Tag: blog

The Phantom of the Opera, Sofia 2024

~ Veselin ~ 4 Comments

I’m happy with the show. The music and execution were fantastic. It’s one of those events that sticks with you and leaves a lasting memory.

The team managed to sneak in some Bulgarian jokes and contemporary puns and localize the experience, particularly with Phantom’s signature. It was never PO.

It was difficult to find the cast – not on the show’s website or anywhere inside the venue. Leaving here for future reference, we had Nadim Naaman as the Phantom, Harriet Jones and Georgia Wilkinson as Christine, Lara Martins as Carlotta, and Dougie Carter as Raul. Sources – here and here.

This was the first time I had visited the number one hall of NDK (4K+ seats) since childhood. I researched where the music would be best. I think the 18th row was a bit far from the stage and I could’ve tried to find something closer, perhaps on another day.

It’s not too late to visit the show, it performs until Sunday.

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

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

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.