On a typical day, us programmers and software developers spend most of the time staring at our computers. We could be churning out code, working on a bug ticket, improving the test suite or refactoring existing codebase.
Due to the nature of our work, it can be hard for us to fully grasp how our work affects the company as a whole. Even if you are working in a tech startup, you may be working on a small portion of a larger system.
If you are building a system, you’ll want it to be scalable. Ideally, it should be able to accommodate an increase in load with a proportional increase in resources. An example of this is the WhatsApp infrastructure which handles billions of messages every day.
If you are building a company, you’ll want it to be able to grow and scale up quickly as you add more headcount and resources. In theory, given more access to resources, a scalable business will be able to grow it’s revenue and profits proportionally.
Hierarchies, processes and protocols. These are just some of the things I’m allergic to in most companies and corporations. I understand why they exist but I prefer to work in an environment where you can focus on actual work rather than trying to work the system.
After a year at my first job as a programmer, I was offered a pay raise. In terms of percentage it was pretty high but my original pay was very low. So let’s just say I wasn’t overly excited about the whole thing.
I went to my manager to ask him what I need to do to earn more and I was disappointed by his answer. He said it depends whether there’s an opening for me to be promoted or if they land a big client. Both factors that’s completely out of my control.
If you have been to enough networking events, you’ll surely noticed the most common question, other than asking for your name, is what do you do?
Over the years, I’ve learned to alter my job title depending on the situation. If I’m in a tech event, then I’ll introduce myself as Software Developer. Normally, they may follow up with asking what language (programming language) I work with and all the techie stuff.
For almost all other cases, I’ll go with Software Programmer. It usually does the job of communicating that I write code for a living. Saying I’m a developer will confuse some people as they think I build physical buildings instead of software systems.
The one question that every entrepreneur and business owner keep asking themselves, every single night before they go to bed is how do I grow my business?
You may want to increase your sales and revenue to improve the bottom-line. Or you may want to unlock the economies of scale by ramping up your production output.
Whatever the reason, you can only grow your business if you have a clear understanding on how it is performing right now. That means you have to track and measure all the different parts of your business. You simply can’t improve something you are not measuring.
Some of you may have seen the 80s movie Short Circuit. It's about an experimental military robot named Johnny Five, which after being struck by lightning, became sentient.
Like most kids, I was fascinated (and still is) by robots and always wanted one. In the sequel of Short Circuit, the creator of Johnny Five made a small toy version of robot. Boy I wanted one so badly.
Ever since I graduated from my computer engineering degree in Australia and came back to my hometown, Kota Kinabalu, I've been asked this question many, many times.
Most people assumed I would look for a job elsewhere. After all, there are only a handful of software companies here and opportunities are very limited.
But for the past 13 years, I've chosen to stay back in this beautiful city, despite getting offers and options to further my career elsewhere.
When someone tell you it is safe to eat something you dropped on the floor as long as it's been there for less than five seconds, that's a rule of thumb.
For most of us, we know that the five-second rule isn't always applicable. If you dropped your apple onto a pile of mud, you know it's not safe to eat it.
Even if you have ninja reflexes and managed to retrieve your shiny red globe the second it is in contact with the brown slimy sludge, you wouldn't be consuming it right after.
Last night during dinner, I was struggling to recall what I had for lunch. Yet moments later, at the same dinner, I was able to describe the entire experience of having my favourite ramen in Japan months ago.
Have you ever wondered why it is easier for us to recall certain past events in our lives, even though it may have happened years ago, but can’t seem to remember what we had for lunch yesterday?
When Google first introduced Gmail with 1GB of storage, many people including myself was wondering why would you need that much space for your mailbox.
Over the years, the storage limit has now increased to 15GB and most of us have been trained to never delete our emails but archive them instead. By lifting the limit of our mailbox, Google has changed our behaviour.
Services like Netflix have also redefined how we consume TV series by releasing all episodes simultaneously, allowing us to binge-watch them whenever and wherever we want.
