I'm a fast worker, and I always have been. When I really understand a problem, whether it's project, program or business, I always search for the most direct and optimal path to complete that problem. Then I bang it out.
I guess this isn't a very common attribute, and it may not be a good one. I'm terrible at pacing myself. I'm either doing or not doing. Two speeds.
I work really, really fast. I'm not saying that my code is anywhere near perfect, but it usually does what it's specced out to do. I don't really want to make it perfect. I don't like working in situations where people nitpick on the details.
So I guess the question I need to ask is, what is the optimal environment I can work in to encourage this type of behavior? I'm guessing it's a start-up. At Sharpspring, I get to take ownership of various mission-critical features, which is exciting. I hope that as time goes on, I'll have more and more autonomy to do projects for these guys.
Friday, August 16, 2013
Monday, August 12, 2013
Living the Life of my Dreams
I usually journal a lot. In fact, I write over 500 pages per year. But now that I have this personal blog, I suppose I feel like journalling on here a lot. This will be excellent fodder for my autobiography in years-to-come. (Oh, how naive I was.)
This post is about the life of my dreams. I'm going to skip the backstory and head straight to where I am now. The life of my dreams is a simple one. I work in order to build wealth, not to pay the rent. I live well below my means. If I wanted, I could take a year off and travel the world. But I don't, because my job is satisfying, flexible, and I'm mastering a skill that I care about (10,000 hours.)
How I Spend My Money
I currently live the same way I did in college: I spend about $14,400 per year. That's a budget of $1200 per month. This is about 1/3 of my after tax income (yes, I have a rather low salary indeed.) I lease a car and drive it about 9000 miles per year (300 mile round trip to visit my girlfriend every two weeks: worth it.) I eat reasonably healthy. Mostly fresh foods, with an assortment of grains, meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts and lentils. I've been vegan and I've been paleo, now I just strive for "balance" between the two. I have a Roth IRA that I max out, I buy about 4 bitcoins per month, and I invest the rest in lending club.
Leisure
I walk to work. About 2 miles each way. I do this because I live in Florida and I enjoy the sunny walks, they help me clear my head. Sometimes I listen to music on my phone, but I mostly just enjoy the walk. I meditate and do yoga on an irregular basis. I have been meaning to hit up the local zen center for more formal training.
Cooking is a big leisure activity of mine. I also rock climb 3 days a week, which keeps my body very strong. On days when I'm not climbing or walking, I run between 2 and 4 miles because I enjoy runner's high. I have a PS3 on which I play a little bit of video games (all used games I get for a steal via Craigslist). I have a laptop with which I browse the internet and play a couple online games (Dota, League of Legends).
On the weekends I hang out with my girlfriend and we might go to a bar where I'll enjoy a single drink (combination of cheapness and dislike of alcohol) or we might treat ourselves to a rather frugal dinner or movie. During the day we usually go for a climb or explore nature. We're currently looking for people to hang out with.
Work
I work at a small start up with two senior developers (One front end, one backend.) They are both very intelligent and fun to work with. I get to commit a TON of code in an extremely fast paced environment, which is what I love. I get to wear shorts and sandals to work and get beer with the team on Fridays. There's no overtime as long as we get our work done. Couldn't be better.
In my spare time, I try to play around with python on Kaggle and Github. I read a lot of books/courses about software engineering and data mining. My goal is to eventually become involved with data analysis/machine learning startups, and to this end I'm considering doing the Georgia tech online MS Computer Science.
Problems
My main issue lies in being new to this town. I don't really know much about the music scene. It's summer so the town is very quiet. Hopefully when the school year comes I'll find more fun stuff to do on the weekends. Also, I really want to get involved with the local agriculture.
This post is about the life of my dreams. I'm going to skip the backstory and head straight to where I am now. The life of my dreams is a simple one. I work in order to build wealth, not to pay the rent. I live well below my means. If I wanted, I could take a year off and travel the world. But I don't, because my job is satisfying, flexible, and I'm mastering a skill that I care about (10,000 hours.)
How I Spend My Money
I currently live the same way I did in college: I spend about $14,400 per year. That's a budget of $1200 per month. This is about 1/3 of my after tax income (yes, I have a rather low salary indeed.) I lease a car and drive it about 9000 miles per year (300 mile round trip to visit my girlfriend every two weeks: worth it.) I eat reasonably healthy. Mostly fresh foods, with an assortment of grains, meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts and lentils. I've been vegan and I've been paleo, now I just strive for "balance" between the two. I have a Roth IRA that I max out, I buy about 4 bitcoins per month, and I invest the rest in lending club.
Leisure
I walk to work. About 2 miles each way. I do this because I live in Florida and I enjoy the sunny walks, they help me clear my head. Sometimes I listen to music on my phone, but I mostly just enjoy the walk. I meditate and do yoga on an irregular basis. I have been meaning to hit up the local zen center for more formal training.
