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We might not want to admit it, but a huge chunk of our happiness are actually derived from work. Hence, I think it is important to have work and a workplace that actually geared towards maximum happiness.

For slashes & dots, from the beginning, my goal has always been to create an environment for developers. I wasn’t very specific about it at first. Just a cool place where developers can work and learn. Over time, I realized that more specifically, I want a place where developers and creative people can be their “actual self”.

What is this “actual self” ? To put it simply, it is the person that we feel happy to be. For example,  a software developer could potentially take up accounting and be an accountant and make more money. But deep inside, they won’t be happy. Their actual self will forever wanting to be that coder, tinkering with codes and building something cool and get into the flow for hours!

I realized that I am not 100% successful in this area yet, but I am 100% conscious about it and will always support any improvements and initiatives towards helping the rest of the team realize their full potential.

What’s not obvious however, is that developer themselves cannot just sit back and wait to be “groomed”. While I am extremely supportive, I hate to change people. If people internally lack the desire to grow, I have no time to baby-sit them. Having said that, I know that this is one of my biggest area of weakness, something I am hoping to slowly fix.

I suddenly have this crazy idea that our next office be inside a bus! Every day, we can practically work at all sorts of different places. The office can pick you up for work. We can have lunch in different places every day. We can probably head down the beach and come back by prevening (refer to big bang theory!)

The downside however is plenty. Motion fatigue from moving around all day. Lack of physical address. Unreliable Internet. Toilet ?

Maybe not a good idea..

I am a rather introvert person, as many geeks are. This characteristics is particularly problematic in a technical conference. Geeks tends to just hang out with their gadgets, quietly at a corner. But the thing is, geeks as normal human being do want to talk and interact with others, they just don’t know how to start the conversation.

I would propose the following etiquette in all geeky (or otherwise) conferences.

1. When choosing a seat, always pick a seat that has people next to it. Try not to pick a seat that is empty on both sides. I know it sometimes feels awkward, but it is even more uncomfortable for other geek to choose a seat that has people seating on both (gasp..) sides.
2. If you somehow manage to be talking to someone, do watch out around you. There might be some other people trying to be friendly, but might not have the skill to intercept your conversation. Always welcome someone who seems to try to join the chat. What I saw in most cases is that, once this geek get into a nice conversation, they tends to “protect” and close it against outsider.
3. Ask questions about them, don’t just talk about yourself.
4. Include everyone in the conversation. You need to realize that there are more value in triad, or multi-way discussion instead of just talking between two people. You’re attending a conference, not a date.
5. If you happen to be in an unfortunate situation where someone just wouldn’t stop talking and you need to get out of there, just quickly excuse yourself and leave. Don’t pull a silly stunt like taking a fake phone call.

There you have it. Not too hard right?

I have this blank wall at my office entrance and I have been thinking what to put there. I’ve decided to wrap it up with 2 things I value most in the office, which is learning and people. Next time you visit the office, the first 2 things you’ll see will be a set of questions that will challenge our team daily and collections of team photos!we have lots of them

This would be my last post ever whining about how bad Internet connection is, here in Malaysia. I am so tired of talking about it and I know that this is getting nowhere. I suppose I just have to work with what is available and make the best of it.

P1 wimax sucks!

Here I am at LAX, bored out of my mind, waiting for my flight home. So I figure I could write a few words, reflecting my recent experience in Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco.

1. My first session, which is also one of the most useful one was about Economic 2.0 . Oh man, we are so far away. The world are moving at such a rapid pace, I don’t think most of us realize what’s coming. I thought I knew what Enterprise 2.0 is before, but to the extends it is being pursued is mind-boggling. It is a challenging environment we live in and the pursuit of business efficiency has never been this ruthless.

2. I feel that, we have an unhealthy culture of celebrating those who talk about entrepreneurship rather than those who actually do it. It is liberating to hear stories and experiences, direct from the actual entrepreneur themselves. They (most, but not all) talk with such passion, clarity and honesty, which are rare, locally.

3. Get real. We need to be honest to ourselves and start asking some real, hard questions. Will our business survive the global competition. Do we really have any competitive edge, or are we just syok sendiri ? Is our revenue model sustainable ? 5 years from now, how will people remember us? a loser who talk to much? Have we been resourceful ? or have we been complaining about lack of resource ?

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A productive developer and programmer is someone who understand the economic driver of his/her company. He understands that it is his sworn duty to develop a software that offer some values to the user. A developer must continuously ask himself:

Is my code offers any value to the user?. Did my commit at the end of each day really make a different in customer’s life ?

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I have been drowned with work these last few weeks. Those time management books can only do so much, and until you could find a book on how to literally bent time-space continuum , we’re all stuck with 24 hours a day, same amount of time as Jack. So, what shall we do.

My answer is simple. Do less work, get rid of half you task, aim a bit lower and be happy. You might think that you’re letting go some good opportunity, but with more time to relax and think, you will eventually think of something better! So, don’t worry too much about it. Remember, the more time you spend on “doing” , the less time available for you to think out of the box. Relax, take things easy and don’t worry if you’re not making your millions yet today, tomorrow is still there…

Morten Lundal (that digi dude) think that in the future, no one will wear that silly, tiny piece of fabric around your neck, also fondly known as “ties”. He was absolutely right. Those green thing that visit us from the future, (our great, great grand kid doing some, time-traveling joyride) seems not to wear much clothing at all. I mean, hey what’s the point right? Thanks to global warming, earth is hot enough already. They also perhaps have been “taking the time to re-think its relevance” and figure that clothing is a waste of time and money.

Seriously, I think Mr Lundal, have a very good point, that is to challenge existing beliefs (which by the way, he manage to write down just before I am about to erase any thought of his column). But to take it on the humble ‘ties’ is just cruel. Those ties has probably done a lot of good, compared to say, the pointless underwear?

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