Q: James: What are three differences in terms of tech culture in Oz from Ph?
A: Just my opinion... The main difference is because of the work culture. Since work-life balance is a big thing, people spend more time away from tech and into their families, and going out... Though the good side here is people can spend their free time on the tech they want.
I haven't been into the local startup scene here in Melbourne, but I think there's less motivation to do startups since people earn enough. It also hurts that salaries are higher – good for employees, but hard for startups. So it's also far from “Silicon Valley” here.
But even if there are less startups – maybQe even less startups than the Philippines – there is more tech stuff going on in non-startups. For example, I'm working in enterprise software – for a bank – and their front-end tech is using modern tech stacks.
Q: James: Name 3 things you like about working in Oz (aside from higher pay haha)
A: For now… First is much more relaxed work environment – since it's the Australian work culture. (but of course my job now is different from back in the Philippines, so can’t compare directly).
Second is besides higher pay, my employer can spend more on engineers (gear, internal meetups and events)
Third is not only is there legally mandated amount of vacation days a year, they encourage you to use it and they take it seriously and don’t bother you when you’re on vacation. (Though hassle if you’re the one left in the office and you need someone who’s on vacation!)
However.. the down side.. related to the question about tech culture.. since life is easy, less ambition IMHO.. so less startups, less taking up new tech. Well that’s my impression so far, since you don’t need to hustle too much to survive you might get lazy.
Q: rupert de guzman: why melbourne? with your skillset landing a job in sydney is easy-peasy
A: When I decided to migrate, I asked a friend who had a similar career to mine, but who went to SG first and then Melbourne. So I thought it was a good example. Also I personally prefer an urban lifestyle and going carless (I don't even drive in Manila, only weekends) which is better here in Melbourne. So, I prefer to live in or near CBD which is affordable in Melbourne but not in Sydney.
The compelling reasons to work in Sydney were companies like Google or Atlassian but based on my research they are hard to get into. (only world-class specialists like Dean Berris could get into Google, really). And maybe startups, which have a more active scene in Sydney, but I have decided to take a break from startups.
Now, I don't regret my choice! But since I'm just renting and didn't buy property, I still have the option to move to Sydney if the right opportunity comes.
Q: rupert de guzman: pre will you retire here in oz? or babalik ka ng pinas.. say when you hit 60
A: Realistically I'll retire in the Philippines... since I came to Australia pretty late, I don't think I'll be able to save (and superannuation) enough in 20 years for retirement. But I don't think I'll be able to come back to Manila anymore... hopefully by that time the other cities will be more developed. I don't know if it's just “going abroad” syndrome but it looks like Manila has gotten even worse after I left.
My first job here in Melbourne was an aged care IT company for managing aged care homes, so I know how freaking expensive it is – it's like buying real estate.
Q: Jason Torres: So, being around for quite a while. What do you think of the community now versus the community back then? Optional: What’s the best user group you’ve been with?
A: the most dramatic comparison would be the current community (2010s) vs 1995-2000 era. Fundamentally, the spirit is still the same – the 1995-2000 (days of PLUG) and today's open source with GitHub etc are both about sharing. It's just that the venues and technology are different. The great thing about today is that with all the new tools, stacks (e.g. PaaS/IaaS) you can build startups or just fun projects out of pure ideas, unlike back then we had to build our own PC servers, and for the Internet, get expensive lines.
For groups, I haven't been deeply involved in the recent ones; the ones I was active in was PLUG in the 1990s and then PinoyJUG in 2000-2005 when Java was still “hot”. So I can't really compare. But one observation is, only a few people from back then are still active now. So I hope you guys will still be active in the future. Or maybe it's just me who doesn't “grow up” haha!
I do hope more people get involved in the community.. but realistically there will always be a “core group” of people. One of my frustrations (unrealistic) is that with all the technology available nowadays it's only a few people (phackers!) who take advantage and build stuff, the rest are just passive users of social media, games, etc.
Q: Andre Marcelo-Tanner: What was the cost of a ISDN 10-20 years ago?
- Why are there only 2-3 isps now?
