We've all had them. We need this feature done by so and so date. We need to ship this by the end of the month. Your assignments are due in a week. Often we deal with things that are required to be done and the due dates are beyond our control. And we all dread them.
Yet the more I talk to people about how they got something done for their own personal use, the more it seems that setting your own due dates becomes a good idea. The very thing that we all dread becomes very powerful for getting something done or wanting to do something. This is something that I didn't realise that I was actually doing when I decided to read the Bible front to back in a year. I set myself out to read the Bible in a year after for time and time again that I've been hearing that you can do so from the pastors at my other church. And so I did. I didn't quite finish it in a year but it was pretty close.
The point is that setting yourself a due date and committing to that can have great results. I've asked a colleague how he decided to get his tattoos. He said that he saw a design that he like to have as a tattoo but he decided that he was going to wait for a year and if he still liked the design as a tattoo that he would like to have then he will get it. Sure enough, after a year, he still liked the design and got the tattoo. He did the same thing for his second tattoo only he waited 18 months before he could decide. He never regretted any of them.
This only serves to validate some of my decisions for this year. As this year is a fairly significant year for me with lots of plans in conjunction with this year, I will wait until the year is over. If I still like the plans when I revisit them at the end of the year, I will commit to that. It will cover everything from getting myself something nice all the way up to church ministry. I think it also helps you learn to make the decision, as the song goes "Let it go", and take the consequences of those decisions. Once you have ruminated on something for sometime, it removes the impulse of having to make that decision and weighs up on the pros and cons. But at some point, a decision needs to be made and what better way to GSD than to set a due date. And you stick with it, for all the good and bad that comes with it.
Git Yourself Together
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
at
11:07 PM
TL;DR
Source control your life!
***
It was one of those rare conversations that I take part in maybe twice a year about church but it is often valuable to me because it usually says something about my habits even though I am not as active in this church anymore. It is disappointing to know that some of the problems faced now are almost the same problems as 5 years ago with some minor changes, maybe even a little frustrating. I've come to understand that what is lacking is open channels of communication between the church board and the congregation, a clear and measurable vision and action on both parts.
Having said that, I am an outsider for all intensive purposes so I am not sure that is the full picture of the issues at hand or that I am completely misread the situation altogether. But what I find that is lacking in the church I often find those same problems in me. It's one of those things that micro problems are often the causes for macro problems. Kinda stating the obvious but we all need reminders every now and then. The fingers have been pointed back at me, so it is time for change before I become an old hag.
Which reminds me of the lessons I learnt from other parts. I find that the techniques for using different tools can offer solutions to problems that are beyond the scope of those tools. My case in point: source control.
To those who do not know what on earth source control is, it is a way to track changes of files that are in a repository in a manner that is consistent so that everyone who is working on the file can get the changes remotely. You can revert changes and do other funky things with it but that is the basic gist of it. Having dived to the deep end of source control since I first started, you immediately pick up lots of dos and don'ts that I find are becoming more and more applicable in life as well. Some examples
Source control your life!
***
It was one of those rare conversations that I take part in maybe twice a year about church but it is often valuable to me because it usually says something about my habits even though I am not as active in this church anymore. It is disappointing to know that some of the problems faced now are almost the same problems as 5 years ago with some minor changes, maybe even a little frustrating. I've come to understand that what is lacking is open channels of communication between the church board and the congregation, a clear and measurable vision and action on both parts.
Having said that, I am an outsider for all intensive purposes so I am not sure that is the full picture of the issues at hand or that I am completely misread the situation altogether. But what I find that is lacking in the church I often find those same problems in me. It's one of those things that micro problems are often the causes for macro problems. Kinda stating the obvious but we all need reminders every now and then. The fingers have been pointed back at me, so it is time for change before I become an old hag.
Which reminds me of the lessons I learnt from other parts. I find that the techniques for using different tools can offer solutions to problems that are beyond the scope of those tools. My case in point: source control.
To those who do not know what on earth source control is, it is a way to track changes of files that are in a repository in a manner that is consistent so that everyone who is working on the file can get the changes remotely. You can revert changes and do other funky things with it but that is the basic gist of it. Having dived to the deep end of source control since I first started, you immediately pick up lots of dos and don'ts that I find are becoming more and more applicable in life as well. Some examples
- Commit stuff
- If you are going to do something, do it with purpose and conviction. Not committing anything means that nothing is moving which leads to stagnation followed by decay followed by square one. Let it show up on the radar.
- Commit small changes often
- Basically this is analogous to the Malay proverb "sikit-sikit lama-lama jadi bukit" (literally translated as a little bit at a time eventually becomes a hill). With the added bonus that if you screw up on something, it is easy to fix it because the commit is small. Whether it is committing to playing your scales on the guitar or put two dollars in the savings jar or restructuring how the music team works, do it in small increments. Most of the problems in church can benefit from this but the assumption is that you need to commit something (see #1).
