tapanjk

This approach works if you expect your workers to be experts. This of course works for some companies that have the ability to attract workers who are highly skilled as well as they are generalists, and hence can efficiently and skillfully perform a range of activies. The risk is also high in that it is difficult to replace such workers. The majority of the industry works on minimizing this particular risk and hence they create teams where each worker can perform a subset of tasks well. Basically, scattering your eggs in different baskets.

Anyways, this was a nice read. Also good to know that some companies can operate in an unconventional way and also make good profit (because of and not in spite of) their unconvential way of working.

"Perhaps some day soon I will feel moved to use of these tools as I write code of my own. For now, though, I am content to watch from the sidelines. You can learn a lot just by watching."

Thank you for this book recommendation. I read the book in the last two days and I am glad that I have a fresh perspective on this subject matter. Next step: do the work. Thanks again.

> But these ain't the go-go days no more.

Pretty much sums up the current tech business environment.

This podcast launch was announced here: https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2023/03/01/fossified-pilot-episo...

What I like about this is, it is not a commercial podcast with sponsors etc. (at least not yet) and the style of conversation reminds me of podcasts from the early days of podcasting. The only reason you would tune in is because you care about what they care about, and it is not about the style of delivery, quality of recording, pace of converstation and so on...

> The issue is rather that the fixed versions are not being used. Things remain unpatched and running old, stale, versions because upgrading is hard and has a cost attached to it. Many stick to not upgrading their product and rather make the bet that whatever problem that practice might bring in the future, it is cheaper than doing upgrades. Capitalism.

This pretty much nails the situation. BTW, I think the author is not necessarily criticizing "Capitalism", but acknowledging the fact that most businesses and individuals will often prioritize financial interests over security and risk managment.

Unfortunately, no way to change the URL of the post. Only admins can do this.

To start reading, go here: https://un.curl.dev/

> This practice normalizes gratitude in the team, and sets a mild expectation for recognizing the people who helped you that week.

Honest question if your team also does this. How do you differentiate real thanks from the thanks of the week? I ask because in my experience kudos at a regular interval works for a while when it is launched but stops being effective over time, in some cases producing the opposite of intended effect.

I always thought I need to exercise [more] to lose weight. Wrong. For all practical purposes, to lose weight you must change what you eat.

> At Twitter, our on premise data centers contain hundreds of thousands of hardware servers and millions of server hardware components.

Hmm. This is surprising.

> hundreds of blogs on my list haven't published anything for years

I had that feeling too, until I realized that it is just a matter of finding new feeds. Unlike media houses, we cannot expect individuals to continue to produce interesting content, and that is why RSS feeds dry off. However, new ones are popping up all the time and it is just a matter of finding good ones. I think RSS is thriving.

> One way I have found to be effective is to focus on being productive despite the other person. I try to find solutions/alternatives that may be more effective and don't require involving the ineffective person.

This above line may sound arrogant because it sort of implies that you are the smartest of the lot. For all you know, you may be the incompetent one for someone else.

However, this attitude (without being a pr*ck about it) can be very useful in navigating your way through the messy reality and becoming more productive in spite of it. It will prevent (or reduce) a lot of "you should have said this before", or "I should have known this before", or "you cannot change that now", or "who wrote this code?" moments.

> It’s a little late to bring it up now, but a good rule of thumb to keep in mind is that you shouldn’t buy a computer unless you know of at least two things that you can use it for BEFORE you buy it.

I guess this should also be a question to ask anybody looking to buy a high end computer today: "Sir, before you buy this, please name two uses of this computer which cannot be done by a $400 PC."

PS: I am joking.

This is indeed a beautiful book and especially useful for those who are new to the industry. I have a nit to pick about one of the points listed in the article...

> Every meeting should create an artifact (ideally, a shared document or at least a record).

I have come across this sentiment often but there is no point in creating new artifacts just to record a meeting. What if the meeting was useless and nothing came out of it? Please do not create a document for this meeting. Such records only create an illusion that you are not leaving out those who could not attend the meeting, but creates mountains of documents or records which would be impossible to navigate in order to draw any conclusion later on.

Yes, they should at least be reprimanded, if not outright expelled. However, I think the reason for this is not as much about lack of conversation skills but because the students believe there are no repurcussion for such behavior.

