11 Jan 2025 #productivity
I used to be a productivity freak with to-do lists.
At a past job, I had a notebook where I wrote down every single action I needed to finish. Small tasks, large tasks, meeting notes… Everything.
Later on, I became a plain text lover and kept my to-do list in a .txt file I edited with Notepad: a “todo.txt” file.
Same story as my notebook at my past job. Even worse. I had “todo.txt” files for work and non-work. One in my personal computer and another in my work computer. My to-do lists grew without control. I still have items in my “todo.txt” file from years ago. Oops!
But there’s something with to-do lists.
To-do lists are stressful.
Every item on our to-do lists is an item we haven’t finished and probably won’t finish either. In the meantime, they’re another source of stress.
I learned from Choose Yourself Guide to Wealth by James Altucher to ditch to-do lists and goals, and live by themes instead.
The theme I want to live by in 2025 is the Daily Practice: doing something for my mind, body, and spirit every day.
As part of my Daily Practice, I’m sticking to:
- A glass of water after waking up
- A workout session
- A moment of silence
- Writing 200-250 words
- Coming up with 10 ideas
- Getting rid of negativity
Few things have helped me change my life like the Daily Practice.
That Daily Practice helped me get my health and life on track after burning out. Focusing on my health brought clarity to my life last year.
Goodbye “todo.txt” file and hello Daily Practice. That’s my only rule for 2025. You should give it a try too.
10 Jan 2025 #career
It took me 10 years to learn this lesson:
The higher up you go, the less it’s about coding and more about all other skills.
Being the best at coding won’t get you higher on the corporate ladder. Well, the corporate ladder is a trap.
Unfortunately, few places offer growth opportunities for coders, and even fewer for those who don’t want the management track.
Every place has its own expectations for team leaders or managers.
In some places, the team leader role is divided between:
- someone technical in charge of coding and architecture decisions, and
- someone non-technical in charge of project management.
In other places, a team leader wears all hats, often for the same pay.
Making the jump into a leadership role
If you enjoy coding and are thinking about joining the management track, start by understanding that your role as a team leader is more like a movie director than an actor.
Your job is not to appear on screen, except for some cameos. Your job is to make sure your movie gets done as expected and on time.
For that, you’ll need coding skills. Sure. But much stronger soft skills.
You’ll spend most of your time in meetings, not coding:
- Daily meetings with your team,
- Daily meetings with all other leaders,
- 1-on-1s with every team member,
- Sync ups with project managers and product people
Once you understand you’re the director, not the best actor, show your interest in exploring the role with your team leader during your 1-on-1s or performance reviews.
Then, find easy and cheap ways to validate if being a team leader is a role you’d enjoy:
- Organize and tidy up your project board
- Cover your team leader during their vacation
- Be the onboarding buddy for new team members
- Coordinate efforts to complete a feature from requirements to deployment
That will force you out of your “coding” comfort zone into the soft skill-heavy zone.
As a leader, you’re not responsible for your own code anymore. You’re responsible for all other coders and the code they write.
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09 Jan 2025 #books
I’m a recovered book addict.
Two years ago, I tried to read as many books as possible to show off my huge book count. But I didn’t remember much about those books, even when I took notes.
Ironically, it was another book, The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, that made me change my mind.
By pure accident, I discovered my new reading strategy.
Last year, for the first time, I discovered James Altucher.
I found his bankruptcy stories. I followed his idea of becoming an Idea Machine. I read some of his books. I loved his idea of the Daily Practice. And without even realizing it, I was stalking James Altucher online. Quora, Medium, his own website, YouTube… Everywhere.
By immersing myself in his work, I heard extra details about the stories in his books. I learned his book publishing strategy. I learned about the motivation behind some of those books. And I listened to way more anecdotes.
So, from now on, I’m immersing myself in a writer’s world by reading their books and listening to their interviews. It adds more context and depth to my reading experience. Yes, often listening to an interview about a book counts as reading the book itself.
08 Jan 2025 #career
Promoting the best coder to team leader is how projects go sideways.
I’ve seen it happen. One day, an executive pats the best coder’s shoulder three times. And the next day, he’s a team leader. No training. No expectations shared. Just a new title, a team, and lots of meetings.
That new leader continues thinking in terms of lines of code and pull requests, failing to delegate, pass context, and coordinate a team.
The next thing you know, the new team leader burns out and leaves the company. The project? Behind schedule and without a leader.
Being good at coding opens doors for leadership roles. But to shine as a leader, you need stronger soft skills.
You’re not the best player on the team anymore. Now you’re the team coach. You’re not supposed to be the fastest runner or the best at kicking. You’re supposed to manage a team.
Soft skills are way more important than coding because the higher up you climb the ladder, the less it’s about coding and the more about communication, project management, and team dynamics.
07 Jan 2025 #misc
Diversify your sources of purpose and joy, the same way you should diversify your income.
Otherwise, if you lose your only source of purpose and joy, you’ll feel lost.
After selling his company, he’s rich and has no idea what to do with his life. He wrote about it on his blog. All of a sudden the “co-founder of Loom” was gone.
With lots of cash but no sense of purpose, he went hiking, broke up with his girlfriend, went to the Himalayas, tried getting to Washington, and on and on. All in an effort to find a sense of meaning.
While I haven’t had an exit yet, I found myself going through something a similar situation.
I had my sense of value attached to my job. “Software Engineer.” For some time, that was everything I was and did… until I lost my job after a layoff.
All of a sudden I didn’t have the title. I wasn’t doing any coding. And I didn’t want to do any more of it. I felt trapped in a label I decided to accept on my own. “Coder” and “Software Engineer.”
During that forced time off, I took the opportunity to take care of my health, get back to my hobbies, and reflect on what I truly wanted in life.
I realized that, above all job titles, I’m a learner. Software engineering? It was just a stint of that.
If you’re in a similar situation,
- Understand you’re not your job. You’re not a title. You are way more than that.
- Find new hobbies outside work. Learn new skills just for fun. Read books from different fields. Practice a physical activity. Do something with your hands, away from screens.
Remember, your purpose and joy shouldn’t come from just one place. Don’t wait until you feel lost. Start today. Diversify your sources of purpose and joy.