Thinkings

These Things Are Much Better Than Spending Time on Résumé

Preface I have been reviewing a lot of literature related to the job market in software engineering and analysing what stands apart and what gets rejected. While writing this article, I am at a very young age and I am very grateful to say that I had an opportunity to interview people for hiring them into a startup, despite my role as a DevSecOps intern (I was that one multi-tasking startup guy).

You Need to Do this to Get An Unfair Advantage in the Software Engineering Market

Preface: This article is about my experiences and opinions based on my knowledge. We all have an unfair advantage since we all are unique and using that to get better in the market would take you much further. I have been working with software for like a few years while being a university student and learnt a lot from all the amazing people I worked with and followed. While I put down things that I learnt, it has to be noted that your opinions and experiences may vary and I greatly respect that.

The Future of Work and Lifestyle - The Inevitable Change in Thinking and Growth

The Current System of Workspace Working for a company or an organisation to become financially stable surely makes you and your family proud, and certainly, when you were in the 90s, that’s what most people termed as widely successful. It’s absolutely important to make money to have a nice home and send your kids to a good school. And most of the time that works and maybe certainly enough. This method of surviving has dominated for a while now and has shaped the current workspace.

There are always Flaws — Malware Development and Exploitation of Control Flow

Disclaimer: The Author of the article does not hold any opinions of facts other than computer technology. Everything here is as per my research and may not be fully accurate (although I tried my best). He is a very simple person and a computer nerd so information in this blog must be taken with a pinch of salt. I have been studying Cyber Security since an early age and know a few things about it till now.

An Old Computer’s Teachings — Why Vintage Systems Can Make You an Expert

On June 10 1997, Apple Computers released the Apple 2 computer which was one of the first mass-produced computers in the world. It was a success and had a sale of 5–6 million units till the year of 1993. There was a small documentary on this by Bloomberg Originals (here on YouTube) about the same with Steve Wozniak. Now I am not a 90’s kid or something. I was born in the year 2004 and had no connection with these computers.

A Minimalist System — Philosophy Behind Terminal-based Applications to Suckless

Since I have been using Linux for most of my life till now and while I started my computer usage on the Windows Operating System (at a very early age), terminal-based programs have been a life-changing things for me. I have been a person obsessed with minimalism and simplicity in everything. While I spend most of my day in the cyber world, I like to have my computer workspace as minimal as possible.

The Alchemy of Open-Source Software — Community and Freedom

Disclaimer — The following blog post contains the very personal opinions of the writer and is not intended beyond the scope of stating views about the Open-Source. The author respects the opinions of each individual so take it with a pinch of salt. Open-source software has been there for a long time since the software industry started to get into some shape. Open-source is not just a way of developing software but a value that makes individuals in the community contribute to making their skills useful to the world.

The Arch Linux Tales: No Wi-Fi for Today!

I have been using Arch Linux for days now for the sake of having full control over the hardware as well as the software (not moved to LibreBoot or CoreBoot but someday in the future). I have been utilising the suckless utilities and ricing my system for the best look I can have and take the privilege of saying “I use Arch BTW”. Since the total control of the Hardware and Software falls in the hands of the user and Arch repository Pacman releases even the latest packages, way before the software is even stable creating a sensation of being the early user of the tool at the same time being ready to crash out the system.

The Future of Work and Lifestyle - The Inevitable Change in Thinking and Growth

Planted May 22, 2024

The Current System of Workspace

Working for a company or an organisation to become financially stable surely makes you and your family proud, and certainly, when you were in the 90s, that’s what most people termed as widely successful. It’s absolutely important to make money to have a nice home and send your kids to a good school. And most of the time that works and maybe certainly enough. This method of surviving has dominated for a while now and has shaped the current workspace.

When you work for an organisation, you sell your time and energy to them, in return for money and other benefits. What you do before and after the purchased time of the company doesn’t matter to them, even if it’s not productive. The cycle of reaching your office on time and leaving just on time has been dominating the market for a long time. Even if you have a job where you don’t care about the company and consider it as “somewhat” useful for them and spend the rest of your evening on the couch, it might get your work done for survival and may keep you running for long life. And if you love your work, nothing much changes, other than a smile while starting the work and satisfaction while wrapping things up.

A part of this culture has been socially accepted and is even considered to be kind of traditional. A good job can get you in a good place, better environment and respect in society. You might be in a place where a lot of people aspire to be and are even working in that direction, even if you in your place know what you have to go through every day.

What’s with the System?

Humans are social animals. Believe it or not, a lot of what other people do influences what your fate and path would be. When this sums up and starts getting concrete by the term “it just works”, it becomes a system. A system where there is a certain input and an equivalent output.

The “it just works” term however is temporary and works according to a lot of factors. The landscape of jobs and workspace is far more different than what it was hundreds of years ago when the Industrial Revolution started. Hence, a lot of what gets built into a system changes accordingly and a lot of people remain in the same static system that they saw when entering the market.

When you join a system, it’s like a big machine that works with certain rules, in the same way, that actual machines are complex mechanisms of various physical laws of nature that they follow to get a certain thing done. In this whole system, especially in a hierarchical system of humans, the lower positions are valued much less than the ones at the topmost place. Hence, it’s safe to conclude that the lower positions are the most “replaceable” in the system. Just like a real machine, where a small part or the one that is a new addition, if removed would not impact much of the system and it may still work with some additions and modifications, but it’s difficult to replace the major parts easily and can be considered to be kind of “irreplaceable”.

