21 Jan 2025 #career
AI is here to stay. We can’t deny that.
One day, will AI become self-conscious and try to exterminate us all? Who knows. That’s another discussion.
But we, as coders, have to adapt, as we always have, and adopt AI.
Today, I had a conversation with a group of ex-coworkers. One of the members shared he was asked to finish almost an entire working app as part of a take-home coding challenge for an interview process at a startup. He was given only 5 hours. We all agreed that 5 hours wasn’t enough.
Someone else said he should have used AI. But he refused.
Maybe the intention behind that take-home challenge was to use AI and come up with a decent working prototype quickly. Who knows? Companies aren’t that clear with their interview process. And hiring is broken.
But we can’t refuse to use AI.
AI is here to make us more efficient. What used to take days, now it only takes hours or minutes. By pressing a button, we compile thousands of source files in just seconds. Refusing to use AI is like refusing to use calculators or spreadsheets for accounting. It’s like refusing to travel by plane or drive a car.
In our fast-paced world, where efficiency and productivity are rewarded, AI is a game-changer.
We can’t pretend to keep using punch cards and computers that fill an entire room. AI is the future. And we have to adapt. Coding in 2034 will change. But, one thing is certain: we can’t use AI to replace our thinking. We should be the pilots, and AI as our copilot.
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20 Jan 2025 #books #writing
What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear “writer”?
Probably it’s a starving artist isolated in a cabin, in the middle of nowhere, typing the next award-winning best-selling novel on an old typewriter, holding a cigar.
The truth is you don’t have to be a “writer” to write.
That’s the main lesson from “Writing to Learn” by William Zinsser. Here are five lessons I learned from that book—in five quotes:
1. “Contrary to general belief, writing isn’t something that only “writers” do; writing is a basic skill for getting through life.”
A CV, a cover letter, an email for a client, a request for time off, and a resignation email. What do they all have in common? Writing!
And that’s only thinking of an employee in a full-time job. But writing is everywhere else.
2. “Writing organizes and clarifies our thoughts”
If you want to check if you know a subject well enough, try to explain it and even better, write about it.
When you write you need a message, a chain of thoughts, and a reader persona. You need the right words and the right amount of them. The act of writing solidifies your understanding and shows you your gaps.
Writing is thinking.
3. “Writing is learned mainly by imitation”
Writers are readers too.
And noticing your behavior as a reader is your cheat code to better writing. Notice your favorite passages from the books you read, the posts you read until the end, the social media posts that make you stop scrolling. How did they grab your attention? What title did they use? Why did they make you read?
If you need a writing mentor, hand-copy your favorite writer and find patterns in their writing.
4. “The hard part isn’t the writing, the hard part is the thinking”
There’s writing to share information and writing to discover what we want to say.
When you write to share information, you need to ask yourself, “what do I want to say?” And when you write to discover what to say, you’re free to leave questions without answers and to build up from an answer you don’t have yet.
Either type of writing makes you think clearly.
5. “Non-fiction writing should always have a point: it should leave the reader with a set of facts, or an idea, or a point of view, that he didn’t have when he started reading”
Can this benefit one person?
That’s the best guideline to decide what to write. If it can benefit one person, you can write lessons, stories, rants, mistakes, questions, and predictions… Anything!
If it can benefit one person, you’re safe to write. And that one person can be your past self.
You don’t need to be an expert to write. Who’s an expert anyway? You don’t need to be famous either. Share what you have learned. Share what you’re learning. Share what inspires you. You don’t need to be a writer for that. Write! Probably the next time you’re Googling something you’ll find your own writing.
19 Jan 2025 #books
Ideas are the new currency of the 21st century.
If you’re familiar with James Altucher’s work, you know about becoming an Idea Machine by writing 10 bad ideas a day.
But “Choose Yourself Guide to Wealth” takes the Idea Machine concept further, covering how to turn your ideas into reality.
Here are four lessons I learned from reading “Choose Yourself Guide to Wealth”:
1. Don’t do to-do lists
To-do lists are stressful.
Anything on a to-do list is something you haven’t done and probably never will do. In the meantime, it’s only causing stress.
I have items in one of my multiple to-do lists from years ago. I haven’t done anything about them yet. Oops!
Instead of to-do lists and goals, live by themes.
