Posts

1/4/2000 to 1/4/2025: Director

This post concludes my 2000-2025: 25 years in ICT series with a bit of a shameless plug: I've made it to Director! The 9 years at Proemion have been a breathtaking climb: from part-time software developer, to devops, to Team lead devops, to Group head devops and datacenter, Head of R&D, and now Director of Product of Engineering. To celebrate this, I decided to reflect on how I got here, perhaps it will be useful to others too. I did it Not to sound ungrateful or arrogant, but the first thing I should acknowledge is that I did this. I got help and support but it was ultimately me who put in the hours, went for the uncomfortable challenge ad asked for the additional responsibilities. I'm very proud of what I've accomplished, and I'd like to remind all of you that you should be too. Always! The only question I sometimes ask myself is where would I be if I started sooner. Since I don't have a time machine, I'm just content I got where I am right now and also...

Truly understarding

When you truly understand something, you can express it at any level of detail while maintaining coherence. The master can provide the one-sentence version, the paragraph version, and the chapter version, all of which tell the same story at different resolutions. The novice can only repeat what they've memorized at one resolution. Via Brain Food  

The 4 Pillars of Integrity (Jim Dethmer via The Knowledge Project)

Integrity : (from integer) to be whole or complete. In Jim Dethmer's meaning the word drops its ethical connotations and assumes the meaning of energetic wholeness and being fully alive . radical responsibility : we move from blaming others and external circumstances to taking full responsibility for our actions and emotions feel your feelings : sweeping emotions under the rug is a sure way of not being whole with ourselves and will eventually move us from being in control to being controlled by the amazing amount of energy that it takes us to suppress those emotions candor : when we hold back we detach, and when we detach can't feel energetic wholeness be impeccable in your agreements : in Charlie Munger's words be dependable. When you cannot keep your agreements, say so as early as you can Sources: https://fs.blog/knowledge-project-podcast/jim-dethmer-2/ https://conscious.is/concepts/the-four-pillars-of-integrity   Addendum: on Rituals A ritual is an invitation to somet...

"AI is commoditizing expertise"

We are essentially taking expertise and making it a commodity, and I think that as generally democratizing, I think many of the things I mentioned, if you have wealth, you have a lot of access to, and if you don't, you don't . What a cool thing that we've made this like universally accessible. From: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/how-is-ai-different-than-other-technology-waves-with-bret-taylor-and-clay-bavor  (slightly edited)

Refactoring podcast with Martin Fowler: dosage and context

A while back I listened to this conversation between Martin Fowler and Luca Rossi on the refactoring podcast. Since then I made a note to write down the most important things I learned (or re-discovered), but always postponed until today I was able to make some time for it. Here's my take on the two most important things in that one hour long conversation. Dosage The concept of dosage is very familiar and very important to me. I've already written about it, under the name quantity . I appreciate how Martin Fowler was able to find a better (and fancier) name for it. Context Software engineering, being as elusive as it is as a proper engineering discipline, is perhaps one of the most studied and written about fields of engineering . And yet, we struggle to come up with truly universal practices that work everywhere. One way to understand why some things work sometimes and don't work or fail miserably other times is by considering the context that was present when the solu...

Opportunity/cost: lessons from a plumber

My uncle taught me this thing when I was a teenager about how he used to price his business. He ran a plumbing company. What he did was basically the first 75% of hours were priced at 100%, so the regular rate, but at 75 to 80% [of hours], he would increase the rate; at 80 to 100% [of hours], he’d increase it, and at over 100% of a normal work week, he’d increase the rate even more . And he was super transparent with people about this, like, “I’m really busy right now. I hate to give you this quote, but to do the job properly, here’s what we’d have to price it at.” From  Ryan Holiday: How to Win the War with Yourself [The Knowledge Project Ep. #208]  

Perception is other people's reality

What we call perception is other people's reality Have you ever heard somebody say: yes, but we are perceived as <adjective>? as a way to say we're not quite like that, it's their fault for not seeing us differently, etc. In other words we're not taking responsibility. Stop right there and remember that how we are perceived is other people's reality. And it's our responsibility to change it , should we not be ok with it. And it's our fault if we don't. As the saying goes: we have to deal with world as it is, not as we wish it it would be

What happens to our ideas

A wise man said: Our ideas can be either ignored or misunderstood. And we don't get to choose. After a certain point it does not matter how much we refine our communication, it will never mean exactly what we think it does. And that's why it's more important to listen, than to talk: so that we can correct what must be corrected and ignore the rest because it will be distracting.