New post in my technical blog

 So last year I started a new technical blog titled "Yes Way Jose" in order to improve my technical writing. 

Just posted an article review for Google's SRE team's Lessons Learned

Go check it out! 

How to Grow as a Person: A personal manifesto

 You probably hear the phrase "growth-mindset" all the time. There's a $5-Billion industry out there aimed at the "wellness market" But what does that really mean? How do you grow as a person? 

I am going to tell you what growing as a person means to me. I hope that you will find this useful to your own life and purposes. I do not have everything figured out yet and I struggle with taking my own advice all the time. Yet, I am never going to stop striving, your journey may look a lot different than mine but you should hear me out. 

There are three ways to grow as a person: Your Character, Your Impact and Your Work. That's all you need to focus in order to grow. 

Your Character

There is a whole scientific area of research called "Positive Psychology" that uses evidence-based studies to figure out what sort of "thing" affects real, long term, lasting happiness. 

Personally I got a lot out of reading Martin Seligman's books TL;DR: Focus your efforts on improving the things you control, more specifically put energy into improving your character.  You don't have to buy his books or anything to benefit from his findings. You can look here to see the 24 character traits listed in his books. For convenience this is the list of character traits: Appreciation of Beauty & Excellence, Bravery, Creativity, Curiosity, Fairness, Forgiveness, Gratitude, Honesty, Hope, Humility, Humor, Judgement, Kindness, Leadership, Love, Love of Learning, Perseverance, Perspective, Prudence, Self-Regulation,  Social Intelligence, Spirituality, Teamwork and Zest. 

It turns out you can always grow your character, you can never have too much wisdom, you can not go wrong when you work on improving all the traits instead of just one. The key is finding the right balance. Too much of one thing will come at the cost of something else. 

Some of these things may come easy to you, I am naturally inclined to curiosity and I love learning new things. I have to make a conscious effort to improve my Social Intelligence, Self-Regulations and Spirituality. 

There are surveys online you can take to learn where your strengths are. I encourage you to find out for yourself where you are at. 

The Impact You Make

How does your life affect other people? Nobody is an island so your connection to the world matters. Do you inspire the masses? Your child? Are you a good spouse/parent/sibling? Are you a good friend? 

You can say that these things are also related to your character but you can think about something that is bigger than yourself. A cause that matters to you and others. What can you do to make the world a better place to not only you but the people that will come after you. 

I want to make clear that I struggle with this. I think about the things that I think I'm doing well, for example I think I could have been a lot worse parent, but then again, loving my kids came super easy to me. What about the people in my life that need help? People in my family, friends, acquaintances, and strangers. I think about what else I can do for others, for a good cause.  Conserving and restoring the environment, pushing for equality, for a more just world, for a kinder world. This is an area for growth, we can always do something.  

The Work You Do. Push for Excellence

For me this means the code I write, the work I create as an engineer should be as good as I can make it. There's always a lot of work to do with deadlines and pressure to deliver. I want to ensure that what I create is excellent. You can apply this to what you do. This sounds like it applies to artistic endeavors only but that's not the case. When you create something, that artifact (it could be a sandwich or a novel, a song) is a reflection of you. It's an opportunity to express yourself. Take your time to strive for excellence. You may not think it matters, but this makes an impact. This is also an area of work for me. What can I say about my works? What is my legacy? The good thing is, we have time, we're here, we can always do better. 

List of things that don't work

More money, more pleasure:

Money matters, a lot. Being poor is bad for your health and your happiness. It should be obvious. However, after a certain point, having more money will not make you more happy. After all your basic needs are met, things like food, shelter, health care, doubling your salary will let you buy nicer things and have more freedom but will not double your happiness.  Buying nice stuff will not bring you lasting happiness as you will adjust to it and will long for the next thing.  

A similar thing is seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. You can live a life with constant traveling, partying, feeling good and still feel a void inside. More pleasure doesn't equate to lasting happiness. 

You can learn more about this in the Hedonic treadmill

More Fame

If you seek validation from outside yourself you will never feel whole. Validation comes from within. You must learn to value and accept yourself before expecting the same for others. Side note, everyone you meet is dealing with the same thing, keep that in mind before you judge what other people do. 