If you need inspiration to choose your own theme, follow the Daily Practice: Do something for your physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental well-being every day.
That’s the only rule I’ve followed since I read this book.
2. Become an idea machine
You don’t need chains to feel like a slave.
When you work on somebody else’s ideas, you’re a slave. Being an employee means working on somebody else’s ideas. Therefore, being an employee is being an idea slave, even if those ideas are good.
To be free and successful, come up with ideas every day. If any of your projects fail, come up with a list of ideas to improve it.
“I think of ideas for other companies who call me, and my ‘business’ is to help them implement those ideas on their own and become massive successes”
3. Be a good salesman and negotiator
To make others follow your ideas, you need to be a good salesman and negotiator.
But sales and negotiation aren’t about closing tactics or Jedi mind tricks.
We do business with people we like and trust. So you need to be friends with your buyers. You need to care about the same things they do. You need to sell and negotiate with people you love because a bad client can make you and the people around you miserable.
“One of the best ways of making friends and customers for life is to direct them to a better service or product than yours”
When in doubt, outsource your negotiation to the other side. “Hey, I’m new to this negotiation thing. I need your advice. What would you do if you were in my shoes?”
After a good sale, everybody should be happy.
4. Invest in yourself and in experiences
Don’t day trade or invest in mutual funds.
Have enough cash to sleep well at night. Don’t invest all your money in one place and only invest with people smarter than you.
Start your own business and invest in experiences and books.
Parting Thought
Ideas can change your life.
If you don’t know where to start to change it, work on your health. Start by writing ideas to improve your health.
In 2024, after burnout and a layoff, to get my life back on track I focused on my health by waking up early, working out, writing 200 words, and removing negativity from my life. I remember 2024 as the year when I was the healthiest.
Adopt your own Daily Practice. Ask yourself, “What I can do to keep my physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental bodies healthy?” and see how your life changes.
18 Jan 2025 #misc
We all want to know what we know now but ten years ago.
That’s how this Reddit AMA felt when I read it. Len, a 102-year-old WW2 veteran, sat with his grandson to answer questions about history, WW2, and life in general. His grandson, who did the writing part, wanted to hear more of Grandpa’s stories.
These are my favorite answers and quotes.
“War Is Never Necessary. There Is No Such Thing as a Justified War”
Len served with the Canadian troops in the liberation of the Netherlands in 1939. Nazis were trying to reach Copenhagen.
After many years, Len has overcome traumas thanks to his wife and family’s support. But there are memories he can’t erase and, even to this day, he has bad dreams about it. He still remembers his service number – Eight-one-two-four-zero, by the way – and the D-Day is still vivid in his mind. He can’t even watch the landing scene from Saving Private Ryan.
[About D-Day] I just thought “I have a job to do”. Analyze the situation and react. If you stop, dig a hole. You don’t say “I think this is ok” you dig down deeper. Don’t go hunting for souvenirs in a minefield.
Someone in the comments shared the story of her young grandmother during those war times. She and her class learned and sang the Canadian national anthem to the soldiers. She even refused to wear a green hair ribbon to school because the Canadian flag was red.
“We had no idea that the Holocaust was happening. We saw three emaciated people walking in striped pajamas with big smiles on their faces. They had been liberated. That was the first time I learned about the atrocities that had been committed. In some of the media portrayals, this isn’t the case.”
“War should NOT happen. Surely there is a lesson. Don’t let it happen again.”
“Don’t Drink, Don’t Smoke, and Common Sense”
That was what Len answered when someone asked about what to do to live to such an amazing age.
His secret for a good life? “Non-smoker, non-drinker, and not necessarily following all the trends. Do your own thing.”
The higher we climb the mountain of life, the more perspective and the better view we have. From Len’s 102-year-old perspective:
A perfect day? “Waking up and being alive… A nice visit. A nice conversation with someone. And some tea.”
To enjoy each day to the fullest? “Surround yourself with people that you love. Take a minute to step back and see all the beauty around you.”
“People have forgotten the value of life. People focus too much on possessions and not the people and beauty that surrounds them.”
“During the Depression There Was NO Money”
Len has witnessed the adoption of cars, computers, and cell phones, but more shocking: he lived through the Great Depression.