Cooking is a big leisure activity of mine. I also rock climb 3 days a week, which keeps my body very strong. On days when I'm not climbing or walking, I run between 2 and 4 miles because I enjoy runner's high. I have a PS3 on which I play a little bit of video games (all used games I get for a steal via Craigslist). I have a laptop with which I browse the internet and play a couple online games (Dota, League of Legends).
On the weekends I hang out with my girlfriend and we might go to a bar where I'll enjoy a single drink (combination of cheapness and dislike of alcohol) or we might treat ourselves to a rather frugal dinner or movie. During the day we usually go for a climb or explore nature. We're currently looking for people to hang out with.
Work
I work at a small start up with two senior developers (One front end, one backend.) They are both very intelligent and fun to work with. I get to commit a TON of code in an extremely fast paced environment, which is what I love. I get to wear shorts and sandals to work and get beer with the team on Fridays. There's no overtime as long as we get our work done. Couldn't be better.
In my spare time, I try to play around with python on Kaggle and Github. I read a lot of books/courses about software engineering and data mining. My goal is to eventually become involved with data analysis/machine learning startups, and to this end I'm considering doing the Georgia tech online MS Computer Science.
Problems
My main issue lies in being new to this town. I don't really know much about the music scene. It's summer so the town is very quiet. Hopefully when the school year comes I'll find more fun stuff to do on the weekends. Also, I really want to get involved with the local agriculture.
The Importance of Runner's High in My Life
I call this the vicious circle of computer obsession:
Sometimes I spend too much time on the computer, obsessing over programming. I start to eat poorly because I'm not giving myself enough of a break. This quickly leads to stress and tiredness. That leads to overconsumption of caffeine. This starts a downward spiral in my mind. Eventually, I can no longer concentrate on programming. And so I go for a run.
As I begin my run, I know intellectually that it will make me feel better. "Even though I'm tired now, I'll feel better once I start running." A mile or two passes, and the euphoria begins. At this point, I have two choices:
Choice number one is to continue my run, maybe three or four miles total, in about 30-40 minutes. This will give me an intense runner's high but leave me feeling tired after.
I usually pick the second choice: stop the run once runner's high is achieved and take a walk. This leaves me with a moderate amount of endorphins and clears my mind. When I feel the endorphin rush start to fade, I pick up running again. I usually do this alternation for about 2 hours. The idea being, 2 hours of moderate euphoria is more therapeutic than a single, intense run.
Sometimes I spend too much time on the computer, obsessing over programming. I start to eat poorly because I'm not giving myself enough of a break. This quickly leads to stress and tiredness. That leads to overconsumption of caffeine. This starts a downward spiral in my mind. Eventually, I can no longer concentrate on programming. And so I go for a run.
As I begin my run, I know intellectually that it will make me feel better. "Even though I'm tired now, I'll feel better once I start running." A mile or two passes, and the euphoria begins. At this point, I have two choices:
Choice number one is to continue my run, maybe three or four miles total, in about 30-40 minutes. This will give me an intense runner's high but leave me feeling tired after.
I usually pick the second choice: stop the run once runner's high is achieved and take a walk. This leaves me with a moderate amount of endorphins and clears my mind. When I feel the endorphin rush start to fade, I pick up running again. I usually do this alternation for about 2 hours. The idea being, 2 hours of moderate euphoria is more therapeutic than a single, intense run.
Sunday, August 11, 2013
This is it, Boys. This is War.
Welcome to my blog. Truly, welcome. I'm here to stay. I've had an infinitude of blogs before, on a variety of subjects. But they've all had catchy names: Continued Consciousness, Mindful Monk, How I Should Think, Destroying Complexity, The Undergraduate Science Perspective (lol!). All of these blogs have had one thing in common: they've been about a niche interest of mine, and therefore they have disappeared quickly. They haven't been fully integrated with my life.
But now it's different. I've signed up for Blogger (F U Wordpress!) and I have free, unlimited hosting. I've got a domain name coming (don't steal it please) and it will be my real name! Since this blog is titled by my real name, I see no reason why I shouldn't use it forever.
So what's the blog for, dude?
Well, not much, really. Just everything. I suppose I'll post various life-related events as they happen, but mostly it's a career blog. It's about what I want to do with my life.
And what I want to do with my life is: understand and harness the power of inference based on data, on a large scale.
That will be elaborated upon later. Cheers!
So what's the blog for, dude?
Well, not much, really. Just everything. I suppose I'll post various life-related events as they happen, but mostly it's a career blog. It's about what I want to do with my life.
And what I want to do with my life is: understand and harness the power of inference based on data, on a large scale.
That will be elaborated upon later. Cheers!
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