I used to think that I can take on only projects that I have sufficient competence and interests.
But later I realized that if I am working with strong collaborators, I can trust them to handle the parts that I am less good at or less interested in, which would allow me to embark on more ambitious endeavors.
A strong team also provides me more growth opportunities to learn from others, and to be inspired by their ideas and creations.
2023-11-28
The benefits of being part of a strong team
2023-11-23
Why we should take PTO (especially those “unlimited”)
This post is inspired by “is unlimited (or more precisely, untracked) PTO a scam”.
Taking a break away from work can enhance mental and physical health, reduce burnout, and provide a chance to see things from a different perspective.
All of these can boost our productivity and creativity when we return to work.
If we stay at work while being unproductive, we are not doing ourselves or our teams any favor, as it could drag down the team performance and negatively impact how others perceive our competence.
After noticing some positive correlation between people’s performance and the amount of PTO they take, I am trying to take more (unlimited and untracked) PTOs, even if just to have time for individually focused works (like reading/reviewing papers) which tend to be outside my main duties (mostly product/management related nowadays).
Company/organization-wide shutdowns remain the best opportunities for me to be complete away during which no co-worker is expected to ask me for anything.
2023-10-11
Bengali fish curry
Sometimes I looked at the company lunch menu even when I was not in the office, to feel a sense of connection and anticipation.
https://youtube.com/shorts/8w3jOkLL5vk
2023-10-09
Katalin Kariko on perseverance
Very inspirational story on how to deal with setbacks (focus on what is next and do not hold grudge).
Comparatively I have had a much easier career.
2023-08-02
Obituary for DLXXK17WK7M9
iPad Pro 12.9-in 64-GB
Enrolled 10/26/2021
Last seen 6/22/2023
Served in Fresco motion and live brushes
Succeeded by W99KG6V2KQ
iPad Pro 11-in 128-GB
Enrolled 7/27/2023
2023-07-29
Confidential shredding
The other day while sliding a document into a confidential shredding slot in the office, a thought came to my mind that a shredding bin might be the most likely place that people want to peek into.
https://youtube.com/shorts/65BX9sfSfy
2023-05-16
PR over PR
I sometimes find it faster to file a pull request (PR) over an existing PR than verbal comments if doing so can be more precise without involving a lot of extra coding.
2023-04-21
Office virtual background
Empirical evidence suggests that the best background for virtual meetings is a photo of my office taken at exactly the same camera view of my office webcam so that I will appear to be joining meetings from my office regardless of my actual physical location.
2023-04-16
Outside the mandates
Recently, during the preparation for an invited talk on a topic I have been working on for a while, I realized that even though I am familiar with the topic, I have yet to organize my thoughts into a coherent story, and I am glad that this invited talk motivated me to do just that.
Giving academic talks is outside my current main job duties and thus I wouldn’t be as incentivized to do that as teaching courses as an university professor or shipping products as an industry researcher.
But this experience made me realize that there are activities outside our official job mandates that can still benefit our careers in a less direct way or in a longer run.