3rd Life Criss

I am at crossroad in life. Call it a third life criss if you will, but I don't consider it a criss at all. In fact, I don't consider it a crossroad. I think that my maturation process is entering a new phase of development. It amazes me how closed minded I was in my youth. Even now I struggle with it. I theorize that objectivity is not possible in the human mind. Everything is subjective because you base everything off personal experience. Perhaps the most pivotal moment in my maturation processes is acknowledging this. The god complex of youth is now officially dead. I am now humbled by the shear amount of knowledge that I don't know. However, I still need get past the learning curve. It requires an explicit effort on my part to change my thought process. I acknowledge that I have level arrogance that sometimes gets in the way. Though a certain amount of arrogance may be justified and even health at times, I finally understand the meaning and value of open mindedness.

I acknowledge the following and hope that my acknowledgement of these creeds will make me a better person. I will be wrong! I will not always know the best answer! There is something that you can learn from every single human being out there! Someone will always be better than you at something!

Don't get me wrong, I have no intention of abandoning my sometime arrogant ways. It is part of my personality and I embrace it, but it needs to evolve and become more selective. It needs to be less impulsive and more "thoughtful" if arrogance and be called thoughtful. I need to realize when it is perhaps justified and when I need to humble myself. I need to acknowledge the subjective of thought and opinions and embrace the fact that my view of the world can change and people from all creeds of life might be source of that change in perspective... except for the fact that I am awesome. No one can will change my opinion of that ;)

I realize that I haven't been keeping my promise of one entry per week. Oh well. My brain doesn't always want to vent. It's been almost three week. I think about writing sometimes and then I don't. What can you do? So what is on Shawn's mind. It is the get less fat time of year again. I like to take 8 week out every year and shed some weight. It is a strategic plan. Getting stronger is much easier when you are gaining weight. I have no problem with this except that at some point I become no longer ok gaining any more weight. Thus I need to reset every once and a while and now is that time. It is kind sad. This means no beer for a while and its summer time. I like beer in the summer time. Actually, I like beer all the time, but especially on warm summer days. TO BAD SHAWN! It totally conflicts with losing weight. Plus, the summer is prime for being sexy and beer guts aren't sexy.

Bin Laden

Let's talk about death baby. Let's talk about you and me Let's talk about all the good thing and the bad things that may be. Let's talk about death. That's right, I just made a pun using a song from 1991. So, Bin Laden is dead. What does that mean? Did we extract revenge. Has 9/11 been vindicated. This was all over news. You know what scares me? It isn't terrorism. It is the fact that millions of Americans celebrated in a glorious fashion the violent murder of human being. I realize that Bin Laden is responsible for the deaths of many Americans. Does that justify murder. Maybe, but does it justify being happy about murder? I would hope that it doesn't, but apparently it has. I am a little disturbed by that fact that many people especially the press celebrated his murder. It may have been a necessary evil. I am not attempting to refute that or support it in anyway, but celebrating the violent murder of anyone is disturbing.

I think a lot of American's don't realize how many people we piss off with our international interests. We have troupes in 135 countries. http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance8.html

Some people don't want us in their country. The fact they we are there is the biggest threat to America. It enables terrorist groups to heavily requite using our presence as the motivating form of propaganda. Seriously, why do we have to but our heads into so many international affairs. The answer is that we don't need to. Regardless, we are there, so before you condemn and celebrate the death of any human being, first understand their motivation and their reasons for success. I would argue that if we didn't have a presence in countries that had a large al-Qaeda presence that 9/11 would never have happened.

So...before you celebrate the death of human being at least try to understand their perspective. Even then...it is not cool to celebrate murder.

Stack Overflow

It has been more than a week since the last post. I have been out of town since Wednesday, so that is my excuse. On Thursday, I took a trip into NY City to visit my friend Jeff Szczepanski at Stack Overflow or as it is now called Stack Exchange. For those of you in the software field, I am sure you have heard of Stack Overflow as they are pretty much the authoritative Q&A site for professional programmers. This place was awesome. Everyone has two monitors, one 30in and one smaller one. I don't know the size of the smaller one. It doesn't matter because the 30in monitor makes all monitors look small. I want one really bad now. Everyone also has an Aeron chair. Hello super comfortable ergonomic master piece that I never want to get up from so I work late just to sit in my chair awesomeness. Again, I am super jealous. Care for snack...don't worry there is a hefty and unlimited supply of goodies. Perhaps some ping pong? No problem, there is ping pong table in the common area. All of these "benefits" are pretty sweet, but the one that really pushed it over the wall for me was the height adjustable desks in every office. I would kill for one of these. I sit all day. Sometimes, I just want to stand and work. Pure awesomeness. After surveying the environment, I partook in the daily catered lunch. That is right, DAILY catered lunch. The cafeteria is shared with the employees of Fog Creek, Joel Spolsky's other brain child, which is located just one floor down.