Being Smart

A lot of people value "being smart" or more accurately, they value appearing smart to other people. They obsess about grades, credentials, achievements and intelligence. Comparing yourself to other people only makes you more miserable. Strive to do better for its own sake, not for what it will do to your image.  There's always people way smarter than you. Focus on the impact of your actions and improving yourself. Learn for curiosity, growth or just because, truth is, nobody cares that you are smart, they care about how you make them feel, what you do for them, to them. Being smart for its own sake is meaningless. 

Conclusion

Dear reader I hope this helps your efforts to grow as a person.  like I said, I am an imperfect person that fails all the time, but this is my north star, this is my personal guideline to growing and what it means to be excellent. 

-JV

My review of "Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors" by Edward Niedermeyer

Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors by Edward Niedermeyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This books covers the history of Tesla up to 2019, with an Afterword that includes the 2020 pandemic.

This is an honest attempt to write the story of a car company that went from 3 people in 2004 to a household name less than 2 decades later.

I liked that the author discloses his involvement with the company and makes it clear that he is not entirely outside of the events that occur in the book. The author is a blogger and he posted a story about Tesla making its customers sign non-disclousure-agreements (NDAs) in order to perform "goodwill repairs" of defective cars. This is a big no-no because it makes it really hard to report safety concerns if you are legally bound to silence. I am neither a Tesla fan or a Tesla hater, but I'm never, ever, ever going to buy a car that has a higher chance of killing me than the other cars in the market. That's just me though, maybe I'm not the target demographic for those cars.

The only issue with the book is that it needs to be updated to cover what has happened since 2020. The company is still around, but no new cars have come out (?)

Overall, very entertaining, insightful page-turner. I learned a lot about Electric Vehicles (EVs) in the process. The book debunked the myth of "Other Auto-makers are not investing in EVs" it turns out there are a lot of viable alternative to Tesla if you want a safe, tested and high-quality EV.

I don't think Tesla is going to die anytime soon, but it's overrated for sure.

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My review of "What Tech Calls Thinking" by Adrian Daub

What Tech Calls Thinking: An Inquiry into the Intellectual Bedrock of Silicon Valley by Adrian Daub
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is an exposition of the origin and history of the ideas that fuel Silicon Valley Techies. Specifically the billionaires that influence the culture of the executives, engineers, as well as the press.

I liked the non-obvious insights and learning about Mimetic theory as a tech worker myself, a lot of the content did not come as a surprise. I am aware that Silicon Valley is not dominated by liberal thought, contrary to what the right-wing media decrees, there are a lot of conservatives in tech.

The author could not hide his disdain for S.V. and the ideals they spouse. At times it felt like he was stretching things a bit. I am aware that I have my biases but still, the author errs on the side of "tech people suck" a bit too much. I get that hyper-capitalism yields inequality that hurts real people. I am not a fan of causing harm. I just think that the arguments the author makes sometimes feel like he's reaching too far. That's just me. This doesn't invalidates the main message though, the things that tech calls thinking is not a new or innovative as you may think.

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My review of "Black Friend: Essays by Ziwe"

Black Friend: Essays by Ziwe,
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a collection of funny essays from famous (?) influencer Ziwe. I didn't know who she was until I accidentally saw her interview on one of the morning shows, that and the fact that my wife knew her and thought highly of her made me get this book (Public Libraries FTW!)

If you are a white person that gets easily triggered by people of color calling out racist behavior, then maybe you should read this book, but you won't have a good time. I always learn something from these books. It was an quick entertaining read. My only issue with this book is that it was too short. I read this on a plane ride from Seattle to Boston. I am not a fast reader.

-JV

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Cancun, the good, the bad and the meh

 Just got back from spending 5 days vacationing in Cancun. If you can go, go! It's nice. Highly recommend it. 

The good:

1. The beach, no question, white sands, blue water, warm water. Loved it. I spent as much time in the water as I could. 

2. Private tours. Chichen Itza ruins. We had an amazing guide, Nef (@guiacancunguide on IG) was friendly, knowledgable, bilingual and professional. He did an amazing job of answering all our questions, driving us everywhere and giving us tips for finding the best spots to see. 