A: When we started our ISP in 1995, the 64 Kbps leased line to the US was $10,000/month! So given inflation, it would be much more now. So we had to squeeze in a lot of users into that line. A lot of the stuff I worked on was to maximize our company's investment, like how to measure the Internet usage for dialups, and web proxy caching.
Why are there only 2-3 ISPs now – because they are the telcos. Who dominate by owning the infrastructure. Back then 20 years ago, the telcos did not know about the Internet so independent ISPs could buy leased lines to the US ISPs and then domestic leased lines and dialup lines for customers. Then it became a threat and they became serious. The telcos started to become further integrated into the telco infrastructure when DSL became the norm because an ordinary company could not operate DSL infrastructure. They also started buying larger international lines and selling IP transit to companies and other ISPs, with economies of scale that were unavailable to non-telco companies.
So the 2000s were the period of consolidation when the non-telco ISPs were being killed. This was also the time when internet data centers were starting to become a thing, but that didn't really take off and now with IaaS is largely obsolete.
Q: Andre Marcelo-Tanner: Why migrate in the first place? Not an easy decision when have more things tieing you down to your location?
A: Yes that's right, but there wasn't much tieing me to the Philippines anymore. I migrated for both personal and career reasons. The career reasons, I felt I was stuck in the Philippines because I wanted to stay technical, I didn't want to go into management or sales, and I don't have the business acumen for going into startups. (I don't really care about products, I just want to work on technology) I had a niche in my employer back then as the problem-solver/consultant/ninja programmer but it was becoming tiring. I never got to join teams for development, so I didn't learn agile software development and other practices in real life.
I just wanted to a software engineer, and I didn't think it wasn't possible in the Philippines – people were interested in me as a co-founder, or CTO or similar positions. Moving to a different place, I can “reset” and start over.
For my future career path, I want to be one of the older programmers in their 50s or 60s who still work as consultants or contractors. I don't see that happening in the Philippines.
I do have some regrets from time to time but it's stuff out of my control.. if I had a successful startup somehow? Then I would have stayed. Or what if the ideal thing happened, what if I had moved to Silicon Valley in my 20s? But then I would have had trouble in the dotcom crash of 2000. So, I just look forward!
Q: Buddy: what non-work stuff are you working on right now?
A: I think I'm pretty much staying in the enterprise since I'm most comfortable there, so I'm studying stuff that are related. Not “working” as in the projects/sidelines sense, since as a new migrant I have to focus on a steady income and that's really from my salary now as an employee.
I'm very interested in enterprise devops, and hope to apply it in the future – right now I'm working at a bank so deployment and operations is very regulated and rigid, but I'm looking forward to other projects where we could have a more modern environment, so I need to prepare.
I'm a programming language enthusiast so I enjoy learning about different languages even though I'm lacking a project to practice them on. One prediction or advocacy I'm interested in is Haskell being used in the enterprise. I've been studying Haskell on and off the past few years, but I find it hard. (I don't really have a strong CS background). But, I've become interested in high quality/high reliability software (and I've also been studying software testing from QA point of view), so getting to use Haskell to build high reliability systems is interesting – and if that becomes a viable niche for work, I don't want to be left out.
You guys know I've tried to study front-end dev – and there is interesting front-end dev work here in corporate – but I can't just get it. So being “full stack” is one of my dreams which I have given up on for now.
Q: Good point on how its hard being a tech guy forever here, can PH tech guys compete globally from what you've seen? What does one need to do to be on par with the likes of Google, Atlassian, FB etc?
A: I don't have first-hand experience, but I think the challenge is getting in, like with algorithmic interviews as a filter. Only few PH tech guys have that experience. But, once you're in, you don't need that much hard CS. Another problem with Google is it will take months to get hired, and most Pinoys won't have that luxury to move abroad with a job.
However, the good side of working in tech abroad (change topic a bit) - for an ordinary tech job, like mine (consulting in enterprise), it's very doable. The pay is good because the clients are large enterprises. And here in Melbourne there's a shortage of senior devs. I'm not sure what's the cause but one thing I see is there's a brain drain to the US since the Aussies can easily get a working visa. Another is that Australia is actually weak in STEM fields compared to other developed countries– it's a national problem here. One reason is, why bother going to university (and paying a lot, even after subsidies) when you don't need it to earn well.
