Author: Veselin

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How hiring people motivated me to grow

~ Veselin ~ 3 Comments
Daily writing prompt
Describe a decision you made in the past that helped you learn or grow.

In the early 2000s, I was a new and ambitious software engineer with very little theoretical knowledge. Worked as a webmaster, which included front-end, back-end, databases, and a bit of systems work, all with Microsoft products. My confidence didn’t match the realities of my actual knowledge. Something happened and 2-3 colleagues quit in the same year, leaving me as the most senior developer, despite my young age and limited knowledge. I had to hire replacements. So, I found some article that said that I should only hire people who are better developers than me. It said that “A people hire A people, B people hire C people” (attributed to Steve Jobs). I took that meme very seriously. The folks I hired were so good that I needed to step up my game significantly to remain relevant. In the process of learning, I decided to go back to the university and get a Master’s degree in Information Systems from Sofia University.

I’ve done some hiring work later and found loopholes in this rule (so did others on Hackernews). Looking for people who are significantly more competent than the hirer opens the gates to masters in BS language (link to a post from January on the subject). If I discuss an area where I’m not particularly knowledgeable with a candidate, the candidate could fool me by using impenetrable language, specific to that technology.

Over time, I changed. I currently believe that:

  • The ability to explain past work would be a top skill during a hiring interview, closely followed by soft skills
  • Every single person on the planet would be better than me at something and I’m just a few questions away from figuring out what that thing is

Despite that, I did hire some good folks, and they motivated me to learn and improve. Maybe not the most impactful choice I made in life but quite good.

Sand Wars parts 4 to 6 by Charles Ingrid and the nine fingers

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Parts 4 and 5 of the Sand Wars series were back to the roots of what was enjoyable in the first part – battles, new worlds, spaceships, and mild mystery. Part 6 went into the torture territory and was off-putting to me. I would rate the books 4/5/2 for an average of about 3.

The nine fingers

Back in 1993 or 1994, I wrote fiction. One of my main characters was a warrior and I wanted to highlight that you can’t be that without losing a limb or two, so he was missing a finger. Of course, it was the pinky finger so the sword-yielding was unaffected.

In 2006 I read “The Blade Itself” by Joe Abercrombie. It introduced the incredible warrior Logen Ninefingers or The Bloody Nine. He lost a middle finger due to his vicious lifestyle, having the bad habit of battling gigantic northerners. He was very similar to my nine-fingered creation. Jack Storm from the Sand Wars is also a pinky-misser due to a cryogenic accident. Charles Ingrid was more modest than Joe Abercrombie or perhaps had a worse editor.

My father is an engineer whose hobby was making furniture. I had a first-hand experience with finger-related injuries. If a blade encounters fingers, it starts with the index finger, soon to be followed by the middle one. Soon equals milliseconds. Science confirms that observation. The most likely reason for losing fingers is not sword fights but using mundane objects like doors, windows, and power tools. It would be very realistic and ironic if Logen Ninefingers lost his index finger to a folding chair rather than a sword fight. Jack Storm’s accident could’ve been a door.

Both authors left their fingers in the early character building and bounced back to create some good books.

Headphones for calls – JBL Quantum 200 vs JBL Quantum 400.

~ Veselin ~ 9 Comments

I do many calls and my environment is often noisy – coffee shops, kids around, and ninja turtles on TV. I’ve tried finding headphones that have a good microphone and are comfortable for my ears. I believe the headphones need to be wired so I don’t charge them. I like retractable microphones. Over the last months, I used JBL Quantum 200 with a good success. Unfortunately, they broke so I bought a replacement. The local electronics shop only had Quantum 100 and 400, and here we are.

JBL Quantum 100 doesn’t have a retractable microphone but otherwise looks like my old headphones.

JBL Quantum 200 has a retractable mic with no cover and a roller for volume control. When folded, the mic is muted. That roller was a bit inconvenient until I got used to it because it would roll while the headphones were in my backpack. They broke soon-ish but come with a 2-year warranty.

Quantum 400 has a retractable mic with some cover, volume control, some other roller with unclear purpose, and a mute button. They also mute when the mic is folded.

Here are some mic samples from Starbucks, the speakers are right over my head and quite loud:

Quantum 200

Quantum 400

My backup Devia headphones for reference

Here is how they look.

The patch is not the broken old headphones, it’s the new ones. The reason is that the mute button is loose and makes a clicking noise that annoys me. So here I fixed it. I’ll upgrade myself with a fancier patch at some point.

Out of those three, my old JBL Quantum 200 headphones were the top pick. Sure, the 400s come with buttons, rollers, extra cables, and flashy LED lights packed in a fancy box. But, the loose mute button and the extra roller with no clear purpose actually made them worse. The microphone quality is sufficient in both.

Matt Mullenweg wrote a much more detailed post on the same subject – his recommendation was for a Sennheiser, which I followed 5-6 headphones back. The locally available set didn’t have a retractable microphone and couldn’t use it for calls from coffee shops. I moved on quickly.

UPDATE 2025-03-10

The JBL Quantum 400 also broke down. It’s a very minimal problem but nevertheless I’m going to look for a replacement in the following weeks. Overall, I think the Quantum 400 are significantly better than the 200 because of the better cable that can be replaced.

I think they’re better overall than the other headphones I used over the last 10 years but the build quality is not fantastic.

Disappointed by the second roller on my Quantum 400, I bought a pair of Quantum 100 as well. These are not up to the bar needed for my daily work needs. They’re less comfortable, the mic is located on a piece of wire, which is much less convenient than the Quantum 200/400 mic. I didn’t use them much and actually kept doing calls with the slightly broken Quantum 200s.

My favorite restaurants in Sofia

~ Veselin ~ 2 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What is your favorite restaurant?

Sofia has many restaurants where you can sit, spend hours, and eat well. The city center is transitioning from an office center to a tourist center, with airlines delivering thousands of tourists every day. Consequently, as offices relocate from the center, restaurants witness a shift in their clientele from regular locals to ever-changing tourists. When a guest asks for a recommendation, we tend to send them to the slow and expensive places for the best experience. The reality is that it’s not where we eat. It’s more likely that you’ll find a Bulgarian having lunch at KFC or Pizza Lab than any of those traditional recommendations.

So here is my list of places where I actually like eating. All are either fast food or close to that. They’re ordered by importance, high to low.

  • Beshamel – a chain of small restaurants with cooked food. It’s fast food but not junk food. The kitchen is central so the food is the same at all of the places. Most of the meals are not far from what my parents would cook
  • BDS – a chain of fast food kufte/kebapche places. You can have Shkembe and Shopska Salad or the menu with 2 kebapche and experience the true Bulgarian cuisine
  • Ikigai – an okay Bulgarian edition of Japanese-style food. If you want ramen though, Umamido is a better choice.
  • Fabrika Daga – I eat sandwiches there but they have ordinary food. The food is hipster, with a lot of taste in everything. I enjoy that and am a frequent customer
  • Satsanga – the only vegetarian food I enjoy eating. It would be my top contender for the most delicious food in Sofia
  • Ribs Brothers – what the title says

There’s nothing wrong with places like Shtastlivetza, Mediterraneo, Pod Lipite, Victoria, Happy and so on that get traditionally recommended to visitors. However, all the places where I go are quick, you pay, get your food, eat, and leave. The food is fine.

I’d normally not take photos of my lunch but found these two, featuring Ribs Brothers and Beshamel.