“Do you code during your leisure time?” the consultant asked my team while coaching us towards the Agile journey over 6 years ago. “Coding is fun,” the consultant continued, “I code a lot during the weekend.” As a software developer, coding is our daily job. We’re already tired of facing the computer and the console. If we code during our leisure time, it looks like we can’t rest and leave the “daily job” on the table. ...
I’ve been listening to many podcast episodes recently. One of the quotes I heard is “They know what their problems are. They just don’t want to change.” “I want to be physically fit, but I’m old.” I’ve seen many twenty-ish and thirty-ish people react to my take on improving my physical fitness. “Your approach to your team works very well, but mine is different from yours.” How different are we? Does my team consist of geniuses, whereas your team is full of preschool kids? ...
Twenty-something years ago, there was no internet access in typical households. When I finished my homework, I often called my friends via the home phone. The phone calls usually lasted 15 to 30 minutes. Then, it was my mother’s turn to speak to her friends for another 15 to 30 minutes. When feature phones started to become popular, many mobile phone service providers offered a promotion plan allowing users to send a certain amount of free SMS messages to others who were using the same service provider. We switched to the same service provider and kept texting each other day and night. There was a limit on the number of words per SMS message. I still remember how much effort we made to make our texts concise. ...
When I’m on the street, at restaurants and on public transport, I often observe people. Based on my observations, most people look down at their mobile phones anytime. They never look up and watch out for someone who almost collides with them. They never stay alert to traffic. They start walking across the street when someone next to them steps forward, no matter whether it is a green light or red. Together with their masks, they look soulless. They seem to consume whatever social platforms push. Why are their little screens so attractive that they would sacrifice everything, including safety? ...
The lecture series continues, and there were more observations on bad habits in the presentations. During a lecture or a presentation aimed at teaching the audience, speakers usually look for interactions with the audience to gauge their understanding of the content. However, going to an extreme may annoy the audience. The lecture series was held using Zoom, making it difficult to get feedback from the audience. In one lecture, the speaker asked us to reply by typing our responses in the chatroom. “Okay? If you’re okay, type ‘ok’,” she said. Many of us answered “ok” in the chatroom. ...
Recently, I have been attending a series of lectures on the business nature of my company. Until the latest lecture, I had learnt most of the materials before. As the lectures were delivered by different speakers, I focused on their presentation skills instead of listening to the content. All the lectures were delivered in English, no matter whether the audience and the speaker were locals. It’s okay as the speakers may want to practise English speaking or it was restricted by the faculty. But all of them have different bad habits. This caught my attention. ...