22 Nov 2024 #misc
In professional settings, native speakers aren’t the ones who reject non-native speakers by their speaking skills. Other non-native speakers are.
The other day I referred a friend (with good English skills. B2, probably) to the same software agency I was working with. He got rejected. The recruiter (another non-native speaker) rejected him because he had “a strong accent like someone from India.”
Arrrggg! You know what…
Everybody has an accent.
I have an accent, even when speaking my native language. There’s no such thing as a neutral accent, maybe only on TV and in films.
The purpose of learning a second language is communication, not perfection.
Fluency is about connecting with others, not about making 0 mistakes. And, at the end of the day, nobody speaks perfectly in any language.
21 Nov 2024 #misc
There are 7 billion people and 7 billion unique fingerprints.
This means that anything you put your fingerprint on is unique.
To start your creative journey, recreate something you like, by adding or subtracting your own taste. You will put your fingerprint on it. You will make it unique.
I’m putting my fingerprint on this idea. I found it in Reinvent Yourself by James Altucher. He found it somewhere else. He put his fingerprint on it and now I’m putting mine.
That relieves the pressure of coming up with something original. Just put your fingerprint on something.
You find a quote? Put your fingerprint on it by rephrasing it and adding your own taste.
You find an interesting book passage? Put your fingerprint on it by sharing it along with a story.
Sooner or later, people will find your “fingerprinted” versions and follow your work by your own fingerprints.
Take the challenge of putting your fingerprint on something every day. I’m putting my fingerprint on a corner of the Internet with every post.
20 Nov 2024 #misc
What is “it”? How do I know what I should do?
Whatever area you feel like reading 500 books about. Go to the bookstore and find it. If you get bored three months later go back to the bookstore.
That’s from “Reinvent Yourself” by James Altucher.
When he was bankrupt, to get back up again, he started to read 500 books about money. He recommends doing the same.
But I haven’t read 500 books in my life, let alone in one particular subject. Not even about software engineering and programming where I’ve put close to 10,000 hours of practice. I’ve read maybe a couple dozen books about programming and coding.
Let’s say we read 1 book per week. That’s 52 books per year. And that’s ~10 years of reading to reach 500 books. Or less if we choose not to read some books from cover to cover.
An easier alternative is to read 3 books about a subject to stay ahead of the 90%. That’s from The 4-Hour Work Week. That’s way easier. And definitely, anyone can read more than 3 books about a subject. That’s the rule I’ve been following so far to learn new subjects.
Is it better to go all in on a subject with 500 books or mix subjects in between? Don’t know.
The first subject to read 500 books about should be meta-learning, learning how to learn. That would be the groundwork for any future endeavor or experiment.
If after some books we realize we’re not interested in that subject anymore, we’re free to jump to another subject and start from “0 books read” again.
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 #coding
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.