> ... and let that moment go - it has NOTHING to do with you.

This applies not only to bad behavior of others, but sometimes even to your own bad behavior. We are 'moist robots' as one cartoonist puts it, and the sane thing is to not beat yourself up for something stupid you did or say, but evaluate the whole stituation later when you are in a better state of mind, learn from your mistake, make amends, and move on.

Well, guess I was wrong. There is a product in the making. [1]

[1]: https://twitter.com/michael_vandi/status/1607422866416619520

> but even if that hits us tomorrow, the amount of raw power that's been unlocked in the last year alone – the tech that's already here – already has the potential to change things in massive waves.

If this is about ChatGPT, we should remember that it is not available in a way that you can build your business applications on top of it in any reliable or meaningful way. It is a very powerful demo of what AI can do, but nothing more yet. Also, OpenAI is spending a lot just to let you and me give it a try and this will not last long. IIRC, they are burning something in the range of 3 million USD per day.

> Profound boredom stems from an abundance of uninterrupted time spent in relative solitude, which can lead to indifference, apathy, and people questioning their sense of self and their existence - but which Heidegger said could also pave the way to more creative thinking and activity.

I wonder if there is a record of what could help one break out of 'indeifference, apathy, ...' phase and into the 'creative thinking and activity' phase. It is just a matter of time? Is it possible only for some and not for others? Have you, dear reader, succesfully transitioned to the latter phase and as a result, change the course of your life towards a desirable goal?

> When powering up an AP that uses a DFS channel, you will see that the 2.4GHz radio becomes available as soon as the AP has completed its boot sequence, but the 5Ghz radio may not available for another minute. This is due to the AP performing its channel availability check, if the AP is trying to use a DFS-impacted 5GHz channel.

This always baffled me. Mystery solved!

Guido van Rossum and Lex Fridman discuss this in a recent podcast[1].

1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DVyjdw4t9I&t=6905s

Pure speculation on my part but hard not to think that they are preparing to move the HQ someplace else.

I assume this is snark but just in case it isn't, this is not how you should view aging adults. Potential is always limitless, only the possibility of realizing that potential reduces as one nears end of life. But then, who knows when someone's end of life is?

> Just eat minimally processed whole foods as often as possible ...

Fully agree with your take except for "eat [...] as often as possible" part. For instance, intermittent fasting is effective exactly because of not eating often.

> But there is a reason we don’t use monospaced fonts everywhere. They are somewhat hard to read because [...]

Well, not sure what is the basis for that assertion, but I find it easier to read text rendered in a monospaced font (Courier is my favorite). In fact, when I need to read something longer than a minute on the browser, I switch to monospace (with help of a browser plugin). It's not about text alignment -- it does not matter when reading prose, but perhaps about the familiarity of a font.

As an aside, I also try to get rid of formatting when reading long text. It allows me to focus on the essence of the written word. Perhaps, this is why the old school mailing lists and message forums are more appealing than the modern crop of social media apps. Also plain text email (what a rarity in the corporate world today!).

No. I do want to know what is going on.

As others have pointed out the news is no longer just reporting or analysis, but also has an agenda. Not reading the news is not a solution. My solution: read news from multiple sources, and extract the actual news by removing the coloring of the source and their agenda. This is not foolproof but works better than not questioning the possible hidden agendas.

No offence, but this sounds expensive and stressful.

I used to obsess over things like "good design", minimalism, perfectionism, etc. Since I stopped obsessing, I feel better: less stress, fewer expectations from my environment, better focus on what I need to accomplish (rather than by what tools) etc. Don't get me wrong, I still clean out my desk once in a couple of days, but am no longer distracted by small stuff every minute. For e.g., I love a good mechanical keyboard and bought one a few years ago and never looked back. I am happy with this keyboard and will use it until it breaks down. I love fountain pens and bought one 7 years ago, and now I don't think about pens anymore. Not that I do not care about a good pen or a good keyboard, but because I am happy with what I've got.

*Gandhi

> There’s a huge catch though. Due to the paisa’s former use in circulation, all financial institutions and partners (shipping, tax, payment processors, etc.) denominate the rupee in paisa.

Someday in foreseeable future, INR will be rounded to the nearest rupee. But today is not that day.