Warren Shea - World of Warren

Archive for the ‘Work’ Category

Very good long weekend….doing nothing.

Tuesday, August 6th, 2013 at 12:00 am

Weekend
Went out to eat Saturday at the Keg and Monday at Sidecar! Very content with the delicious meals…
Spent a lot of time working this week…as per usual. But cleaned up a lot :)

Electronics
Cleaned and organized tons of my existing electronics and computer hardware. Got a whole large rubbermaid bin of this stuff including Power Supply cables, VGA cables, DVI cables, PSUs, USB cables, keyboards, mouses (mice?). Going to donate/recycle them :) Feel great getting rid of so much of my stuff. That just means more room for other stuff!

Work
Really need to start phasing out of my old life as a developer and phasing in to my new life as a manager – need to start stepping away from executing and start stepping into strategy – leading and deciding where the executers should go. It’s hard and it’s more pressure and responsibility than being a developer. Now, I’m not only responsible for my professional career, but the career of 10+ others….now that’s a lotta responsibility! So I’m trying really hard to do right by them.

Breaking Bad
Rewatching Breaking Bad starting yesterday.
I’m on Season 3 Episode 1 right now. So in two days, 20 episodes. Only…36 episodes to go Q_Q…before Sunday night. So…6 days. 6 episodes a day, is that even possible?! I have work for 4 of those days!

Animal Crossing: New Leaf
Still playing Animal Crossing quite a bit. It’s been a month…Getting into the Stalk Market!
I just put about 1,500,000 bells into Stalks (Turnips)….hoping to double or triple that! Z started playing too so I now have 2 games to watch for high bells, decreasing my chances for loss.
My plan is to have
1 – Basement (Basement)
1 – Living Room (1st floor)
1 – Washroom (1st floor)
1 – Mario/Game room (1st floor)
1 – Bedroom (2nd floor)

Right now, I only have 1 large living room, 1 unexpanded basement and 1 unexpanded 2nd floor.

That’s it for now! Will try to blog later!

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I’ve been….busy.

Wednesday, July 10th, 2013 at 9:04 pm

No doubt, I haven’t blogged in a while. Sorry everyone!

My new role is taxing me like crazy. I’m working harder than I have in years – but it’s in a great way. I’m honestly loving it and it’s honestly burning me out. Tried not to work at all tonight but we’ll see how it goes. It’s only 9pm.

It’s funny, last time I got sick, I said I’d start sleeping early. I’ve been sleeping at 12-1am instead of 2-3am lately. A huge 2 hour difference. But I’ve started to notice…instead of waking up at 8:30-9am like I usually do, I’ve been waking up at 7-7:30am! So….my change in sleeping hasn’t done anything! I’m still getting 6ish hours! The last couple of nights, I’ve been sleeping at 10-11…which I think should be my “hope for” standard. I just don’t have the energy to last the day…

This is also why I’m blogging less and simply doing less – I’m just busy. Work is taking up…honestly, 3-4 extra hours of my day. That’s time I could be spent….reading manga or playing games, or deving. It’s quite the change. In a great way, but it’s hard, no doubt about it.

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I’m done.

Tuesday, June 25th, 2013 at 12:36 am

2/4 today …

I’m starting to realize my age. I can’t believe it myself, but I am. When I was younger, my goal was to be a web expert – expert in all things web. But I realize I’m not 25 anymore. The world is not my oyster, I’m actually passed my peak/prime. Within a few years I’ll likely be a father and my professional skill/rate of growth will decline as other priorities take my time. Hell, it’s already started to decline. But I’m starting to realize: I’m done.

And I look at some people I know, still with their dream of getting into this or doing that. But I think it’s too late for them. And it’s too late for me. And this isn’t me being a pessimist, this is me being a realist. Ironically, me from a couple years ago would likely have been an optimist, still thinking I could achieve my goal/dream. Another word would be…delusional.

And I know some of you are saying “You can’t lose hope, don’t give up on your dream”. And I agree that all is not lost until you give up, but at this point, if you’re not putting 100% into your dream, where you’re already behind – it’s time to face facts: you won’t catch up. Not to those 25 year olds with more natural talent than you have with your natural talent + 10+ years experience. Not unless you put in that 100% – which you should have been doing all along.

I’ve come to the point where I realize I cannot be a web expert. My back-end skill, while okay (maybe 3-4/10) will not grow if I don’t support it. And I’m not. Strategically speaking, I’d have a much higher chance of professional success if I stick to my already strong front-end and nurture and develop it further.

