[The Most Loathed] learns....slowly

[The Most Loathed]

6 hours ago, LouCarJo said:

Is a farmers hold just standing there with the weights at your side?

yep  The apartment gym doesn't have a ton of space so "farmers walks" and "waiter walks" don't really involve walking. 

 

Got my first week of programming from KB Coach overnight. It's slightly different than what I posted but close. Obviously I'll be following what I was sent. 

I also ordered a bunch of new kettlebells at her request: 2 x 18 kg, 2 x 22 kg, 2 x 26 kg. I'm not sure when they'll arrive.

[LouCarJo]

49 minutes ago, The Most Loathed said:

yep  The apartment gym doesn't have a ton of space so "farmers walks" and "waiter walks" don't really involve walking. 

 

Got my first week of programming from KB Coach overnight. It's slightly different than what I posted but close. Obviously I'll be following what I was sent. 

I also ordered a bunch of new kettlebells at her request: 2 x 18 kg, 2 x 22 kg, 2 x 26 kg. I'm not sure when they'll arrive.

Sounds expensive!  

 

Btw the colleague of mine I mentioned who refuses to do work because she’s old?  Just been told she’s retiring this summer...  which explains some things.  Bit worried of the impact it’ll have on me - kind of expecting some changing up my routine requests coming my way, which I don’t want.

[Bearlee]

On 3/4/2018 at 3:10 PM, The Most Loathed said:

I enjoyed the show. I'd watch it again. There were some really solid choices (Vern, the Raven) and some terrible ones (Killcrest Falconer, the entire sister plotline, the Ghost). 

Most of what was in season 1 was book 1 of the series. It'll be interesting to see where they go if they get a season 2 because the books move away from the Noir style and into straight up military Sci-Fi. Tak becomes less human and less sympathetic in the later books, in my opinion. The character they built could easily be spun off into original stories that would be fascinating in their own right. In fact, after writing that, I really hope that is what they do. 

Don't sweat the aliens (The Martians specifically). They don't explain those until book 3. In book 1 they are little more than a footnote. I can spoil what is going on there if you would like and trust my memory.

As with many adaptations, there are enough changes that it has kind of taken on a life of its own. That said, I don't dislike it. I like the book better but I enjoy both if a bit differently. I think they guy that they got to play Tak/Riker was a great choice. If they get a season 2 they have to decide what to do about the fact that he turned in that sleeve. You could a make a really cool theme out of having a different star each year but some people won't like that. Literally, the entire cast list would change except maybe the actors that play Tak in memories. 

 

Glad you enjoyed the show. And I don’t need spoilers for the aliens, I can wait, but thought it odd that they were never really mentioned in the show. What was it about Quillcrest, the Ghost, and the sister plot line you didn’t like? And I wouldn’t mind the show moving away from the Noir to a more military Sci-Fi since that is kind of what I was expecting this time, but the mood was very good and the themes a little more thought provoking than some other Sci-Fi series.

 

What happens to Ortega in the upcoming books? Is she just dropped? And I have a feeling that in the second season (read online that it will be released in 2019) that when Tak casts off world they will “miraculously” have Riker’s body cloned on whichever planet he ends up on. I think the actor that plays Tak is a lot of what makes the show enjoyable.

 

Would you say that if I read the second book that I would be able to understand what’s going on from the show or would it be better to read the first book? And does the series hold up well over the three books or does it wander off and become something different?

[Rooks]

On 2/27/2018 at 5:43 PM, The Most Loathed said:

I just realized that I either need to figure out how to change the name of this log or start a new one as the purpose of the name was that I was no longer looking for coaches. hmm.

 

On 3/2/2018 at 7:16 AM, The Most Loathed said:

Here begins [The Most Loathed] learns...slowly

 

At first, I thought you had started another challenge thread and I was surprised. But I saw it was 64 pages long and was amazed at how popular your thread had become (not that you aren't an interesting guy, but 64 pages in 4 weeks would be impressive)! Then I took a swig of coffee, started actually reading the thread, and I caught up. 

 

On 3/3/2018 at 3:24 AM, LouCarJo said:

It all reaffirmed my views (1) and (2).  And reconfirmed that I need to remember that work’s a contract and I have to keep in check whether the balance between what I give and what I receive remains acceptable.  And never again give my soul to work!

 

On 3/3/2018 at 5:09 PM, The Most Loathed said:

I'm glad I read all the way through this. These last couple sentences are solid gold.

 

Agreed. I'm tend to lean too far towards "Don't live your life for work" which tends to me slacking off a bit too often, but I go on binges where I'll be wanting to work at night and on weekends, and my wife is very quick to point out that I don't want that and have told her suck on many occasions. Always a balance. 

[The Most Loathed]

6 hours ago, Bearlee said:

Glad you enjoyed the show. And I don’t need spoilers for the aliens, I can wait, but thought it odd that they were never really mentioned in the show. What was it about Quillcrest, the Ghost, and the sister plot line you didn’t like? And I wouldn’t mind the show moving away from the Noir to a more military Sci-Fi since that is kind of what I was expecting this time, but the mood was very good and the themes a little more thought provoking than some other Sci-Fi series.

 

What happens to Ortega in the upcoming books? Is she just dropped? And I have a feeling that in the second season (read online that it will be released in 2019) that when Tak casts off world they will “miraculously” have Riker’s body cloned on whichever planet he ends up on. I think the actor that plays Tak is a lot of what makes the show enjoyable.

