LeadDev London 2024 Day 1

~ Veselin ~ 2 Comments

Some speakers are worried about AI (AI skills threat as defined by Cat Hicks) and shared how they deal with it. The quote of the day is this – “I skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been” (Wayne Gretsky, shared by Lena Reinhard). However, given that all the tech visionaries and CEOs know this saying, we all move in packs towards that point with AI doing something. This reminds me of an old quote I shared in 2018 here:

By any normal measure, our growth was great, but it quickly became clear it could be a lot better if we operated less like a soccer team of seven-year-olds: all of us chasing the ball, none of us in position.

— Kim Scott. Radical Candor

According to Cat Hicks, science shows building a less-competitive company culture improves morale and people are less concerned if they’ll adapt to the change. The best response to the lurking AI in all the talks came later, and sorry I didn’t manage to take a photo of it to be more precise. Not a precise quote: “The best things in life come from uncomfortable, messy, and chaotic situations. We will live better if we embrace the mess and treat the situation as an opportunity. (It’s science).” I wrote down the source and it’s a book called Messy – The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives by Tom Harford. I’ll add it to my list.

Apart from the AI-speak, I was impressed by a talk about Architecture, and another about dealing with Technical Debt. The one about technical debt is worthy of a separate post.

How do you want to retire?

~ Veselin ~ 12 Comments
Daily writing prompt
How do you want to retire?

I don’t want to retire. My plan is to follow in my mom’s footsteps. She works in her 70s and I admire her for that.

I believe a person needs a reason to leave the bed in the morning, and working is a good reason to be awake, especially if you work on something you believe in. You keep the brain occupied with meaningful goals so it’s not occupied with other things like anxiety and problems. The brain doesn’t like to stay empty, it will fill itself quickly if left unattended. I also believe that you lose what you don’t use.

Retirement doesn’t sound appealing. There’s no remote island, beach, or resort where I’d rather be.

Cherni Vrah FTW

~ Veselin ~ 4 Comments

I managed to repeat my hiking success from last week. I had more water, a chocolate bar, and long pants to keep me from the flies but it was harder because the weather was hot. Took me 20-30 minutes longer to complete the path (5h 20m), and I feel now like I was run by a car.

On the bright side, took some nice flowers photos.

I’ll blog a photo or two more next week.

The toughest moment. This part of the path is steep and soul crushing when it’s hot.

Elections Time

~ Veselin ~ 12 Comments

Tomorrow is the election time in Europe and double election time in Bulgaria. We’ll vote for a national parliament on top of the EU one. Elections bring political discussions into daily life and expose the divisions we have. I’m unsure about the proper way to handle that. My country’s society is very divided on many topics.

  • Shall we send weapons to help Ukraine
  • Was Communism good or bad
  • More roads or higher pensions
  • Are immigrants good or bad
  • Shall we adopt the Euro

And the list continues. Any random person I meet can hold extreme beliefs on any of the subjects, and learning about that, or exploring it, can lead to changing the perception of that person, or them changing their perception of me if I express extreme beliefs.

For example, a plumber comes home to fix something, fixes it, and drops that whatever random thing has been bad for 35 years, implicating it was good before that, and before that was communism. I immediately recognize this person is radically in the “Communism Good” camp, while I’m in the “Communism Bad” camp.

Over the years, I have slowly learned that the best strategy for me is to avoid the subject outside of the family. It may not sound right, but it is the best strategy I’ve found so far.

Today I posted a comment about politics on some random blog and feel like I swam in poop. I posted it in the Reader and didn’t realize it’s some conspiracy blog. It’s a good reminder to me to not engage in politics until I find a way to engage without feeling that way.

In any case, it’s the peak of politics talk for the year for us. Time to vote.