My Learning Log

Author: SK

  • mid summer checkin

    Mid summer. I have yet to write a journal entry. Not good. I can get better. It took me a while. But hey, we’ve had a really busy summer. Real busy. Europe was a good trip. We had a lot of un. We visited Poland and Italy. Italy was beaaaatiiiifuuuul. Really. I was pleasantly surprised. Good food, somewhat friendly people. Rome, Amalfi, just great places to visit. But Wroclaw surprised me as well. Very nice, modernized city. Things are really clean there. It is well spaced out, doesn’t jam that much, at least in summer months. I wouldn’t mind going back.

    So we had a great time in both countries. It will be at least 2 years when we go back, probably 3. At that time, I would like to go for an interview. I want to try it and see how it goes.

  • standing up

    I need to stand up for my people. When they need help, I need to be there for them. It’s just who I am and who I want to be. That’s integrity. I can’t have it any other way. Really. 

    As a side note, integrity on a personal level I need to get better at. But I will get better there. Wip.

    So yesterday one of my guys, Omar, was asked to be moved to another team. He was shocked and very angry about it. He said he doesn’t want to do it. He feels like he would be starting over. He only started 3 months ago and would be initially starting from scratch. He said he is happy on A1 and wants to stay. He did say that he’s not against a move in the future, but after he’s had a chance to learn how we work, learn how our systems work, etc. In a way, he’s validated my approach, he’s given me hope that that what I’m doing works.

    We tried to court a guy from gs. He wanted more money, way more than what we offered. So I sent him a note yesterday. It did not help. Well, I tried.

  • be ready

    There are opportunity for grabs. They are everywhere. You just have to grab them. Not only that, but you have to be ready for them. I am trying to convince my team to do that. To study, to try to prepare, to give their best effort, to try their best. With time, that effort will pay off. 

  • procrastinating

    It’s easy to procrastinate. I do it a lot. I do it especially for things that are not required. I can utilize what Dimitri was talking about. I can make it external, I can make it known and that should force me to do it. Also, I can put it a test, whether by scheduling it ahead, or perhaps using some external party to validate. For instance, if I want to learn Scala, then I can maybe sign up to take a test in 2 months. Things like that.

  • staying sggresive

    If I’m not aggressive then others will be. That’s the bottom line. If I can’t wake up early and study for 30 to 40 minutes, then when do I want to go from here? These are questions I have to ask myself. I’ve been very successful by being aggressive. This is no time to stop. Time to get stronger, time to introduce changes, time to help others.

  • i’m back

    It’s been so long that I last wrote that I don’t know where to start!

    My father in law was in town for almost 3 weeks so things were reset. I had the room occupied. No worries, though. Writing for 5 to 10 minutes every day is still my goal. I would like to start reading the journal as well — still need to figure out how, what and when. I would also want to write the goals themselves at night before I go to bed. I found that doing that provides motivation in the morning.

    Things are changing at work. For the better. W is becoming a DS lead. Few of my guys are improving a great deal, few of them still need work. I talked to DR yesterday. It was a tough talk, on him and on me. I will try to provide that spark so he changes for the better.

  • shy victor

    Is Victor shy or stubborn. Yesterday he had a “checkpoint” for kindergarten and he did not want to answer questions when asked.

    I talked to him about it in the evening. He said that he was shy. I never talked to that lady before, he said. So it is most likely true that’s what happened. He was just shy. But I asked him not to be shy but try your best. A lot of times he might be blaming his shyness on this.  I don’t want him to do that.

    I think he’ll change. I am shy myself. It takes me a while to get comfortable with others. So this could be a temporary thing.

  • mgmt learnings

    New guys require some nurturing. Especially if we’re dealing with a guy who has not had a real world dev experience. Applying more and more pressure will not cut it. I could do better to help Dorian. I was a bit harsh on him yesterday. But he also has to step it up and be more proactive. It’s a learning process. I can’t expect him. We both can do better.

    On DR. I am being too lenient on him lately. Now I see him being overly relaxed. That’s not good. So far, and it’s close to a year, he’s only done what I expected of him. Long term, that’s not going to cut it. He’s not going to get anywhere with that approach. I expect consistency, that desire to get things done, and getting them done. And I expect quality. Lots of improvement to be made. But I see progress so that’s encouraging. We’ll see if he can take it forward. Don’t expect the things / work to come to you, you act first. Don’t let others find issues, you identify them and come forward.

    Same thing with my son. I have to keep having these 1:1s. I need him to know what I’m expecting from him. He needs to know that. He has to expect a lot from him. It’s hard in term of me communicating that to him.

  • leadership acts

    Leaders are made… in tough situations. Yesterday was such a situation. Wickus is moving to a new position. He is asking a valid question: when will this be announced? What’s the response? First, I’ll take care of it. Then, after a week or so, we don’t want to announce it. “Nothing good can come out of it.” Seriously? 

    What can I learn from it? Never do that as a leader. It’s good to learn from these types of mistakes made by others. It’s good to have these in the back pocket so when a situation like this happens, you know your stand. Or you know what will happen first hand.

    Some of these mistakes can be forgotten for a company. But such situation show company culture. One thing doesn’t change that much, but if it’s followed by more, and more. Then we can say we have a different company. Is it a good company? Good question.

  • getting more

    Cmon stas, get to work. Work harder. More intensity. And get your ass up in the morning! Please! 🙂

    I am still waiting for my goals to be written before going to sleep. I need that. Yes, I need to start doing that to get my inner motivation working again. It has stopped. I can’t allow that to happen. I really just can’t. 

    I have lots of stuff to learn. Lots of exciting things to find out. I will not get that by reading news. I can only get that by doing research.