 

Would you say that if I read the second book that I would be able to understand what’s going on from the show or would it be better to read the first book? And does the series hold up well over the three books or does it wander off and become something different?

 

Altered Carbon Spoilers Ahoy

When I saw the sister show up as the miraculous,. bullet dodging ninja, I was pissed. There are at least two problems here. First, is that Morgan's story telling is so tight, he would never never allowed that nonsense. That's what I love about his style. There's no secret, magical ninjas to save the day. The second issue is just that there is no sister in the book. That's a weird pedantic thing for me but if you are turning a book into a movie, I get that things get dropped and condensed but I hate when they make up whole new characters. I was kind of sad to see Raylene Kowahara go away, who occupies this antagonist role.

Similar to point two above, Quillcrest isn't in the story. She's a long dead revolutionary and poet. They brought her in to replace Virginia Vadora, kind of replaced by Jaeger too, and Jimmy Desota, the person who Tak sees in his hallucinations and dreams. I thought it was odd when they suddenly mention Jimmy in the second to last episode with absolutely no explanation of who he was throughout the series. He's the guy who Tak bickers with in the Envoys. And that, is the third problem with Quillcrest, the Envoys aren't a rebel gang, they are a badass military unit way above CTac. It makes a lot more sense that he would become this amazing soldier with them than with the rag tag team of rebels. I had at least one other objection but I've forgotten it

The Ghost is kind of Trep in the book but Trep is just another Merc whereas the ghost has this really inexplicable religious streak that is never properly explained, nor is the magical technology they gave him.Just a sloppy character.

 

From one book to the next, it's a whole new cast.He jumps planets, years and sleeves. I also have the suspicion that they will keep the actor. I think he played it well. This is where I feel like they can have some fun creating stories "inspired by the series". That will also get rid of some of my hang ups about what's in the book or isn't.

 

It's been a long time since I read all three. I'm planning to listen to 2 and 3 again when I finish book 1 on audio. My memory is that the transition into each book is jarring, almost like resleeving but I recall loving them. I recall that I liked book 3 the least. It gets pretty far into the Martian thing and I really didn't understand why other than he wanted a big finale to the series. 

There's the idea in D&D and story telling that you have to keep upping the ante but at a certain pace. You see this in ten book cycles where book one is saving the town, book three is saving the nation, book five or six is being internationally important and books nine and ten are about saving the world or the universe. It felt like he tried to encapsulate this arc in three books. 

All that said, I enjoyed them a lot. I like the character of Tak. I like the Universe he lives in. They're light and pulpy so I'd say give them a read or listen but you don't need to do them back to back.

 

3 hours ago, Rooks said:

 

At first, I thought you had started another challenge thread and I was surprised. But I saw it was 64 pages long and was amazed at how popular your thread had become (not that you aren't an interesting guy, but 64 pages in 4 weeks would be impressive)! Then I took a swig of coffee, started actually reading the thread, and I caught up. 

First time you've ever done that

Didn't you know I'm suddenly and international superstar and everyone wants to read my long and rambling thread about kettlebells and how I'm awesome?

 

 

Monday 

Scouts got cancelled due to a snowstorm. Laura was going to head to the gym for yoga and I was going to do very light cardio and lots of rolling and stretching but the gym cancelled classes. So we did a restorative yoga video at home. It was nice.

 

Tonight I kettlebell.

[Sloth the Enduring]

Don’t forget your long and rambling KB thread tomorrow. I have been waiting for those.

[The Most Loathed]

24 minutes ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Don’t forget your long and rambling KB thread tomorrow. I have been waiting for those.

I'll start thinking now

 

I had an idea this morning for a very "old man" ramble. Maybe I'll subject you to that. 

[The Most Loathed]

Workout Tuesday 03/06/2018

• Swing, Swing, Long Cycle 20 kg x 2 6:00 - great sweat, forearm burn but everything else felt really good
• Jerks 20 kg x 2, 2:00
  • set 1 12 RPM
  • set 2 12 RPM
  • set 3 10 RPM for minute 1, 6 RPM for minute 2, it was either that or quit
• Long Cycle 24 kg x 2, 5 x 5
  • I screwed up on this one. I was supposed to do jerks. Just didn't check my notes. These felt really good and easy though

That was it. Pretty low volume. The jerks were tough. Since I had time to spare I spent extra time stretching and cooling down

 

Saving up for a big rant for sloth. 

[Rooks]

10 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

Saving up for a big rant for sloth. 

 

[The Most Loathed]

"When they ask you how I died, tell them 'Still angry'" - Quellcrist Falconer

 

In an effort to further tease sloth along, I had a beer (or two ) tonight, played a podcast and opened my mind to possible topics on which to shake my fist (which reminds me, topic ideaa "Fanny's fist of rage"). Here are some notes. sorry for the handwriting. I know I write like a child.

 

workout tonight, job 5 miles at 5.7 on the treadmill on "aerobic" setting

[Bearlee]

5 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

"When they ask you how I died, tell them 'Still angry'" - Quellcrist Falconer

 

In an effort to further tease sloth along, I had a beer (or two ) tonight, played a podcast and opened my mind to possible topics on which to shake my fist (which reminds me, topic ideaa "Fanny's fist of rage"). Here are some notes. sorry for the handwriting. I know I write like a child.

 

workout tonight, job 5 miles at 5.7 on the treadmill on "aerobic" setting

 

First where is @deftona when you need her to explain what is so wrong with “Fanny’s fist of rage” title (or perphaps what is so right about it).

