29 Apr 2025 #misc
While scrolling through yesterday’s Minifeed for inspiration, I found this blogging challenge on Living Out Loud. Turns out David, from Forking Mad +, started it. No more writer’s block.
Here I go:
Do you floss your teeth?
Yes. Once a day.
Tea, coffee, or water?
Coffee only in the mornings with breakfast. No sugar. 1L of water a day. And tea, occasionally after dinner.
Nothing in particular. But I like to wear shoes without laces when traveling. It saves so much time at security controls.
Favorite dessert?
I don’t have a sweet tooth. But if you’re curious, Arroz con Leche (Rice pudding. Literally, rice with milk) is a popular dessert in my country.
The first thing you do when you wake up?
Brush my teeth, a glass of water, and a moment of silence. I started the last two, as part of my Daily Practice, after ditching my todo lists.
Age you’d like to stick at?
I wouldn’t like to stick at any age. Every age comes with challenges to face and lessons to learn. Last year, I got laid off and recovered from burnout and I learned some valuable lessons. That was something I wouldn’t have learned at any other age.
How many hats do you own?
Not exactly hats, but I have a couple of baseball caps.
One day, I attended a meeting on Teams at work in a past job. And during a 1-on-1 with the VP of Engineering, he said, “If you want to be a team leader, you should start looking like one.” And that meant stopping wearing caps. Leadership required a different look. Arrggg!
Describe the last photo you took?
I took a photo of a loved one coming back home after almost a week in a hospital.
Worst TV show?
I don’t have a TV show I’d call “the worst.”
Maybe it’s because I don’t watch that many TV shows. But I will tell you some of my favorite ones: Homeland, The Diplomat, Scorpion, and Dr. House.
I used to feel guilty about watching TV shows. But I realized when we see the world with our writer’s glasses on, content ideas are everywhere. So I started writing about TV shows and movies I watch. No more feeling guilty.
As a child, what was your aspiration for adulthood?
I had many ideas: joining the Navy, studying Biology, being a polyglot, and many others I can’t even recall. I’ve always struggled to find one passion.
I also answered the Bear Blog Questions Challenge the other day.
28 Apr 2025 #books
I’ve changed my mind about reading books.
I started reading to grow a large “read list.” But I couldn’t remember some of those books, even when I had notes. I couldn’t even remember their covers.
Then, I switched to “just-in-time” learning. Reading only when facing a challenge or working a project, so I didn’t forget the lessons from books.
Reading one book a week seemed like a distant goal. Reading 500 books to reinvent myself seemed impossible. I thought it was only doable with speed-reading techniques and tweaking the definition of a “read” book.
But yesterday, I found this YouTube video with practical ideas to read one book a week.
Here are some of my takeaways:
#1. You do have time to read. On average, we spend three hours watching Netflix. That’s time we could use for reading.
#2. You don’t have to read in a single 3-hour session. Split your reading time throughout the day. Read during idle moments: while taking your morning coffee, after lunch, or before going to bed.
#3. Have dedicated spaces for reading. Make sure they’re comfortable enough. Maybe a good chair and a source of natural light or a lamp.
#4. Add 20 seconds of friction to your distractions. It could mean leaving your TV remote in another room or taking your phone out of sight. Also, make your reading sessions as easy as possible to start. Make sure starting a reading session takes you just 20 seconds.
#5. You don’t have to finish one book to start another. Balance your reading among three books: one for learning, one for entertainment, and one for inspiration. I found a similar idea on Choose Yourself by James Altucher: Read for two hours and write down 10 ideas from what you read.
#6. Every time you find interesting concepts or ideas, pause for a moment. This is to give your brain time to activate its diffuse mode and start working behind the scenes. Also, notice connections between what you’re reading and the other two books. Maybe a concept from a non-fiction book might appear applied in an autobiography. This sounds similar to step #6 from my 6-step process to read books.
#7. When you find a new concept, ask yourself what’s the easiest step to start implementing that concept.
#8. Have a book implementation journal. Every time you apply a new concept you found in a book, keep a log entry of how you did and how easy it was to apply.
More ideas for my own reading strategy. So always be reading, not to show off a large book list, but to retain and apply.
27 Apr 2025 #misc
The fear of letting my salary slip through my fingers pushed me to organize my finances.
I had doubled my salary as a Software Engineer. I was earning in a stronger currency. And I didn’t want to regret letting all that money leave my pockets without doing anything productive with it.
