I incubate a lot of project ideas all the time. I have a seemingly infinite list of new apps, websites, games I want to code. With these ideas, I try to filter all of them and focus working on the ideas I think are worthwhile. The side projects I actually work on, however, often inevitably get stuck in a limbo phase.

Usually, the things I work on never see the light of day, not necessarily because I get bored or procrastinate (although I admit personal recreation often overlaps my productive free time). For things I'm really passionate about, I never really stop working on them. In fact, I always think about how I could improve said projects. I always find a piece of code to refactor, or a new feature idea to implement, or a bug that suddenly pops up and looks critical to be fixed.

And this is a problem, because all these ideas inflate my expectation of the final output of whatever it is I'm working on. I can't exactly put my finger on it. It's as if I'm stuck in a state of formulating new ideas, but never getting around to executing them, let alone finishing or polishing them. Sometimes it feels like a state of "analysis paralysis", in that I overthink the best way to solve a problem or move forward with the idea in progress. Maybe, I wonder, it's the uncertainty whether my solution is optimal, and constantly trying to find a better solution than the last one I thought of. I guess having the propensity to list all the possibilities in working on something gives me anxiety and doubt. "Did I follow the right solution? What if the other one was better? Maybe I should spend more time thinking about this problem. Oh hey another idea to explore!"

My current process of work is basically a loop of: start new project; work on some ideas; suddenly get new ideas to improve project; never actually finish because there are too many ideas started and not a lot completed. The problem is that I never actually get feedback on what I've progressed on so far, which keeps projects stuck in the "endless idea" part of the loop. I'm too focused on perfecting every aspect of the project in progress, instead of settling in an overall, "less than perfect", but releasable state for every project. I agree with how Nick Craver puts it (although in the concept of programming projects, I think the quote can be stretched to any project in general; emphasis mine):

There is no perfect app. There is no perfect architecture. There is no perfect code. You can kill yourself chasing any of the above. Never aim for perfect. Perfect is a never ending long tail of time and effort far better spent on improving other things. Aim for great.

That tweet was what actually triggered an epiphany with my mentality about working on projects. Granted, throwing away the mentality of pursuing impossible perfection is not something that is doable overnight. My personal solution on how I plan to wean myself out of the "perfectionist" mindset is this: scope out ideas and partition them into stages (in the case of software projects, releases or versions for example, e.g. v1.0, 2.0 and so on); focus on the scope of the first phase/iteration/release/whatever in the list; as soon as the list of ideas for that iteration is complete, put it out immediately so others can see and give feedback as soon as possible. For software developers, this is basically applying the Scrum framework in your side projects. 😉 The bottom line is focusing on iterating as much as you can, instead of trying to perfect the entire project in one big try. At least, with incremental outputs, people see your work sooner, and you get to figure out where to improve right away, instead of finding out the idea is a flop after you've invested so much time and effort in one swoop.

At the end of day, it's a matter of managing personal expectations, and reminding yourself that it's okay to make mistakes. No project or idea is perfect the first time around, so it's simply better to put your work out in the wild earlier, and ask for feedback sooner. Aim for great.

I've been seeing a lot of my social media connections lately sharing referral links to this up-and-coming payment system called "Initiative Q". The spiel is filled with a lot of eye-catching terms like "made by ex-PayPal guys" or "it's like getting bitcoin seven years ago." Being a typical skeptic, I know that anything that is being hyped, overly reliant on marketing, and backed by barely any technical or empirical facts, is too good to be true.

So I did my due diligence in researching about Initial Q. Glossing over their website (bypassing any affiliate links I came across), they claim their system will be able to replace "outdated" credit cards and banks with a new global virtual currency, "the Q". The timeline of development is vague, as well as the other supposedly supporting pages (the economic model and the Q payment network articles on their website). Granted, the project seems to be in its infancy, and all the details should be ironed out in time. But why announce Initiative Q to the public haphazardly? Something as grandiose as an attempt to overthrow payment systems as we know today should at least have fleshed out concepts from the get-go, right? Personally, I see their website as nothing more than a buzzword-filled attempt to milk SEO for their little landing page.

Performing a quick Google search on Initiative Q articles, several points have been raised (and which I agree with) why Initiative Q is too good to be true:

To join, you have to be referred by an existing member, and then, once you’re registered by submitting your name and email address, you can invite five other people for even more of the currency. [...] the Q currency is not a form of cryptocurrency although it has been dubbed as the new bitcoin with developers promising a “get-richer-but-slowly” result.