I knew it would be awesome since I have been an avid reader of Joel's blog and had read about the environment at Fog Creek. Still it was amazing to see it in person. Plus, I got free shirt.

WTF

What the fuck is going in Washington? Seriously, this is a really bad joke that needs to stop. Budget this budget that....blah blah blah. I HATE politics. Nothing gets done right because our scared sackless leaders can't make any decisions based in reality...at least my reality. Their reality is getting reelected. I have thought long and hard about this. Politicians should have term limits. At first, I was against this because I thought why? Why shouldn't you be allowed to run for office as many times as you want. The answer is because your decision making skills hinge on what you think will get you reelected rather than what is best for the country. NO ONE will make hard decisions. It is fucking retarded. This budget fiasco is the perfect example. WE NEEEEEEED to make cuts across the board and NO one will do it. I say again WTF? Our country is going to explode in bad way before anyone does anything and even then I doubt anything productive will be accomplished. As someone that is relatively young, I am scared for my future. I am scared that I don't have future. Tax the wealthy!!! You know what? At some point I am going to be considered wealthy. I am going to be taxed some ridiculous amount that pretty much puts me at the level of poverty. If that is not entirely true then some fucking retarded legislation is going to figure out how to steal all the money in my 401k. Why? Because we need to save the poor or provide for the elderly. FUCK THAT. I work for my own money. If someone is going take it then I am not going to work. It is that simple. I am so feed up this bullshit on both sides. There is no accountability in politics and personal responsibly is effectively penalized to support those that were irresponsible. Here is a big FUCK you to those of you in 47% of people that paid no income tax last year, yet have no problem voting to increase the taxes on those did. And here is double FUCK you to the government who can't accomplish anything productive.

Greedy Corporations!

I would like to point out one key fact that most people probably forget. Your 401k, mutual fund, IRA or some other investment vehicle is comprised of....wait for it...wait for it....public companies. The same public companies that are scrutinized in the press. So, before you make some bold claim that such and such a company is evil, greedy and contributing to the downfall of America, check your investment account, it is likely that they are contributing to your bottom line and you don't complain about that.

The black, evil, greedy, corrupt...ect cloud that surrounds cooperate America is a shame or at least it should be. There are two type of businesses, those that reap the benefits of government favors and those that don't. Unfortunately, in the US today, the line between these two types of businesses is getting more and more blurry largely because of the ability for companies to lobby for legislation that changes the competitive landscape in their favor. There are two MAJOR causes for the general distrust and widely negative perception of businesses or at least big businesses today. Numero uno, government handouts. The destructive power of government handouts was first tested largely through subsidies and now in more resent years, bailouts. The second is through "corrupt" legislation or "regulation".

The rail road industry is a perfect example. The government essentially opened it's wallet to subsides the first transcontinental railroads. One these railroads was Union Pacific, which wouldn't even have existed without government subsidies. Soon after its completion it went into bankruptcy with what was one of the most publicized scandals in railroad history. Ultimately, there was no risk of failure because be government was giving a handout. Without risk comes the ability to basically make sure the project fails while you "steal" as much cash from the company before it goes under. Government handouts scream please steal me. The next example is Central Pacific, which was built on federal subsidies. For 30 years they held a monopoly on the railroad business in California charging obscene rate and basically stealing the profits of farmers or shippers in the area. They did this through power of the California legislature. Central Pacific controlled the California legislature and ban any other railroad from entering the state. The won not through innovation, not through free market enterprise, but through legislation and it had a detrimental effect the California's economy. The atrocities of government involvement in the transportation industry have been there since before day one. They date back to beginning of the US, when aristocrats still largely controlled the colonies and many established monopolies that were upheld in state courts. Federal government subsidies record back as far as the early 1800s when they funded one particular steamboat company to run mail from the east coast to the newly annexed west cost via Panama. Why? Because at the time it was not profitable to build such a route given that the West Coast was largely not inhabited. Still, the government needed a way to support its imperialism. These are the actions that have given big business a bad name. The actions that would not have even been possible without government involvement. In almost every situation a private business man emerged providing the same services at cheaper price in a more efficient manor.

The telecom industry effectively went through exactly the same corrupt beginnings as the transportation industry did.

Look at any corrupt business and I can pretty much guarantee that the government was involved in some fashion. Take Fannie and Freddie for example. They are a government-sponsored enterprise or GSE for short. Government backing allowed them to dominate the mortgage-underwriting and many politicians benefited from this either from higher pol(F&F basically financed mortgages for low income earners through the incentive of the affordable housing credit) or sometimes as direct campaign funds.

All that I ask is that you seriously consider what you believe or say before making blanketed assumptions about big business or capitalism in general. I am will to bet that in nearly every instance of corruption you will find the governments hand in the cookie jar.

