I initially had a different title and direction for this blog post but things have recently changed the tone and the things that I want to say.
TL;DR
Reflections on failure and success of WhatsApp and me. Say what?
***
How many times that you have stopped and think that two events, one internal to your world and the other external to your own control, are bound by apparent coincidence? Or maybe something that is more than just mere coincidence? Whatever your predisposition, one thing would have been clear. You would at least stopped to think about the possibility that it was no mere coincidence. What happened after the initial thought is another story.
I say this because of my recent interview that I have just gone through. I knew that there is nothing that is going to come out of that, right from the first interview (out of four). And I was right. It was an eye opener just sitting in the interview itself, the kinds of questions that are asked are of another level from what that I am used to. I kinda have an idea how difficult it was going to be but this just made it even clearer that the standard is much higher that previously thought. Whatever it was, I knew that I was doomed but in a good way.
Just after I was on the plane back here to Melbourne, they had already sent the mail of the outcome that I didn't make it through. Later probably around the same time, the big news that is on everyone's lips is that Facebook bought WhatsApp for a head-dizzingly large amount of $16 billion. With a B. But there was another big news that came out at the same time that this one came out. And that was the co-founder of WhatsApp, Brian Acton, who Facebook rejected him when he was looking for a job. Not long after, he and Jan Koum started WhatsApp. 5 years and 450 million users later, that company has been bought out by Facebook. I can imagine all possible scenarios of the founders of WhatsApp being complete jerks to Facebook ala American comedy style along the lines of "Look who has come crawling back to me...". But that was far from it. Some of the most humbling and dedicated words come out from him.
So there is a reason that this made it as the next big news apart from the buyout. You cannot deny the inspirational effect that came out of this. In fact, the tweet that Brian sent after finding out that he was rejected by Facebook suddenly got retweeted like crazy. This serves two purposes, one is that people who have been looking for jobs regardless of their industry see it as a means and the motivation to keep moving. Hack more, build more, design more in the meantime. Success can and will come just not in the way that you expect it. The second thing (and perhaps the more subtle) is that this is cause for companies to rethink their interview process. And I have been through it, twice in fact, and it is a very difficult to put it lightly. Many people are criticising that the current interview process of trying to get the brightest and smartest of the lot is ultimately flawed and something needs to change. The story of WhatsApp is the one that is causing people to rethink that. "We could have gotten him, he would have been great!" and now he has made something that we actually want.
Had Brian Acton got the job at Facebook what would have happened? Would there still be WhatsApp? Would Facebook have developed a feature similiar to WhatsApp in house? We don't know. Perhaps it is the very act of Facebook rejecting him was the catalyst of developing the idea of WhatsApp. Many people say that this is the case, if he wasn't rejected, there would be no WhatsApp. Whatever the cause or effect, this has been very positive for people. You can see success, just not the way you want it to be.
Now I don't know whether the timing of such things are of mere coincidence or something more than that. I'm kinda on the fence on this one. Also to make things clear about this, I am not implying that the failure of my interview will signify the rise of my soon-to-be-set-up company. I am not implying that I will ever be that smart. Brian Acton and Jan Koum used to work for Yahoo and together they had a ton of experience and of course the smarts when they started WhatsApp, I just have brain that barely functions. If anything, this whole news thing just convey one message, "Keep calm and carry on".
Psalm 96
Sunday, February 2, 2014
at
11:48 PM
Recently, a friend unknowingly introduced me to a site called The Good Christian Music Blog. The name certainly caught my attention mainly because of the bold name it has chosen to present itself. With a lot of scepticism, I went in anyway. I mean who would have the audacity to claim something like that.
What I found there was nothing short of amazing. So many genres of music covered from the usual styles that we are used to in church to some raise-eyebrow entries as well (80s Christian power ballad anyone?). When was the last time you heard a Christian hip-hop song besides Kirk Franklin? Or Christian electronica? Or even a soulful 60s/70s R&B Christian song? There is some really good stuff if you would open your mind about what constitutes a Christian song.
Pretty much all the entries in the blog are easy on the ears even the genres that I don't normally listen too. Things like hip-hop are not something I listen to because of what we are normally used to listening on the radio or on Spotify. Not only that, these songs have content, perhaps not as theologically fulfilling as some of the songs that we sing in church but they do sing of our God. If anything, this has made me more curious of what other people are doing, providing Christian content yet with the same sort of quality like that of the "secular" music.
One of the things that I am constantly amazed at the people in my church is how vast their areas of ministry cover. I remember that when I first came into this church, I heard about a ministry where people reach out to those in the electronic and dance music scene. At first that was strange, but after hearing some of the testimonies of some of the people serving there, it made a lot of sense. There's is this drummer in the band that also DJs at bars and does his own remixes on the side on his SoundCloud account. It further emphasises the church's mission statement, to know Jesus and to make Him known as well as a better understanding of the Great Commission and Romans 10.
Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) to most of us Christians just mean the songs people like Chris Tomlin, Steven Curtis Chapman, Casting Crowns, Ginny Owens, Sara Groves, Third Day etc. dish out and we cover in church as part of the service. CCM should really be called Contemporary Church Music because of this. It is like hymns sung in church in the 1800s. I'm sure that at that time it would be considered contemporary. If we want to use the phrase Contemporary Christian Music, one must be open to a much broader view of Christian music, even if it means that it is not "suitable" to be covered in church.
"Sing to the Lord a new song"
What I found there was nothing short of amazing. So many genres of music covered from the usual styles that we are used to in church to some raise-eyebrow entries as well (80s Christian power ballad anyone?). When was the last time you heard a Christian hip-hop song besides Kirk Franklin? Or Christian electronica? Or even a soulful 60s/70s R&B Christian song? There is some really good stuff if you would open your mind about what constitutes a Christian song.
Pretty much all the entries in the blog are easy on the ears even the genres that I don't normally listen too. Things like hip-hop are not something I listen to because of what we are normally used to listening on the radio or on Spotify. Not only that, these songs have content, perhaps not as theologically fulfilling as some of the songs that we sing in church but they do sing of our God. If anything, this has made me more curious of what other people are doing, providing Christian content yet with the same sort of quality like that of the "secular" music.
One of the things that I am constantly amazed at the people in my church is how vast their areas of ministry cover. I remember that when I first came into this church, I heard about a ministry where people reach out to those in the electronic and dance music scene. At first that was strange, but after hearing some of the testimonies of some of the people serving there, it made a lot of sense. There's is this drummer in the band that also DJs at bars and does his own remixes on the side on his SoundCloud account. It further emphasises the church's mission statement, to know Jesus and to make Him known as well as a better understanding of the Great Commission and Romans 10.
Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) to most of us Christians just mean the songs people like Chris Tomlin, Steven Curtis Chapman, Casting Crowns, Ginny Owens, Sara Groves, Third Day etc. dish out and we cover in church as part of the service. CCM should really be called Contemporary Church Music because of this. It is like hymns sung in church in the 1800s. I'm sure that at that time it would be considered contemporary. If we want to use the phrase Contemporary Christian Music, one must be open to a much broader view of Christian music, even if it means that it is not "suitable" to be covered in church.
"Sing to the Lord a new song"
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