Lands End Park
Things have calmed down a lot since I talked to you last. Although I've only been here for two weeks, I already feel like I'm settling in.
There's not too much new or crazy to talk about this week, but that's okay.
Work is awesome, I committed my first piece of code on our project, learned a ton about Ruby on Rails and got a high level overview about how the payments industry works.
Fun Fact: If you've ever wondered how Venmo makes money, spoiler alert: they don't.
Outside of work I've been busy biking, exploring, and watching warriors games on our rooftop.
Life
I've noticed I have a tendency to sometimes keep my schedule overly regimented. On one hand, it's great for productivity, but we all need a little spontaneity in our lives.
Most days I get up, go to the gym, bike to work and spend the day coding and learning from cool people. Then I bike home, cook dinner, hangout with my roommates, read, and go to bed. This is a slight exaggeration, but in general it's fairly accurate.
It's a wonderful life, but it can be easy to feel like you're living inside a bubble.
It's not a bad life... (view from my roof)
I really reading enjoyed this NPR story (thanks dad) about a software engineer at google who decided to create apps for himself to force him to introduce spontaneity into his life.
Everything is better with an egg on top.
I think my favorite part was his stories about attending random Facebook events that were accidentally made public.
Now, I'm probably not going to adopt quite the same lifestyle, but I think it serves as a valuable lesson. It's easy to get sucked into a bubble where we spend all of our time with the people that are most similar to us.
Amazon Alexa San Francisco Meetup. Not "crazy" but still fun.
Sometimes the most rich experiences in life are just outside our comfort zone. Hopefully I can update you in the coming weeks about some weird or crazy event that I went to.
Or it could be something as simple going to an open event without knowing anyone.
More rooftop views.
I'm keeping it short this week, but I'll be back with a more in-depth update next week. In the mean time check out a few of my favorite links I listened/watched/read this week.
Links
The Quiet Master of Cryptocurrency — Nick Szabo
One of the best podcasts I've listened to in a long time. If you're like me, you've heard people talk about bitcoin, ethereum, "the block chain", "social contracts", "mining", etc, and had no idea what they were talking about. People have been talking about bitcoin as the future for awhile now, yet the vast majority of people (even most of the people investing) have little or no idea of what exactly bitcoin is, how it works, and why it is potentially useful. This podcast is a fantastic introduction to anyone trying to get a better understanding of cryptocurrency.Do More! What Amazon Teaches Us About AI and the “Jobless Future”
The core argument of this article is that the best applications of technology actually create jobs by allowing us to do more. Growth in employees at amazon continues to skyrocket even with additional use of robots and A.I. I love the optimism, especially in an area where experts are quick to predict the worst. But, there are also plenty of counterexamples to Tim's argument as well. Regardless, it's an interesting read about the crazy time we're all living in.