- Don't wait too long before pushing your commits
- Storing up all your changes without telling others that you have/are working on something will mean that something will come along and screw everything up because nobody knew that you were working on something that they are working on as well. Sometimes fixing them are easy but there will be a time where it will just be disgusting. Working on a vision for the church or a new team is the same thing, people outside need to know what you are doing as often as it is possible and not keep it to within the team.
- Fixing mistakes locally are easy and people often don't need to know but once a mistake is pushed, it's not so easy to stop people from seeing it.
- When planning or implementing something, one should plan and make the best changes towards the goal. But when a mistake occurs, it is best to fix it right there and then before it goes out in the open. Do it wrong and put it out in the open and everyone is going to find something to blame, which leads to...
- There is a paper trail to everything you do
- Break something in the project and your colleagues are going to stare at you once they find out that something is broken. There is always someone watching your moves. Don't screw it up.
I'm sure that there are more examples than these but I haven't really thought it through. I'm not even sure that what I said makes any sense or just plain stretching it. It certainly sounded a lot better in my head than on print.
But I have committed to it. Hurhur.
Because of this, I have learned to commit to other things as well. I am committed to cease further development of this blog at a predefined time, buying myself something nice when I have upgraded to version 3.0, shutting the relationship door in 4 years and decide where to spend my energies solely. At any point in time, there may be other changes introduced that might disrupt my commits and I will be compelled to fix them in light of new changes. But until then, they are on the list to be carried out on the way to being pushed out.
Product manage yourself!
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Timing
Saturday, February 22, 2014
at
9:55 PM
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".
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".
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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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Perfect Storm
Sunday, January 19, 2014
at
11:15 PM
TL;DR
I talk about the significance of this year; I become old, squatted for longer than expected and thinking about whether I should squat longer.
***
This year is a very significant year for me. It became significant by accident actually. In fact, if I were to have it my way (and God knows what a disaster that would be) this year wouldn't have been significant at all.
This year is the year that I have been in Australia for 10 years. It is one thing to say that you have spent 18 years of your life in the country growing up, but it is another thing to say that you have lived in another country for a decade. So many things have happened in those 10 years, both good and bad, periods of growing in maturity and times of just pure foolishness. I have never expected to stay here this long. To think that I would stay here for 4 years, max 8 years, is exactly what I was expecting. But it turns out that life had other plans and has initially dragged me, kicking and screaming. But here I am nonetheless, at a place that I wouldn't have seen in coming in a million years. And I have to say that I like where I am now. As I have said to some people, the last 6 years was necessary for the development of my character. I needed to be broken into, to get through the thick skull of pride and immaturity. My extended stay here has taught me a great deal of things and I am glad for it.
This year is the year I will be as old as when Jesus began his ministry. My peers have called it a milestone, much like when one has turned 18 and 21. As I pondered on this, I think I am afraid that I do not see it as a milestone. We use the word milestone in our lives the same way we use it for what it was originally intended as, a measurement of distance, as if there is some fixed distance to some event in this thing we call life. I think a more meaningful way is events. Or if we go by things that we see on the road analogy, one of those "You are now entering" signs. Going to school is a milestone and so is getting your first job, getting married, having your first child, your children leaving home and so on. Entering different regions in life can take different paths, some will take the highway and others the long winding gravel road. You may even end up detouring to somewhere else. And that's fine. The milestone concept has the idea that you should be reaching some goal in a certain amount of time and if you don't, well then something is wrong. Coming to grips with this has been very liberating and in some ways has made me care less about a lot of things and sometimes people. Being this old is an event no doubt, but it is far less significant than getting a job (which was my last "You are now entering ...") and I've even took the long way round. Peers say that I should have a big bash when I do turn another year old this year but I say no. It's just another day. I will, however, accept celebrating when I would have lived for 1 billion seconds (which apparently is on 23rd July 2016 at 1:53.40 PM Malaysian time, ±1 minute)
This year is the year that my temporary visa will expire at the end of the year. It has also been impressed on me that I should decide what should I do with it. A big part of me wants to go to some other place, somewhere I can start again. But the rational me thinks that it is too risky to put all my hopes in one basket and should look to nesting here for a little while more, or at least the possibility of it. It's like signing a contract for another few years and this is not something that you would take lightly. This has moved up the prayer list significantly as well as intensity. I can trust where God will be leading me to, I just need to know where am I going.
It would be almost poetic if I did get what I want for this year because that would hit all of the significance I have outlined this year, but I wouldn't count on it. It would be awesome though. I suppose one can dream...
I talk about the significance of this year; I become old, squatted for longer than expected and thinking about whether I should squat longer.
***
This year is a very significant year for me. It became significant by accident actually. In fact, if I were to have it my way (and God knows what a disaster that would be) this year wouldn't have been significant at all.
