Personal

Family

Although I think I'm pretty good in this department, supporting my wife when she needs it (most of the time), and spending quality time with the kids, I think I can improve.  There are times when we say we'll do things with the kids but then circumstances do not always allow it.  For the next year, I will try my best to do everything I say I will do with/for my family, or at least think before replying in the affirmative, making sure that circumstances will allow for what we want to do.

When anyone asks you to do something, the easy way is to just say yes at the time, because you're busy with something, and you don't want to break your attention span.  But if you spent 2 seconds thinking about it, you would have known that you're making an empty promise.

Sport

I've been lazy this year with my training (cycling), but am upping it a notch in 2010.  I want to get onto a podium at a race at least once this year, I'm not fussy which one, but last time I was on a podium was in 2006 (provincial time-trial).  I also want to complete the 2011 Iron-Man (3.8km swim, 180km cycle, 42.2km run)

To accomplish this, my training program needs to adjust, and I need to shed some extra weight I've been carrying around since I quit smoking (7 years have flown by).  My goal here is to lose 10kg by the end of March, a healthy 1kg per week.

How do I approach this?  Easy, I have to be a diet nazi.  Lots of people think that with the amount of training I do, there should be no problem in losing weight, but the fact is that your body adapts to your environment.  Even spending 8+ hours on the bike per week does not automatically guarantee me to lose weight.  The only way is to consume less calories than what you burn, consistently.  I've signed up for a pro account on dailyburn.com, and am religously tracking everything going into my body, as well as the amount of calories I burn.  One thing I have learnt about dieting is that you should not deprive yourself of your favourite tastes, that just sets you up for failure.  So I'm allowing myself a cheat every few days, with some rules attached.

1. if I skip the meal before the cheat, the cheat is not allowed,
2. portions have to fit in with my overall calorie intake each day.

I've started this already and have lost about 3 kilos in the last 3 weeks, so fo the next 3 months I'll try to get used to that permament hungry feeling while my body burns up the extra weight.

Another thing I have to do is be more scientific about my training program, for 2009 I did a lot of aimless riding, but not much targeted training.  This will change for 2010, I'm busy developing a training program that will probably run in 5/6 week segments.  As soon as am done with that I will post it here as well.

Hobbies

Writing

In the last year my twitter usage has increased dramatically, and my blogging has decreased.  One reason for this was the amount of time available, but also the fact that I've started getting quite good at saying things in 140 characters or less.  If you know me personally, you'll know that I'm not really one for a lot of small-talk, and normally say things in as few words as possible, sometimes totally confusing my audience, and other times properly offending them because of a misunderstanding.

So for the year ahead I need to change that, and start talking in paragraphs not just sentences.  I want to increase my readership on all my blogs (yes I have more than 1), this site being my first project, target for the first 6 months being 500 regular readers, for the others I'll be happy with 250 regular readers each by end of June.  Exactly how I'm going to accomplish that is not entirely clear, but I'll start by posting more often, and making sure that what I write is what people want to read.  The only way for me to confirm that is for people to start commenting on my posts, even if you need to be nasty about my views.  I enjoy a good debate.

Instead of doing what I've been doing all along, blogging in spurts and then letting it sit idle for weeks/months at a time, I'm now going to start scheduling posts to go out on a regular interval, with an absolute minimum of 2 posts per blog per month.  That's a total of 6 posts per month, which should be easily accomplished.

Photography

To force me to do these, I've already started the Wordless Wednesdays posts, and will be doing one every week, using my own photos only.  I also want to participate in one or two photography communities whether online or offline, and will be joining in on photowalks as often as I can.  If you like any of the photos I post, I'll gladly send you a print quality copy, as long as it is for personal use only.

Cooking

I've always enjoyed experimenting in the kitchen, and according to multiple sources, I'm not half bad at it.   But in the past year I haven't had the time to do much cooking, work and a baby kept me a bit busy, and with my wife now working from home full-time, she does the cooking during the week.

This past year we've also spent way too little time with our friends, all of them having fairly young kids makes things a bit tricky to arrange parties that everybody can attend.  But for the year ahead I want to seriously start experimenting with my cooking skills again, and that would provide the perfect opportunity to invite people to enjoy the good food with us.  So if you're a close friend or family member, expect some invites.  Will be doing something at least once a month.

