21 May 2025 #writing
I know we’re not supposed to multitask.
But recently, while doing the dishes, I listened to this YouTube interview between Ryan Holiday and Robert Greene, two best-selling writers.
Out of all the subjects they talked about, there’s one line that I still remember:
“It’s all material”
They both share how problematic people and unexpected situations end up being material for an email or a book.
And that line made me think about unexpected situations that have inspired me to write.
#1. The other day I took a loved one to a hospital. And I ended up writing about calming my mind, the future of hospital visits with AI, and random facts about health, which I learned on that visit.
#2. Another day, a cashier overheard a conversation I had with a friend, and her reaction inspired me to write about our definition of success.
#3. I used to feel guilty about watching movies and series. But when I started watching them through a creator’s lens, I realized how much they could teach about storytelling and writing. I’ve watched and written about Six Triple Eight, Scorpion, and House M.D.. No more guilt. Just writing lessons. After all, It’s all material.
20 May 2025 #writing
I decided to challenge myself: write every single day. No excuses.
I started back in November 1st, 2024. This is my daily post #200. I thought I didn’t have anything to share. If we think a post has to be 100% original, we seldom write. And the truth is there’s nothing 100% original.
I also thought I’d run out of ideas. But the first 100 daily posts proved me wrong and another 100 convinced me it’s possible.
My most-read and favorite posts
Here are some of the most-read posts from the last 100 days:
And here are some of my favorites:
What posting daily has done for me
Posting daily has:
- Made me conscious of the content I consume
- Made me think of posts as public notes
- Made me remember past stories
Some days I almost broke my streak. Some night, near mid-night, I had to rush to finish my post for the next day.
Writing 10 ideas a day to become an idea machine has helped me keep my writing goal. Some of my 10-idea lists have inspired or become posts.
Writing daily has become part of my healthy routine. It has sharpened my writing skills and helped me document ideas I would have otherwise forgotten.
19 May 2025 #career
A stressful job can take a serious toll on your mental health.
I know because I’ve had one. In that job, we were chasing our own deadlines, our clients’ expectations, and local government regulations. We were late all the time. Everyone blamed the Development team. Leaders constantly pressured us.
Working after hours was normal. We called them “Miracle Nights.” In one night, we did way more than we did in a sprint. You can imagine the amount of technical debt we were leaving behind.
While working on that job, I ate the most expensive hamburgers I’ve ever had, by the way.
But there was something that made everything easier
Our relationships and friendships made all the difference.
It was having someone who could listen, a group for Friday nights, and friends who could refer you to new jobs. That support changed everything.
Even though it was one of my most stressful jobs, I did the most to take care of my mental health while working there. It was easier because I had a “support group,” coworkers that eventually turned into friends.
If you’re working on a stressful job or not, make an extra effort to build those professional relationships. The world runs on connections. And in the end, we’re remembered not just for our work, but for how we treat those around us.
18 May 2025 #writing
I used to feel guilty about watching Netflix and TV shows.
I felt like I was wasting time when I could be grinding. But when I started to seeing things through a writer’s lens, Netflix and TV shows became a source of storytelling lessons.
I’ve been binge-watching House M.D. this year. I’m on season 7 (out of 8). No guilt.
Recently, I watched episode 13 of season 7, “Two Stories.” It’s one of my favorite episodes.
Here’s a breakdown of the storytelling and plot from that episode—no spoilers:
#1.
The episode starts with a schoolboy and schoolgirl getting into trouble and being taken to the principal’s office.
And guess who’s also there waiting for the principal? Yes, Dr. House. How the heck did he end up there? That’s the whole point of this episode.
Dr. House is intrigued by why the two students are there.
They made a deal: they’d explain why they’re there, only if he revealed why he was there too. Of course, he’s not a student.
#2.
Dr. House starts to tell them how he got to the principal’s office.
Then, we’re taken on a flashback to a couple of hours before. He’s in front of a classroom telling the students about what he does and about his most recent case.
This is the clever, ingenious, and my favorite part:
Dr. House is telling us the episode’s backstory while he’s telling other stories: the conversation outside the principal’s office, the flashbacks, and his speech in front of the classroom.
#3.
While sharing his most recent case in front of the classroom, Dr. House starts to recreate scenes from famous movies.
And, in the classroom, there’s a movie lover who recognizes every scene. That only makes the students more interested in what Dr. House has to say.
Apart from Dr. House, there are three more guests. It seems they’re a police officer, a counselor, and a businessman. Who the heck are they? That’s something revealed at the end.
Here’s a perfect example of Dr. House’s in front of the class:
Dr. House’s storytelling is so captivating that the students keep asking questions, leaving no room for the other guests to speak.
#4.
In the meantime, we’re taken back to the principal’s office.
The two students also begin sharing why they’re there. An innocent plot from a boy trying to get closer to his crush. I won’t spoil the details.
The episode jumps between their story and Dr. House’s story. All told in flashbacks.
#5.
Finally, all the stories connect.
We learn why Dr. House is there, who the businessman in the room is, and the clue that solves Dr. House’s case.
Oh, I forgot to mention:
All that time, Dr. House had a case. He was trying to solve it via phone calls, while his team was back at the hospital dealing with the patient’s complications.
My lessons?
1. Start by grabbing people’s attention with drama or mystery. For example, why is Dr. House outside a school principal’s office?
2. Tell stories in such a way that people have to ask “What’s next?” or “Wait a second, what about that?” Use suspense, cliffhangers, and unanswered questions. Always make them want more.
In front of the class, Dr. House shares clues that are left unresolved. He was trying to hack into a laptop. The students kept asking why.
3. A proven plot to follow: Make your characters have a conversation. Use the conversation to introduce flashbacks and tell about one of the characters’ past. Then, make all the flashbacks concur in a resolving scene that puts everyone back into the initial conversation.
Wait, it seems I just described Forrest Gump: a conversation on a bench, lots of flashbacks that explain the backstory, and a resolution that ties everything together. Turns out, great stories follow a blueprint.
By the way, here’s the breakdown of Six Triple Eight, a Netflix show I also watched with my writer’s lens on.
17 May 2025 #coding
In my Friday Links email yesterday, I shared one post called Programming Myths We Desperately Need to Retire.
Myth #5, “Let’s optimize for scale,” resonated a lot with me:
Most products never reach the scale you’re “preparing” for. And even if they do, you’ll have time—and budget—to refactor later.
Oh boy! Been there and done that.
At a past job, while working on a hotel management solution, we had to connect the reservation module to a third-party restaurant solution. The goal was for guests to pay their restaurant bills along with their hotel bills.
We were about six software engineers plus the QA team. We worked to make that solution scale to thousands of guests and restaurant orders. We built an eventually consistent solution with background processors using Hangfire, Domain-Driven Design, and all the best practices you can imagine.
There’s nothing wrong with that. The problem? When we finished our module and handed it off to the Product people. Nobody bought it. Six months of work…wasted.
The Product team only had a few leads when they pitched the idea to the Engineering team. But those leads weren’t going to wait six months for our integration. Or maybe the Product team wanted to list a new feature on the webpage so they could compare the product to the competitors. And after all that time optimizing for scale? Nobody bought it.