Posts
On Aging
On December 26, 2021 in notes • 1 minute read### Sylvia Plath I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig...
Xbox Game Pass Space Hog
On December 18, 2021 in notes • 1 minute readIf you use Xbox Game Pass on PC, there is a good chance it’s hogging lots of your space since uninstalling games doesn’t remove actually remove them from the C:/Program Files/WindowsApps folder where they’re tucked away. I scoured the internet for a solution and this is the only one that...
No-nos
On July 6, 2021 in humanness • 1 minute readFrom the Commencement Address at the American University in Beirut by Nassim Nicholas Taleb The following are no-nos: Muscles without strength, friendship without trust, opinion without risk, change without aesthetics, age without values, food without nourishment, power without fairness, facts without rigor, degrees without erudition, militarism without fortitude, progress without...
Coaches' rules for life
On July 6, 2021 in humanness • 1 minutes readFrom “The Playbook – A coach’s rules for life”, curioslog.com Doc Rivers (Basketball) Pressure is a privilege (what a way to shift our mindset – from stress to gratitude) finish the race you will not be a victim ubuntu – I am because we are champions keep moving ahead Jill...
Manual
On April 22, 2021 in notes • 1 minutes readThis is a playbook on everything Andrea. It captures more about me and how I operate in a working environment. 🏠 OVERVIEW ENFJ-A - Extraverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Judging personality traits. Warm, forthright, love helping others. 👍🏼 STRENGTHS Both Barrel and Ammunition (see Barrels and Ammunitions): Love taking initiative, organising...
Barrels and Ammunitions
On April 22, 2021 in notes • 1 minute readSource: How to Operate with Keith Rabois (How to Start a Startup 2014: Lecture 14) A really clever way to view organizations - The quote from Rabois summarizes the idea nicely: If you think about people, there are two categories of high-quality people: there is the ammunition, and then there...
Cocktail Class
On April 10, 2021 in notes • 2 minutes readList of recipes covered in Gustavo’s birthday cocktail class, presented by @ferdiamurray. But First… 4 things are very important in making cocktails: Balance - no flavour should stand up too much, though a lot here depends on preferences Temperature - coldest drink possible, made in the shortest time possible; if...
Words I Like
On January 23, 2021 in thoughts • 2 minutes readFrayed, /freɪd/ adjective (of a fabric, rope, or cord) unravelled or worn at the edge (of a person’s nerves or temper) showing the effects of strain Penchant, /ˈpɒ̃ʃɒ̃/ noun a strong or habitual liking for something or tendency to do something Erstwhile, /ˈəːstwʌɪl/ adjective former adverb formerly Vindicate, /ˈvɪndɪkeɪt/ clear...
Signs I'm OK
On December 18, 2020 in thoughts • 1 minute readThe symptoms I am not burned out and things are going overall OK (i.e., nothing catastrophic is currently happening). Writing these down so I can recognize when I need a mental health day (or more). I have a solid routine going I listen to music and podcasts I enjoy talking...
Superforecasting
On May 14, 2020 in books • 9 minutes readThis book describes the practices and skills of Superforecasters, people who absorb knowledge from many sources, crunch it again and again and synthesize it all in one prediction: most of the time they’ll be right. Chapter 1: An Optimistic Skeptic Forecasting is common: all humans use this skill for orderly,...
A Calendar of Wisdom
On May 14, 2020 in books • 2 minutes readDAILY THOUGHTS TO NOURISH THE SOUL WRITTEN AND SELECTED FROM THE WORLD’S SACRED TEXTS BY LEO TOLSTOY TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN BY PETER SEKIRIN Read it at https://calendarwisdom.com/ Note to Reader: In all of the book’s original Russian-language editions, Tolstoy highlighted on each page the one quote that most succinctly...
High Standards
On September 4, 2019 in humanness • 2 minutes readEvery year since 1997, Jeff Bezos has penned an annual letter to shareholders that provides a glimpse into the leadership stylings of the Amazon CEO The 2018 letter turned to the subject of high standards, which Bezos says have been instrumental to Amazon’s success. A culture of high standards is...