 

Before I was anxiously waiting for the long rant because your’s are epic but this might be next level stuff. And it seems you really dislike goals since you’ve got it listed twice. Will be interested in what you have to say there since I’ve been leaning more toward goals lately and read a book that I like that was just titled “Goals”.

 

 

[The Most Loathed]

3 hours ago, Bearlee said:

First where is @deftona when you need her to explain what is so wrong with “Fanny’s fist of rage” title (or perphaps what is so right about it).

 

Before I was anxiously waiting for the long rant because your’s are epic but this might be next level stuff. And it seems you really dislike goals since you’ve got it listed twice. Will be interested in what you have to say there since I’ve been leaning more toward goals lately and read a book that I like that was just titled “Goals”.

If Deftona is British then I think I know the punchline

 

Goals being garbage is listed twice because the title of the episode was "Goals are Stupid", also I do hate goals.

 

Why Goals Suck

Much is made of how important goals are. There are systems, classes and books written on the subject. Even what a goal is has shifted as people have dissected and then restitched it together as a Frankensteinian creation.

I think the most common format for a goal these days is the SMART goal. These were developed in response to what people saw as goals that were incompleteable. For example, if my goal was to "lose weight for the beach" or even more commonly "lose weight", what does that mean? What's enough weight? When do I want to lose it by? SMART goals require that I specifically say "lose 15 lbs by May 1" or maybe "weigh 205 lbs on May 1".

There are a few problems with the above. If I lose 10 pounds by May 1, it's viewed as a failure by most systems. There's no allowance for the dynamism of life. If I get sick I may not care about 15 lbs.  Also, is my "objective" really to lose 15 lbs or am I really just trying to look more attractive for the beach? What if I lift my butt off and gain 5 lbs but look good doing it?

My usual reply to all of the above is to completely skip the goal and think about methodology. Worry less about losing 15 lbs unless that is really the goal (like if you need to make weight for a competition) and put together a system that works. So assuming I want to look good for the beach, build out workouts for the next two months in which I'm doing lots of hypertrophy training, a diet that I think will allow me to not have a surplus but also has lost of "clean" foods. The program is the goal in this case because I'm just executing on it day to day. I never touch a scale.

This podcast I was listening to was taking a different tack. They covered it better on some previous episode that I have not heard but they like themes. So maybe March and April would be my "look good" themed months. Each day I'd try to do a couple things that are geared towards my eventual goal of "looking good". It lacks the structure I laid out above but it is also more reactive then anything I've said previously, which is a blessing and a curse. If I want to lift for gainz all month because I think it will achieve my goal of looking good. If I get injured at the end of the month then I stick to my theme of looking good but I scale back training and focus on dieting. 

I'm not sure that I'm sold on the idea of themes over structure which was how these guys talked about it. However, they are two guys who are really driven by structure so I think they might be underselling how much structure they put in place to support their themes.

 

 

man, it's impossible to do a nice ramble when I feel time pressure. I'll try and clear more time to do more of these in the future. 

[Plazmotic]

20 minutes ago, The Most Loathed said:

My usual reply to all of the above is to completely skip the goal and think about methodology.

I think this is very sound reasoning! I think fixating on the outcome can doom so many people.

 

26 minutes ago, The Most Loathed said:

I'm not sure that I'm sold on the idea of themes over structure

This is why I don't do New Years Resolutions, and I used to pick "keywords" for the year instead.

[WhiteGhost]

14 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

Goals being garbage is listed twice because the title of the episode was "Goals are Stupid", also I do hate goals.

This sounds a lot like what Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) talks about all the time.. He is also a goal hater / system proponent

[Bearlee]

21 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

My usual reply to all of the above is to completely skip the goal and think about methodology. Worry less about losing 15 lbs unless that is really the goal (like if you need to make weight for a competition) and put together a system that works. So assuming I want to look good for the beach, build out workouts for the next two months in which I'm doing lots of hypertrophy training, a diet that I think will allow me to not have a surplus but also has lost of "clean" foods. The program is the goal in this case because I'm just executing on it day to day. I never touch a scale.

 

Yes, I get what you are saying and it makes a lot of sense. However I guess I use goals differently than most in that a goal allows me to set a direction I want to go and is a measuring stick to where I’m at in trying to get to that point. For example I want to lose weight so I make an educated guess to how much would be safe in a certain amount of time. First it makes me focus on where I want to go and allows me to see how far I’ve come. But in order to achieve that I need to set a program in place to help me get there (like you are saying about methodology) but once I set the method I view them as smaller goals to get to my larger goal. For example to lose the weight, I’m doing yoga, walking, and keeping a food journal. The yoga I do three days a week (my goal for this method), walk 10k steps five days per week (goal for this method), and write everything down I eat (also a goal I try to achieve). But now I haven’t been losing the weight I thought I should, so now I analyze what could be going wrong. I see I’m not losing weight but I am losing inches, so I may not be achieving the goal but I’m moving in the right direction which willl lead me to my goal. I might just be quibbling semantics because I think we both agree that there needs to be something that allows you to keep focus.

 

Do you happen to know which podcast that is that you mentioned?

[Sylvaa]

Oh I want to hear more about your manager rant, because I am dealing with someone who wants to be a manager, but doesn't know how to manage or do the work..... 

[Rooks]

So many topics on that page interest me or I fall prey too. 

