Slamet Hendry

Bits of unsolicited advice (part 2)

These were forwarded to me. Source unknown.

  • You'll never know what you're capable of until you take that first step and just go for it.

  • You must learn to let go. Release the stress. You were never in control anyway.

  • When you feel like quitting, think about why you started.

  • If you get tired, learn to rest, not quit.

  • Find a reason to smile everyday.

  • Look for something positive each day, even if some days you have to look a little harder.

  • You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.

  • Hope is seeing light in spite of being surrounded by darkness.

  • Miracles happen everyday. Change your perception of what a miracle is and you'll see them all around you.

  • Take a deep breath. It's just a bad day, not a bad life.

  • The greatest weapon against stress is the ability to choose one thought over another.

  • Strength doesn't come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn't.

  • You were given this life because you are strong enough to live it.

#quotes

Related: Part 1

More Hayao Miyazaki

#reblog

We are living code

“We are living code. When you look at the human brain, our ‘computing centers,’ so to speak, you see a lot of coding. We run on scripts, arguments, memories, value systems, and beliefs that are programmed by our interactions with people and our experiences navigating the world.

For the most part, we don’t have a say in how we are programmed until we experience larger shifts in adulthood. Later in life, we are able to exercise individual agency more directly, and ask ourselves: ‘What data sets are you downloading?’ Behavior is coded by a variety of stimuli and responses, and human technology is by far the most advanced technology we have.”

~ Patrycja Slawuta

#quotes #learningorg

Shrinkflation and skimpflation

“We’ve all heard about rising inflation. The price of stuff is going up.

And if you read 'NPR Planet Money' newsletter, you’ve heard of shrinkflation. That’s when the price of stuff stays the same, but the amount you get goes down.

The economywide decline in service quality that we’re now seeing is something different, and it doesn’t have a good name. It’s a situation where we’re paying the same or more for services, but they kinda suck compared with what they used to be. We propose a new word to describe this stealth-ninja kind of inflation: skimpflation. It’s when, instead of simply raising prices, companies skimp on the goods and services they provide.”

~ NPR Planet Money

#quotes

Happy People

“Perhaps it’s true that it’s not happy people who are grateful, it’s grateful people who are happy.”

~ Clare Pooley

#quotes

Learning React

In the past month, I have been learning React JS on my own. There are many tutorials on the internet and create-react-app also has hundreds of templates.

But I could not find one that specifically do what I wanted, so I had to do a lot of trial and error. How hard can it be? Harder than I thought, but eventually I got it working. 😎

Maybe there is another fellow learner out there who has the same need: web app that is protected by login and is multi-language. So I shared my codebase for others to copy and use as a starter template. The codebase is on my GitHub repo.

I hope it is useful.

#learningorg

Not how long

“As a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.”

~ Seneca

#quotes

seneca

Enjoy simply

“Happiness? It is an illusion to think that more comfort means more happiness. Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed!”

~ Storm Jameson

#quotes

How hard can it be?

I am working on a personal project and I need a dashboard to analyse my data that is hosted in the cloud. So I thought, “how hard can it be” to set up my own dashboard server, given that I developed and ran my own chatbot server last year?

Not as easy as I thought, but too late. Eventually, I did it. Yay!

And it got me into a reflective mode.

“How hard can it be?” is a question that, depending on context and tone of voice, can have side effect. Use with care.

If we utter it to someone more junior or less experienced, please be kind not to offend the receiver or damage his/her self-confidence. If the receiver is a subject matter expert in the “it”, check first that we know the subject well enough so we don't look like a fool.

Probably it is better to ask “what does it take to accomplish it?” We move the discussion toward analysis and effort estimation, so it is more constructive and builds up morale.

But “how hard can it be?” is not to be avoided altogether, especially if asked to ourselves. If we actually do not know what it takes to accomplish “it” and we are curious to know, then “how hard can it be?” is a challenge to spur us into action rather than analysis paralysis.

“How hard can it be?” I don't know. Let's find out.

Caveat emptor. In life, there are always things to do and competing priorities. Chasing after “how hard can it be?” ought to be weighed in light of other priorities. Proceed with care.

And once we find out how hard it can be, we need to be willing to admit if we are wrong. Because despite not knowing the answer to “what does it take to accomplish it?”, we typically ask “how hard can it be?” with some preconceived assumption of “how hard” it is. And once we do “it”, we eventually find out “how hard” it is – which can be easier or harder than our assumption.

And that is okay if we are wrong. The important part is that we get “it” done and learn what it takes to accomplish “it”.

Have a nice day.

#learningorg

Collective strength

Our muscle is a complex construction that is very fine-tuned. My muscle would ache in different place and in different way depending on the extended exercise I do. The keyword here is “extended” – light and short exercise would not reveal the difference.

For example, running 10 km at 6 min/km has a different impact from running 10 km at 7.5 min/km which has different impact from walking at 10 min/km. The pain from the walk is no less than the slow run nor the fast run, but different.

Likewise in leading a team, different objective and pace will put stress in different place in the team. As a leader, it is my role to be sensitive to each of my team members and to give the right kind of help to the individual who needs help and to push the individual who can handle more difficult challenge. I avoid leading with “one-size fits all” approach.

The team is collectively stronger when I recognise and appreciate the diversity and optimise it accordingly.

#learningorg