I read finance books and watched YouTube influencers to get my finances in order.
Out of all that content, here are 7 tips I followed to take care of my finances:
1. List your sources of income and expenses. This is to know how your money is flowing in and out of your pockets.
2. Follow the 50/30/20 rule for conscious spending instead of strict budgeting. I learned this one from “I Will Teach You To Be Rich” by Ramit Sethi. Set apart 50% of your income for fixed expenses like housing and food, 30% for savings and investing, and 20% for guilt-free spending. Of course, tweak those last 30% and 20% to suit your needs.
3. Use the envelope method. Separate your income into categories by putting your money into envelopes. And only spend what you have in each envelope for each category. For example, only use the money from the “Coffee” envelope to drink coffee outside. Of course, you can follow this method with virtual envelopes in your bank account.
4. Pay yourself first. This is a lesson from “The Richest Man in Babylon.” Before paying for your expenses, save and invest first.
5. Start an emergency fund. Call it F*ck-you money or whatever you want. But save enough to cover months of expenses in case you lose your job or face any other emergency. A strong emergency fund was crucial when layoffs came knocking.
6. Be careful with your credit card. Use it if wisely. Only if you already have money to pay for purchases and take advantage of extra benefits like travel insurance or access to lounge rooms in airports.
7. Automate your payments and investments. Again, another lesson from “I Will Teach You To Be Rich.” The goal is to live a rich life, outside of spreadsheets. So automate payments for your credit card and automate deposits into your savings or brokerage accounts.
26 Apr 2025 #writing
Your headline is the front door to your content.
People will only enter your shop after seeing an attention-grabbing sign on the front door. Headlines work the same. No matter how thoughtful and actionable your post is, if the headline doesn’t “hook” them, they won’t read it.
To write better headlines, steal them like an artist from YouTube or from other posts.
Here are the headline templates from some of my most-read posts on Medium. Steal them and tweak them to fit your content.
- <Number> Subjects I’ve Changed My Mind About as a <Profession/Role>
- 9 subjects I’ve changed my mind about as a Software Engineer
- For <Outcome>, <Key Action> in Your <Context>
- For cleaner domains, move IO to the edges of your app
- To break free from debt, stop using your credit card
- Using <Popular Action> Doesn’t Make Your <Context> Truly <Desired Outcome>
- Using lambda expressions doesn’t make your C# code functional
- Cutting down on cups of coffee doesn’t make you save more money
- <Number> Alternatives for <Common Action> When <Context>
- Three alternatives for the startup class when migrating ASP.NET Core projects
- Five alternatives for eating out when saving money for your next trip abroad
- The Best Way to Get Better at <Skill> Isn’t Just <Common Misconception>
- The best way to get better at coding isn’t just writing more code
- The best way to make more money isn’t just asking for a raise
- If You Enjoy <Activity>, Think Twice About <Counterintuitive Decision>
- If you enjoy coding, think twice about joining the management track
- If you enjoy photography, think twice about starting a wedding photography business
- You Only Need These <Number> <Category> to <Big Transformation>
- You only need these four books to change your relationship with money
- You only need these two gym routines to lose 10KG of fat in the next 30 days
- Steal This <Number>-Step <Process> to <Outcome>
- Steal this 6-step reading process to retain more from books
- Steal this 5-step process to land your first coding job
As writers, our job is to hook readers one line at a time. Nail your headlines and opening lines and you’ll write posts readers can’t stop reading.
25 Apr 2025 #coding
Anita asked on dev.to if AI, given all the hype, will take her job.
Short answer: Not yet.
Sure, we code daily and AI shines at spitting out code. But most of our work is balancing expectations and handling risk.
Apart from coding, we as coders have to deal with:
- Inter-team planning
- Brainstorming sessions
- Putting late sprints back on track
- Designing requirements and user stories
- Decomposing a full project into milestones
- Scoping tasks with Product people
- Reviewing architecture designs
- Negotiating deadlines
- Talking to clients
And that involves a lot of human interaction. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that a coder will spend more time in meetings than coding on a normal day. And AI can’t replace that human interaction yet.
But sure, our job as coders will change. Even if we’re skeptical about AI, we can’t ignore it. We can only assume AI will generate code faster and cheaper than any of us. We have to adapt.
We won’t be code monkeys anymore, cracking lines of code in exchange for bananas. AI will handle that. And if AI will change everything, let it at least kill dumb SCRUM ceremonies.