Mohammad Shaker's Blog, page 7

Week 18: Stay Still and Think

Best of what I read recently

On conifers vs angiosperm trees and their strategy of growth. From Dao of Capital. It blew my mind. I’m writing a piece on this.

What makes me wake up enthusiastic lately? What can I do this month around this?Seeing my VO2 Max going up. Very slowly. Training diligently has a second order effect. It’s like sunk cost where I don’t want to lose what I worked hard for. So when my training is hard, my diet is in shape (eat whatever I want, but 1 meal a day and no excess sugar.). Train hard, eat whatever I like.Reading old, deep, thorough books.Tranquility. Stay Still and Think. Thinking sessions where I sit for 2-3 hours and ask my self questions, think about them and write my answers. Normally with a cup of coffee and a bottle of water.Writing. I’m enjoying the research part and “write to think” style of long-form writing I’m doing lately.Walking. Long walks under the sun.Best of what I watched

A style of Man’s Search for Meaning from the Arab Palestinian Humam Yehya.

Something I’m failing at.Early sleep, early rise. It feels like cheating. Though I’m yet to get the owl in me to sleep early and rise early.Eating early and being light going to bed. For years, I’m eating 1 meal a day. And it’s usually after I finish work and a gym session at around 8. This makes going to bed with a big ball in my stomach really annoying sometimes. Still need to fix this. Will write about this when I do.Something that surprised me

I never knew such thing exists..

Something that changed my mindBeing stubborn from Nassim Taleb (NNT.) A blog to follow.Getting advice from experts from NNT. A blog to follow. A good thing I did in the last couple of years is never to believe anything without doing my own research around it.

Ed. 18: Stay Still and Think

Best of what I read recently

On conifers vs angiosperm trees and their strategy of growth. From Dao of Capital. It blew my mind. I’m writing a piece on this.

What makes me wake up enthusiastic lately? What can I do this month around this?Seeing my VO2 Max going up. Very slowly. Training diligently has a second order effect. It’s like sunk cost where I don’t want to lose what I worked hard for. So when my training is hard, my diet is in shape (eat whatever I want, but 1 meal a day and no excess sugar.). Train hard, eat whatever I like.Reading old, deep, thorough books.Tranquility. Stay Still and Think. Thinking sessions where I sit for 2-3 hours and ask my self questions, think about them and write my answers. Normally with a cup of coffee and a bottle of water.Writing. I’m enjoying the research part and “write to think” style of long-form writing I’m doing lately.Walking. Long walks under the sun.Best of what I watched

A style of Man’s Search for Meaning from the Arab Palestinian Humam Yehya.

Something I’m failing at.Early sleep, early rise. It feels like cheating. Though I’m yet to get the owl in me to sleep early and rise early.Eating early and being light going to bed. For years, I’m eating 1 meal a day. And it’s usually after I finish work and a gym session at around 8. This makes going to bed with a big ball in my stomach really annoying sometimes. Still need to fix this. Will write about this when I do.Something that surprised me

I never knew such thing exists..

Something that changed my mindBeing stubborn from Nassim Taleb (NNT.) A blog to follow.Getting advice from experts from NNT. A blog to follow. A good thing I did in the last couple of years is never to believe anything without doing my own research around it.

Week 17: I Think, Therefore I Laugh

Here we go again. Here’s what’s been in my mind recently.

Something I started doing

The older I get, the faster time seems to go. This is true for everyone it seems. What makes time slows down is the anti-routine activities we do in our days. My day become fatter (and more exciting) the more I do not stick to my routine.

The problem is that I’m terrible not to stick with a routine. It drives my whole day off balance. The way I’m fixing it is by blocking half day a week and walk and work outside.

In these lovely summer day (which are not always lovely in rainy London), I’m going and working outside once a week in a cafe. A change of scenery should make us more creative – aside from the healthy benefit of walking to the cafe, before and after.

What I’m reading?

The Road to Serfdom and Law, Legislation and Liberty. Both by F. Hayek. Reading about socialism and economics. Hayek’s writing style is simple, clear and engaging. I’ve come to know Hayek from my favorite write Nassim Taleb and he never fails.

