19 Nov 2024 #misc
Apart from monetary reasons—learning a second language helped me double my last salary as a full-time employee:
1. Because AI can’t replace human connection
From “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” the trick to having good conversations is to make them about the other person.
And the easiest way to make conversations about the other person is to use a few words in their native language. Hi, bye, yes/no, thanks, and please will create a connection immediately.
In a past job, I learned a few words in Russian to connect with my coworkers. It was funny when they forgot to use English in shared chats and a simple “English, please” in Russian (anglijski, pozhaluysta) broke the ice.
AI can’t replace smiles when you greet people in their native language.
2. Because AI can’t replace the excitement of decoding what was once gibberish
My German is limited to survival phrases.
But the last time I visited my best friend’s parents in Europe, while taking a walk around a park, someone asked my best friend’s mom in German: “Ist das dein Sohn?” (Is that your son?) My inner child couldn’t avoid jumping in excitement. I got that!
That’s one of the most exciting moments of learning a language. Passing from hearing noise to decoding and understanding sounds.
An “I got that!” is priceless.
3. Because AI can’t reshape our brains and makes us think different.
Languages shape our thinking.
When we learn a new language, we’re creating new connections in our brain. Think of learning a language with a new script or with sounds that don’t exist in your native language. Every language rewires our brain.
These new connections make us think and behave differently.
We’re a new person with every language we learn. AI can’t replace that. Yet?
18 Nov 2024 #misc
Coding is about solving problems with automation.
The most interesting and funniest part is figuring out a coding solution to a problem.
But often, by the time a coder is involved, all the big picture thinking and decision making have already been made, killing all the fun.
Somebody else already talked to customers. Somebody else decided what to do and how long it will take. Somebody else divided the work into milestones. No software engineers or people with boots on the ground were involved.
At a past job, our VP, probably to look smart in front of other executives, promised to finish in one month a project that needed at least 6 months. He picked a number out of thin air without asking anyone.
Coders are only involved to turn JIRA tickets into lines of code.
The most rewarding and funniest projects have been when I have all the context around customer needs and am involved in most of the design and architecture decisions.
If someone else talks to customers and writes specs and we, as coders, only turn those specs into code, we’ll be out of business soon. AI will replace us all.
17 Nov 2024 #career
It’s not when you’re “let go.”
The best time to look for a job is when you don’t need one.
You’re not desperate to pick anything to just pay the bills. You’re in a better position to negotiate. You can use your new offer as leverage in your current job. You don’t have anything to loose.
That was a lesson I shared with a group of friends and ex-coworkers the last time we met to catch up.
After the usual questions, where you’re working these days and how you’re feeling in your new role or job, one of our ex-coworkers answered he felt good in his new role after a couple of years and he wasn’t looking for something new. Then I shared that lesson. I wish I knew it earlier.
It doesn’t matter if you want to leave your current job or not. Don’t outsource your career decisions to your boss or something else. At least, set a direction for your career and be conscious about the jobs you pick.
For some years, I make the mistake of outsourcing my career choices.
A couple of years ago, I knew it was time to leave my job, but instead of making a hard decision, I asked for a raise. If they refused to give me a raise, that was the sign to leave. And, surprised, surprise, I got the pay raise. Arrggg!
Vacations and pay raises won’t change an unfulfilling job. They will only move a death sentence further away, like kicking a can.
That taught me that the best time to look for a new job is not right after a layoff, it’s when you don’t need a new job.
16 Nov 2024 #misc
#1. “I’m a simple man making his way through the galaxy, like my father before me”
If you’re a Star Wars fan, you recognize that phrase. That’s by Boba Fett from The Mandalorian.
We’re all here trying to figure out our paths. Some are more intentional about it, others are not. Some have found it, others are still searching.
Every stage in life will bring its own challenges and paths to figure out.
#2. “The minute you learn something, teach it”
That’s from Show Your Work by Austen Kleon. “A book for people who hate the very idea of self promotion.”
That phrase puts into words one of my core values.
It has kept my curious inner child alive. Once I find something new, my sense of curiosity or inner child, wants to share it with somebody else. Most of the time, by writing about it.
When you teach what you learn, you have the chance of learning it twice.
15 Nov 2024 #career
That’s a crucial skill to master for every coder, even if you’re not in the path to be a team leader.
We take pride in dropping any technical jargon during our conversations. It makes us look smart. But true mastery is explaining things to people outside our fields.
At a past team, while working on a hotel management software, we found an issue when syncing restaurant bills to room charges. It took us long to fix it. It was a serious issue.
The next day, we have “that” conversation in our daily meeting.
The team lead started to explain: “API, background processor, eventual consistency, optimistic concurrency…” He used any jargon he knew to justify our 1- or 2-day delay.
To our PM and other non-tech people in the meeting, it sounded like the alien language from The Arrival. You could tell it by their confused and “what are you talking about” faces.
A simpler “somebody could walk away without paying his restaurant bills. And nobody here wants to pay for that” would have finished the conversation with some laughs and a point made.
Always make it about the person listening. Often our job is being interpreters: from business language to technical language and vice-versa.
Learn to talk to non-tech people in your team—using their own words.