A Pilgrim's Project

I'm blogging earlier than usual this week as I'm on leave and have time on my hands. The good thing about not being on project related work is that you don't overwork yourself, which is a nice change for me.

When you are doing a project, the dateline is constantly looming in your head and you are naturally cautious of unexpected problems surfacing at the last moment. So you try to cover as much ground as possible so that you get a heads up of the terrain ahead.  Which means that you spend nights and weekends working and when things get done, you fuss over tiny details obsessively to make them as perfect as possible. That makes project work very stressful at times.

During a project, you are always forced to confront your weaknesses. Which is why a project is like a pilgrimage: it is both a physical journey and a catharsis. During a project there will be times when the obstacles ahead might seem insurmountable but you have to trudge on because there's no other alternative. And then you realize that, it is by the sheer power of persistence that certain problems resolve themselves. Forging ahead, doing the next logical thing may seem sensible in hindsight but when you are a traveller stranded in a strange place, you feel so lost and helpless.  But a pilgrim progresses by having faith and accepting that all obstacles along the path are part and parcel of the spiritual quest itself.

Religion emphasizes faith, which is the power of belief; and when belief is applied not as a kind of smug certainty but as an inner conviction that all obstacles can be overcome if one does not panic and simply stick to the basics of problem-solving.  And what are those basics? It's just asking yourself these questions: Where are you now? Where do you want to go? What is the next small step you could do to move towards your destination?

At any point in time, there's only one small step to make, and not the 10,000 miles that separates you from your destination. Having made that small step, you would check again, if your new vantage point reveals fresh information. If they do, make use of it. Sometimes, as the cliche goes, you need to take a step backwards to move two steps forward. 

A project plan is nothing but a route marked on a piece of map. It sets the general trajectory and provides an estimated time of arrival. But when it comes to the actual journey, the terrain itself would always offer some surprises.  It is the unexpected challenge of the terrain that makes a pilgrimage. And one is not unwise to approach a project as a pilgrim would, with faith and fortitude.

Learning, Unlearning and Relearning

Most people will be starting work tomorrow. The past week has been good as the traffic in KL was still rather sparse; it was great being able to zip from place to place easily.

I've made a resolve to be more independent when it comes to work. I used to have to depend on the services of a graphics designer to do some of the design that comes part and parcel with app and web development. Engineers are usually hopeless when it comes to even the simplest graphics design. They are almost aesthetically blind, having no sense at all of the basic elements of balance, contrast and harmony.

I've been spending the past week doing some of the graphics on my own. All graphics designers have Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator as their basic tools. Many use pirated copies. I don't own or pay subscription to any of these tools. And I was reluctant to invest time to build up proficiency in using proprietary tools, even though they are considered industry standards.

Frustrated by the entire industry's dependence on these tools and how we are forced to pay for them, I made a resolve to find open source alternatives. Here, I'm glad to say that I've tested and found good open source substitutes: GIMP for bitmap images and Inkscape for vector graphics. Using them, I'm already able to import all my old Adobe Illustrator assets and make modifications to them. I am finally free, at least for what I'm doing, from the need for the services of a graphics designer and the tyranny of Adobe tools. And it feels very liberating indeed.

I've also made another resolve (I actually have new year resolutions after all!), to be free from the Windows operating system. Unlike many of my friends in the industry, I'm also not a Mac die hard. On the server side, I've been using various distribution of Linux for years and have no issues with it. My laptop is set up to dual-boot with Windows and Ubuntu. And lately, I've been finding myself using Ubuntu exclusive for all my needs and I'm doing just fine. GIMP and Inkscape work beautifully on Ubuntu. Being completely free from Microsoft, Apple and Adobe definitely gives me a great sense of satisfaction.

I rarely write about IT matters on my blog, even though that's been my profession all these years. Today's entry must seem like a rare exception. But I'm also trying to inject fresh subjects into this blog of mine and there are many philosophical insights that one can gain from IT too. These will be interesting blog topics for the future.

I guess 16 years is long enough time for me to get over any disillusionment I had with the industry. I realized that it is the only industry where the skill to learn is perhaps the most valuable skill of all. The pace of change in this technology is staggering and the only survival skill one needs is the skill to re-skill oneself. As the eminent futurist Alvin Toffler once said: “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

And that's the only thing that I've been doing consistently all my life.