Q: Nikko Bautista: Any thoughts on working in the US? Not specifically in Silicon Valley/SF, but in other areas.
A: Well that ship has sailed for me... I don't think I want to work in the US if not in hard-core technology, but I'm too old for the startup lifestyle. Also, with all the bad news coming out of the US now, I'm actually happy I'm in Australia instead.
Q: Daryl Yu: For devs in your generation, what was the usual career path? (Example: in mine it’s international company with offices here then SG then AU)
A: For my college batchmates (CS in 1995), most of them joined either Andersen Consulting (later Accenture), and got deployed to the US and stayed in corporate IT. Many also went into SAP. I only have one classmate who was hard-core programming and is now working on embedded systems in San Francisco.
Now for my ISP/Linux collaborators and competitors in the 1990s... Some of them are still in system admin/Linux-related stuff... But most, I haven't been keeping track anymore.
Q: Charo Nuguid: What made and how did you decide that you want to have a career in IT?
A: While I've been programming since I was 11 (BASIC and assembly language – one reason I envy the kids of today, BASIC was a big waste of time in the long run!), when I was entering college I thought that I already had enough and took up BS Chemistry at AdMU. I had some weirder ideas about being in the physical sciences when I was younger. But, reality set in and my klutz self failed a Chemistry Lab course, because I wasn't physically skilled enough to do the procedures. (Failed because my measurements were off – fortunately no accidents there!)
So, I shifted to BS Computer Science. The cool thing about being a shifter was that I knew people from two batches, those who entered in 1991 and those who entered in 1992. I then became active in the Computer Society of Ateneo and also met up with some of the early founders of the Philippine Internet based in the academe (I actually was not one of the early founders, which is a common misconception.) I learned Linux from Dr. Pablo Manalastas. And that's how we got started with setting up our ISP, IPhil Communications. We were laying the groundwork in 1994 – the school got its Internet connection along with the rest of PHnet in 1994, so we took advantage by doing research/studying open source. When the 1991'ers graduated in March, I still had some subjects left, being a shiftee, so I worked half time on IPhil and half on schoolwork, and eventually graduated September 1995.
That was my first career – part sysadmin, part network admin, a very small amount of software dev hacking on Linux stuff to get things to work and build custom stuff for our clients. This lasted until 2002 when we got kicked out of the ISP we founded. (another long and complicated story) and then some IPhil people, we went into consulting and that's how I shifted into software development.
Q: Ace Dimasuhid: what's the best book you've read so far: (a) about life and (b) about tech?
A: I can't say what's the “best” but I can say what influenced me. I've never been into fiction, so when I learned to read at a young age I read the encyclopedia from cover-to-cover, together with TIME-Life books (do you guys even know what those were?), Readers' Digest, TIME Magazine, and Newsweek. So these influenced my life so that I became an information nerd.
Growing up, my parents were into a lot of “new age” stuff, reincarnation, UFOs and other mystical stuff, so I read a lot of books on that. I don't believe in it anymore, though, but it has influenced my spiritual/philosophical beliefs.
On tech, I've read so many tech books so I guess the most important ones were Peter Norton's Inside the IBM PC (PC architecture circa 8086 era) and Programming the IBM PC and his assembly language book. While I didn't last that long in assembly programming and am not into low-level stuff right now, these books made me appreciate the discipline of serious programming.
Then, when I was beginning in Linux, the Unix Programming Environment by Kernighan and Pike got me interested in the Unix philosophy and shaped my work in Linux.
In my software development career, I can't really say... while I've read The Pragmatic Programmer, Clean Code, Code Complete and the like, these are more of opinion pieces that you don't just take in as-is, but instead critically look at and analyse.
Q: Andre Marcelo-Tanner: what do you think of 1 company/man running the .PH registry?
A: Nowadays, I don't care anymore, though it annoys me when I think about it and the history. I had spent a lot of time and energy on the PH domain issue – in fact it quite distracted us from our work before on the ISP when we were doing activism with my business partners and with the ISP organisation.
Q: Carding-San Ilagan: should I get the 13" MBA?
