Sometimes we all like to think we are all at the mercy of circumstance; from our family backgrounds to our current state of mind.

I really disliked Secondary School, not because my teachers or my friends sucked or anything, but it was mostly because I couldn’t stand being at a place not doing what I love. In other words, I was bound by a system to command me to do what it wishes - you struggle, you “fail” in life.

At some point, more specifically near my final exams, which will forever “decide my fate”, I decided I just needed to get one thing right: take ownership. When you start taking ownership of your work, you start being proud of it, when you start being proud of it, you fall in love with it.

The smallest decision of taking control of your circumstance goes a long way in all you do.

Take control of things, and it will only end the way you want it.

My friend and I were having coffee the other day and discussed about newer apps being more transient than the early birds. They tend to fade after 2 years in your devices and quite frankly, they’re not bad apps at all.

The discussion then went on to the apps that have stayed, from when we first played with the iPhone until Android joining the market. WhatsApp, this one app stuck out the most for us - it’s not /fantastic/ with any cool design metaphors or fancy interaction paradigms like Facebook Paper, but it has always been there.

The design for WhatsApp has remained the same, there wasn’t too many design changes. Part of it’s success was probably it fixates it’s improvements into backends to keep downtime as low as 1%. BBM did a similar thing even before WhatsApp was around, but it got left behind the same way Microsoft got left behind in the mobile business - failure to...

Josh Davis put up a fantastic post awhile back based on the video from Google I/O 2009 titled “The Myth of a Genius Programmer”:

I certainly don’t think that everyone has to “put themselves out there”. But I do think that if you do seek it out and challenge yourself to, that you will have meaningful experiences.

Being an introvert isn’t the best excuse, because ‘putting yourself out there’ is not a matter of personality, it’s a choice. And I am entirely convinced by doing that, it allows one to properly ground him/herself, by telling people what you want instead of just following the status quo.

I’ve missed a whole lot of opportunities to learn new things because I was afraid to share my voice, I cared too much about what people will think of me, and the root of all that, I was afraid I will be wrong being wrong. This blog is a manifestation of all that insecurity.

There’s something Marco Arment said in his blog post a while back that went something like this:

It’s not that Microsoft is incapable of making radical changes. Not only was Windows 8 the most bold move they’ve made since Windows 95, but it wasn’t even bad. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad. Microsoft truly innovated with the UI to a greater extent than we’ve ever seen from them.

Their customers, as usual, smacked them back into line.

I cannot agree any more with what he said in the above post. In the mobile and desktop sphere, Microsoft has tried it’s very best to innovate and try new things in order to advance, however it’s own customers seem to be the only thing holding them back from achieving any true progress.

Ironically too, consumers are (and will) continuously demand ‘new features’ and even more ‘fanciful things’ that makes things really hard for Microsoft (or any software...

The following are notes I’ve taken on Day One, regarding the Apple wearable.

I’m a huge Apple fan and this upcoming Apple wearable has gotten me really excited. I wanted it to be more than just a glorified pager - something that’ll make it less ‘nerd-centric’ and for the masses.

Expectations

I read the article on 9to5mac on the movements within Apple on the development of this product and I wanted to watch to be so much.

Looking at HealthKit that has metrics like blood pressure and sugar levels got me so excited - what if the  Watch can be the device that monitors and files all these important vitals for your doctor?

Important health data collected once every blue moon now continuously being monitored. That’s definitely going take us really far and we’ll know when we really need to see a doctor. It will also help a doctor make better diagnosis.

An electronic consumer product...

As the barriers to entry lower and become more accessible on the internet and in schools, more and more people will soon be able to learn how to program.

What will soon discern a good from a bad programmer is the ability to solve problems - effectively and efficiently. On top of that, a good hire will no longer be only those who can write code, but he must also know how to build a product.

The tale of a programmer-in-training cooping himself up in his man-cave with his thick book on C will soon be over. Building a truly great product requires interaction and the understanding human beings - to build the best experience possible.

In the future, the programmer that strives to care about people and their problems will only be one with any true direction at all.

All of us should work towards that.