Professional

Skills

Stock Trading

Related posts:

1. 2011 – Goals

We had an incident recently where 2 people could not behave themselves like adults in a particular setting at work.  Instead of dealing with the 2, and making sure they don’t do it again, our management team (note I didn’t say leaders) decided to make a list of archaic rules for that setting, which means that for the bulk of us, who’ve been able to behave ourselves in the same setting for the past 6 years, we now have to conform to the same set of rules.  That’s management.  Managers deal with a difficult situation in general, they can’t take it head on and resolve it.  Leaders get out of their comfort zone, and take it head one, dealing with the cause, not the symptoms.

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I'll start with the career based topics first:

SQL Server

Over the years I've built up a wealth of knowledge on my choice of database platform, even taking part in the beta program for SQL Server 2005.  However, for the latest version I've been slack, and to this date have not started digging deeper into the new features.  I've completed my MCTS certification on SQL 2005, but stopped there for no particular reason.  I'll be taking this line further now, and complete the rest of the exams for MCDBA and MCPD.

C#

I've been working with this language for some time now, but have never found the time to dig into the newer features that made it into the language in version 2 & 3, once again for no particular reason.  The work I've been doing could be accomplished using the basics, but I'm sure I could have done it better and faster using some of the new features.

I'll stick to these two topics career-wise, and make sure that the knife is as sharp as possible before moving on to the next topics, which will most probably be framework related.

My third topic is purely for fun.  Late last year I made the jump from a fairly good basic digital camera to a good DSLR.  I invested in the Canon 40D.  The camera is everything I've wanted in a camera, but I've only been able to master the basics so far.  So I'll be digging a lot deeper into photography, and will be posting some of the results here.

On a more personal level, me and my wife have started on the spiritual journey, but once again, I've only been able to skim over the wide variety of material out there.  I want to do a retreat with Leigh-Ann, and will be planning that fairly soon.  In the meantime, I have a number of books to dig into and learn more.

Lastly, and this is a long-time passion.  Cycling.

You would think that at the level I'm riding I've learnt most of the things I need to learn, but I've noticed that I've plateau'd.  Meaning, my performance is not getting better, doesn't matter if I train more, I'm not getting better.  This is extremely demotivating, and my sport has suffered because of this.  I've also set myself the goal of completing the Ironman next year.  That's a 3.8km swim, a 180km cycle, and a 42.2 km run.  My plan is to take a serious look at new training techniques, and adapt my training plan to this.  Once I've done this, the plan will be posted here.  I'll also be posting results and race reports again.  This has helped me in the past to pinpoint any tactical errors I made in races, but I've stopped doing the reports to avoid boring people to death here.  But because it helped for me, I'll be starting this again, and if you find it boring, just filter it out.

As an added bonus, a sixth topic is included.  I get to work on my writing skills during all of this.

Can I have your comments please?

Related posts:

1. Learning resource

When I started my programming career you had to go buy books at a physical retailer on a topic that interested you.  Internet connections weren't widely available, and hellishly expensive at the time, so that was the easiest choice.  This made the experience in gaining knowledge on a subject a lot slower, but a lot more focused.  Because you would take a book, and drill down into the chapters, experimenting all the way, and basically making sure that you've absorbed the knowledge in the book before moving on to the next topic, or to a more advanced book on the same topic.  And so the cycle continued.

Currently, with internet connectivity being very cheap, and everyone having an index to the internet as your homepage, it has become very easy to quickly gather a lot of information on any subject.  But! The problem now is that there is so much more information available on such a wide variety of topics, that it makes it a lot more difficult to focus on one topic and to make sure that you actually gain knowledge on that topic.

Especially with the ADD type of personality I have realised I have, where I could be researching a topic, and two hours later I've added 20 links on 10 other topics to my delicious feed, for later consumption.  Focus is getting more difficult for me, and I've turned into a hunter-gatherer of information, instead of being a consumer of knowledge.  Slowly but surely the decay has come about, and at least now I've realised it.

In the coming months I'm going to try and train myself to focus on a few select topics again, and to try and stay away from getting side-tracked by the sheer volume of new topics, never mind the information about them.  This weekend I will make my selection of 5 things, which I'll publish here next week, and from there I will focus on those 5 for at least 2 months before moving to the rest.  That means that I'll need to trim my subscriptions in Google Reader as well to make sure that I don't get overloaded. 

At the end of May I will then also publish my results here, to try and gauge whether 5 topics are too few/many for a 2 month period.  I will however make sure that my 5 topics span all facets of life, and not only my career or personal interests.

What are your thoughts on the matter?

Related posts:

1. A disconnected state
2. Focused learning – My topics for the next few months
3. Learning resource

The moment I see a lack of passion on a CV, it goes one way.  Shift-Delete, don't even bother with a recycle bin, I don't want to see it again.

