying with ever-so-eloquently said it to a girl, "The best part about this is, I will never have to see you again."

The second face of anonymity is a powerful motivator for bad(albeit, fun) behavior.

"Failed" Powerlifting Meet

You win some, you lose some. This past weekend, I definitely did not win on the platform.

But what I didn't win on the platform, I won in experience.

For the many people who are likely unfamiliar with powerlifting, it consists of 3 attempts at the squat, 3 attempts at the bench and then followed by 3 attempts at the deadlift, with the total being the sum of the best of each 3 lifts. It is also broken up by weight classes, with the classes being closer together in weight, and spaced further apart as they go heavier.

My last meet I totaled 1100 pounds weighing 181 pounds, this meet I totaled 972 at 165 pounds.

I obviously did much worse, but what did I learn from it, and how can I apply that to other aspects of life?

• I decided to do this meet at a lower weight class, while in preparation for a bodybuilding contest. Even though they are both fitness related, the end goals are not the same in each. This reinforced my notion that I can't split my focus if I want to get to the top.
• Not hitting depth on my second squat attempt. I absolutely smoked this weight and I thought I was deep enough, but it turned out I was at parallel instead of below parallel. If you're going to put in the effort to do something, make sure you know exactly what it is you're doing, so you don't waste time and energy.
• Only going 4 for 9/making too large of jumps between my 2nd and 3rd attempts. I definitely left plenty of weight on the platform, because I made bad selection attempts. You have to know when it's best to take on something a little easier and knock it out of the ballpark, as opposed to reaching too far and come up empty handed(you also have to know when you need to reach).
• I underestimated the impact that dropping weight and recovering from the stomach flu would have on my lifts. Similar to above, I knew I had a few outside factors which would affect my strength, so I probably should have backed off a bit. In life, the default seems to be to say yes to everything coming your way, but sometimes you are overloaded and have to say no or back off a bit.

Could I have totaled more? Yes. But this meet wasn't an entire failure, I will take what I learned and apply it to life and the next meet.

Readings of 2014, February Edition, Part 3

This edition will wrap up my reading list in February, and these 3 were quite the intellectual and motivational doozies.

The Black Swan by Nassim Nicolas Taleb:

Unfathomable events happen year after year on a macro scale, and day after day on a micro scale : dawn of the internet, popping of the dot com bubble, September 11th, and children being diagnosed with cancer. These are all instances of Black Swans.

Nassim Nicolas Taleb is very familiar with Black Swans, he cut his teeth as a young New York trader and made his(and seen many others lose their), as he calls it,  "F*ck you" money from the large scale Black Swans that occur on Wall Street. Unfortunately, he is also familiar with the smaller scale Black Swans: he was diagnosed with throat cancer as a young man... and didn't smoke.

Most of the book is spent on showing distinctions between "Mediocristan", where Black Swans are non-factors(height, weight), and "Extremistan", where the Black Swans exist(income). Additionally, he reinforces the need to guard against the negative Black Swans and to put yourself into a position where you are will be in the best position to come across the positive ones.

I would definitely recommend this book, it is far from an easy read, but I definitely feel like it was worth the effort.

Start Something That Matters by Blake Mycoskie:

The (former) serial entrepreneur, Blake Mycoskie, finally started something that matters when he started TOMS. He realized that there are many, many kids walking around without shoes, and that was a major cause of spreading of disease in that population. Instead of starting a non-profit to tackle that problem, he decided to go with his area of expertise, for-profit companies. However this for-profit had a twist: you buy a pair of shoes, we give away a pair to a child in need.

In stark contrast to The Black Swan, this book was a very easy read, and, while not very mentally taxing, definitely had a call-to-action to, as could be guessed, start something that matters. It is a pseudo-biography of the Blake and the company, documenting his process of going from knowing nothing about shoes to being the "Chief Shoe Giver" of one of the highest-impact shoe companies in the world. Along the way, Blake interjects with some of his take home lessons from various stages of the life of TOMS.

As I said, it is definitely an easy read, so if you are intrigued, you could probably finish it over a cup of coffee at the local bookstore. However, in the TOMS spirit, this book does have a one-for-one policy; for each copy sold, a book will be sent to a child in need.

Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk:

Disclaimer, this is the first biz-dev book that I have ever read, so my virgin mind has no frame of reference with which to compare it. However, with that being said, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Gary's family immigrated to New York when he was a really young boy and, in typical immigrant lifestyle, his parents engrained an intense desire to win by out-hustling. His father started a liquor store when they came to the states, and Gary began hauling around ice there as a young boy(after being forced to step away from his very respectable baseball card-selling business). He despised his initial position, but eventually came to love it when he noticed that he could easily sell people wine(by becoming knowledgable through reading, he still couldn't drink the stuff), but the same thing couldn't be said about beer and liquor drinkers.

That is the take home message, find your niche, which was wine in Gary's case.

The meat of the book centers around Gary eventually taking over the family business, and growing it from respectable to gargantuan through a wicked concoction of hustling and effective use of social-networking.

Even though social networking came out when I was in early high school, I still feel relatively naive with respect to how to most effectively use them to build personal branding. After reading this, I feel less naive; if you are in a similar position, I would definitely recommend taking a few hours out of your life and reading it.

Lessons From Jurassic Park

"I spared no expense." - John Hammond.

Well, almost no expense.

For those unfamiliar with Jurassic Park, I feel sorry for you, but I will still fill you in.

John Hammond was the millionaire,(maybe billionaire) serial theme park builder. Jurassic Park was his most extravagant one: a theme park filled with real, live dinosaurs. However, he only had one programmer in charge of the computer systems on the entire island... and this programmer felt like he was grossly underpaid, so he shut down the entire island to steal dinosaur eggs for someone paying him better.