Hence, when you join a system, you are like a small part that can be easily replaced by some other person with better qualities, mostly financially and in terms of productivity. This results in a lot of people dedicating themselves to the work that most authorities need to prove their compatibility. This even causes them to lose the uniqueness they had as human beings and contribute to a noble cause.

Every individual has something unique within them. Dedicating enough time and effort can foster great results while producing a sense of achievement for themselves. But when it comes to the stability of life and the want to move to a better lifestyle with the least effort, joining the system makes more sense, as per the socially accepted norms.

The problem here comes with huge damage to the growth of individuals as well as the whole of mankind. The attitude of settling for less and seeking comfort, letting the talent just go while considering it just as a hobby is kind of damaging. The potential of advancement in that particular field slows down with also lesser quality of work produced via the system.

The point to be remembered is that this system adapts to the conditions of mankind and is the result of every person on this earth. It just works and has been working for nearly every condition that we as humans face. The problem arises when people don’t update their snapshots of systems and fail to use the system otherwise to produce something meaningful and as per their field of interest.

Why does it go Unnoticed?

When the system is adapted by a group of people, letting it go is difficult. Updating beliefs becomes time-consuming and requires collective efforts, which is in itself a difficult task. When new people seek to join the system, they suffer from the legacy systems and try as hard as they can to adapt to it. Few of them are born with compatibility, some of them have exceptional adaptability and a lot of them struggle with it.

But a lot of what’s happening goes unnoticed. Part of it is due to obligations. People often take the system as something inevitable and they need to fit in. Obligations come with a lot of factors, economically and even socially. When you become obligated to fit in the system, you become a perfect component of the system.

Since a lot of people race towards being the best component in the system, the one who attempts to conquer something out of the line is often considered strange. In a large group of people, when a large number of people have similar opinions and ideologies, it turns out to be widely accepted by them. Even when some of them have different opinions, maybe even the opposite, most of them try to just be part of the group by just accepting the norms.

“There are people who’d rather be wrong, standing with the crowd, than be right standing alone.” - Vincent H. O’Neil

A part of the reason is also that we don’t care. If something just works and floats the boat, it’s just okay to keep it going (mostly the ones who fit better in the system). Since the ones who fit better into this group have these opinions, they harm the people who rather have a different way of contributing and don’t fit in the system.

The Resistance to Change

The is a comfort in being stable or following certain rules under higher authority people. When you don’t need to worry much about keeping the organisation alive and can be comfortable while higher authorities give you orders and take responsibility for decisions, it seems like a nice deal. After all, comfort is something we all want, may it be in a way that you prefer or fate throws in your way.

There is no harm in this system being mediocre. Most people would not judge you or question you for being a person working under orders of higher people, who would have better lives than you and have control over you. The one who would question you can be avoided, even your inner voice who opposes this way. It’s the resistance that keeps you glued to the system.

Even social acceptance affects mediocrity. Since a large portion of people are in the mediocrity range, it’s the most accepted in a crowd. And since humans seek more comfort when they follow norms that are socially accepted or even appreciated, it’s common for people to resist the temptation to challenge their beliefs.

No Turning Back!

Changes in the system are inevitable and even the rules that must be played to escape it create something that has an impact on the world when you don’t fit in the system change over time. It’s just the realisation of the current system and finding the wisdom to understand it in a way that would be beneficial to you.

Access to information is now overwhelming. There is an abundance of resources you would need to get expertise in something. It’s not an issue of resources, they are more accessible than ever. It’s the courage to execute the right thing with enough information. Execution is the key because ideas are infinite. Every day, a lot of ideas come into our minds, and a lot of them are enough to make a dent in the universe. But when it comes to execution, a lot of those ideas go wasted.

A handful of people realise this and go on a way to do what it takes to achieve the one thing that they are good at, doesn’t matter what is the form of the system. Few of them go on to manipulate it and few of them go on to make something that matters. In both cases, that group of people are a class apart.

To join that class of people, there is no turning back. The system eventually shifts and one that acknowledges the change and adapts to it in a way that would benefit on their side strives. Even when it comes to question the system. The culture of work and lifestyle would inevitably change in a certain way, and adapting it is strives the most.

Turn the Tables - Seek the Unnoticed

As per the current work, culture is concerned, the group of people with a replaceable skill is the one who is the least stable component in the system. This type of people can be put into a category of “unskilled” workers (I am not referring to their technical abilities, they might be best in their fields) who find themselves as a component in the system and always wait for instructions from the higher authority and executes them to get the work done. The one who is bold enough to identify this and develop ideas that would be executed with the technical skills and create value for the market can be categorised as a “skilled” worker.

Due to the high availability of information and more than ever easy access to resources, it is becoming easier than ever to come under the skilled category. It’s not the same as the era when information was not easily accessible and taking orders from the higher authorities was the best thing to do. These days, knowing the existing problems and developing solutions with information is much easier than ever before. More and more people would be shifting to the idea of working independently or with self-decision-making capabilities and would be joining the skilled category. It’s not the era where unskilled workers thrive by working on a conveyor belt, it’s the one who can develop solutions and know what to do to get things done at the right time.

If you seek the unnoticed, you join the class apart. When you learn to use the right resources for solving the right problem, you become independent and maybe don’t need higher orders to clarify what you need to know to add value to an organisation or the market itself. You make a brand yourself and make a change that you want to see in the world.