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ITprofessionals know that the development of technical skills is fundamental andnon-negotiable in the development of their careers.  The degree to which these technical skills are achieved and applied can beeasily measured through tests.  They can also be noted at a glance by simply finding out what tertiaryeducation the professionals have done and what qualifications were achieved atany one of the country's 21 universities.

At the Cape Peninsula University of Technology alone, there are 25 000 studentsdeveloping their technical skills and preparing for the working world by comingto grips with the technologies, theories and histories of their chosen careers.  But learning about and mastering the subject matter is only one of thenecessary talents every IT professional must cultivate.  There is a strong human component: essentially eight soft skills that must alsobe mastered for industry players to excel in their chosen technology fields.

Energy

Whether yourtechnical skills are average or above- average, applying a positive attitudeand energy can improve the working environment and your career prospectssignificantly.

Be energised about how you view problems, be positive in your approach tosolving them, and show conviction.

Attitude and energy applies as much to what you do as it does to how you do it.It also applies to the interpersonal skills you bring to the workplace.

Simply because you are a friendly person does not mean that you automaticallyhave the energy and attitude to be successful in your chosen IT career.

Communication

In anyprofession, communication is important. The more communicative you are, themore you will find yourself surrounded by people and projects that help yougrow your career prospects rather than bog you down with problems and hurdles.

Communicating ideas is important; doing so in ways that the people you aretalking to will understand is even more so.

In IT, however, there is an added need for written communication as it isimportant to provide users of systems or products with manuals and informationon how to maximise the solution.

Perspective

Keepingperspective when faced with major obstacles is a must.  It enables you to see complaints, compliments, issues and non-issues for whatthey really are.

Understanding the context in which things occur is also important. If neitheris done, it becomes difficult to overcome issues, little problems can be blownout of proportion and solutions mismatched.

Without context, you could find yourself scrambling to chase away the smokerather than putting out the fire. Worse, without perspective you could befuelling the fire instead of fighting it.

Business savvy

To ensurea successful, prosperous and long career in IT, it is important to understandthe business as well.  It is necessary to get a grip on what drives the business, to understand whatthe business's objectives are and what your role is in getting it there.  To effectively do your job, it is necessary to know what your managers anddirectors want of you and what the company's clients expect of you.

In coming to terms with the business, you must align yourself with it. If youfind that alignment is not possible, it is best to move on as you serve no oneworking for a company that you do not understand or appreciate.

Control

Control relatesto how you approach leadership. There must be an understanding and respect forthose in positions of leadership in the business.  They must be used as mentors to expand your skills and knowledge on as manyfronts as possible.  Occasionally, management decisions should be challenged, provided the businessstands to benefit.

Responsibility

On theother side of the control coin, those in positions of leadership must applythemselves to sharing their knowledge and they must lead by example.  Your leadership ambition must be fuelled by energy, but it must be checked byperspective and context, assisted through communication and guided by businesssavvy and control.

Direction

Responsibilityfor your career is yours and yours alone. Companies cannot be expected to tellyou what career you should be following or how to get there. Rather, theyshould assist in your career growth.  This is most effectively done when you align yourself with the business andtake responsibility for yourself, your knowledge and your actions.

Generalisation

Technology requires very specific skills to be acquired, but toensure a successful career in IT, you must complement these skills with ageneralist approach.  Broadening your knowledge and understanding in your chosen field, and coming toterms with the more general concerns that surround it, gives you power to goplaces. 
It makes you more marketable to employers and more sellable to customers. Whilespecialists can make money, generalists rule the world.

Related posts:

1. Career Paths for Programmers by John Bennett
2. The internet’s impact on gaining knowledge

I probably would have let it slide if the agent actually apologised after I notified her of the first no-show.

This gets me down to the topic, if any of these candidates or even the agent had shown some consideration, and did the right thing, one of the five candidates that had an interview scheduled might have been the right one.  But since none of them showed any consideration, I decided to do the same, and cancel all the remaining interviews, and move my business to another agent.

Unfotunately this trend of showing no consideration for our fellow South Africans is becoming more and more evident nowadays.  On our roads, in our shops, everywhere.

Until we don't start showing some, our country is never going to be the awesome place it could be...

The message that I'm trying to convey here, is that next time you do something that could influence the lives of others, have some consideration for the repercussions of your actions.

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Link to Career Paths for Programmers by John Bennett, Jr. - developer.*, Developer Dot Star

Related posts:

1. The internet’s impact on gaining knowledge