Apart from pictures and history textbooks, we have no idea of an economic event of such proportions. Just last week (the first week of August 2024, if you’re reading this from the future), the US Stock Market fell between 10% and 20% and we called it “Black Monday” and were afraid of another recession. But here’s what Len shared when he was asked about the Great Depression:
“There’s no way of comparing that. During the Depression, there was NO money. I knew a man who hauled wood by horse to the school. A day’s work got you one dollar. We were okay, we had lots of vegetables and chickens. No use selling a cow because you would only get a dollar so you kept it for meat and milk. There is no comparison.”
Are You Scared To Die? –”No. It Happens to Everyone”
“If I could give myself advice I would say stay away from controversy. If something works stick with it.”
When asked what young people today should understand: “The value of life. Don’t louse it up.”
“T.V. is a pain in the neck. Interesting. Informative. Unnecessary.” Oh boy! I wished he had answered when and how he learned this one.
“Important: integrity and honesty. Unimportant: Money”
When asked about fearing death: “Not a bit. Lived a good life, what else do you want. No. Nothing wrong with dying.”
A 40-something asked about what waking up at 102 looks like: “Everything hurts, but I am not suffering.”
“Take care of your body. You only get one.” “Don’t smoke.”
This AMA was full of wisdom. But my favorite answer is when someone asked Len what he wanted to do when he grew up: “Happy.”
I can only imagine how fulfilled he has lived all these years to say at 102 he’s not afraid of death. What a wonderful life!
17 Jan 2025 #misc
Having too much money brings a different set of challenges.
That’s one of the takeaways from this conversation between two millionaires. It’s one episode of the “Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal.” This time Ali sat down with Andrew Wilkinson.
Here’s the YouTube episode if you want to watch it:
Ali Abdaal started medical school, then became a YouTuber, and since then has run an online education business. But I didn’t know about Andrew Wilkinson. Andrew went from barista to billionaire, coming from a middle-class family.
“I’m as Stressed as You Are”
For me, hearing Andrew say he was stressed too was one of the most shocking parts of that conversation — right at the start.
We might believe that money makes life easier. But from that conversation: it just brings a new set of challenges. We have to choose our own money adventure and when to stop.
This reminds me of a past boss.
He was a well-known entrepreneur in my city (and maybe in my whole country). He came from a wealthy family and ran more than a couple of successful businesses. But when he tasted the bat soup in 2020, there was no money to add more time to his countdown timer.
I guess money can’t buy certain things. For everything else, there’s a credit card. I’m stealing that from a TV commercial.
“Be a Financial Prepper”
Be paranoid. Only the paranoids survive.
During the conversation, Andrew shared he’s a prepper. Not in the sense of keeping a basement full of weapons, canned food, and gas masks ready for a zombie apocalypse. But in the sense of having multiple income sources.
“Be unbreakable financially”
In 2024, I had to internalize that lesson thanks to yet another round of layoffs in the software industry. I lost my main income source, a.k.a salary. I had other income sources, but not enough to cover my monthly expenses.
Robert Kiyosaki is right: “Build your asset column” and “Make your assets pay for your luxuries.”
I had to truly live it to learn it. Knowledge is only potential power unless put into practice.
“The best way to feel rich is to have cashflow”
Be the Sushi Master or the Chipotle Founder
Apart from the money lessons, my most important takeaway from this podcast episode is to:
“Design your life around your flow state”
We could choose to be the best sushi master of the world — worth a Netflix documentary — or the Chipotle founder.
One has mastered his craft to the point of perfection. Maybe he’s happy having only one restaurant and serving one smallish crowd. The other took a different route and created a reproducible business with thousands of locations, taking himself out of the equation.
That’s success seen from different perspectives.
Both of them followed what they enjoyed doing. Each followed a different adventure.
It sounds like the story of a businessman who ran into a fisherman taking a nap in a hammock under a palm tree. After a long conversation and giving a business plan for free, the businessman realizes that the entrepreneurial journey he was sharing with the fisherman will end with a nap in a hammock under the same palm tree.
In any case, follow your flow state and delegate things you don’t enjoy.
Towards the end of the conversation, Ali started to ask for advice to expand his own business. It was interesting to hear the business and money insights from a billionaire who came from the middle class. It wasn’t advice for everyone, but I took this last part:
“Sell something boring to a rich person. Don’t sell a complex product to cheap people.”