Books

I have been making frequent posts so far. I hope it is not just the novelty that this is new and I continue along this path.

...back on topic.

In my youth I was and still am to this day a HUGE fan of fantasy novels. I remember the sacred time period where I discovered C.S Lewis and the Chronicles of Narnia. It was 5th grade. The very next series in my reading adventure was of course Tolken. It was over for me at the point. I was hooked. For most of my life, I dismissed none-fiction as uninteresting. Boy was I wrong. I was inspired to start reading non-fiction for four reason.

First and foremost, I want to be an elite software engineer. As such it makes sense to read as much about software development, software history, and really anything related to software in general...really anything related to engineering in general. Surprisingly, I find reading postmortem "documentaries" about engineering projects or even sort of "lessons from the trenches" vastly interesting and often enlightening. I will not deny that I have a lot of nerd or geek like tendencies.

Second, in my "old" age I have taken a liking to politics and current events as they relate to one another. Now, if you want to participate in "healthy" debate then I find it necessary to be informed. Nothing pisses me off more than arguing with someone that can't defend their point of view with any sort of logic. Because it's "moral" is probably the most common and most infuriating answer that I get. In any event, this interest has inspired me to research a number of different topics. The first such topic was laissez-faire capitalism. Ultimately, this spawned an interest in the history of American policy, mainly to understand where it diverged or even if it actually diverged from the original founding principles of this country, which the right so often like to propose.

Third, I find it fascinating to study the effects of technology on our society as whole, such as the advent of TV, the Internet and Social Media. This is pretty broad and I don't have clear direction, but I find it more interesting to study the "negative" or "unintended consequence" of such technologies. How they change the face of how companies do business and interact is sort of interesting, but also pretty obvious from my perspective.

Fourth, I am beginning to have to strong interest in business, or to be more specific, how to make them grow. How do you position yourself in the market place, how do you figure out really what your customer want, how do you make make yourself better than your competitors, how do you figure out what your customers will want and how do you convince them that they actually want it. Perhaps I am skipping over the "how to start them" part of the process, but I think there will be a lot similarities. Interesting problems none the less and reading books by successful entrepreneurs is a good start in the right direction.

Now, that my new found interests have been explained, onto the book list.

Resent Reads:

Eat People by Andy Kessler

This book is basically a high level description of how to be a successful entrepreneur. In doing so the author brings to light some basic economic philosophies that may not be apparent to most people.

The Mythical Man-Month by Fredrick P. Brooks, Jr.

This is probably the only classic in the software industry. I am reading this 30+ years after the fact and honestly all his observation seem obvious to me, but then I realize this is where it started. The books is the source or patient zero for much of the "best practices" we find common in software development today. What really amazes me that the problems they had back then are pretty much the same we have today. All that really says is that technology is not the limiting factor in software development. The limiting factor is people and people don't change.

I just purchased six new books.

Programming Pearls by Jon Bentley

Hacker's Delight by Henry S. Warren

The above two are clearly career related and pretty much highly regarded so I thought that I would check them out.

Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions by Guy Kawasaki

The guy helped make Apple what it is today. He has written a couple of books. This is the first I picked up. We will see how I like it.

The First Tycoon The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T. J. Stiles

I don't know a lot about Vanderbilt, but the little I did find out made me want to learn about him. I am pretty sure Vanderbilt might have been one of the most interesting and influential people in US history.

The "S" Word by John Nichols

This book is flat out about Socialism. Amongst my colleagues we have surmised that the influence of Socialism on the US political landscape started from day one. Ironically, enough this book is exactly about the history of Socialism in in America. To be clear, the author is a proponent of Socialism. I am not in anyway shape or form for Socialism. However, the author supports his socialist agenda by proposing that America has been founded on socialist ideas from day one. This is exactly what I was looking for to support our idea despite the fact the author has an agenda. Really, I just think it provides hard evidence for our theory, but I haven't read past the first 20 pages yet.

Idiot America by Charles P. Peirce

This book is hilarious. I am only on page 60, but I never laughed out loud when reading and I seriously laughed out loud at least 5 times. It contains great commentary on how intellect is a thing of past and mass opinion is more powerful than fact. I highly suggest this book. It also makes some interesting commentary about the intent of the founding fathers and how that has been diluted by TV, Internet and Social Media. Also, the book inspired me to learn more about James Madison. The only annoying thing about this book is that the author has an obvious left wing or liberal stance. In one instance he makes a comment about global warming that is slightly disturbing. He essential makes fun of James Inhofe's comment that global warming is hoax, suggesting that there is ample evidence to support global warming. While I won't dispute the fact that the earth is warming, there is NO evidence that suggests humans are accelerating it. The tone of book suggests that the political interest in global warming is correct, which is to say that human are the cause. We might be, but until that is proven you can't assert that with any authority. This makes the author the brunt of his own jokes.