From Currency Project Initiative Q Is All Over Social Media– Be Careful, Your Data or Reputation are at Risk!

The comparisons of Initiative Q to a pyramid scheme are spot-on, because that is exactly the way Initiative Q looks. They promise some kind of irresistibly lucrative payout, in exchange for what seems to be nominal consideration, with the first step being to recruit people who you know.

From Initiative Q Won't Solve Bitcoin's Problem

It's basically running under very carefully crafted words to not look like an MLM, but it's easy to see between the lines (if you care to read and not dismiss all the Initiative Q site's pages with tl;dr). Remember, read everything when a transaction involves finance, money and sharing your personal details. If you choose to stay ignorant and not read everything (including the fine print), then I say don't bother with Initiative Q for now.

Also, the wording and marketing screams hype and instilling "join now or regret later" feelings to potential customers. They're trying to woo you with jargon and buzzwords for you to pull the trigger on giving out your credentials, and so you don't spend time scrutinizing and exercising due diligence. And the faster you sign up, the quicker they get (and store) your name and e-mail address, two pieces of valuable, personally-identifiable information. Is it really worth giving that sensitive information out for virtual currency that (theoretically) doesn't exist yet?

Q is trying to gather a large user base of people who want it to succeed and then building the payment network itself — a network that is not limited by backward-compatibility requirements. Thus, the system itself has not been developed yet, nor is there a test environment.

From Initiative Q doesn't exist. But its marketing is genius.

This quote from the Initiative Q team itself shows the current state of the project: no solid product yet, but they're currently trying to build up the demand, the user base. Granted, their way of marketing has proven very viral (i.e. effective), but without anything concrete to back up their claims to be the next payment system, the hype will only take them so far.

Okay, so maybe I am just one of the many naysayers of a product that has all the untapped potential in the tech world. Maybe these ramblings are just me projecting my FOMO and not joining in the hype. Maybe Initiative Q will be the next big thing after all. Maybe it will take off like bitcoin did in the past and be the next disruptor. No one can say for sure. But until Initiative Q has proven something with tangibility, I will remain a skeptic for now, and ignore any affiliate links I see on my social media feeds.

The software development industry is a very fast-paced one. New technologies keep popping up left and right. New development frameworks and tools turn existing ones obsolete. Don't blink—someone might have released a new front-end library! Everybody nowadays always have new ideas. Hell, we're just halfway through August 2018 and 36,000+ new Android apps have been published to the Play Store! The speed in which new stuff pops up in the software world is daunting, and as a developer there is definitely the pressure to keep up with these trends.

With my ~4 years of experience in the software development industry, I still consider myself junior (although most people would consider such experience level as mid-level). Although the years of my career haven't reached the double-digits yet, I can say I've already learned a lot in this industry in less than half a decade. However, even though I feel positive about my career growth from day 1 till now, there are still doubts—thoughts in the back of my head that there's still a lot to learn, and the gradual realization that I won't be able to master all there is, because the rate in which the industry is expanding with new languages, frameworks and products is admittedly too much for my mental capacity to handle.

When those doubts first hit me, I felt dread. I was constantly feeling the pressure to be on the cutting-edge, to be in the lead of everyone else trying to be an "expert" software developer/programming ninja/rockstar tech guru. I spent a lot of time learning the ins and outs of the projects we had at work, because I wanted to serve as a mentor to my peers. I spent a lot of time outside of work hours to binge watch the latest video tutorial just to get a glimpse of the newest JS library, or the tip of the iceberg on what's new in the .NET ecosystem, because I wanted to be the go-to guy when people wanted to know, "what's new in the developer world." In a sense, I enjoyed (and still do!) answering questions from my peers to look like I knew a lot.

But at what cost? I sacrificed a lot of my 24 hours in a day, both in the office and outside, just to look like a "rockstar". As the pressure grew, I felt it was gaining on me and I couldn't keep up. At times it felt like I was just keeping a façade. Was it impostor syndrome? I don't know. Did it contribute to burn out on my first job? I couldn't say.

What I could say is that, even though it's only been 4 years since I started, I've had enough of this cutting-edge culture. I'm losing my breath catching up with the latest and greatest, but I'd rather catch my breath right now than (mentally) die trying to keep up.

