Fix It

by Ryan Adams by the Cardinals from Cardinology

Hello all from a unseasonably beautiful January day here in Mountain View. And in true California style, I am entering this entry from the Books, Inc cafe in downtown while drinking a lemonade, eating kettle chips, on my MacBook Pro, while listening to music on my iPhone. Yes, I am walking, talking Bay Area liberal yuppie stereotype right now. So this is my first entry of 2009, so what is up? Well I had a pretty low key new year's eve. Just went to a house party in Berkeley. The one thing new this new year is a few extra pounds from the holidays that I am trying to work off. There were no boot camp fitness classes during the break plus I took two weeks off since there was a lull work. So what has been going on recently? Work has been going alright. Will be transitioning onto my new project full time now. As for personal stuff, I (along with the special lady), went to Point Lobos yesterday. I was quite beautiful with awesome weather that most likely will not be matched for quite a while. Afterward, we had great pub food in Monterey and then went walking on Cannery Row, which I thought would have actual canneries ala John Steinbeck, but is actually a touristy shopping walk. It was also in Monterey where I got my first real ticket. I have gotten plenty of parking tickets but no moving violations. Well I got my first yesterday. I turned right when a motorcycle cop did a U-turn. I didn't realize you could make a U-turn on that street since it was so narrow. God damn Monterey streets. Well it was bound to happen seeing that I have been driving for 12+ years.

I have been thinking about this next point for a while. I think one of the reasons why I like what I do for a job is that it heavily relies on iteration. What do I mean by iteration? I mean trying something out and see what happens and make adjustments accordingly. And then try try try again. It was relies on previous experience as a guide to deciding what to do next. I was thinking about it that in my life, I am generally not a person who picks something new up right off the bat or produces exactly what I want right at first. I tend to stumble a bit, practice for a while, and then keep refining. For example, a grad school classmate once remarked to me that I tended get job/internships interviews/offers easier than other students. I replied back that there was a good reason for and it was because I failed and tanked a lot of job interviews. Yeah, I sucked at it a lot and then got better and better with practice. And come to think about it, that's how most people work. Chefs don't produce signature dishes the first time they try them, musicians usually don't write hit songs in 15 minutes, and no programmer I have ever met has written their best most flawless code the first time through. And I came to a realization: I really don't like people who don't value iteration.

A little while back, I was somewhat involved in this project that these product managers were pushing through. It was poorly conceived with a terrible user experience. I did some research that pretty much showed that. When I asked if we planned to iterate to make it better, I got a resounding no. Apparently, it is better to be fast and wrong then not as fast and right. I was thinking why would anyone be against iterating. I think it may have to do something with insecurity. Finding out what is wrong is the only way to make things better. Apparently, some people would rather not know what is wrong or feel that finding out what is not working shows that they or their ideas are not as good as they think they are. It is the same attitude the thankfully departing Bush Administration took to governing. They weren't interested in what actually worked, they were only interested in doing what matched their ideology, no matter if it worked in the real world. You can see the result of this everywhere. Disregard advice from US and international peace keeping and reconstruction experts = Iraq. Pushing deregulation no matter what, even in cases when it makes no sense = Financial Crisis. And the list goes on. Essentially iterating is the process of learning and becoming educated. It involves trying, experimenting, and then learning from it. And people who don't believe in iteration apparently don't believe in learning. Hence, I have no time for them.

So what's in store for me coming up. I am hosting a Superbowl party apparently. It will be the first shindig that I have hosted at my place in a while. Better get my party apron. So that's all for now. Until next time, peace.