F. A. Hayek

Hayek (Friedrich Hayek) and Mises (Ludwig von Mises) are two landmarks from the Austrian School of Economics. The more I read what they wrote, the more I understand what’s happening on nearly everything around me. They are far, far ahead from anyone writing today on mostly everything – with the economy or daily life.

Ludwig von Mises

And I bet they both would’ve hated Bitcoin.

Something I keep doing

Mixing strength training with Zone 2 exercises every week. Lately, my program is:

2 days strength trainingfollowed by 1 day Zone 21 day rest (sometimes I skip it)2 days strength trainingrepeat.

It keeps me balanced between being exhausted physically from strength training, and being exhausted mentally from a Zone 2 exercises.
Zone 2 exercises with constant watt on an Elliptical machine is a good killer.

Best of what I watched

The amount of creativity in Top Gear is immense. I’m rewatching the seasons over again. All of the 21 seasons. Living in the UK for 6 years now, I understand a bit more the British sense of humor. I like the self-inflecting jokes.

What I like more about it is how universal it is. How natural each episode flows. And, again, the amount of creativity they have in setting up every episode to be special on its own. It’s funny, smart and informative – all in 1. For motor heads, this is an added bonus.

Best of what I read

I don’t understand bus lanes. Why do poor people have to get to places quicker than I do?

Again, by Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear

This reminds me of a very enjoyable read by John Paulos in his bood: I Think, Therefore I Laugh: The Flip Side of Philosophy. Easy read for quick wittedness.

Enjoy!

Week 16: Journalling.

Here we go again. Here’s what’s been in my mind recently.

Something I keep doing

Keeping my phone in the bedroom for at least the first 6 hours of the day. Lately I’m extending this to my whole working day. Have been doing it for a year now. And it’s a home run for focus and being present with the work in hand.

Something I’m thinking of

Hard Choices, Easy Life. Easy Choices, Hard Life.

Jerzy Gregorek

I keep thinking of this every now and then. And it keeps pushing me out of my comfort. Good reminder for me to keep thinking like this.

Something I got back to.

Journalling. Journalling for 10 min in the morning. A simple 1 big pager should do it. I’ve done it on and off for years. And it always feel good when I am back at it. Same as walk or exercise. You never regret them. Same for writing. It’s in simple 4 sections:

Section 1: A simple prayer (I came up with) at the beginning of the page.Section 2: What I’m grateful for. Mention people name, places, experiences. (I find myself mentioning the weather far too much it seems. I love the sun. And it’s always there in the list whenever it’s sunny in London.)Section 3 (past/yesterday): what I did yesterday and how I felt.Section 4 (future/today): 3 questions:What can make today an amazing day for me?What’s 1 thing that if done, I’ll be satisfied with my day?What I’m doing for what I want to become? A set of things I want to focus on like: I write them as “I’m X”.I’m a writer → Share what I did last week, simple and concise. Learn how to be economical with your writing (my favourite book on this is Revising Prose, Keith)I’m a good servant of society → Send a friend a thank you note.I’m a reader → Read: Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy and The Republic by Plato.etc.

Had this as my companion for journaling for the last couple of years.

Something new (and old) I’m doing.

Same as last week, this is not new at all: I’m yet again, going back to how Syrians drink their tea, zuhurat زهورات شامية or mostly any drink. The whole idea of drinking a hot beverage is the experience you make around drinking the beverage. It’s sensual as much it is actually basic, trivial and simple. In Syria, we drink hot beverages by pouring the drink in small cups. You drink the cup while its hot and pour another one if you like from the hot teapot. This way, the beverage is always hot because it’s always from the teapot which is always under a cover (a simple towel does it.)

The whole experience around heating the tea (or zuhurat for me) in a teapot, waiting for it to simmer under the towel, then drinking it bit by bit, always hot, is reminding me of home. And how it felt when I was a kid.

Something I failed at

Reading more. I’m averaging around 45 min a day lately which is not the best for me.