Not thoughts I would have had 4 years ago…but I’m 31 now. I mean, granted being a 31 year old first time manager isn’t bad – perhaps this is the direction my life should go (for the first time, I feel like I have a professional head start on others). But I think development will always come more natural to me. It’s hard to say at this point. Still, it would be easier to nurture a management skill and use that as the basis of my new professional career than to go back to front-end development. I’m not sure if I have a future in front-end development….or rather, I’m not sure how long my skill as a front-end developer will support my professional career. Within the next decade, I’d wager that I will not be that marketable. And don’t get me wrong, it’s not because of my time as a manager – I’ve learned enough front-end that I can continue my progression without doing it on a daily basis – I just don’t think there’s a market for a 40 year old front-end developer. I’ve never seen one at that age in all my years in the job…that’s gotta mean something right? That said, web was/is still in its infancy and where it will go is beyond me.

Enough realism. It’s bumming me out.

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Never thought I’d have so much fun NOT deving

Thursday, June 20th, 2013 at 1:39 am

In recent years, there’s been one constant in my professional career – “I want to dev”. There were roles offered to me that I didn’t take because there wasn’t enough dev. Even when working out my manager role’s responsibilities, the initial “25% of my job is dev” worried me. Too low I thought. But funny enough, as soon as I took the job, I tried to make my 25% go to 0%. That is, I’m trying to delegate all development of my old job. It’s actually pretty awesome – like a weight/responsibility has been lifted off my shoulders. However, a more important responsibility remains in its place.

So I’m not deving anymore – but I’m still walking around, helping the developers out. I find I’m probably helping out at least….6-8 times a day. Which is a lot. But I like it – I come in to help out, and then I step away. I’m just there to support my team – which is honestly what my role is all about: doing the best I can do to support my team.

As Development Lead/Manager, my responsibility is split in two: support my team and dev. That’s it. So the more I dev, the less I support my team. But while dev is fun, it really only helps me. When I support my team, I feel that I’m helping all 13+ of them. And it feels way better doing that than helping myself.

That said, it’s not to say I won’t ever dev – I figure that in my position, I can delegate all my work and take anything I really want for myself. But that hasn’t happened yet, I don’t see it happening for a while, and it might not ever happen while I’m in this role. But it’s nice to know that option is there. (I’m still doing my own dev FOR work, but not WORK TASKS if that makes any sense…so it’s a lot funner – no deadlines).

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“With Great Power comes Great Responsibility”

That line, from Spider-Man, has actually been running through my mind lately. As a dev, my responsibility was only towards myself. I didn’t have “great power” and thus, didn’t have “great responsibility”. I did what I could but felt no obligation to. When pressure was on me, I tried my best. But if I couldn’t do what was needed, I was fine with it. Can’t do more than my best. But in my new role, I have “great power” (not really “great”, more like “some”), but I FEEL that great responsibility. Everyone on my team is my responsibility and even though I’m their boss officially, I feel like they’re all my boss: I do what I can to support them. And in return, they also try to support me. It’s…a great feeling. I just wanna do as much as I can for them so that, in a couple years, when I walk away from the role, I’ll have known that I did my best trying to help each and every one of them in the best way I could have. THAT, is a feeling that I would cherish my entire life. To affect a person’s life, in a positive way. Or even better, affect 15-20 persons directly, in a positive way. It makes me giddy just thinking about it…..which will hopefully be the case. Unless I suck.

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This is harder than it looks

Thursday, June 6th, 2013 at 1:40 am

My new role is taking some adjusting to. I’m finding that as a dev, I’m a “like to get this done, quick, and out of the way” type person. I look for immediate gains/fulfilment. The feeling like I “accomplish” something. I think I stayed at work late yesterday, tediously sorting computer wires simply to feel that again.

But in my new role, all my accomplishments will not be short term. In fact, quite the opposite, they’re mostly long term. I find myself trying hard to stay focused and on track as there’s so much to do, but no way to do it quickly.

It was easier when I could do my day job as a dev and chime in where I need to. But now, the responsibilities are greater, and different. I have a lot of great ideas but finding they’re difficult to start….

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I’ve been trying to sleep earlier lately so that my mind is sharper (and I’m nicer) for work. It’s been working out. I think yesterday, I got too much sleep (10:30-8:30) and that left me slow and groggy throughout the day. Even today, I slept around 9? 10? but woke up around midnight due to a stomach ache (so much cheese for dinner >_<) and have been up a couple hours…plan to sleep soon though. . . . Oddly enough, finding myself suddenly bombarded with recruiters contacting me for dev. Where were you 2 months ago?! I got other things to deal with now! Just kinda ironic I guess… I miss being a dev and often think back at it – I definitely made the right choice (career wise) but I guess the grass is always greener… Dev was honestly, so much damn fun. And now it’s kinda more…responsibility. I have a huge responsibility and weight on my shoulders having a team. The problem (kinda) is that they’re already an awesome team, which makes my job harder to do (because I have the responsibility to not only maintain, but grow that awesomeness). Tough shoes to follow…

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