Thoughts & Ideas

My point of view not related to my professional job.

Can we code when age?

I am a developer living in Vietnam. I got many friends from the university, from companies I worked. When I was under 30; just a number to say that when I was young developer; my friends usually say:

You cannot code when you are age; assuming over 30 as they said. You have to do project manager, learn about economic. You become a project manager and let young developer do the coding task.

My first reaction: WHY?

Pretty much I got the same answer from them:

  • You are old, so you cannot think fast. Technology changes frequently and you cannot keep up with
  • Young developer is better than you
  • Being a project manager will give you more income with less work

At that time, I still did not understand why they thought that. They were a good programmer or at least did good job. And they thought of giving it up, and dreamed of another title, another job – believe me, some of them took economic class or MBA course (local MBA course).

Time flies. And now I am over 30 (31 precisely). And I am a developer. Actually, I am a technical manager, project manager. I have a team of more than 10 people with both developers and testers. But the main point is:

I do the coding. I still code and I love code. And I make a living with my coding job

Then I started to find out the reason: Why do they think that? What are the root causes?

Due to the expansion of the team, and of my new startup company, I made interview with some candidates. They are good programmers and might take many roles in their company. I asked them:

What books have you read since university? Which blog post do you follow? Do you know any famous programmer names?

To my surprise: NO. They have not read any technical books or books that can help them in coding life. They do not know Uncle Bob, Ayende, …

The answer is obvious:

They have not learned anything since university. They think they are good. They do the normal every day task and get bored. Their mind are slowing down.

In term of science, there is no evident for being stupid when you are age. Except you are over 70 or the like. Your brain needs food. Knowledge is the food. You do not give brain enough food.

Young developer and developer in general, I just want to tell you:

Foster your brain with knowledge. Learning everyday. Read more books. Do more code

Happy coding Smile

Things i should pay attention and improve immediately

There are so many tittle but important things that I have not paid any attention to for 30 years. For the past couple of months, I started reading more books about self-improvement, and due to the fact that I am father of my daughter, and I want to be a good father, a good husband. I started to look around for improvement.

In this post, I will just list out all the things I want to improve. And for each section, I plan to write many posts about it.

Personal lifestyle

  1. Keep on gym exercise, focus a lot on running
  2. Improve sitting posture. I am a developer but I created a very bad posture which hurts me a lot in long term
  3. Read more book

Career

  1. Expand knowledge to other area such as: Node.js, ReactiveUI, ReactiveX (Rx). Can be anything, will design later
  2. Focus time for business, work smart and hard with 180-200 hours/month

Family

It is the most important thing. I place it last since I do not want to change it or to emphasize it. It is a fact. I always want to create a fun – healthy – wealthy family. All my goals, my plan, my to-do are for it.

Get started – again

It has been a while I have not written anything. And I almost forgot that I do have a blog. Fortunately, from this August, I set some big goals for my life, targeting in next 2 years. As I learn from “Getting things done”, I better write them down and get started. Goals are not goals without writing them down.

Here they are:

  1. Work for 180-200 hours per month
  2. Running 5 KM within 30 minutes
  3. Spend time with my family – this is always a priority for me
  4. Improve English – just by writing blog is a good way and a good start
  5. Quit smoking completely (I have done this at the time of writing, I have not smoked for 3 weeks)

I love drinking and I love hanging around with friends. To archive those goals, things will have a slightly change. I need time and power for my week days. Therefore, here are rules:

  1. No drinking in the week days, except: wedding party
  2. Drink only on Friday, Saturday nights
  3. Avoid drink on Sunday (can drink but not much). The purpose is to have energy for next week.

MVP – Microsoft Vietnam Community

Last week, i had a change to take part in a community diner event, held by Microsoft Vietnam. It was so amazing. It was really a normal talk between us, which made us comfortable. It was the first meet of new Microsoft – related worker. The goal is to build up a community in Vietnam through the MVP – Most Valuable Professional program.

I knew this program for long time; however, i did not care about it for some reasons. Now, there is a program in Vietnam started by Microsoft Vietnam. I care. I want to be in this program.

I got a form to fill in and sent back to register. By doing that, i confirm that i will do more to get that MVP. Easy? No. Some ideas came in my mind:

  1. Need to move the blog to my own – Buy a new domain and host blog.
  2. Figure out what i should focus on – technical stuffs.
  3. Plan for community contributions.

Step by step.

Who i really am?

Sometimes i really do not know who i am. I mean about my characteristics. What are they?

Sometimes i think what will be when i am jobless for some months?

Sometimes i ask myself what i did wrong? what should i do?

Sometimes i want to go somewhere where no one knows me and i do not know them either.