Business Strategy
On August 26, 2019 in peopleware • 14 minutes readMy notes from the excellent Business Strategy class1 from Coursera. The teacher is particularly good. I highly recommend this class. Leading Strategically This idea of aligning internal aspects of an organization with the external environment is a core idea in strategy, called strategic fit. The central insight is that finding...
Organisational Culture
On July 16, 2019 in peopleware • 3 minutes readCulture is defined as commonly held ideas, beliefs and practices within a collective, and it’s one of the most critical and dynamic elements of organisational design. Having a strong culture ensures that employees within a certain organization have a sense of unity and something in common. This makes company culture...
99 Bottles of OOP
On July 4, 2019 in books • 7 minutes readWhat It’s About 99 Bottles of OOP is a practical guide to writing cost-effective, maintainable, and pleasing object-oriented code. It explores: Recognizing when code is “good enough” Getting the best value from Test-Driven Development (TDD) Doing proper refactoring, not random “rehacktoring” Locating concepts buried in code Finding names that convey...
Test Driven Development
On June 22, 2019 in software development • 1 minutes readTDD is an iterative software development process where you first write the test with the idea that it must fail. This is a different approach to the traditional development where you write the application functionality first and then write test cases. The major benefit of this approach is that the...
Object Oriented Programming
On June 22, 2019 in software development • 2 minutes readWhy OOP? The Object Oriented Programming (OOP) Languages directly represent the real life objects like Car, Jeep, Account, Customer, etc. Its key benefits are increased quality and reduced development time, due to: Re-use of previous work: using implementation inheritance and object composition; Real mapping to the problem domain: Objects map...
Load Balancing
On June 22, 2019 in software development • 2 minutes readLoad balancing refers to efficiently distributing incoming network traffic across a group of back-end servers, also known as a “server farm” or “server pool”. Modern high-traffic websites must serve hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of concurrent requests from users or clients and return the correct text, images, video, or...
Design Patterns
On June 22, 2019 in software development • 3 minutes readModel-View-Controller The Model–view–controller (MVC) is a software architectural pattern mostly (but not exclusively) for implementing user interfaces on computers. It divides a given software application into three interconnected parts, so as to separate internal representations of information from the ways that information is presented to or accepted from the user....
Highly Effective Managers
On June 22, 2019 in peopleware • 1 minutes read8 Habits Be a good coach Provide specific, constructive feedback, balancing negative and positive Have regular one-on-ones, presenting solutions to problems tailored to the employee’s strengths Empower your team and don’t micro-manage Balance giving freedom to your employees while still being available for advice Make “stretch” assignments to help them...
Threat Modeling
On June 22, 2019 in information security • 3 minutes readThreat modeling is an approach for analyzing the security of an application. It is a structured approach that enables you to identify, quantify, and address the security risks associated with an application. The threat modeling process can be decomposed into 3 high level steps Decompose the Application Determine and rank...
Introduction
On June 22, 2019 in information security • 5 minutes readWhy Information Security? The goal of Information Security is to make the organization’s primary mission successful Security it’s there to help the organization do what it does. If that mission is making money, then the main mission of the security group — at its highest level — is to make...
Organisational Design
On June 10, 2019 in peopleware • 8 minutes readOrganisational Design When selecting an organisational design, there are two competing desires: Internal Efficiency, which focuses on exploitation of our existing markets, production processes and investments; External Flexibility, which focuses on exploration of new markets, new products and new business models. The goal is to select the best design that...
Performance Management
On January 6, 2019 in peopleware • 2 minutes readSetting Goals In any organizational setting (business or not), we do set goals in order to: Align our efforts with the mission of our organization and/or specific corporate goals for a given Fiscal (or Calendar) Year. Set up a clear and shared understanding of priorities with our manager(s). Challenge ourselves...
