Hey friend, As you may remember that I started a new job in November. So far, it's going well. The team is full of great people, and I had a fantastic start in onboarding by having an offsite and two days of leadership training. While many things go well, there are challenging parts that I have to overcome quickly...
Make a fleeting note. Whatever comes to your mind, write it down. No structure or full sentences are needed. It's for you to remember. Make literature notes: Write what you've learned and don't want to forget. Use your own words. Keep it short—no structure or full sentences are needed here as well. Keep...
I've been researching a better note-taking system, trying apps, and moving hundreds of notes from one place to another for years. Today, I can finally say I have reached the end, and I'm finishing my research and experiments with apps. I share what I learned in this post and explain how things have changed. I have...
Why is it so challenging to be kind? I ask this question myself because I'm aware of my rare unkindness to the people I don't know. I rarely stop being kind, especially when the other side is unkind. But isn't responding with kindness the best reaction to a rude person? Isn't it what keeps our personality intact?...
Three personal barriers to growing as a person are perspective, ego, and accountability. Our perspective is limited. Think about the relative velocity. A person in a moving car throws a ball into the air and only sees the ball's vertical move. A person observing from outside sees the ball's vertical and horizontal...
Dear friend, I hope you're doing well and getting used to knowing the end of the year is coming. The cold is what winter brings in Berlin, and I'm ready to take out my snowboard, head to some mountains, and get lost in fresh white powder. As much as taking a trip became more accessible thanks to remote work, I have...
This article is part of my notes from Chapter 6 on Designing Data-Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppmann. You can read other chapter notes as well. Chapter 1: Reliability, Scalability, and Maintainability in Distributed Applications Chapter 2: Data Models and Query Languages Chapter 3: Data Storage and Retrieval...
Hey friend, Today, I want to reflect on the past ~2 years of Mektup and share some news with you. It's a bit longer than usual, but keep reading till the end. TL;DR: Over time, I changed, and so did the Mektup. Now, Mektup will adapt to me and become more personal. The very first Mektup hit your inbox on January 28,...
Back in 2015, I didn't know anything about Jimdo when I moved to Germany. I started hearing it in meetups where Jimdo was a host. Later, I joined Jimdo in July 2016 as an iOS Engineer. For more than six years, I was lucky enough to work with fantastic individuals, and we worked towards creating excellent...
Great communicators are both the managers and a part of the feedback conversations, especially when they receive feedback. They take steps back, unstuck the conversation, and give it a pause or a direction for the conversation. These people are better suited for facilitating the discussions and are likely to advance...
As we evolved, we developed autopilot behaviors to eliminate suffering and details in our lives. We cannot care about every problem, so we—humans—have built systems in our brains to take shortcuts. These systems turned into issues and biases (also Kahneman talks about Heuristics). If we're not mindful of these...
While receiving a code review, we need to express ourselves and coach the other person. There is a reason for any decision we make. Sometimes, people don't see these reasons. Instead of insisting on being right, we need to tell the people what's been left out in the feedback/review we receive. If the decisions are...