Reading is essential for me to clear my head and cool down. It makes me calm. It makes me think and it makes me wonder. I do it mostly while sitting on chair or in the sunny corner of my house – on a cushion on the floor just against the window.

I mostly read before work early in the morning and in the bed. In good days, it will be around 1-2 hours in the morning and 30 min in the evening.

Something I succeeded in doing

At last, I’m seeing the fruits of training diligently. I’m front-squatting to weights I haven’t done before at all. Weights that I was doing only 7 reps in 3 sets 2 months ago, now I can do 10 reps in 5 sets. Same for other body parts, though the improvements differ. It’s making me committed.

Something I keep using

Apple AirPods. A great example of great engineering and seamless design and user experience. I think they are one of the best things one can use for daily work. I became aware of the potential danger of wireless sets and whether they are completely safe or not. Need to investigate this more I think.

That’s it for this week for me. Get at it.

Week 16: Journalling.

Here we go again. Here’s what’s been in my mind recently.

Something I keep doing

Keeping my phone in the bedroom for at least the first 6 hours of the day. I won’t have my phone around me anywhere while I’m working for the first 6 hours of my day. Lately I’m extending this to my whole working day. Have been doing it for a year. And it’s a home run for focus and being present with people in meetings.

Something I’m thinking of

Hard Choices, Easy Life. Easy Choices, Hard Life.

Jerzy Gregorek

I keep thinking of this every now and then. And it keeps pushing me out of my comfort. Good reminder for me to keep thinking like this.

Something I got back to.

Journalling. Journalling for 10 min in the morning. A simple 1 big pager should do it. I’ve done it on and off for years. And it always feel good when I am back at it. Same as walk or exercise. You never regret them. Same for writing. It’s in simple 4 sections:

Section 1: A simple prayer (I came up with) at the beginning of the page.Section 2: What I’m grateful for. Mention people name, places, experiences. (I find myself mentioning the weather far too much it seems. I love the sun. And it’s always there in the list whenever it’s sunny in London.)Section 3 (past/yesterday): what I did yesterday and how I felt.Section 4 (future/today): 3 questions:What can make today an amazing day for me?What’s 1 thing that if done, I’ll be satisfied with my day?What I’m doing for what I want to become? A set of things I want to focus on like: I write them as “I’m X”.I’m a writer → Share what I did last week, simple and concise. Learn how to be economical with your writing (my favourite book on this is Revising Prose, Keith)I’m a good servant of society → Send a friend a thank you note.I’m a reader → Read: Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy and The Republic by Plato.etc.

Had this as my companion for journaling for the last couple of years.

Something new (and old) I’m doing.

Same as last week, this is not new at all: I’m yet again, going back to how Syrians drink their tea, zuhurat زهورات شامية or mostly any drink. The whole idea of drinking a hot beverage is the experience you make around drinking the beverage. It’s sensual as much it is actually basic, trivial and simple. In Syria, we drink hot beverages by pouring the drink in small cups. You drink the cup while its hot and pour another one if you like from the hot teapot. This way, the beverage is always hot because it’s always from the teapot which is always under a cover (a simple towel does it.)

The whole experience around heating the tea (or zuhurat for me) in a teapot, waiting for it to simmer under the towel, then drinking it bit by bit, always hot, is reminding me of home. And how it felt when I was a kid.

Something I failed at

Reading more. I’m averaging around 45 min a day lately which is not the best for me.

Reading is essential for me to clear my head and cool down. It makes me calm. It makes me think and it makes me wonder. I do it mostly while sitting on chair or in the sunny corner of my house – on a cushion on the floor just against the window.

I mostly read before work early in the morning and in the bed. In good days, it will be around 1-2 hours in the morning and 30 min in the evening.

Something I succeeded in doing

At last, I’m seeing the fruits of training diligently. I’m front-squating to weights I haven’t done before at all. Weights that I was doing only 7 reps 2 weeks ago, now I can do 30 in 3 sets (10 reps each.) Same for other body parts, though the improvements differ. It’s making me committed.