Welcoming Work

I'm back to work tomorrow. Glad to have my routine back It is highly possible that once my daily stream of daily activities is back, I will not be blogging that regularly anymore. That is, unless I can include blogging as among on the activities on equal footing with the rest...

I spend most of my daytime at work. Work involves meetings, writing code, writing proposals, building slides, solving customer problems, learning new technologies, managing projects and cooking up new ideas to pursue. I still adhere to my philosophy of work as a "workout" for the soul.

Some people say that I work too hard. On the contrary, I do not see what I do as "work" per se, it is simply, living--a process of ushering on the flow of activities in the most productive and efficient manner. Work keeps the mind fit. Work, without an attachment to its outcome, is actually a legitimate spiritual practice--the path of karma yoga, as expounded in the Bhagavad Gita.

One does not need to be saving the world every day to lead a supposedly meaningful life. Every ordinary folk has an important role to play within the sphere of their existence. Everyone, adds their light to the sum of light.

Work gathers momentum when we tend to it daily. It important to remember is to move forward--no matter how small a step--everyday. An email answered, a bug fixed, a few lines of code written, is better than no activity at all. The wheel of life spins perpetually if we give it a small nudge everyday. And that's my attitude towards work.

Being productive and being able to do useful work, to a large extend, defines us. Without work, our lives disintegrate. We work, therefore we are. So let's get over our Chinese New Year stupor and welcome the start of the first work week in the Year of the Rooster!

The Bounty of Knowledge

Listening to Mozart on a rainy Saturday afternoon, sitting idly under my bedroom window, catching shafts of light through its curtains, dipping in and out of a Paul Theroux book--such are the simple pleasures that make life worthwhile. Rare pleasures that I indulge in on weekends.

Weekends provide a much-welcome respite from the punishing exertions of the workday week. However my weekends are often filled with leftover work--work that requires special care and insight from a state of mind unatainable on a typical day at the office.

I'm not in love with work, nor do I indulge in it as a form of escapism. Like a professional footballer who needs to play regularly to be match-fit, I welcome work as an opportunity to keep myself mentally fit at all times. Too much work induces fatigue; too little work makes one mentally sluggish. Like any athlete, one needs to find the right balance.

So much of life is seeking this elusive balance: between work and play; between pain and pleasure--the psychological piston that drives one towards one's goals in life, pulverising obstacles along the way.

Perhaps I work a little bit too much, often with too little rewards. That's fine. I've mentioned it elsewhere in my blog before: my dictum is that no work is ever wasted--one's reward from work comes from the knowledge one gets in the process. It is what keeps me going all these years. It is the bounty of knowledge that I relish in, at the end of a hard week's work.

The Consummation of Time

Just a few lines at the turning of the year.

The past years have been a quest to decipher the secret of work: Work for work's sake. Work as craft and vocation. Work that at times seems insurmountable but bears the promise of redemption. Gut-wrenching work that brings out the best and worst from within.

I plough on because work is my quest, my practice and my meditation. True and honest work that makes every intake of breath a moment of carthasis.

And in the dark of night, fireworks light up the sky to mark the passing of the year and the birth of another. Time teases and entices. Time tests and tires. Time stands testament to the Divine Quest.

I wake up with a fresh resolve everyday. That doesn't change. Time may test one's faith. But Time is a devil we know; and sometimes we cower behind him to seek escape and solace. Time fuels work. Work consumes time. Through the act of consumption, one finds the ultimate consummation.

The Art of Being Smart

You often hear people say: don't just work hard, work smart. Unfortunately, this maxim, well-intentioned though it may be, is also the the biggest excuse for being lazy,

The problem is that there are people who think they are being 'smart' by cutting corners, taking advantage of other peoople or screwing the system. Evading work is considered smart. They spend their entire lives avoiding difficult tasks and only doing things that they like or enjoy. Any kind of work that requires some effort is considered 'low-level' or not worthy of their time.

That fact is that most people are smart enough, and that is good enough for me. As an employer, I would prefer a hardworking guy with average ability but possesses an eagerness to learn than one who thinks he is a genius and insists on cherry-picking work.

Of course, a hardworking and brilliant person would be the ideal combination. Having such a talent would be a boon to any company or team. But a manager has to plan for a system to work sufficiently well with average material. If one is lucky enough to get an outstanding talent, then that would be bonus. Stars come and go, but the machinery has to continue ticking.