Decision Making
On January 6, 2019 in peopleware • 12 minutes readMy notes from the excellent Foundations of Everyday Leadership and Applications of Everyday Leadership courses from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Introduction Today we live in a “fast” business world requiring leaders to enable their organisations to react quickly and effectively to threats and opportunities. Threats are things that...
The Art of Worldly Wisdom
On November 17, 2018 in books • 7 minutes readAbout the book Baltasar Gracián Y Morales (1601-1658) was born in Calatayud, Aragon, Spain. His works aimed at instructing princes and, consequently, display a certain deviousness and preoccupation with the exercise of power. 300 aphorisms were extracted from his works and published as “The Art of Worldly Wisdom”, a manual...
Made to Stick, ch. 1 to 5
On November 11, 2018 in books • 9 minutes readIf not communicated artfully, even the most insightful, revolutionary and brilliant idea might be ignored and forgotten. This book is a manual on how to make ideas “stick”, so that they are understood and have a lasting impact, changing the audience’s opinions and / or behaviour. While traditional communication methods...
Psychological Safety
On October 11, 2018 in peopleware • 2 minutes readPeople are not afraid of failure, they're afraid of blame - Seth Godin Introduction Coined by Harvard Professor Amy Edmondson, Psychological Safety has been found to be at the heart of great teams. She defines psychological safety as “a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking”...
Radical Candor
On October 10, 2018 in peopleware • 4 minutes readThis book by Kim Scott promotes the idea that a successful leader is both blunt and empathetic at the same time (radically candid, but caring at the same time). She is not a tyrant, and not a sensitive quiet type either. Types of feedback “The source of everything respectable in...
Objectives and Key Results
On October 10, 2018 in peopleware • 13 minutes readname: inverse layout: true class: center, middle, inverse --- # Goal Setting [Objectives and Key Results] - - - [press p for notes] .footnote[[LinkedIn Learning](https://www.linkedin.com/learning/goal-setting-objectives-and-key-results-okrs/the-power-of-strategic-goals-objectives-and-key-results-okrs?u=102789018) with Jessie Withers,presentation by [andrea della corte](https://dellacorte.me)] ??? OKRs are a strategic framework to communicate top priorities, which can help you OKRs move an organization...
Coaching
On September 14, 2018 in agile • 5 minutes readObjective Agile coaching is about supporting a company success with Value, Speed and Quality in their production systems, at Scale, meaning that the system works no matter the size of the company. The agile coach empowers the teams to come up with innovative solutions to the customers’ problems by making...
Turkish
On September 13, 2018 in learning • 1 minutes readMy approach to learning languages, which worked for me better than others when learning Turkish. Background I struggled with Turkish on and off for a couple years. I never took classes, but used Duolingo and Memrise extensively. The benefits were limited. Yet, I finally figured out a better approach which...
Mindmapping STAR
On September 11, 2018 in interviewing • 3 minutes readThis is how I prepare for interviews. Background Over the years, I have accumulated a lot of experiences. Unfortunately, whenever I am asked a “Tell Me About a Time…” question I tend to draw a blank and forget all of them. In addition, over the years, due to the way...
Design Thinking
On September 10, 2018 in entepreneurship • 1 minute readDesign Thinking helps you come up with new ideas and validate them quickly. The steps are the following: Discovery (Analysis, divergent): Generate a lot of possible options Definition (Synthesis, convergent): Prioritise and focus on only a few options Development (Analysis, divergent): Build a few prototypes to test your idea Delivery...
Scrum
On September 10, 2018 in agile • 5 minutes readIntroduction Scrum is not a process, technique, or definitive method. Rather, it is a framework within which you can employ various processes and techniques. Scrum makes clear the relative efficacy of your product management and work techniques so that you can continuously improve the product, the team, and the working...
Undone Work
On September 8, 2018 in agile • 2 minutes readI received this question via email: Our sprints seem to run like mini-waterfalls, with full end-to-end testing being required at the end. We are using TDD and have many automated checks within our codebases. However, our domain is mobile apps and therefore shipping will always be a high-ceremony process for...