Something I keep using

Apple AirPods. A great example of great engineering and seamless design and user experience. I think they are one of the best things one can use for daily work. I became aware of the potential danger of wireless sets and whether they are completely safe or not. Need to investigate this more I think.

That’s it for this week for me. Get at it.

Week 15: Nonviolent Communication

Here’s what’s been in my mind recently.

What I’m reading lately?

NVC. Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg. This book can win an award for the worst book cover and typography. But that’s not the point.

At its core, NVC encourages individuals to observe without judgment, identify feelings, connect them to underlying needs, and make requests that are clear.

I now remember what my friend and colleague at Noon, Andy Guest, was telling me around providing feedback in an offsite and how it actually matches 1:1 with NVC. And it’s an absolute eye opener for me since. It’s a gem for any manager or anyone who directly managing people.

The key components of nonviolent communication can be summarized as follows:

Observation: Describe what I observe without adding judgments. The data.Feelings: Expressing my emotions given what I observed.Needs: Connect my feelings with my needs, values, or desires.Requests: Make an actionable request rather than demand. Requests should meet our needs and respect the needs of others.

It works in personal relations too. Instead of telling my wife: “You are wrong.” I should say: “Given that I’ve seen you doing X, I feel sad. And that makes doing Y really hard for me.”

I should always remind myself of this. It’s much more peaceful and civilized in any situation.

Something new I’m trying

Actually this is not new at all. But it seems that the older I get, the more I like what old people likes. Especially old medeteranians. And especially old Syrians. When I was a kid I hated famous singers of the time like Fairouz and Sabah Fakhri. Now they are my favorites. I rarely like any new kind of music.

Something I revisited

I like the NerdWriter. And I keep coming back to this exact video. It worth anyone’s 6 minutes.

(The thumbnail also matches the title of this blog.)

Why do I like a

This week is: Why do I like walking? 3 reasons:

Simply because I feel alive this way. I’m actually moving from one place to the other.It gives me extended time to think. Think slowly and at my own pace. I won’t be rushed and I won’t be pressured to finish anything. I’m managing around 9.500 steps a day on average. I do most of these steps in 3 days a week.It reminds me of my father. He used to walk after the morning prayers for around 2 hours in the morning (that means between 5AM to 7AM) and another 2 hours just before sunset. He’s actually the person who’s doing what Huberman is suggesting before Huberman was even born.

Here’s my average daily steps during the last year. Naturally summer is the best for walking.

Some software engineering books that keeps popping up lately in my 1:1s with engineers

For technical expertise, I think the basics are the most important, never a specific tech. So if I want to improve on sth, I sometimes just get back to the basics, to square 1. Don’t go and only read a book on React Native if you want to improve your tech skills. Read the basics that are applicable everywhere.

Here’re some of the books that helped me on the way:

Good for going back to the basics:

Introduction to Algorithms by Thomas H. CormenAlgorithms: A Creative Approach Paperback – 1 Jan. 1989 by Udi Manber

Design and architecture:

Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture (Addison-Wesley Signature Series (Fowler))Design patterns : elements of reusable object-oriented software

There are other famous books I didn’t quite like:

Effective Java by Joshua BlochClean Code by Robert Cecil MartinClean Architecture: A Craftsman’s Guide to Software Structure and Design. by Robert Cecil Martin

There are other books like The Mythical Man-Month and The Pragmatic Progrmmer that I really like. But these are different from the coding/data structure books above.

Do you have favorites? Please share them via email directly to me and I’ll happily add them here and mention you. (my email: mohammadshakergtr@gmail.com)

Week 15: Nonviolent Communication

Here’s what’s been in my mind recently.

What I’m reading lately?

NVC. Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg. This book can win an award for the worst book cover and typography. But that’s not the point.

At its core, NVC encourages individuals to observe without judgment, identify feelings, connect them to underlying needs, and make requests that are clear.

I now remember what my friend and colleague at Noon, Andy Guest, was telling me around providing feedback in an offsite and how it actually matches 1:1 with NVC. And it’s an absolute eye opener for me since. It’s a gem for any manager or anyone who directly managing people.