As I slowly mature into this career path, I've learned to accept that maybe I won't be at the top 1% at what I do. Maybe it's okay to be at the top 2%, or 10%. Hell, I'd take top 50% right now.

I'd rather become an expert in things I'm currently comfortable with, because I know it would be a joy to learn those technologies. I'm currently a full-stack .NET developer, so stuff like C#, ASP.NET and a little bit of JavaScript is the type of content I consume on learning sites like Pluralsight right now. I still keep my eyes and ears peeled for the latest in the Microsoft ecosystem (.NET Core, Azure), but I've started to pressure myself less and less with the latest tech toys to play with. Sure, I still attempt to build some side projects with new stuff, but at this point it's more of sharpening the saw, than constantly replacing the blade. ;)

I still feel inferior to other developers who constantly get to touch projects with cutting-edge tech 8 hours a day. But now, I look at them, and say to myself, "as long as I enjoy what I do and what I learn from it, this is fine". As a consequence of that, I've actually turned down a couple of opportunities from startups who have shiny tech stacks, because now I weigh in work-life balance (i.e. will the workload burn me out in a short amount of time), and not simply if the career jump will look good on my LinkedIn profile.

If you've read this far and are still looking for a nugget of advice to take away from this blog post, consider this: there's no need to code outside working hours (you're not getting paid!); there's no need to binge watch e-learning courses (spend time destressing on Netflix instead!); it's okay if you're not using the latest version of Library X (it'll probably be buggy and a clusterfuck to maintain and integrate!). I got out of the "cutting-edge" mentality, so stop pressuring yourself and get out of it too.

This is another photograph for my attempt at the 52-week photography challenge. While I have been really far behind with the weekly challenges, I still try to take shots as often as I can to keep tabs on my weekly backlogs. Unfortunately I haven't been able to edit and upload as often as I want to.

This entry is for week 8's theme, which is Technical: One Shot. That week's challenge is basically an "honor system" challenge which has the photographer assume it's their last shot—last roll of film, last SD card megabyte, last percent of camera battery.

And I did end up taking this picture in a "last shot" scenario. I forgot to recharge my camera the day I was waiting for sunrise during our Bicol trip. I was squeezing out the last few minutes out of the battery, and this shot was taken after 2 test shots (and after that my camera went dead!):

This is another photograph for my attempt at the 52-week photography challenge. With 5 out of 6 challenges completed, I think I am making some progress with my photography skills.

This week's theme is Artistic: Candy, but the title of the challenge is not as it seems. This year's Week 6 photography challenge involved creating a picture that does not have candy in the scene. Other people framed shots inspired, but did not include, any form of sweets.

To be honest, I was having trouble conceptualizing candy-related scenes or subjects, that did not directly relate to candy. My idea was to simply find something that had a candy color palette. Come the weekend, however, and still no shot for this week. Luckily enough, my SO and I had dinner at a candy-themed restaurant on the weekend, and all that was left for me was to take my shot. I wasn't able to bring my mirrorless camera, so my entry for Week 6 was an impromptu shot with my phone camera:

Here's a continuation of my attempts with the 52-week photography challenge. Unfortunately I wasn't able to shoot an entry for the previous week's challenge (Story: Mirror). I will attempt this missed challenge some other time.

Luckily for this week I have a shot—or rather, ten shots. That is because this week's challenge is Technical: Ten Shots. This week's challenge involved taking ten shots of the same subjects in different angles, distances and focal lengths.

I had a bit of trouble with my subject for these shots, as she was really moving around a lot and was probably getting disturbed and annoyed with all my clicking with my camera around her.

Here's the ten shots that I took, my personal favorite highlighted:

I'm back for the 3rd week of the 52-week photography challenge! This is a continuation of my adventures as a budding hobbyist photographer. (See my entry from last week).

For this week, this time the challenge is Artistic: Land. I had to come up with a photo that used land as an inspiration.

Personally I love taking landscape shots, and I think this challenge helped me practice taking shots that focused on beautiful scenery, backdrops, and views. Unfortunately I wasn't able to travel far away from home to find decent landscapes to shoot, so I took to one of the local parks for this one. I still have a long ways to go, but here's what I came up with for this week:

Here's my attempt at maintaing a streak and continuing my 52-week photography challenge from last week.

