Side projects. Sometimes hacked. And sometimes with a hammer.

Over the last year, I've tried to force myself to find people with whom I can ask questions about career growth. It's been a common pattern of mine since my college days not to ask questions but try to figure out the answer on my own: a noble thing to do and a nice learning journey, but time consuming and narrow-sighted, not to mention ego-driven. I would chalk it up to being shy, but in reality, I was too arrogant to ask for help because I thought it gave me extra bragging points if I could figure it out myself. Needless to say, this led to increasing frustration as I began to take on more difficult concepts. I try not to live with regrets, but if there's one thing I could redo, it would be my whole approach to college. Of course, after failing to find the answers I needed in my coursework and job functions, I had no choice but to find people and ask questions. But one of my main blockers to asking more  questions was not knowing how to ask questions . "I don't ...

I just returned from a short trip to Taiwan with family and it was fantastic. It's always been a dream of mine as a kid to visit Taiwan, and even in the fast 8 days I was there, I felt like I experienced a lot. Of course, it was only the tip of the iceberg. Next time I go, my Chinese will be better and I will stay longer. During the last week, I was able to finish reading "The Looming Tower" as well as "Steve Jobs". Both were fascinating books and I was really glad I could finish both. Wasn't expecting to pick up "Steve Jobs" but the library didn't have "Peak" available. I also left my laptop at home (first time ever, for vacation) -- it was really weird, but I didn't feel comfortable traveling with either a heavy laptop or my work laptop. A few thoughts about what I'm trying to reach for this year in terms of technical skills: 1) I'm currently reading through OSTEP  and going to try and finish it (and the codelabs) ...