The key components of nonviolent communication can be summarized as follows:

Observation: Describe what I observe without adding judgments. The data.Feelings: Expressing my emotions given what I observed.Needs: Connect my feelings with my needs, values, or desires.Requests: Make an actionable request rather than demand. Requests should meet our needs and respect the needs of others.

It works in personal relations too. Instead of telling my wife: “You are wrong.” I should say: “Given that I’ve seen you doing X, I feel sad. And that makes doing Y really hard for me.”

I should always remind myself of this. It’s much more peaceful and civilized in any situation.

Something new I’m trying

Actually this is not new at all. But it seems that the older I get, the more I like what old people likes. Especially old medeteranians. And especially old Syrians. When I was a kid I hated famous singers of the time like Fairouz and Sabah Fakhri. Now they are my favorites. I rarely like any new kind of music.

Something I revisited

I like the NerdWriter. And I keep coming back to this exact video. It worth anyone’s 6 minutes.

(The thumbnail also matches the title of this blog.)

Why do I like a

This week is: Why do I like walking? 3 reasons:

Simply because I feel alive this way. I’m actually moving from one place to the other.It gives me extended time to think. Think slowly and at my own pace. I won’t be rushed and I won’t be pressured to finish anything. I’m managing around 9.500 steps a day on average. I do most of these steps in 3 days a week.It reminds me of my father. He used to walk after the morning prayers for around 2 hours in the morning (that means between 5AM to 7AM) and another 2 hours just before sunset. He’s actually the person who’s doing what Huberman is suggesting before Huberman was even born.

Here’s my average daily steps during the last year. Naturally summer is the best for walking.

Some software engineering books that keeps popping up lately in my 1:1s with engineers

For technical expertise, I think the basics are the most important, never a specific tech. So if I want to improve on sth, I sometimes just get back to the basics, to square 1. Don’t go and only read a book on React Native if you want to improve your tech skills. Read the basics that are applicable everywhere.

Here’re some of the books that helped me on the way:

Good for going back to the basics:

Introduction to Algorithms by Thomas H. CormenAlgorithms: A Creative Approach Paperback – 1 Jan. 1989 by Udi Manber

Design and architecture:

Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture (Addison-Wesley Signature Series (Fowler))Design patterns : elements of reusable object-oriented software

There are other famous books I didn’t quite like:

Effective Java by Joshua BlochClean Code by Robert Cecil MartinClean Architecture: A Craftsman’s Guide to Software Structure and Design. by Robert Cecil Martin

There are other books like The Mythical Man-Month and The Pragmatic Progrmmer that I really like. But these are different from the coding/data structure books above.

Do you have favorites? Please share them via email directly to me and I’ll happily add them here and mention you. (my email: mohammadshakergtr@mohammadshaker)

Week 14: Shape Up

Here we go again. Here’s what’s been in my mind recently.

Something I keep doing

Being diligent in my exercise. Although I’m starting lately to overdo it, especially with weight exercises. The heavier you go, mindfully, and the more you improve, and the more you have to be mindful about rest it seems. I’m getting depleted more than I would like to. Rest matters the same as exercise.

Another way around this is doing lighter weight exercises in the off days. Not completely abandoning the exercise. Doing an active rest like long walks, easy pace is doing it for me.

Last week average: 5 hours strength training + 1 workout Zone 2 = 6 days in the gym.

Something I succeeded in doing

VO2 max sessions that’s not an agony to do. According to Peter Attia, a person should do a 4x4x4. Meaning:

4 min full effort, 4 min zone 2 effort. Repeat that 4 times (32 min total.)

Normally this is done on a rowing machine.

I just didn’t want to do it like this in the last couple of weeks. It’s boring. Am trying to make them fun. What I’m doing is 50 min workout and without 4 min rest in between (non scientific, just fun.) I’m doing the following:

5 min: elliptical. You can do treadmill with an incline. For me, it’s easier on my knees on an elliptical.40 min: Combination ofWeighted sledge for 40 meters total. Forward and Backward. the backward side is for knees from the KneesOverToesGuy.20KG Kettlebell on each arm for 40 meters total.Repeat.10 min: elliptical.

