Retirement is a relic concept

Retirement, an old relic from the manufacturing age, no longer holds true in our information era. As long as your mind is sharp and you can contribute positively with your intellect, there’s no need to step back.

In the past, physical mobility dictated productivity, and as age slowed us down, retirement became necessary for safety. But now, if you can maintain mental agility and build a personal brand, retirement becomes a choice rather than a requirement. Opportunities abound for those who stay mentally active, gaining and sharing experiences.

Charlie Munger serves as a prime example – sharing his wisdom on podcasts until nearly his last breath.

To remain relevant in this ever-changing landscape, you must adapt to new technologies and workforce patterns.

Be a learning machine
Cultivate a network of peers, mentees, and influencers
Gain social proof through your work and network

First and foremost, embrace learning. Much like software, if you are not updated, you’ll quickly get outdated. Learning includes learning how to communicate with younger generations so you can create content they’ll love. Don’t just create content; make it valuable.

Next, cultivate a network of peers, mentees, and influencers who can vouch for your abilities. Building connections allows you to stay active in learning, sharing, and creating value – all while earning from it.

Lastly, get social proof for helping others. Testimonials are good. It could also be having a lot of trafficked blog posts, the most watched videos, or the most popular books. Success is the most convincing social proof.

I’ve been walking this path for 8 years. I consult three days a week. On the other days, I do podcasts, blogs, meet people, research investments, and so on.

I don’t intend to retire. I plan to do this until I can.

January 21, 2024

Improving your worst-case scenarios

I constantly work on improving my worst-case scenarios, pondering the darkest possibilities in various aspects of life and seeking ways to better manage them.

There are two ways to tackle this daunting topic.

Dodge worst-case scenarios altogether
Improve your worst-case scenario

Prevent

In many cases, sidestepping disaster is a wiser approach than attempting to minimize its impact. Gather information on what could go wrong and determine if you can avoid it entirely.

Take, for example, the damage alcohol can do to your liver over time. Avoiding alcohol is a better choice than wrestling with liver damage. Likewise, if you’re drowning in debt with loan repayments devouring more than 30 to 40 percent of your income, you’re teetering on financial instability. Avoid over-leveraging yourself; debt isn’t inherently bad, but too much can be lethal.

Now, consider a job that demands hours of sitting, like mine in computers. Practicing yoga or another form of exercise helps prevent potential health issues from a sedentary lifestyle. Strive to avoid as many worst-case scenarios as possible across all aspects of life.

Improve

But life is unpredictable; even when cautious, misfortune may still strike. In these instances, it’s crucial to improve your worst-case scenarios. This involves a few steps.

Identify weakness & risks: Pinpoint weaknesses and risks in areas like finances, social life, health, and income generation. Gather data and knowledge to identify potential hazards. For example, assess the risk of annual flooding in your area or the threat of a recession impacting your job.
Buy “insurances“: Can you protect yourself with insurance for unforeseen events like health issues, fires, or accidents? These events will affect you psychologically, but at least you’ll have a financial safety net. Try to cover as many areas as possible with insurance-like systems.
Set up signals & Alerts: Set up early-warning signals to alert you when things go downhill. If you invest in stocks and their prices drop by 10% or 15%, can you track that and act quickly? Being informed early about potential worst-case scenarios gives you enough time to react.
Seek professional help: Instead of trying to keep track of everything, why not seek professional help? For example, if you’re dealing with financial accounting and filing, consider hiring a chartered accountant; for managing money, turn to non-commissioned financial advisors; for weight loss, a certified nutritionist can guide you. Professionals who have a stake in your success (those who are not working for commissions) can help you avoid most cases of damages and injuries.
Enhance your skills: Throughout life, you’ll gain new abilities and improve upon them. However, there will also be times when skills degrade with age. Continually upgrade yourself to better handle tough situations.
Be Prepared & practice: Shit happens. Have a system in place to deal with it. If you live near an earthquake zone, have a bag packed with money and clothes so you can grab it and run out if it strikes. Have all your financial details in a ready-to-access manner for your family. To be prepared, think ahead, create a plan, and practice. Companies have fire drills for this very reason. Likewise, discuss with your family, worst-case scenarios and point to them how to handle these scenarios.

You can’t avoid all worst-case scenarios. But when you have capability to deal with most situations, it increases the possibility for you to survive with minimal impact.

How are you improving your worst-case scenario?

January 20, 2024

Integrating Paranoia and Optimism

In the wise words of Intel founder, Andy Grove, “only the paranoid survive.” Imagine our ancestors, the hunter-gatherers, constantly surrounded by risks and dangers. Their paranoia kept them alive. If you’re reading this today, it’s because everyone in your lineage survived, and mostly because they were paranoid.

To be paranoid and survive, you must integrate two opposing ideas.

First, recognize what could kill or destroy you, or drain your energy, talent, or time. If you’re managing a project, think about what might ruin your best-laid plans. But don’t stop there. You also need optimism to counteract that paranoia.