• To Do vs. Journal
  • The notebook I carry constantly wavers between the two.
• What is my goal with Python?
  • Programming is one of those things that I want to learn more, but I find so hard to start doing something useful when it's not my job.
• Email is Bullshit
  • Fun Article around what happens when you get rid of E-mail #1: https://venturebeat.com/2015/08/01/our-startup-got-rid-of-email-meetings-and-managers-and-thrived/
  • Fun Article around what happens when you get rid of E-mail #2: https://redbooth.com/blog/outlaw-email-under-new-management-excerpt
• I was a winning wrestler on a losing team
  • Not sure I can classify myself as winning (I was 16-8 my senior year and the best I ever did at a tournament was 3rd), but I love wrestling topics.  
• Never tell a customer you are busy.
  • I'm intrigued on this one as you have it in quotes, which makes me wonder if you are for or against this quote. 

[Sloth the Enduring]

If we’re picking topics, I’d like to get your drunken take on the demise of civilization.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[The Most Loathed]

You gues missed an Epic rant today. I'm going to redact part of it and put it in spolier tags. To give you a little context, this person and I maybe aren't friends but we're of a like mind. I think we would get along great if we ever met. He and I have been working up some proof-of-concept work with Python at work. He's "The Python Guy" or one of two anyway and has been trying to get Python's foot in the door to my data set.

We were taking turns ranting and being optimistic.

 

 

[person],

 

I’m a big proponent of what Python can do. In my last role, where you helped me get started on this project, I cut out hours of work by automating reporting processes that, frankly, should already have been automated. I was queued up to do more but ran into two roadblocks that I think are relevant:

·         Light Automation Team – this team does some light weight excel macros for basic screen scraping stuff. I tried talking to them because I reverse engineering a macro they wrote because it had ceased to work. It’s their take that they are the only ones who should be doing automation and they want it to be a black box. That whole attitude needs to go as you press forward.

·         Access to data – similar to above, data at [My Company] lives in walled gardens. My old team needed access to all those walled gardens. The reason I shifted to the ELZ is that we have the potential to be a huge botanical garden, featuring multiple biomes and all for one low cost of entry. While not every Pythonista is a data scientist, I really think that most of us need that kind of access to be effective.

 

The above bullets are also why I shifted to the team I’m currently on. I saw my first job as unlocking the enormous pile of data we have within the ELZ. Predictably, it’s going much slower and has many more challenges than I accounted for in making the switch but I’m making slow progress. Unfortunately I have be shifted into the role of “unlocking the data” at the cost of getting to leverage the possible power of using Python both within the ELZ and to access it.

 

There are a few challenges in connecting Python, some of which I just need to solve and some of which are a bit above either of our pay grade. Some of them are cultural as well. The relatively easy one is figuring out Kerberos authentication with Python. You can no longer access even DEV with a username or password, you have to use Kerberos. The biggest challenge here is a quirk of my computer. For reasons I can’t explain, nor a can anyone else, we can’t get the drivers to work on my computer. I can set you up with access to a low-risk dev data set and give you the instructions I use with customers if you want to take a swing at this.

 

Connecting to PROD is very challenging because it’s within the enclave. For customers to do so currently requires that they have a server (usually MS SQL or SAS) that can be used. This is because we have to get and ISS firewall exception from said server to the ELZ. We haven’t tried playing with using a statically addressed workstation yet but this is a challenge outside of my immediate group that has to be solved for this to be a reality. There is a plan for a Knox server that will alleviate this issue but it’s between six and twelve months away, depending on who you ask. I would lean toward the long end of that estimate.

 

Regarding many of the Hadoop specific packages (PySpark and even a Zeppelin server), the admins are aware of these things and, for the most part, just don’t care. They have a generally apathetic take on the ELZ. They want to have Hadoop 2.x running and won’t everyone just leave them alone then? There is at least one guy, [Junior Architect], who does get excited about the idea of a Jupyter Notebook like tool within the ELZ. He and I are meeting weekly now for a variety of reasons but I try to sprinkle in little updates about Python in  there to keep him excited.

 

This starts to get at the heart of a disconnect that you’re starting to witness. Our leadership is enthusiastic about anything that will help the [company] at large. They know that they don’t understand the nuts and bolts. So they pass down priorities that get heard but not implemented. The real prioritization comes from two people [Senior Admin] and [Senior Architect]. [Senior Admin] is out lead admin and [Senior Architect] our lead architect. These are the two that will actually decide what gets installed and supported and when.

 

To be fair to those two, there is good reason for some caution. I would not currently describe the ELZ as stable or dependable. We can’t consistently set up users. In March I don’t think we’ve had a day that the on-call support folks haven’t been working around the clock for some production issue. In all frankness, we aren’t very good at what we don right now but are being forced to grow to meet a demand.

 

It’s a real conundrum. I truly believe that we need to have the ELZ up and running to remain competitive. Without it our data environment at [My Company] is a liability. Part of me says we stop all new stuff and get this thing right. Part me says that we’re so far behind that we can’t afford to do that. But then there is the cost of continuing to develop a system that has flaws right down at its core. I truly don’t know if we should be moving faster or pulling back.

 

I’m friends with a Data Scientist for [Retail Giant]. The other day we met for beers and to talk about a Python project/competition we’ve been having between us. He had his work laptop there and showed me their Hadoop solution. [My Company] is an embarrassment in light of what they’re doing over there. He works day to day with a blend of Bash and Python and is doing some really fun stuff. I got to see the Python code that runs their recommendation engine. It’s built out as library that anyone can call.  That’s where [My Company] needs to go.