Am young. I should be able to handle it and have some fun from time to time. I want to feel life and alive. And I sure am when I am doing these sessions.

Something I keep buying

Blueberries. I simply say to myself that Lamis, my wife, like them. And then I eat them all by myself. I think I also tell myself they are good antioxidants and that they’re good for strength and the gym work I do. I find a reason to keep buying and eating them. No worries.

Something I keep using

My Moleskine notebook. It’s a bit pricy but it does the job. The quality of paper is superb and that matters if you draw or design on paper. I always choose the one with dotted papers.

I use them for design, reading and all my writing and thinking.

Best of what I watched

I love Aldaheeh. I’m proud we have an Egyptian in the Arab world that has this impact on the youth – simply by explaining science in simple terms in 15 min. He’s great. I’ve watched this video on the Arabic Language as the Language of “daad.” Which we seem to get all wrong. It’s not the language of “daad” after all. Recommended for any Arab.

A big side note: I should rethink this it seems. He’s more of a presenter, than purely a science person. His video on Keto diet is purely misleading and unscientific. If you’re a regular guy like me who is interested in exercise and diet and read a bit, you’ll see this episode and be surprised. He got lots of things wrong. And he mixed between Keto diet and intermittent fasting.

Best buy

If you’re a runner or want a really good top for gym, I’ve bought this by Nike a while back, and it’s a really good top. I’ve bought another one again. It’s not as white as it appears to be. It’s actually grey.

Something I’m learning

I’ve just finished the first walkthrough in the Moral Foundations of Politics course on Coursera. A really good intro on the subject. If you know any other good course on politics on philosophy, please do send me an email. Directly here: mohammadshakergtr@gmail.com

80/20 of my time for the week went on..

My work day is dominated by meetings lately. I’m trying to keep at least 1 day where it’s completely free of meetings. I think if we, at Noon, are to do something dramatically different in the EdTech space in particular and in tech in general, we should follow dramatically different approach of work VS other companies.

And I do think it starts with how we plan, execute, learn and iterate – closing the feedback loop for another cycle of plan, execute, and learn. We’ve made lots of changes in the last 1 year to plan properly and execute and iterate faster. But we still have long way to go.

We’re starting to adopt to some uncommon practices in our industry. These are first principled by 37Signals/Basecamp. These guys got it right early, and still do. I read all their books 7-8 years ago and it effected all my management style, me starting a company, hiring and firing, and me adopting thinking and adopting different internal processes of how XFN teams should work. I’m in-progress of widely implementing lots of these practices at Noon. Give their ShapeUp book a read for anything tech/engineering/design/product related. Or any of their other books.

They are very easy quick reads. But they are gems in a mired of insanity of engineering practices in the tech industry. I love these guys.

Week 14: Shape Up

Here we go again. Here’s what’s been in my mind recently.

Something I keep doing

Being diligent in my exercise. Although I’m starting lately to overdo it, especially with weight exercise. The heavier you go, mindfully, and the more you improve, and the more you have to be mindful about rest it seems. I’m getting depleted more than I would like to. Rest matters the same as exercise.

Another way around this is doing lighter weight exercises in the off days. Not completely abandoning the exercise. Doing an active rest like long walks, easy pace, should do it for me.

Last week average:

5 hours strength training + 1 workout Zone 2 = 6 days in the gym.

Something I succeeded in doing

VO2 max sessions that’s not an agony to do. According to Peter Attia, a person should do a 4x4x4. Meaning:

4 min full effort, 4 min zone 2 effort. Repeat that 4 times (32 min total.)

Normally this is done on a rowing machine.

I just didn’t want to in the last couple of weeks like this. It’s boring. Am making them fun. What I’m doing is 50 min blast without rest (non scientific, just fun.) I’m doing the following:

5 min: elliptical. You can do treadmill with an incline. For me, it’s easier on my knees on an elliptical.40 min: Combination ofWeighted sledge for 40 meters total. Forward and Backward. the backward side is for knees from the KneesOverToesGuy.20KG Kettlebell on each arm for 40 meters total.Repeat.10 min: elliptical.