He got eaten.

So did many others... those damn raptors.

So what have we learned?

1. Don't get cheap on your people.
2. Don't have have any person operating without checks and balances.
3. Don't surround yourself with shiesty folks.
4. Most importantly, if you do manage to recreate dinosaurs, let the raptors stay extinct.

10,000 Hours: The Forgotten Part

We all have heard it takes 10,000 hours working on a skill to become an expert on it, yet:

• I have spent close to 10,000 hours behind the wheel of a car, yet I am no Michael Andretti.
• I have spent close to 10,000 hours singing, yet I still sound like a squealing pig.
• I have been walking my entire life, yet I would be hard pressed to finish a 10k.
• Insert many many many more.

Just putting in the time isn't enough. The time spent must be spent near the limit to illicit any growth, that is why I think competing is so important.

But it's hard.

That's why you can go into a gym and view many people who will look exactly the same months and years from now.

That's why you can go into a bowling league and find many bowlers who average the same as they did years ago.

I am guilty... I played guitar for "6" years, 1 year of learning and 5 years repeating that first year. I could have pushed more, but, in retrospect, I liked the idea of becoming an expert guitar player more than actually becoming an expert guitar player.

Now, I am working on becoming an expert software engineer and powerlifter(well working on that bodybuilding thing too), and I learned my lesson from my failed attempts at becoming the next Eddie Van Halen. I am working on my weaknesses, as opposed to spending time doing what I already know. 

Now, I spend my time bringing up that which is hindering my progress(my knee is hindering my squat, so spending more rehab/prehab time on that, which I had neglected in the past), learning complementary skills(learning graphic/web design), competing(hackathons, powerlifting meets and bodybuilding competitions) and just genuinely putting in the quality work.

10,000 hours is nice, but you have to fill those 10,000 hours with meaningful shit.

Don't Ship on Fridays

Shipping code releases on a Friday is a lot like getting maintenance work done on a car right before a road trip.

Something is bound to break.

(Wrote this from the passenger seat of a tow truck. Got maintenance work done yesterday.)

Readings of 2014, February Edition, Part 2

This part will feature one book about creating pretty decent bodies through getting good at doing the simple stuff that yields the highest ROI, and another book about plenty of delicious, physique-wrecking food.

The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss:

This is Tim Ferriss's second book, which is a follow-up to The 4-Hour Workweek(thoroughly enjoyed). What the first book was to the business world, this book is to the fitness world. An opening disclaimer states that what you are learning in the book won't take you to the 99.9%, but will take you rather painlessly from typical out of shape American to looking and performing pretty damn good.

Even though I did really enjoy the book, I wasn't able to derive much use from it,  outside of the rehab/prehab section,  since I have been involved in the fitness lifestyle for such a long time. However, if you are someone just starting out, I would definitely recommend picking up this book.

Momofuku by David Chang:

Pork fat lovers unite, this book is filled with many recipes and stories revolving around uses for the massive surplus of pork fat that Momofuku has as a result of the massive amount of pulled pork(this is now my goto pulled pork recipe) and pork belly for it's wonderful, delicious ramen.

Contrary to most cookbooks, this one feels more like David Chang decided to write a memoir about his hatred for his original jobs, leaving that job to go to culinary school, love and quest for the perfect bowl of ramen, and his underdog-turned-award-winning ramen shop, Momofuku(which I actually got a chance to eat at this past week, unfortunately I was under the weather so couldn't taste much, poor me).

If you have feel any love at all towards pork or ramen, I would definitely pick up a copy of this book; if you don't feel any love towards pork or ramen, I would definitely go see a doctor(contemplated going with jump off a bridge, but that would be rather mean of me).

Detail-Oriented

Be wary of anybody who describes themselves as detail-oriented.

It usually means they lose the forest for the trees.

The Red Zone

"Roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes." - Pareto's Principle

In football, the red zone, is the last 20 yards standing between the offensive team and the end zone. One of the best markers of a great offense is the percentage that they score a touchdown, given that they enter the red zone. Relatively speaking, it is also the most difficult 20 yards to move the offense; the defense has substantially more field to cover during the other 80 yards, leaving much wider windows for the offense to exploit. Ironically, the red zone is the perfect manifestation to the final 20% accounting for 80% of the effort in Pareto's Principle.

The Red Zone also manifests itself in every day life... just think about how many people you see at the gym with pretty decent physiques, yet how few you see that look truly exceptional, or how about how many projects you have laying around that are "done" minus a few of the truly difficult tasks?

Getting stuck in The Red Zone has been a problem of mine in the past, but consistently punching through it is the skill that I am currently most working on, and let's face it, punching through is a bitch.

I believe the way our education is structured is one of the reasons why so many get stuck in The Red Zone. Getting 100% in a class is rewarded equally to getting a 90%, yet getting a 100% requires substantially more work. Combine that with the fact the students are typically taking 5 or 6 classes at a time, and focusing on getting 100% in one class will likely leave only enough time and mental currency for a 70% in the other classes, yet it is perfectly feasible to get 90% in every class(pretty much sums me up as a straight-A student). We become very good at figuring out what 90% looks like and shooting for that.

What is my biggest solution for punching through? Treat it just like the best offense in the NFL would; visualize nothing besides the end zone, drop the trick plays and buckle down and play tough football. That means that I am only focused on one project at a time, I only read one book at a time, and I (am still attempting to) focus on only one fitness related aspect at a time. You wouldn't see the Broncos(this past seasons best offense, minus the Super Bowl) attempting to score on two fields at a time, would you?

So stop settling for field goals, or worse yet, turnovers, and start punching through The Red Zone.