This year is the year that I have been in Australia for 10 years. It is one thing to say that you have spent 18 years of your life in the country growing up, but it is another thing to say that you have lived in another country for a decade. So many things have happened in those 10 years, both good and bad, periods of growing in maturity and times of just pure foolishness. I have never expected to stay here this long. To think that I would stay here for 4 years, max 8 years, is exactly what I was expecting. But it turns out that life had other plans and has initially dragged me, kicking and screaming. But here I am nonetheless, at a place that I wouldn't have seen in coming in a million years. And I have to say that I like where I am now. As I have said to some people, the last 6 years was necessary for the development of my character. I needed to be broken into, to get through the thick skull of pride and immaturity. My extended stay here has taught me a great deal of things and I am glad for it.
This year is the year I will be as old as when Jesus began his ministry. My peers have called it a milestone, much like when one has turned 18 and 21. As I pondered on this, I think I am afraid that I do not see it as a milestone. We use the word milestone in our lives the same way we use it for what it was originally intended as, a measurement of distance, as if there is some fixed distance to some event in this thing we call life. I think a more meaningful way is events. Or if we go by things that we see on the road analogy, one of those "You are now entering
This year is the year that my temporary visa will expire at the end of the year. It has also been impressed on me that I should decide what should I do with it. A big part of me wants to go to some other place, somewhere I can start again. But the rational me thinks that it is too risky to put all my hopes in one basket and should look to nesting here for a little while more, or at least the possibility of it. It's like signing a contract for another few years and this is not something that you would take lightly. This has moved up the prayer list significantly as well as intensity. I can trust where God will be leading me to, I just need to know where am I going.
It would be almost poetic if I did get what I want for this year because that would hit all of the significance I have outlined this year, but I wouldn't count on it. It would be awesome though. I suppose one can dream...
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8th Day of Christmas
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
at
11:01 PM
So the first post of the year is about...Christmas?
Yes, I am still listening to Christmas songs just to wring out every bit of the Christmas cheer. Think about it, you won't hear these songs again until Christmas time this year. People doing different arrangements of age old Christmas songs and carols always excite me around Christmas time.
There is nothing wrong with some of the traditional arrangements of these songs but when some of the songs demands the spirit of joy and celebration, sometimes the way these songs are played, especially in church, tend to not draw it out as much as I would like to be. Chris Tomlin's version of Joy To The World where he adds the extra lines about unspeakable joy really hits it home. And the arrangement of that song is a reflection of that joy; big, loud, and for a lack of a better word, very much like Chris Tomlin.
There is one song that currently sits in the category of "it needs more joy" in our arrangements. This is quite possibly my most favourite Christmas song ever and that would be Hark The Herald Angels Sing. A very close second would be Mariah Carrey's All I Want For Christmas Is You, but I digress. So far I haven't found any arrangement of this song that I found to be fitting of joy. There are some interesting arrangements out there but they don't quite fit the bill. Only once that I've heard a worthy arrangement and that was done in my church back home years ago. Unfortunately, that arrangement is undocumented and I don't really know the people in the music ministry to get a hold of a recording, if there is any at all.
And then, I found this.
Boy was I happy to have found this. In true Citizens style, they have created something good. I immediately jumped on my bass and just jammed with it. There's nothing like a good brass section in any band. It's currently on loop because I just can't stop the groove. This also means that I really want to learn a brass instrument really badly, like a trombone. If I would have my way, I'd want all songs to be like this but that would make it boring. This is just gold.
Of course I am biased to say it because it has a Motown feel to it. Whatever.
Yes, I am still listening to Christmas songs just to wring out every bit of the Christmas cheer. Think about it, you won't hear these songs again until Christmas time this year. People doing different arrangements of age old Christmas songs and carols always excite me around Christmas time.
There is nothing wrong with some of the traditional arrangements of these songs but when some of the songs demands the spirit of joy and celebration, sometimes the way these songs are played, especially in church, tend to not draw it out as much as I would like to be. Chris Tomlin's version of Joy To The World where he adds the extra lines about unspeakable joy really hits it home. And the arrangement of that song is a reflection of that joy; big, loud, and for a lack of a better word, very much like Chris Tomlin.
There is one song that currently sits in the category of "it needs more joy" in our arrangements. This is quite possibly my most favourite Christmas song ever and that would be Hark The Herald Angels Sing. A very close second would be Mariah Carrey's All I Want For Christmas Is You, but I digress. So far I haven't found any arrangement of this song that I found to be fitting of joy. There are some interesting arrangements out there but they don't quite fit the bill. Only once that I've heard a worthy arrangement and that was done in my church back home years ago. Unfortunately, that arrangement is undocumented and I don't really know the people in the music ministry to get a hold of a recording, if there is any at all.
And then, I found this.
Boy was I happy to have found this. In true Citizens style, they have created something good. I immediately jumped on my bass and just jammed with it. There's nothing like a good brass section in any band. It's currently on loop because I just can't stop the groove. This also means that I really want to learn a brass instrument really badly, like a trombone. If I would have my way, I'd want all songs to be like this but that would make it boring. This is just gold.
Of course I am biased to say it because it has a Motown feel to it. Whatever.
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