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Hey, you. You're finally awake.

Long time no see. It’s been a busy, very unfamiliar-feeling, but absolutely awesome month. Initially, I was abandoning this blog for an indefinite amount of time, but a wise man poked me. From the conversation that ensued, it would be a really good, and interesting, to write about things that happen on a weekly basis. So, before I get started on the actual content of this post, just know that new blog posts will be posted on the weekend, and there will be at least 3 more. The intention behind these posts is to keep myself in a state of being intentional throughout each week, keeping myself in check to avoid being scatter-brained.

Now, there’s a bunch of things to catch up on.

  1. Context
    • 1.1 Ups and Downs in University
    • 1.2 Locked In
  2. Getting Good
    • 2.1 Software Engineering
    • 2.2 Interviewing
  3. Looking Good
    • 3.1 Losing Weight
    • 3.2 Working Out

1. Context

1.1 Ups and Downs in University

When thinking about what I did right and what I did wrong at university, two categories come to mind. Programming, and my image (of myself or from others, I’m not sure). On the programming side of things, this encompasses projects I worked on in class, for fun, for profit, and networking with fellow CS students or professors. Then, on the image side of things, this encompasses social life, romantic life, and physical health.

For programming, there are some things I did right. I worked on personal projects that I had enough interest in to work all day on them, and without any effort I found myself being insanely curious and learning tons. I started Competitive Programming early on, and had lots of fun with that for about two years. I did undergraduate research for 2 years in a Machine Learning group, and that was awesome too. But, I did many more wrong things. I got distracted with other hobbies and didn’t learn much from personal projects for more than a year, I didn’t see the value in networking with others, I didn’t get involved with cool things in regards to CS until late in university, I didn’t consistently prep for interviews, I didn’t apply on time, and I wasn’t proactive enough with internship searches (e.g. no networking, no finding external groups to help me learn about internships).

For the side of things in regards to my image, there are some things I did right. I realized at least two sources of my insecurities were my weight and my long hair, so I cut my hair and lost 78 lbs. I realized how fun sports are, and how good they are for your social life, so I got so good at table tennis that I played in collegiate tournaments within 6 months of playing, got a private coach, and played at least 20 hours a week at private clubs. I learned how important strength training is in regards to sports, and started stretching more and lifting again, not just to look good, but to be able to play at a competitive level when I do go back to table tennis in the future. I learned that having friends is amazing, that I’m not introverted, and had a group of about 15 amazing friends. I learned that partying is fun as fuck. I learned that, to have people around you that love you and care for you, you must be a light. But, for each one of these things I did right, it was only because I did at least a few things wrong beforehand. I used to be 310 lbs, and had greasy long hair that I thought looked good but really looked unkept. I used to be a social hermit who would cling to and morph myself around anyone who gave me the attention.

1.2 Locked In

At the end of university, I found myself in a weird spot. I had regressed in certain areas, having gained back 23 lbs in my final semester, not upgraded my first internship in comparison from my final one, and not gotten any better at LeetCode in about 2 years (my peak skill was during 2nd year of uni). So, I took a month break between graduation and starting my full time job to get my mind together. This consisted of establishing why I failed at keeping my lost weight off, failed at getting better internships, and solidifying what my goals are, what I wanted, and what I needed to do for at least the next 3 months to a year.

As of now, and for at least the next 3 months, there are 4 things that I view as non-negotiable. I tried to view them in order of priority, but I don’t see myself being fulfilled while missing one of them, so they hold equal priority.

  1. Improve my appearance
    • Lifting 6 times/week for bodybuilding, not strength training
    • Dieting such that 2 lbs/week are lost (re-evaluate trajectory after 3 months)
    • Taking care of hygiene (facial care, showering, brushing teeth, flossing)
    • Putting effort into fashion
  2. Interview prep for better offer within 3 months - 1 year
  3. Work hard at work
    • Be curious
    • Always be looking for ways to create positive change to move things forward
    • Dive deep, be obsessed
  4. Be social, do things for fun
    • Be approachable, especially at the office
    • Be genuine in social interactions; listen well
    • Include others, get to know people, and be genuine
    • It isn’t all work; use the weekends to party hard and go to events (cons, concerts, etc.)
    • Explore things for the sake of new experiences

Since creating this outline, I haven’t failed at a single one of these. Even though it’s only been 3 weeks, things feel different. Maybe it’s because I’ve been waking up every day at 4:30 A.M. to interview prep before work, maybe it’s because I have a more structured schedule with a 9-5 compared to university. I think it’s simply because I’ve never been this consistent with something I’m working towards once in my life, and I’ve finally made significant change, to the point where it’s easy and natural now. I’ve felt extremely happy, and more fulfilled than ever. It’s really hard to put my thoughts into words on this, but I can simply say that I’m sure I will not fail.