Am young. I should be able to handle it and have some fun from time to time. I want to feel life and alive. And I sure am when I am doing these sessions.

I’m not different.

A short post I wrote here this week.

Something I keep buying

Blueberries. I simply say to myself that Lamis, my wife, like them. And then I eat them all by myself. I think I also tell myself they are good antioxidants and then they’re good for strength and the gym work I do. I find a reason to keep buying and eating them. No worries.

Something I keep using

My Moleskine notebook. It’s a bit pricy but it does the job. The quality of paper is superb and that matters if you draw or design on paper. I always choose the one with dotted papers.

I use for design, reading and all my writing and thinking.

Best of what I watched

I love Aldaheeh. I’m proud we have an Egyptian in the Arab world that has this impact on youth simply explaining science in simple terms, humor in 15 min. He’s amazing. I’ve watched this video on the Arabic Language as the Language of “daad.” Which we seem to get all wrong. It’s not the language of “daad” after all. Recommended for any Arab.

A big side note: I should rethink this it seems. He’s more of a presenter, than purely scientific. His video on Keto diet is purely misleading and unscientific. If you’re a regular guy like me but you’re interested in exercise and diet, you’ll see this episode and say that he got lots of things wrong between Keto diet and Intermittent fasting.

Best buy

If you’re a runner or want a really good top for gym, I’ve bought this by Nike a while back, and it’s a really good top. It’s not as white as it appears to be. It’s actually grey.

Something I’m learning

I’ve just finished the first walkthrough in the Moral Foundations of Politics course on Coursera. A really good intro on the subject. If you know any good course on politics on philosophy, please do send me an email. Directly here: mohammadshakergtr@gmail.com

80/20 of my time for the week I went on..

My work day is dominated by meetings. I’m trying to keep at least 1 day where it’s completely free of meetings. I think if we, at Noon, are to do something dramatically different, we should follow dramatically different approach to work VS other companies. And I think it starts with how we plan and execute. We’ve made lots of changes in the last 1 year to plan properly and execute and iterate faster. But we still have long way to go.

We’re starting to adopt to some uncommon practices in our industry by 37Signals/Basecamp. These guys got it right early, and still do. I read all their books 7-8 years ago and it effected all my management style, me starting a company, hiring and firing, and internal processes. I’m in-progress of widely implementing some of them at Noon. Give their ShapeUp book a read for Product Engineering work. Or any of their other books.

They are very easy quick reads. But they are gems in a mired of insanity of engineering practices in the tech industry. I love these guys.

I’m not different.

I think people are different. What works for others doesn’t work for me. And I should accept that. My way of work is completely different from other people. And that’s OK. It’s not about which way is better and which is not. It’s simply about what works for each of us.

I hate hacks in general. And most people follow hacks. I don’t want to. I prefer systems. Productivity gurus always talk about the next hack you can follow, the new tool you should try, and the new way you should absolutely follow. I don’t believe most of this. All previous words in italic are intentional.

I tend to work best, and produce best, when I focus on 1 thing, and 1 thing only for an extended period of time. Sometimes it’s hours, sometimes it’s months or years.

When I used to work for my own company, Alphazed, I used to set CEO vs CTO days. Meaning on a given day (or couple of days) I will only work on sales, PR and marketing. On another day I’ll only work with the team on the tech side and drive technical decisions. I never mix the two in the same day. This was a great learning for me if I’m to fill both roles.

Working on and off for short period of time and on multiple things simply doesn’t work for me. And that’s OK. It seems that I’ve spent the last year fighting this in me and I shouldn’t. I know my way work and that’s great. I should always experiment of what’s working and what’s not. But that’s it. That were it ends. What works, I adopt. What doesn’t, I set aside. Time-box any experiment and I will be able to directly see when it’s working and what’s not. I should keep it as simple as that.

Am I different? I’m not. We are all different. And then we’re not different at all.