 

So, our Hadoop solution needs to get its act together. We need to stabilize. We need to get tools like Zeppelin in here but then we have to get users. The data literacy and code competence at [My Company] is appalling and it’s reinforced by top tier leadership because they don’t know any better. The idea of a program doing what a human can do is frightening to our leaders. The idea that literally everyone who makes above $50k needs to have some code literacy isn’t even on the table, but that’s where we need to be.

 

When it comes to the Hadoop issues, I’m going to keep driving. My hope is that this frees you up to work on the other gaps (fear of automation, code literacy and acceptance). I guess, as I’m thinking, I think that there have got to be other people in this company that feel like they are shouting into the maelstrom when it comes to improving our data literacy and code competence, even if they aren’t Python people. Is there some kind of opportunity for us there? Can we make the broad strokes of what we’re trying to do more important and more common place to facilitate getting the details right?

 

Workout last night

• Long Cycle 20 kg x 2 2:00, 1:00 x 5 8 RPM
  • These felt really good but it was getting my HR up. I think I could have done a couple more sets then would have started hitting failure
• Snatch 16kg 6:00, hold each rep overhead for 3 seconds
  • this was an error. These were supposed to be swing, swing, snatch with the hold. the hold was the difficult part
• Overhead hold 20 kg x 2 0:30, 0:30 x 3
  • These were brutal, I barely finished my third set
• Rack hold 20 kg x 2 1:00, 1:00x 2
  • pretty easy actually

I walked out of the gym feeling like I had plenty left in the tank. This is one difference I have noticed with what I will call "quality"  programming. When I program or my one crappy coach experience, I feel Done when I'm done. With quality coaching, I feel like I could do more each time but still make progress that I don't make alone.

 

 

 

On 3/8/2018 at 7:45 AM, Plazmotic said:

I think this is very sound reasoning! I think fixating on the outcome can doom so many people.

 

This is why I don't do New Years Resolutions, and I used to pick "keywords" for the year instead.

Your keywords idea is similar to the "themes" they talked about on the podcast. I think there is value in this

 

16 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

This sounds a lot like what Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) talks about all the time.. He is also a goal hater / system proponent

I suspect it has something to do with the kind of nerd you are. If you see the world as a set of systems and rules, neither good nor bad but just how you get through, you probably tend to go straight to the systems and skip over the gloss of goals.

 

9 hours ago, Bearlee said:

 

Yes, I get what you are saying and it makes a lot of sense. However I guess I use goals differently than most in that a goal allows me to set a direction I want to go and is a measuring stick to where I’m at in trying to get to that point. For example I want to lose weight so I make an educated guess to how much would be safe in a certain amount of time. First it makes me focus on where I want to go and allows me to see how far I’ve come. But in order to achieve that I need to set a program in place to help me get there (like you are saying about methodology) but once I set the method I view them as smaller goals to get to my larger goal. For example to lose the weight, I’m doing yoga, walking, and keeping a food journal. The yoga I do three days a week (my goal for this method), walk 10k steps five days per week (goal for this method), and write everything down I eat (also a goal I try to achieve). But now I haven’t been losing the weight I thought I should, so now I analyze what could be going wrong. I see I’m not losing weight but I am losing inches, so I may not be achieving the goal but I’m moving in the right direction which willl lead me to my goal. I might just be quibbling semantics because I think we both agree that there needs to be something that allows you to keep focus.

 

Do you happen to know which podcast that is that you mentioned?

It's the Cortex podcast. It feature CPG Grey, on of the best Yourtubers I know of, and a guy from a pen podcast I used to listen to. It's a long form podcast so I had to stop listening consistently just for time cost but I catch and episode now and again. They talk a lot about life in running a business for yourself and of yourself. 

 

I'm going to offer a foil to how you use goals but I want you to hear me that it's as an exercise. Like every good religous argument, I want people to do what works for them and doesen't hurt other people. If goals work for you, I don't want to take them away. That said, here is my foil:

Your stated goal is to "lose weight". Your methods actually have very little to do with losing weight. yoga and walking may push you in that direction but not with a firm hand. A food jouranl helps you be aware of your intake but at no point did I see anything about a calorie restriction or any other weight loss philosphy. In fact, at the end of your paragraph you acknowledged that you did not achieve your goal. You decided, in retrospect, that what you did was good though. 

For the record, I totally agree with your revision but it tells me the goal was wrong all along. The weight wasn't the thing, getting healthier was but you've been taugh that that is not a valid goal because it's not objective enough. If you had said "my goal was to do yoga X time a week, walk Y steps a day and logy Z days a week" then you could measure it but again, you've been taught that these aren't good enough so you didn't. 

Now, if I told you that you couldn't take Cub1 to Philmont in a couple years unless your bodyweight was less than A, then the weight would really be the goal and I'm sure you would hit it. Your methods would align to this goal and if you weren't going where you wanted you'd change your methods, not revise your goal. 

 

6 hours ago, Sylvaa said:

Oh I want to hear more about your manager rant, because I am dealing with someone who wants to be a manager, but doesn't know how to manage or do the work..... 

I have had managers that don't know how to do the work they manage and managers who know how to do the work very well and in truth, I often prefer the former. There's a huge caveat here, they have to know that this is the situation. I'll explain, at length, because that's what I do.

My current manager is a really good developer. If he was still a developer, he would be a paragon I would hold up and say "this is how you should be a developer". But he's not a developer, he's a manager. 

