Thinking, Doing and Reading #18
Hey all,
I’ve changed the format this week. But I think it will be just for this week (unless feedback is super strong).
It was inspired by the newsletter of Tim Ferris, the author of the 4-hour work week. Personally, I don’t like the style but he does have 1.5 million subscribers and 900 million podcast downloads - so he must be doing something right.
Haven’t written the content - I hope it brings value in some way to you. And if not, I hope it helps us (me and you) get to share things on a personal level.
So, here we go…
Things I’m thinking about?
Layoffs
This week and next week I have and will be thinking about the Meta layoffs which Zuck officially announced on 14th March. Tech teams are expected in April followed by Business teams in May. The focus, from the announcement, is that ‘leaner is better’ and also ‘flatter is better’. The end result will be another 10k reduction along with 5k open positions closed (and yes, randomly I still get people asking for me to put in referrals - please do your homework people, they are laying off).
Myself, I expect to find out in May, as I am part of a Business team. However, I started my time at Meta within the data centre space, so my thoughts, prayers and wishes will be with everyone in the tech teams over the coming weeks.
If anyone reading this knows anyone affected by the layoffs, and you think I can help in any way, please point them towards me.
Layoffs and me
Am I worried? Worried is the wrong term, I would say that I am living with it (but I guess it did influence what I am reading, see below).
Back in Issue 2 I wrote about the Kuber-Ross Change curve. I would say I’m bouncing backwards and forwards along that line. Perhaps the lesson here is that time is important, enough time will let you complete the cycle, and too much time filled with uncertainty can be a bad thing.
I would describe myself as being mid to high-risk. But I have nothing to base this on other than an idea everyone is somewhat in the ‘leaner is better’ category, including me, but I am also in the ‘flatter is better’ category too.
As a newly minted manager within the team (1 year) it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out.
The sage advice is “focus on what you can control”, for me that is making sure my well-being is good and that I can support the family if anything does happen.
If it does happen, I plan to take a year off. You’ll probably see me write more, talk more shit and fail a bunch of times at small start-up projects (hopefully 1 will succeed). TBH - yeah, it is a crap time for some, but change can be a good thing full of opportunities.
Things I am doing
Writing
I’m trying to write more. In addition to this weekly newsletter, I’ve written a couple of articles on LinkedIn. Mainly to give it a try. TBH the payoff seems low i.e. a low number of readers. But, let’s see how it goes. Right now it’s serving two purposes, writing more and also creating an archive of content.
I enjoyed writing my last article: Metaverse is already here and you might have missed the launch.
Games Dev
I’m still doing it. I bought a PC with a 3060 Ti graphics card and started playing with Unreal Engine. I use to be a Unity guy, but I’ve always wanted to learn Unreal Engine so I’ve started doing that.
There’s a great example of how powerful the engine is here. It’s Superman flying around the Matrix demo environment. The TLDR is that it uses Nanite which dynamically adjusts the model’s polygons which allows more objects in the game.
Another great example is how they used Unreal Engine in the Mandalorian series.
Career development course
I’ve been thinking about developing a career development course. Something which should take 2 to 4 hours, will run you through a bunch of activities and by the end of it you should have a good idea of what options you have.
The motivation is that I’ve seen a whole bunch of people leave the big tech sector. I wonder if this type of course would be useful for those who have ‘done what they have always done’ and instead are looking for new options.
Warzone
Yep, this is a random one to include in my newsletter. But I am playing Warzone in my free time. I haven’t had a win for a while - but a good few 2nd places.
What I am reading
I was reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell but I lost the book. I only have about 30-50 pages left too. I’m sure it’ll turn up somewhere, it’s somewhere in the house - I just need to find it.
So instead I started reading No-Nonsense Buddhism for Beginners by Noah Rasheta. Ok, that might sound a bit random, and I wouldn’t say I’m a Buddhist at all. But, I have been interested in Stoicism for a while and I found there are a lot of links between Stoic philosophy and Buddhist philosophy. Plus, with all the uncertainty at work and I guess in life in general, reading about Stoicism and Buddhism has been helpful to see the world a little differently.
What’s next on my list?
The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman. I should just be reading this now, it is 1 page per day reading about a specific Stoic thought/topic.
Atomic Habits by James Clear. I bought this book about a month ago to add to the list. I never got around to it. I hear good things.
Fin.
Thanks for reading this far.
Wishing you a great weekend, and hope you fill it with lots of love and happiness.
Best
John