Optimism is what keeps us moving forward instead of giving up in despair. It’s believing that life will turn out well and that we can improve our circumstances.

Roger Martin discusses this concept in his book “Opposable Mind,” explaining the importance of integrating these two opposing ideas.

The ability to face the tension of opposing ideas constructively and, instead of choosing one at the expense of the other, generate a creative resolution of the tension in the form of a new idea that contains elements of the opposing ideas but is superior to each. – Opposable Mind, Roger Martin

In today’s world, many people lean heavily towards one end of the spectrum: either overly optimistic or pessimistic. But to truly thrive, we must integrate paranoia and optimism. By doing so, we can not only survive but flourish as we face the challenges ahead.

January 19, 2024

My Learning framework

In the ever-changing world of software, staying updated is crucial. That’s why I’ve embraced a learning framework I call Consume, Produce, and Engage. This approach has served me well over the years.

During the Consume phase, you absorb knowledge from books, workshops, seminars, and courses. However, you only retain about 40 to 50% of what you learn at this stage.

To deepen your understanding, it’s essential to move on to the Produce phase. Here, you create something based on what you’ve learned, such as a note synthesizing new information with prior knowledge, a presentation, or a video. Producing something highlights any gaps in your understanding of the topic.

Next comes the Engage phase. By sharing your work with others, they can offer feedback and reveal different perspectives on the subject matter. Engage with genuine people who can provide valuable insights and help you grasp the topic more holistically.

This cycle of Consume, Produce, and Engage is an ongoing process; as people point out new sources of information, you consume that knowledge and continue producing and engaging. This repetition helps develop a comprehensive understanding of any given topic.

Underlying this cycle is another sub-cycle: It starts with you. What’s your attitude towards learning? Are you curious and open-minded? Or do you think you already know everything or can’t learn anything new? Your mindset plays a significant role in how effectively this learning framework works for you. Embrace curiosity and humility to truly reap the benefits of Consume, Produce, and Engage.

Your environment plays a crucial role too. As the saying goes, walk with the wise and you’ll become wise; walk with those uninterested, and you’ll follow suit. If your surroundings don’t encourage trying new things or embracing failure, then you’re bound by its limitations.

Access to tools matters. Can you afford them? Are they available for you to learn smarter and tap into the world’s knowledge? Tools can spark different thoughts and satisfy your curiosity, creating a cycle that fuels learning.

Take my experience learning coding, for instance. I used this approach for learning new software languages as well as project management. Let’s say I’m learning Deno – I’ll watch a video or read examples, consuming information. Then, I’ll start producing something by working on a sample project or recreating an example. This solidifies what I’ve learned from books, videos, or code samples.

Next, I share my work with the Deno community and ask for feedback. Although not everyone will respond, a few people might offer suggestions for better APIs or algorithms. This sharing process feeds back into my learning cycle.

As a CTO, I believe in learning by doing and coding myself. However, another CTO might focus on helping their team learn instead of continuing to code personally – that’s perfectly valid too. Our paths will differ based on our attitudes and environments, but the key lies in embracing learning as an ongoing journey.

When I need to code, I seek an IDE or surround myself with fellow coders. I immerse myself in that world, ready to learn. Sometimes, I’ll even pay for tools like chatGPT or the Code Whisperer to help me write code.

How do you keep learning? Share your process in the comments.

January 18, 2024

Why I’m learning Deno

As a CTO of an IT services company, I’m always on the lookout for rising technologies to give us an edge in crafting software for our clients. Recently, I’ve started learning Deno and I’m excited about its potential for five reasons.

First, Deno is Node.js without the node modules issue. With Node.js, your machine gets cluttered with countless node modules directories. Deno eliminates this problem, keeping your workspace clean.

Second, Deno offers a full-stack solution. Because Node.js focuses on backend, it requires React or Vue to do frontend stuff. With a full-stack framework called Fresh, you can develop both backend and frontend applications with Deno.

Third, Deno’s tooling is outstanding. The single ecosystem includes development, testing, compilation, and cloud deployment – no need to juggle multiple tools or languages. This streamlined approach makes life easier for developers.

Fourth, Deno is truly cloud-native. You can develop for AWS Lambda, Azure Function, Google Cloud, or other Edge Functions (like for Supabase)– all using just Deno. With its own deployment platform and compatibility with other cloud providers like AWS and DigitalOcean, it’s a versatile choice.

Lastly, you can compile your app into a single binary, just like Go and Rust allow. This means not only can you deploy on any cloud provider, but you also have the added advantage of distributing your app as a single binary.

I believe Deno could revolutionize the way we approach software development by offering a cleaner workspace, full stack capabilities, seamless tooling integration, cloud-native functionality, and database versatility. That’s why I’m so excited about Deno and have started learning it. Keep an eye out for more Deno posts from me.

January 17, 2024