There's an inherent misconception in business that being the best at something means you should be the leader of that thing. That's not true at all. You don't take the best football player and assume he can coach. You let him play ball as long as possible and hopefully with someone who is an amazing coach over him. Because if you make him a coach he will micromanger whoever is in his position after him while ignoring every other position except to tell them to do a better job of supporting his old role. This is what I'm seeing. 

A manager who doesn't know how to do the work can be very effective assuming she 1) knows she doesn't know how to do it and 2) trusts her employees. I've had one of these. Each week we'd meet, I'd go through my list in order and tell him very realistically, "I'm only going to get to these two here, if you want me to do something else, tell me now." Some weeks we would change the priority but he trusted me and saw it as his job to have thsoe conversations with other leaders and remove roadblocks.

That last sentance I think really gets at the meat of the issue, what is a manager's job? I don't think this question is explored enough. I'd argue that a competent manager is just as I described, the don't try to do individual contributor work but focus one step back. It's to prioritize, organize and coordiante. It's their job to make it so their employee never has to explain why they are doing one thing over another or field and email from someone who is grumpy that their thing isn't done. A truly great manager also servers as a teach, mentor and coach but that doesn't always work.

If someone doesn't know how to manage or do the work, they're worse than useless. If they're already a manager then there's not a lot you can do as a subordinate. You can try to coach them but that depends almost entirely on their willingness yo learn and you usually don't get unqualified managers who are open to the idea that they don't know how to manage. It also means that in the short term the subordinates have to take on a lot of the manager's lead and teach them how to do it.

If your person isn't yet a manager, but is an individual contributor it usually easier to deal with. I'm a big fan of "lead" roles. The challenge is, what infrastructure does your company have to support young managers. Often the answer is "none" in which case, you're hosed. You, as one of the senior and more competent workers has to take on the workof grooming the new person. It's the pretty classic Master Sergeant gromming up a new lietenant. The latter out ranks the former but if both of them are good at their jobs, the put on that face in front of other people but behind closed doors, they know which way the power structure flows.

 

1 hour ago, Rooks said:

So many topics on that page interest me or I fall prey too. 

• To Do vs. Journal
  • The notebook I carry constantly wavers between the two.
• What is my goal with Python?
  • Programming is one of those things that I want to learn more, but I find so hard to start doing something useful when it's not my job.
• Email is Bullshit
  • Fun Article around what happens when you get rid of E-mail #1: https://venturebeat.com/2015/08/01/our-startup-got-rid-of-email-meetings-and-managers-and-thrived/
  • Fun Article around what happens when you get rid of E-mail #2: https://redbooth.com/blog/outlaw-email-under-new-management-excerpt
• I was a winning wrestler on a losing team
  • Not sure I can classify myself as winning (I was 16-8 my senior year and the best I ever did at a tournament was 3rd), but I love wrestling topics.  
• Never tell a customer you are busy.
  • I'm intrigued on this one as you have it in quotes, which makes me wonder if you are for or against this quote. 

So much here, to do vs journal, they were making the case that these two should be different. This is very much a "do what works for you" thing. For me they are different things. What you're looking at right now, for lack of a better term, is my jouranl. I rant and wax poetic here.I exercise my demons. Sometimes I'll talk broadly about what I'mg going to do but it's not a point by point. For a given day, though, I will write out a list that specifically says do X and Y and it may or may not relate to what's in my "journal". 

Python - I haven't worked through this yet myself, I'll come back to it

Wrestler - saving this one up. Maybe this weekend

 

"Never tell a customer that you are busy"

This is an opinion I hold. It's not popular. 

When you call a help line and get the recording of "we are experiencing high call volume...." the first thing I think most people do is roll their eyes or a make a mocking gesture because they don't care and it feels like wasted breath. How often do you hear or even say during work "I'm really busy". Everyone is busy, all the time. It's not being busy that matters, it's what will you get to today. 

So I don't tell people "I'm really buys" because of course I am. I do tell them "I didn't work on this this week". If they ask why I tell them that A, B, and C were the priorites set by management. If they ask how they can get in one of those slots, I point them to management. See my whole thing about what a manger does to get why I think this is valid. 

I will add one additional thing to this. It should never be a surprise that I didn't get to something. If it's a surprise, that's my fault. If I have a deadline that I'm going to miss or even just cut too close, I need to say that as soon as I notice. If a project gets deprioritized, hopefully my manager is communicating this. If he is not, again,  Ineed to get out ahead of this. 

People are really surpised to learn this but coworkers are surprisingly flexible if you're honest out front with them.The problem is, people get "busy" which is really code for stressed, and clam up. Then they surprise people with missed deadlines and people get upset, not because it's late but because of the surprise. They probably had plans based off the assumption that I would deliver and I didn't nor did I tell them.

I have had a few customers who gripe if they aren't top priority and I haven't always had a manager who will address this. That means it falls to me to deal with it. I'll do that for a while but I am totally unafraid to tell them to go to my manager. When my manager comes to me to ask why I will force him to prioritze at that point.If he deprioritizes something I ask him to communicate it. 

So, it's part of training my manager and part training my customers. It also means though that I haveto be transparentand accountable which can be super scary to step into. Once you get into it though, it's freeing. Imagine never or very rarely feeling like "if this next hour of work doesn't go perfectly I have to tell these guys I screwed up" because you've been up front from jump that this is really coming down to the wire and warning them they may have to wait until tomorrow.

