Magic moments

  In this day and age of tablets and smartphones, I try to keep my children away from electronic devices as much as possible. I am not delusional, I know I won't be able to isolate them from useless time wasting apps forever. Regardless, my wife and I try to introduce as much classical (physical) games as possible (including board games). This takes a lot of effort, both time wise and energy wise, besides requiring a big dedication to the cause.  The end result is a lot of fun memories, nice pictures on social media, happy family doing fun stuff all around, all the while raising healthy persons. And then, there is the priceless smile on the faces when we go downhill on our bikes together. I have heard the following comments from friends: I loved your photos/video of your ride, you are so lucky you have sport inclined / gifted children.  Besides the compliment here, that I appreciate, the second part of the sentence, is a completely wrong assumption. I mean I can see where...

  Why are you programmers so over-confident, why are you sometimes even arrogant? Why are you so egocentric, why are you so evil, why are you selfish? Why are you so overly _________? (chose any random adjective) If I had a nickel for every time I heard these phrases. Even though I am not an expert on psychology I would argue that people involved in "Thinker Trades" get their characters amplified due to a positive feedback loop. This means any existing personal characteristic gets amplified and gets accentuated a lot. This is not limited to programmers though, I have noticed it in the Medical trade, Engineering, Architecture and Management (government or otherwise). Most of these trades have one thing in common, they produce Rock Star personalities, or what we call " Lone Wolf " syndrome.  Its a flow where one person is brewed to a high level of knowledge and professionalism and that gives a positive feedback loop of acknowledgment and pride. Consequently personal ...

 Around 6 years ago, a friend of mine and I were discussing the current state of our local society. He then asked me one simple question:  Let say your child does something elementary and obviously wrong, but in our society that is the preferred way and even encouraged by peers. What shall be your approach to address this problem? Would you advice your child on what is right, or what is considered normal in this society, knowing those two are completely opposite? I have to admit he left me with a great conundrum in mind. At that point I consoled myself that I will be ready by the time I'm required to make that choice. I was wrong, found myself on the spot several times in the past 6 years. I always went with a Solomonic solution, advising my children to do what needs to be done to fit in, but reason inside what is right and wrong.  I recently discovered that this approach makes my children cynical and apathetic. They despise their peers for being ignorant, knowing wh...

  I often see this weird behavior in the Gen Z kids these days. They always want to get the solution of a problem without taking the time to actually solve it. They want to get to the goods without seeing the bad along the way. This apparently is a topic for a whole book, but I digress.  I was around 12 when personal computers become affordable to the masses. Due to my lack of knowledge, every time I (accidentally) deleted some system file, I would take it to the repair shop.  One day the guy there told me: You have to stop sabotaging your own computer. If you are eager to break it, you should also be eager to repair it on your own.  I quickly followed up with: OK, then how do I repair it?   He confidently replied (in Yoda style): If I just tell you, you will forget the next minute, but if you discover on your own, you will remember it and along the way come to appreciate my labor .  I took his advice. These days I'm a software developer, thanks to Krume Kr...

  Have you noticed how bicycle riders respect each other in traffic, and sometimes even greet while passing one another? I noticed the same thing among motor bike riders, especially on the open road, we even honked at each other (total strangers mind you). Motorists (besides children riding scooters) will not pass another bike rider on a dangerous curb, they will never jeopardize another motorist safety, regardless of the power of their bike. The same goes for truck drivers, bus drivers, etc. There is a strange camaraderie among people driving the same type of vehicle. Probably they all have a common enemy on the road:  car drivers . This is a strange paradox, when seated behind a car wheel, everyone becomes Formula 1 driver, consequently it becomes an ego sizing contest and everybody else has to go down! I can not stop pondering why...

  I have been changing living spaces since my mid teen years. So packing to move is nothing new to me. We accumulate a lot of junk during our lifetime. And I don't know if this is related to geography or legacy mentality, but where I live, people are borderline hoarders. I have heard the phrase: "Keep it, we might need it" sooooo many times before. And we never need it.  I am not immune to this mentality either, I have done it too. I still keep the training wheels of my kids bikes, even though the actual bikes already broke and I throw them away. I even keep my kids stroller, its sad I know, the kids are 10 and 6, its very sad. So I have developed a theory / practice. Every ten years or so, I imaginary move (for reals this time) and I put myself into packing mode. Then I make myself pack everything important to "bring" with me. All that remains, goes in the trash or I give it away provided it's in a usable state.  That is my release of useless stuff mechan...

Stereotyping people is not a good idea in general, however, when it comes to adventure spirit, it seems that most people fall under two types:  The ones that keep the car tank almost empty most of the time The ones that keep the car tank almost full most of the time Mind you, I am considering that this stereotyping assumes that both types consume approximately the same amount of fuel, its the setup that differs, basically the mindset of the driver. The first kind almost always plans their trips as one-hop-away from home, so they approximate consumption, put X liters of fuel, drive to the destination, come back home and the tank is almost empty. This is Home revolving mindset The second type, are planning the trip as a means to reach the destination, regardless of the number of hops or wrong turns along the way. There is always enough fuel in the tank to get back home. The X liters of spent fuel is then replanished at the end of the trip and the tank is full again. This is Journey r...

Would you believe me if I tell you that the more time you have, the less things you get done. Counter intuitive, right? These days we are sprinting our life, numbing our guilt with the mantra: if I had more time, I would have been better person / parent / professional / athlete .  I don't want to be the crusher of dreams, yet here we are: You will not be any of that, given all the time in the world. Granted, if you had a little more time in the scope of a single day, then maybe, yes. Otherwise NO .  Let me elaborate; say we don't have to go to work, we don't have to take care of our children / friends / parents, we don't have any eminent requests to do, no schedule, no one demanding anything from you.  You wake up today and then what? What would you do? As one famous MEME said, if you are granted all your wishes today, what will you do tomorrow ?  And vice versa, lets assume you do have something you need to do, your mind will say to you: So what if I don't finish i...

  I broke a lot of toys while I was a kid, surprise, surprise. I was dismantling them to see the internals and deduce how they work. So as one would assume, I often failed to put them back together, or I would break some small part along the way.  My uncle was handy with tools and had a shed in the back yard. He frequently helped me repair my broken toys. One day (think I was 8) I went to his house with an awesome idea: Lets open a Toy repair shop! He rolled on the floor laughing . We abandoned the idea then, but as I grew up, my toys were becoming "big boy toys" so this time around I had to fix them. At that point, I had to be handy with tools, so I became handy out of necessity.  Looking back at that day I realize the idea was good, I just needed a better name: Maker Shed . Meantime 3D printers become affordable as well... Just saying

  I was driving today through downtown. I left home after a light breakfast, so at one point I began feeling hungry. Couple of seconds later I caught myself gazing at the car's dashboard, and after not finding the information I needed, I looked at the central screen. I then realized, I was looking for a food gauge to show me how hungry I was, what is my range with the current energy I had stored in me.  I laughed alone in the car the whole way home