Chichen Itza was amazing. It was incredible to see the ruins. I couldn't believe that these pyramids were just sitting there in someone's private farm for years until they were bought and restored. 

3. The fam. 

I liked that I got to spend time with the girls and the family, we met my wife's cousin with this family and we hung out and caught up. 

4. The resort

I was happy with the hotel, it was one of those all-inclusive resorts. Food was good, the staff was friendly, the building is starting to show its age but it was well-kept and clean. 

The Meh

1. Exchange rate favors the US but prices were not a lot cheaper. I mean, things like food and drink are still cheaper, but not by a lot. 

2. Taxis are pricey but buses are cheap. 

3. There's no uber. 

The Bad

1. Delta airlines. We've been faithful customers for a long time. They did us dirty this time. On the way back we had a one-hour layover in Salt Lake City. We had a checked-in bag so we had to go get our bags, clear customs, go through security and get to the gate all under one hour. The plane took off 20 minutes late out of Cancun, we raced to the baggage claim but didn't get our bags until 15 minutes before our flight was supposed to leave. Martha took one for the team and stayed back to get the checked bag while I went to the plane with the girls. I asked the person at the boarding gate if they could wait for my wife to clear customs and security, she was like "she's got 15 minutes" anyway long story short, they shut the door in her face, could not get in even though it was the airline's fault. Delta booked her to the next flight which thankfully was only two hours later but the whole thing felt foul. 

2. It was hot and humid, but that's part of going to the beach I guess. 

3. Only there for 5 days. I wish I had stayed longer. 

So that's all folks. Thanks for reading. 

-JV

Mi opinion hacerca de "Fortuna" de Hernan Diaz en GoodReads

Fortuna by Hernan Diaz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Una novela con un estilo original. No quiero revelar nada que hecha a perder la experiencia del lector. Se trata de la vida de un millonario que hizo sus riquezas en Wall Street en la decada de los '20 del siglo pasado. Pero realmente hay mas de una version de lo que paso entre el y su mujer. Cual el la verdad? Que fue lo que paso?

El libro abarca temas de la politica, economia y de el amor marital. Muy bien escrita. Me lei la version en Castellano porque crei que la version original salió en español, no es cierto pero la traducción me pareció muy fiel a el text original.

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My Review of Mastermind by Maria Konnikova on GoodReads

The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It . . . Every Time by Maria Konnikova
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A book report on all things Con Artists, the people who do the cons, the people who fall for it. The tactics, strategies and weaknesses con artists use to get people to give away money and possessions because they were fooled by a non-violent liar and thief.

I really wanted to like this book. I've always been fascinated by this subject. Everyone is vulnerable to scammers and con artists, even educated people and hard-core skeptical folk. Me and you can be fooled, it's not as hard as you think it is.

The problem with this book is that I couldn't not find a unifying thread or message other than "con artists" I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I read the author's other book Mastermind and really, really liked it. That book was organized as a journey to understanding how people get really good at something. This book was not like that. This book felt more like a loose collection of anecdotes about con artist. It's very informative and entertaining but it's not the author's best work.

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My review of Poverty by America by Matthew Desmond on Goodreads

Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a fierce and concise report and how the world's wealthiest country has so many people living in poverty. The author makes the case that the system is this way on purpose. The people who have the power to end poverty don't do it because they benefit from keeping people poor. This book explains how our government helps people who don't need our help, neglects those who need help the most and sell the idea that there's nothing anyone can do about this problem.

I like that the author backs everything up with data, he concedes when his statement or point is debatable and seems like a good faith effort to make people decide to do something about the current situation. The style is direct and effective. The author voice is compelling, you can feel the passion he feels about the situation.

The thing I like the most is probably the weakest part of the book, the book calls for action, but he is honest about the fact that it's not going be pleasant and we, the people who benefit the most from the status quo are not going to like it. Yet he lays it out for you. I have always thought that poverty was an inevitable fact of the human condition, but the author makes the case that we are the way we are because we like it and want to keep it that way. I don't like that there's people suffering but I get it.

This book is important. Everyone should read it.

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