This whole thing even goes back to my goals reply to Bearlee. My goal isn't to do X by Y date. My goal is to do X to satsfaction. Y date does not matter so take it out of the goal. Make it variable,not a constant. If Y date matter more than X spec, well then your goal is to do as much of X as you can. Y becomes the constant and x becomes the variable.There areedge cases where this won't work but you'd be surprised how rare these are.

 

Email is bullshit....definitely coming back to this one. I plan to start working ing eliminating email on my team next week. Thanks for the articles by the way

 

 

[The Most Loathed]

7 minutes ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

If we’re picking topics, I’d like to get your drunken take on the demise of civilization.

can do but not now.

 

the bad new: there are no tanker rigs being driven across a CGI desert in my version. Instead a lot of people die painfully.

[LouCarJo]

Your Python musings leave me confused, but good other stuff here.

 

- Definitely what you said about good coaches not killing you but pushing you to incremental and constant gains.

 

- I’ve had so many managers who got the position through being good at the work.  And they were terrible managers.  One even got his secretary to cancel our 121s that were in his diary (for every three months), on the basis they were clogging up his diary.  I don’t think I’ve actually ever had a manager who took time to discuss stuff with me at all beside the occasional (once a year or so) chat.  And often then it was when something had gone properly

wrong.  My current manager will have a little chat with me once a week, but it’s more of a chat and I have to instigate it.  I’ve got used to managing myself.

 

- I totally agree with your busyness thoughts.  However it’s come to bite me before.  I led one of two sub-teams under one guy, and he hated the fact that my sub-team was under control while the other was not but presented as busier.  When a deadline was approaching once, i told him we actually needed to be done with the substance a couple of days before, to allow time for things that took the time they did, like getting stuff printed and bound.  He went and asked the other sub-team, who told him they were fine to work on the substance right up to the deadline.  When the deadline came, my sub-team was done, whilst the other needed an extension.  Top dog guy told me I shouldn’t be smug.  His attitude was if you’re not busy then you’re being lazy.  Whereas I, to adopt your description, was taking the deadline Y as the immovable factor and aiming to get X, the substance of the work, as good as possible by Y but not to the extent that Y would be jeopardised.

 

Re your other topics, the cost of living abroad.  It depends very much where you’re living!  And what you’re doing.  And your life stage.  I found being employed in a fairly low level job in Paris doable on a low income as my employer had to pay for my travel, subsidised my lunch (which I could game and get a contribution to dinner out of), and pay me overtime for anything I did above 35 hours a week up to a maximum of about 200 hours a year.  But I lived in a studio flat at the cost of half my income and didn’t spend much at all on entertainment or fitness stuff as I do nowadays.  Now my mortgage is a lower proportion of my income but some things are super expensive (outrageous travel costs just to get to work), council tax is a lot each month and not well designed so the middle are disproportionately affected by it, pension pots need filling, expensive things in the home break, and I choose to spend a lot on fitness.  And I no longer live in a studio!  I saw a home building programme recently where a guy built himself a tree house as a home - one main room with a bedroom off it, then a hot tub on the roof.  I think I could be happy in that if I was on my own.  

[The Most Loathed]

5 hours ago, LouCarJo said:

Your Python musings leave me confused, but good other stuff here.

If you have thoughts, you are welcome to share, even when they disagree with my own.

 

5 hours ago, LouCarJo said:

 I’ve got used to managing myself.

unfortunately, this is key.  A lot of what I do is managing myself while training my manager to take some of that work. I will even try to do the thing of making something seem like their idea. If you can't get their time at all, like you described, that just sucks. There's nothin you can do with that.

 

5 hours ago, LouCarJo said:

- I totally agree with your busyness thoughts.  However it’s come to bite me before.  I led one of two sub-teams under one guy, and he hated the fact that my sub-team was under control while the other was not but presented as busier.  When a deadline was approaching once, i told him we actually needed to be done with the substance a couple of days before, to allow time for things that took the time they did, like getting stuff printed and bound.  He went and asked the other sub-team, who told him they were fine to work on the substance right up to the deadline.  When the deadline came, my sub-team was done, whilst the other needed an extension.  Top dog guy told me I shouldn’t be smug.  His attitude was if you’re not busy then you’re being lazy.  Whereas I, to adopt your description, was taking the deadline Y as the immovable factor and aiming to get X, the substance of the work, as good as possible by Y but not to the extent that Y would be jeopardised.

This sucks. I totally feel you on this. When other people don't take responsibility for their own stuff it can hurt. I think it's the prevailing wisdom that you should have that dead sprint at the end and turn it in half finished. To do otherwise is "lazy". Obviously I'm not a fan.

 

5 hours ago, LouCarJo said:

Re your other topics, the cost of living abroad.  It depends very much where you’re living!  And what you’re doing.  And your life stage.  I found being employed in a fairly low level job in Paris doable on a low income as my employer had to pay for my travel, subsidised my lunch (which I could game and get a contribution to dinner out of), and pay me overtime for anything I did above 35 hours a week up to a maximum of about 200 hours a year.  But I lived in a studio flat at the cost of half my income and didn’t spend much at all on entertainment or fitness stuff as I do nowadays.  Now my mortgage is a lower proportion of my income but some things are super expensive (outrageous travel costs just to get to work), council tax is a lot each month and not well designed so the middle are disproportionately affected by it, pension pots need filling, expensive things in the home break, and I choose to spend a lot on fitness.  And I no longer live in a studio!  I saw a home building programme recently where a guy built himself a tree house as a home - one main room with a bedroom off it, then a hot tub on the roof.  I think I could be happy in that if I was on my own.  

