Harry's Ruminations

Thus far on this little experiment, I've: Overslept by 1 hour. Completely lost track of time innumerable occasions. Discovered an odd blurring & vibration in my vision.  Generally, it feels like I'm looking through a tunnel or a straw at the world. Had insatiable cravings for caffeine and sugar. Hyperfocused on assembly language programming and exercism . Generally feel like I got hit by a truck--slow, plodding, etc. On the bright side: Mood is much better. Sleep is much better. Laughed more (that is, some! ) The next 2-6 weeks look to be rocky, but we'll see.  Some things have to change, and my brain chemistry's going to have to come along for the ride.

I still remember an interview I had around February 2001, in which  +Ron Garnett  talked about how his team wrote code: We write stuff in Assembler, because we're too lazy to write stuff in C. Wait...what?  I thought the whole purpose of C was to have portable Assembly, so you could control the bare metal correctly.  I did get an inkling if you were that good , assembly could be seductive in your ability to do whatever you want. This came to mind again when +Seth Moore  posed a similar question on Facebook the other night: Pop quiz: When you run this, what prints out?  Basically, the above is a quiz to determine if you understand loops, expressions -v- statements, and the pre-decrement operator (--).  Pre-decrement specifies that the lvalue of the expression is the current value minus one and the post-state of that variable is assigned that decremented value.  Post-decrement has the same result (decrementing the value), but the lvalue...

From this article : Mayer also favored a system of quarterly performance reviews, or Q.P.R.s, that required every Yahoo employee, on every team, be ranked from 1 to 5. The system was meant to encourage hard work and weed out underperformers, but it soon produced the exact opposite. Because only so many 4s and 5s could be allotted, talented people no longer wanted to work together; strategic goals were sacrificed, as employees did not want to change projects and leave themselves open to a lower score. One of the uglier parts of the process was a series of quarterly “calibration meetings,” in which managers would gather with their bosses and review all the employees under their supervision. In practice, the managers would use these meetings to conjure reasons that certain staff members should get negative reviews. Sometimes the reason would be political or superficial.  If anyone believes Vitality Ranking works, especially with knowledge workers, you're sadly mistaken. ...

Ah, the Spotify Engineering Culture . We've all heard the gloss:  Small, independent Squads organized into buzzwordy terms like "Tribes," and "Guilds." These terms hearken to days past in humanity, days of community and craftsmanship. Here's what I take from the above:   None of that fricking matters .  What really matters is a throwaway blurb at the very end of the video, starting at 12m 30s.  Transcribed here: We've learned trust is more important than control.  Why would we hire someone we don't trust?  Agile at scale requires trust at scale, which means NO POLITICS.  It also means no fear.  Fear doesn't just kill trust; it kills innovation.  Because, if failure gets punished, people will be afraid to try new things.  There's the secret sauce: Hire the right people. Trust them. Dump the politics. Expect failure and deal with it appropriately. * * * So here's the thing with the above:  I question whether it's ...

Me: "Hey Joey, what would you like to do today?" He: "Let's go iceskating." [...silence...] She: "Dad doesn't do iceskating." Me: "I can do it if I have to." * * * Ah famous last words. I've been working alot lately.  Let me rephrase:  I've been working roughly 9:30->8pm M-T-R-F.  I haven't been working late Wednesdays because of Church, and not Fridays because something usually comes-up.  I haven't been able to spend much time with my son, and we're both missing it. But... skating?    I hate ice-skating.  I actually went into our marriage with two agreements:   Whitney doesn't have to go on any ski-lifts or high places and I don't have to skate. Then somehow it became a matter of pride and I said we were going.  Besides, we had a coupon for 1 free skate with another paid admission.  So, we went. Joey was having lots of fun, and I made it it around the rink 2 times in an hour without ...

I've come to understand my limits: 2 meetings. Looking back on it, it's hard to comprehend a day where I had 7 1-hour meetings in a single day, because as it stands today, I've had 3 meetings and my mind is tapioca.  Actually, you might say I've had 4, but I'll get to that. Running down the list: 10:30am Team standup.  Daily coordination face-to-face activities.  Absolutely essential.   Still counts against the quota! 2pm.  Steering committee meeting for something rather important. 3pm. Emergency coordination meeting because our team discerned we were blocked on all our upcoming work and needed to pull in some other work. Now amid all that, was a sit-down I had around 11:15 with another developer on a point-of-interest. Note the timing, too: 10:30 --> Right in the middle of the morning.   2-3pm --> Right in the middle of the afternoon. I remember fondly a team I was on where all meetings were before 10 or after 4, and the middle...

Imagine yourself trapped in a cylinder filling with water.  The water comes in at an uneven rate: Sometimes it dribbles, sometimes it gushes.  You can't get out of the cylinder, and once the water reaches your head you'll drown. "Okay, that's torture." Yes, it is. Now, let's imagine the cylinder were bigger, maybe the size of one of those nuclear storage tanks, but still only 7 or so feet tall.  You can have things in there with you to distract you, but the water's still coming in and once it gets to the top, you drown. "Still torture ." Yep, it is. Let's imagine the water was coming in at an unbelievably slow rate...maybe it might take years to get all the way to the top, and let's imagine the tank was even bigger, with a transparent top so you could see the sun.  There's always the risk that someone will open the flood valve and fill the tank at any moment. Still...torture?  Maybe by now you see where this is going.  Y...