For a long time, I thought I had no time to read books. But somehow I got inspired to start reading last year. It was a great idea. I started a Trello board for my book notes in March 2019. As part of my end-of year retrospective, I counted the number of titles on this board. I was surprised to find 67 of them! I’ve never developed impressive reading speed, even though I was fascinated by the idea of photoreading in my teenage years.

“Seek out people who are willing to level with you, and when you find them, hold them close.” — Ed Catmull, Creativity, Inc. “Part of our job is to protect the new from people who don’t understand that, in order for greatness to emerge, there must be phases of not-so-greatness.” — Ed Catmull, Creativity, Inc. “There is one more general guiding principle of Design (and of Life): Don’t be a wimp.

I heard that humans have evolved to worry a lot. The ones who don’t worry about anything died more easily. I don’t know how true that is, but I find limiting useless worries to be a rare skill. How can we break the habit and only worry when it actually helps us? I came across this great book, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie. I found it to be full of inspiring stories and practical advice.

Money is a representation of value. Money isn’t good or bad. It doesn’t define who we are. Our choices define who we are. Money can buy time and energy to some degree, and that’s about it. Value is a perception. Value exists in people’s minds only. There is no intrinsic value to anything, even though there are commonly agreed value of certain items. The same item can worth different amount to different people at different times.

Lucid dreams are dreams where you know that you are dreaming. Once you realise you are dreaming, it opens up a whole lot of possibilities. You could fly, time-travel, create objects out of thin air, move things with your mind, or teleport to the beach. You could also ask your subconscious mind to help you solve problems and come up with creative ideas. Many great inventors and artists get inspiration from their dreams.

What does negotiation mean to you? A fight where you’d have to compromise? If so, it must be very hard for you to think clearly in negotiations. This is because when your brain is in the fight or flight mode, the logical part of your brain is almost completely shut off. The Inner Game of Negotiation You can only use the rest of clever techniques, once you get out of the fight or flight mode.

Asking for help for fiercely independent people AmyRecently I had a realisation that I can do a lot better if I work with people. This blew my mind. I always tried to be as independent as I could be. As an entrepreneur, I like the philosophy where the founder tries to do everything themselves, at least at early stages of the business. This keeps the costs down and risks low. The founder can gain a solid understanding of every aspect of the business, which enables them to make better decisions, and hire well when necessary.

How habits that makes you good at coding can make you unhappy, and what to do about it After I finally got over the “I’m not good enough” hurdle (which took way too long), I’ve been wishing I could go to work with the same enthusiasm I had when I was a grad. I recently learnt how to love my job with the help of a wise lawyer friend. I want to share it with my dear dev community, because I think being a good developer is very hard work, and we all deserve to enjoy our jobs.