These are real discussions we are having. What you're reporting aligns with what I've seen elsewhere. One, usually young, person with a middle to low standard of living (by American standards) can do this very effectively. Where people, at least Americans, seem to get in trouble is trying to pick up their life in the US and land it abroad, whole cloth. Laura and I have already geared down to an apartment which would help but I think we'd need to go a step or two smaller, which means less stuff. As it is we're practically bursting at the seams with stuff (as much mine as hers so this isn't a blame thing).

Initially we'd presumably need to live in a furnished apartment which means sleeping on whatever bed is there, sitting on whatever sofa is there. Add to the the complexities of either trying to find work in a foreign language or coordinate timezones, things get rough. 

When we first got together we talked about moving to Europe but didn't for all the reasons that people don't. After our trip other there it's a topic again. We can definitely afford to get ourselves there but making it sustainable is the challenge. 

[The Most Loathed]

I haven't done a supplement in a long time but I'm debating switching to a shake for breakfast, temporarily. Laura and I have finally gotten to a consisten 8 hours a night after several years of slowly increasing my sleep from when it was as low as 5 hoours a night consistently to now. I think it's been really good. Daylight savings wasn't even a blip on our radar this year. 

 

The price of this gained comfort is time. The whole reason why I initially slept less and less was that the algebra in my head said that I was trading sleep for valuable activites like yoga or food prep. Over time the weights of the variables have shifted and now I'm valuing sleep over those things. 

 

I've already cut back on my reading, bring wrapping up my reading project to a painful crawl. I don't watch much TV, maybe 3 hours a week. I've trimmed down food prep to as little as I can manage, cutting from something like 15 hours a week to maybe 5 or 6. 

 

I'm lookng for something more to pinch to free up a smidge of time. In this case I'm thinking breakfast. I'm specifically targetting breakfast because although I work from home now, I'm not thinking that will lat the year. I get up at 6 and start work at 7:30 currently so if I want to commute, even a 20 minute walk, I either have to get up earlier, start later or cut out an inbetween activity. The only in between activity I can see as negotiable is a hot breakfast. For the record other activities include walking the dog and morning grooming and ablutions. 

 

I have two thoughts on how to approach breakfast, prepare the night before and make it a shake. There may be others and I'd hear them but those are the two I've thought of so far (grab a pastry or cold cereal don't seem valid to me). I've also done the thing where I take uncooked eggs in and cook them in the microwave. I don't love this option as it's time consuming, messy and hit or miss on quality. 

 

If I did the night before prep I would probably be making breakfast burritos for the next morning. Depending on how many fresh veggies I wanted to include this could take up to a half an hour. I could pretty easily throw in veggies, a couple ounces of meat and 3-4 eggs, scramble the whole thing up and pack it in a tortilla. I don't know what the refridgerator life of these would be so I don' tknow how far ahead I could work. I would thinkg 3 days would be the absolute make, 2 more likely. It's not an awful idea and it's not off the table but maybe I'll try that after I try a cycle of shakes.

 

Shakes are where I think I'm landing for now. I have a nice ninja blender that can whip them up and I can take them with me and drink them down a few hours later. I haven't looked at supplements in a long time though so I'm out of the loop on that. Which is fine because I seriously doubt anything has changed. I just don't know what the current per supplements are.

 

Here's what I'm thinking for my shake

Protein - caesin. I've always had a thing for caesin protein, especially when it's not near workout time. I knw whey is everyone's favorte and I've never really understood that. My understanding is that whey breaks down quickly (why it works in and around workout time) where caesin gives more satiety and hangs around longer. There's probably something I'm missing

Fat - I don' t know what current options look like in the fat area. I assum MCLs are still a big deal. 

Carbs - It seems like it's always a decisions between 30 grams of sugar of splenda for days. Given my choice I'd rather see a mix of stevia and a little sugar but we'll see what  Istumble across. 

Vitamins- I don't currently take a multi vitamin, I'd accept some vitamins in my shake but I also don't need 200% of anything. If I was to look for something specific it'd be Zinc and Magnesium

Fiber - I'd like to find some fiber, even fake, in my shake so I'll try and get this or maybe just buy some metamucil and use that.

Other stuff - I don't know that I want anything else in particular. This is meant to be a meal replacement but I don't have any pet supps I need to ahve to feel complete

Balance - I'm thinking ~400 calories, give or take 100. I'm thinking ~40 G protein, <20 G Sugar (10 is better), if I can get a fat in there 10-20 grams

 

In the past I've used Protein Factory to assemble custom packages but t doesn't look like they do that anymore. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to put this all together.

 

Share any thoughts you have on any of the above.

[LouCarJo]

Read Why we Sleep to convince yourself that sleep is vital and to see it as lost time is, err, silly ;-0.

 

Experiment and see what works for you for breakfast.  I’ve tried making my own shakes before for breakfast but it just doesn’t work for me - I want something more substantial, not necessarily calories wise but in the sense of feeling as though I’ve had a meal.  It doesn’t work though on the one day I go into the office because of time.  In fact I’ve more or less given up protein shakes at any time - trial and error has shown I do well supplementing with BCAAs post exercise, but shakes don’t do it for me.

[The Most Loathed]

29 minutes ago, LouCarJo said:

Read Why we Sleep to convince yourself that sleep is vital and to see it as lost time is, err, silly ;-0.

Life convinced me of this however I do recommend other folks who aren't getting adequate rest take a look at this.