No one in their right frame of mind would consciously 'work stupid'. It is a given that we have to always work as smart as we can. Hardwork doesn't mean mindlessly doing something like an automaton; instead, it implies an attitude of constantly giving one's best and never letting go of an opportunity to learn.

Hardwork is the art and practice of being smart. By working hard, one inevitably becomes smart.

Achieving Quality

In a previous blog entry, I mentioned how an ideal worker would always strive for quality in whatever he does. How does one go about achieving that?

There are a couple of things that one can do to guarantee outstanding results:

1. Strive to over-achieve
The surest way of guaranteeing quality is to over-exceed it.  If you are working with a client, try to understand clearly what are his expectations. If you fail to do this properly, you will always risk falling short.

Some clients don't exactly know what they want, so getting it right can be difficult. That is why it is extremely important to set a very high standard for yourself. Never compromise, even if you think the client has very low expectations. Always set a very high bar for yourself. Only by overachieving, do you have a margin for error.

2. Pay attention to details
Details make all the difference between a mediocre and a quality piece of work. Pay attention to things that you'd think people won't bother to notice. Even if you feel that your client is not one who would fuss over certain tiny details, never overlook them.

Details always matter subconsciously. For example, even without reading the content of a proposal, the collective effect of proper chapter organization, the right choice of fonts and carefully chose diagrams and images already exudes a feeling of "quality".

Professionalism means never compromising on the little details that make a piece of work stand out. Never cut corners, always assume that your work will be subjected to the scrutiny of an expert or a connoisseur.

3. Leave no stones unturned
Never assume. Explore every possibility, no matter how remote. The consumers of your product will use it in ways that you could never imagine. So strive to consider all the "impossible" scenarios, and tackle them proactively.

For example, a computer programmer will always try to come up with a user-interface that takes the dumbest user into consideration. At the same time he will also provide shortcuts for the power user to easily access his frequently use functions. Nothing impresses a customer more than to find out that the creator has taken the trouble to consider scenarios that are considered highly unlikely.

If you adhere to these few simple principles, you can be assured that the results will stand a good chance of being of "good quality".  Sure, quality requires a lot of hardwork. But it's worth every ounce of your sweat. For what is the purpose of work, if not to produce something of good quality?

The Chinese in Me

It's that noisy time of the year again: Chinese Lunar New Year. I don't usually care much about such festivities but this year's celebration is a much welcome break from a hectic year of work. Last year's CNY holidays was a very productive time for me, as I managed to take the opportunity to rush off a lot of outstanding work.

There's no need for me to do the same this year. But of course, out of (bad) habit, I'll still do my usual routine of making sure that every piece of software is running as it should, batch processes are executed on schedule and no extraordinary events are detected--basically making sure that "God's in his Heaven...all's right with the world!".

The good thing about public holidays is that, other people are not working; so I can be sure that I won't be troubled by urgent phonecalls and e-mails. This allows me to do my "real work" in peace.

Everytime such yearly festivals approaches, people lament how fast time flies. Of course, time flies. But time is also our ally. Our purpose in life is to make sure that time does not fly aimlessly. If it seems to fly fast, and as long as it is flying in the right direction, it also means our hardwork is bearing fruits rapidly too!

The CNY celebrations is all about reaffirming good thoughts. There's much that we can learn from the Chinese ethos. It is a culture of positive-mindedness, prudence, hardwork and success. The Chinese are always forward-looking. During CNY, we wish each other great wealth, prosperity and good fortune.

Ah, but you also see the Ugly Chinese: the kiasuism, the greed, the over-eagerness to hit it big ("the Chinese are incorrigible gamblers -- Lee Kuan Yew") and the culture of crass materialism.

When anything--even good values--is pursued to the extreme, you'll see ugliness. That is why most of the victims of Ah Longs (loan sharks) are Chinese. Of course, the loan sharks themselves are also Chinese.

Am I then the typical hardworking Chinese, driven by dreams of social and material success?

How I wish I am!

A person exercising in the gym is not "hardworking". He's sweating and puffing because he wants to shed off extra fat and also to keep himself fit. Being physically fit is a great feeling.

That is what drives me to work hard: The desire to be mentally and spiritually fit. The world is my moral gymnasium (to use Vivekananda's words). That is the true reward of work. The rest is just bonus.

Happy Chinese New Year! Gong Xi Fa Cai!