Author: Tony Tam
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SF Public Library: Ocean View
My plan is to visit every San Francisco Public library by having my reserved books delivered there and write down what is different and new that I learn there. At Ocean View, the library is super friendly and when I mentioned I’m trying to see all the libraries, he said they get mostly neighbor folks…
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Experiment : Operating at 2 levels ahead
Last week a senior software engineer who has deep knowledge in a very specialized and high value skill (Machine Learning) for our company asked me for advice on getting more exposure and impact for her work. She was in a situation where her skills and opinions are sought after by senior leaders in engineering, product…
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Pick one, and go deep
As an engineer, I’ll give you 4 attributes to define your work to choose from Ownership Customer focus Data driven Cadance You have to chose at least one of these to drive your work. Pick one and focus.
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Impactful work takes planning, preparation and follow through
(The art piece is done by a SF local artist of migrant workers working in California central valley) Yesterday, my direct report, a principal software engineer who is an expert in our C++ code base presented to over 150 engineers on a piece of code walk through of a “Life of a single data event…
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The profile of an engineer
(The photo is a piece of in store made of thick bacon from Luke’s, Cole Valley, San Francisco) A potential engineer doesn’t have to like math, abstract thinking, typing on the computer all day creating software. I head an interview with a IBM Fellow, who happens to be a woman say that she didn’t fit…
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Cost of good habits are in the present, cost of bad habits are in the future.
James Clear’s book Atomic Habits – During the early phases of forming a good habit (going to the gym, eating healthier, saving for retirement) there is no immediate reward. However with bad habits (eating ice cream, watching Netlifx, scrolling through Instagram), we get immediate reward. Unfortunately humans are flawed, we tend to avoid things that…
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Your money and time shows what you care about
We can talk about what we value but until we put our time and our money as wagers, talk is cheap. In the book Atomic Habits, the author James Clear suggest that repetition is the key to forming habits. Doing 5 minutes of reading every day, is way better than spending 6 hours reading a…
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When we are asked to help
Put yourself in the shoes of the other. When was the last time you put yourself out there and you asked for help and was rejected? Regardless of how nice the rejecting was, how did you feel about yourself? Now look at the person asking for help. How much of your ‘precious’ time and energy…
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Communications habit
Last week at work, I learned that an executive has been working on a diversity and inclusion effort monthly. They really care about moving the needed to increase the gender and under represented diversity in our engineering ranks. I was pleasantly surprised that they are so active in this area. I personally have not heard…
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Taking the long view
Yesterday, one member of my badminton group reinjured his knee which was already hurting from a skiing accident. He wanted to play yesterday because he loved the sport and thought he could still play and take it easy. Unfortunately, we pushed him pretty hard on court, and he collapsed in pain when he twisted his…