Virtues
On September 4, 2018 in humanness • 1 minute readOnly twenty years old, Benjamin Franklin’s Thirteen Virtues defined a set of virtues he would reflect on and practice, focusing on one each week. The virtues are: Temperance. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation. Silence. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation. Order....
Product Market Fit
On September 4, 2018 in entepreneurship • 1 minute readNotes from Peter Rheinhart’s How to Find Product Market Fit: Seeking Product Market Fit Kill bad ideas fast Stay lean to prolong your runway Talk to customers What problem do they have Why haven’t they solved it Separate pitching and exploring Iterate on the product Don’t shift audience and product...
Idea to Launch
On September 4, 2018 in entepreneurship • 1 minutes readQuick notes on the first steps in launching a new company. Step 1: Ideate Goal: Pick an idea or to validate with potential customers. Create an idea list Define the business metrics, effort to ROI ratio and pick an idea (or 2 really good ones) Image the product that would...
SOLID
On September 3, 2018 in software development • 1 minute readSOLID are five basic principles which help create good software architecture. SOLID is an acronym where: S stands for Single Responsibility Principle (SRP): A class should take care of only one responsibility; O stands for Open Closed Principle (OCP): Extension should be preferred over modification; L stands for Liskov Substitution...
CAP
On September 3, 2018 in software development • 1 minute readIn theoretical computer science, the CAP theorem states that it is impossible for a distributed computer system to simultaneously provide all three of the following guarantees: Consistency (all nodes see the same data at the same time) Availability (a guarantee that every request receives a response about whether it succeeded...
ACID
On September 3, 2018 in software development • 1 minutes readACID is a set of properties that you would like to apply when modifying a database. Atomicity Consistency Isolation Durability A transaction is a set of related changes which is used to achieve some of the ACID properties. Transactions are tools to achieve the ACID properties. Atomicity means that you...
Writing
On September 3, 2018 in productivity • 1 minute readThis blog is hosted on GitHub Pages via Jekyll; Jekyll made it really easy to organise my blog the way I wanted it, automating many small tasks that save me a lot of time. For the CSS I used a theme called ReMarkdown. All typing is done via Atom Beta;...
Reading
On September 3, 2018 in productivity • 1 minute readI am a long time subscriber of Hacker News Digest: I skim the articles’ titles 2 or 3 times a day, pick the most interesting and track them on Pocket. For keeping myself up to date on world news I read the Economist Espresso. I also like theSkimm, which is...
Hacks
On September 3, 2018 in productivity • 5 minutes readFrom 20 Productivity Hacks from Redfin’s Chief Growth Officer: Set deadlines and then work backwards: Sometimes folks dive into a complicated project without thinking about when they need to get it done. If there’s no deadline, your project will drift. Or you’ll choose a more complex approach that will take...
System Design
On September 3, 2018 in interviewing • 2 minutes readAn algorithm for solving system design interviews: Requirements Extract use cases Understand: Users x Performances x ACID x CAP Math Data in (Concurrency) X Data out Latency x Throughput Main bottlenecks Availability Performance (Response time, Scalability, CPU / IO / Network bound applications) Confidentiality (Encryption) High level design Evaluate use...
TCP/IP
On September 3, 2018 in computer networks • 1 minutes readThe TCP/IP model is a set of design guidelines and protocol implementations that enable computers to interface with each other via network connections, maintained by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). TCP/IP provides end-to-end connectivity and delineates how data must be formatted, as well as addressed, transmitted, routed and received....
Kanban
On September 3, 2018 in agile • 1 minute readThere are five core properties for successful Kanban delivery: Visualise workflow Limit work-in-progress Measure and manage flow Make process policies explicit Use models to recognise improvement opportunities Resources Intro to Kanban in Under 5 Minutes Priming Kanban - Implementing Kanban in 10 Steps Kanban Pizza Game - Teaching + Fun...