This week's challenge is Technical: SOOC. SOOC stands for Straight Out Of (the) Camera. This means no edits, no crops, no Lightroom, no Photoshop, no Snapseed, no post-process of any form. Just one shot and upload.

While SOOC's are pretty trivial for experienced photographers, this week's challenge was daunting for me— someone with less than a month's worth of photography experience. But then again, I'm supposed to be taking this year-long challenge to improve said skills.

Without further ado, here's my entry:

I've started dabbling into photography as a hobby. I took some shots here and there last year, but I still consider myself a greenhorn photographer at best. This year I've stumbled on the 52-Week Photography Challenge, and decided I would participate and post for as many weeks as I can. I doubt that I can complete all the weekly challenges, but I'm looking to work through and post as often as I can to improve my photography skills this year.

Here's my entry for Week 1's challenge - telling a story using the Rule Of Thirds:

Want to know more about the Rule of Thirds, and how to practice it in your shots? Check out this article from Photography Talk!

Oh hey, it's 2 days after the start of 2017. Welcome back to my blog I guess, because I practically did not publish any posts for almost a year. Insert typical excuses such as work and personal life here. I decided on a whim to attempt once again to get my motivation to write stuff, and what better opportunity to do so on a new year, right?

Then again, I'm not the kind of person who writes convoluted essays every start of the new year, complete with a helping of the cliché "2017 please be good to me", "I'll leave all the bad things in 2016 behind", "2017 is my year", etc. We all know I'm not going to clutter my blog with that garbage.

To be honest, the new year doesn't spark that kind of mentality with me. I think of the transition from December 31^st to January 1^st as the same as any other day. Sure, we come full circle at the end of the year, but the concept of time doesn't restart at the last of 365 days. Life keeps going whether it's the middle of the year or the start of the new year, and that's what's important for me—that I made it this far. Don't get me wrong; I have a lot of things I am thankful for the past year. I've learned a lot of lessons and had some fruitful experiences as well.

It's just that I don't need a specific date to be thankful for what the past 365 days gave or taught me. I don't need the start of the year to look back at the good and bad memories of the year that passed my life. I don't need to "close the previous book in my life and start on Page 1 of 2017". I can do my contemplation whenever in the calendar year I am. If I want to change my life based on what happened last year, I can do that in January 1^st, or June 25^th, or February 13^th. If one really wants change, they most likely would not need a specific date to do so. If one is really grateful for past experiences, they'd be grateful any time of the year.

Let's all continue moving forward, be appreciative and self-improving, no matter what day of the year it is.

Happy New Year, everyone.

"Great, here comes another egotistic pseudo-intellectual evangelizing his self-righteous thoughts on a blog."

I suppose that's not a great way to open my blog. After all, the first few words on a first post pretty much determines who will be my first few readers, if there will be any. Then again, I've resigned that my personal blog would most likely be inappropriate for a general audience anyway.

If you're still reading at this point and you haven't closed that browser tab, then thanks. That means I've piqued your interest, and I'm hoping you'll stay reading for the future posts. At this point allow me to formally introduce this blog to you.

If you're expecting content similar to "Thought Catalog" or "Elite Daily" ("The Voice of Generation Y People Who Need To Grow Up") then by all means let me show you the way out. If you're expecting humor the way Buzzfeed and 9GAG feeds it to you, I will kick you out personally.

The thoughts I'll be typing out on this blog will be different from the majority of mainstream crap you see on your Facebook news feed. I'll most likely contradict a lot of the opinions you have on your brain, but if you're smart enough, you'd be willing to discuss through the comments section of the post you're itching to react to (as soon as I install Disqus).

Why open another blog? We have too many people posting their opinions on the Internet. It's making me sick!

Actually, it does make me sick too. I don't intend to make this blog the next viral thing on the tubes; I personally just need an outlet to de-clutter my brain of internal rants and monologues. Maybe through some really lucky chance someone would agree with one of my statements and share my blog, but I'm not exactly counting on that.

Still reading at this point? Good. Introduction's over. Add my blog to your bookmarks, subscribe to my RSS feed, get e-mail alerts (in the future when Ghost supports it). Chances are you're interested in my blog's future content. See you around.

_{durr hurr he so hipster he doesnt use wordpress}

_{No seriously, even if you bruteforce by going to /wp-admin you get a 404. Apparently Ghost devs saw this coming and made it redirect to the Ghost dashboard. So much for trying to sound like a smart-ass.}