2. Getting Good

2.1 Software Engineering

I’m extremely fortunate to have landed on the team I landed on at my current company. It has everything I wanted; crazy data throughput, to the extent that it’s a mix of data engineering and software engineering, and almost purely backend. The company I’m at unfortunately is setup to where everyone does a bit of both frontend and backend, but the team I’m on is, I believe, the most backend heavy team with the most data ingestion and throughput. I wanted to be put on a team that had crazy challenges that arose due to the amount of data they have at their hands, and I got that, cool.

One thing that I found to be troublesome is the main project I work on. This project pumps out data on-demand for people to view in a dashboard, similar to Kafka. But, the issue is that we’re storing everything in MySQL. My knee-jerk reaction is, “uhh, haha, if we’re doing running analytics on all this shiz and doing a bunch of on-demand data fetching, shouldn’t we be using ClickHouse or something”, to which the answer was “yea, it’s just expensive, and takes time to move to it”. That’s a really cool thing to think about, and I’m going to be working on a proposal and whatever I need in my downtime at work to get this migration started, because our dashboard is hella slow.

2.2 Interviewing

At the moment, I have a money bet with a homie to see who will break their LeetCode streak first, and it won’t be me. I was gonna keep up this streak anyways, but it’s fun to do stuff with other people. While I’m extremely grateful that I’m at my current company, and there is so much to learn, it won’t stop me from pursuing more money and better opportunities in my spare time. I want to adventure, I want to try new things, and I want to earn more money. I’m insanely locked in with LeetCode, there isn’t much to talk about here. The only thing that I wish to improve right now in regards to this is the rate of speed in which I lock in during the morning. Currently, I wake up at 4:30 and by the time I get ready and eat breakfast, it’s about 6. It’d like to cut that down to 5:30. And, in regards to actually applying to places, I’m doing pretty great. There are 3 major websites I use to keep up to date on applications: LinkedIn, Jobright, and Skillshire. With these 3 sites, I’m able to not only keep up to date on which applications are coming out daily, but also apply to 5-10 places a day on average. I’m going to test this methodology of spamming LeetCode (1-3 problems a day) and 5-10 applications a day on average for the next 3 months. If it isn’t successful, I will re-evaluate.

3. Looking Good

3.1 Losing Weight

Right now I’m 246 lbs, and I started at 255 lbs 3 weeks ago. I’m on a way faster pace than need be, but it’s hard to tell what the general trajectory is within only the first month, as a lot of weight lost is water weight. the goal is 2 lbs per week down, but it’s difficult due to also taking bodybuilding seriously. Typically, I can simply eat a small breakfast, skip lunch, and eat a big early dinner, and I’m set. But, with lifting weights, I need to eat consistently-sized meals throughout the day to get good workouts in. It’s going well so far, but again, we’re only in the first month. One difficulty that I’ve ran into so far is not having a very wide variety in stuff I’m cooking. I’ve only gone out for 3 meals in the past 3 weeks, and I’ve been cooking the rest.

3.2 Working Out

Part of what I think will add to the aesthetic I want is to be reasonably jacked. I have a buzzed head, and once I’ve lost more weight and put on more muscle, I will look like a real cool, edgy guy. As of now, my lifts are great, my progress is amazing, and I’m making lots of noobie gains. One thing that sucks is that because of how bad my knees got playing in table tennis tournaments, I have to go easier than usual on leg days, but that’s ok. The real difficulty with lifting will come at around 3-4 months, when I realize that in reality, progress is slow and consistent, unlike as a 1-month noob, where you’re putting on tons of gains weekly.