A: I can't say about your need, but that's what works for me. I only do “light” programming on my MBA (2011) even with only 4 GB RAM because it's only for studying stuff. I thought I'd get into iOS programming but every time I try reading something about it, the heavy emphasis on UX kills me since I lack a feel for it. In fact back when I was doing Android, I barely did UI and was only doing the device-side back-end .
The 4 GB MBA definitely isn't enough if you want to run your Windows virtual machine for .NET in it. I personally have a Windows/Linux laptop for that, a Thinkpad X230. I think I need to study .NET at some point so I'll be a better-rounded enterprise developer.
Q: Kebs Cayabyab: How do you manage to answer so many questions in quora?
A: I don't actually write very long, or good answers. And I've been there since early 2011 or so. I just manage to answer because I spend a lot of time on Quora. I also ask a lot of questions – because I'm a very curious person, I ask things that come into mind. I also use Quora for research and analysis – I post a question on Quora related to my idea or the thing I want to do, then I do it, and then I share afterwards. It's like a structured form of blogging.
I'm always logged in on my phone, and it's always open on the browser at work or at home. So it's also an addiction. But, I don't spend time on other things like games or TV, so that's it.
Q: Kebs Cayabyab: What’s the one project that you are most proud of (if theres any)?
A: My time in the ISP world, I think I made a big difference there. Did a lot of stuff, and saw a lot of things that I think are not even public knowledge until now... But, the down side is that I feel that I peaked early but haven't been able to follow through and do more stuff at a similar or greater level.
Q: Zak Elep: what's for dinner?
A: Home-made taco made from ground beef from Queen Victoria Market, with guacamole and lettuce. I'm supposed to be on a low-carb diet, but it's actually low-carb meals and high-carb snacks and dessert! We rarely eat out here in Melbourne, it's too expensive.
Q: JP Loh: did you consider other countries/regions vs AU? what were the deal breakers in the other choices?
A: While we were considering Canada, which had the advantage of being close to the US, I knew (but not in detail, didn't really look) that they assigned you to rural areas so no tech jobs there. And, I don't like cold weather. (It's now winter in Melbourne and 0-10 degrees temperature is already not my type! Much less sub-zero).
I had an assignment in the SF Bay Area back in 2011 so I got interested in working there, but it wasn't feasible to interview even if I was already on-shore on a business (B1) visa.
I was also curious about working in Singapore at around that same time but I didn't find any interesting job opening when I was researching.
Q: Alleo Indong: During your time as a student of BSCS, did you find the subjects 'Compilers' and 'design and analysis of algorithm' easy? How was your experience with those two subjects?
A: I can't remember well – this was more than 20 years ago - but I think I did find them easy though theoretical. The only subject I found hard that had a “CS” title was graph theory, and it was taught by a difficult professor from the Math department.
Q: Sam Keeley Ong: how much of your cs education has been of use in your career. and how well has it prepared you for the real world.
A: In retrospect, the main use of the CS education was for mental discipline, or toughness (cliché?). And a foundation for further learning on your own. What I wish though is that we had more education in strict functional programming – that would have helped in my current study of Haskell! We also didn't have discrete mathematics, but instead had a lot of calculus which went to waste because we only used that for classical physics, which wasn't used either, but was only a prerequisite for digital electronics.
Personally software engineering disciplines like architecture, design, and software development techiques are much more interesting and useful to me than “hard” CS, but I didn't learn those from school.
What I do envy about the later generations with regards to theoretical CS was the emergence of competitive programming. That wasn't a thing when I was in school – no ACM ICPC and the like, yet. Maybe if we had that in school, I would have been more motivated in studying algorithms and data structures.
Q: Rico: opinion of the PH tech scene? Go
A: I think we are strong in programming and design and are competitive against “Silicon Valley” level in that aspect, but weak in the CS data structures+algorithms+basic research needed for really breakthrough products. But there may be not much incentive there because there are no jobs that need it, and if someone were to build a startup with heavy lifting, the Philippine market is too small for it. But to get US funding, the startup would normally need a local tech co-founder present.
So while I hope that some would step up and go into hard CS original tech, I'm not optimistic that it will develop in the Philippines. This problem isn't unique to the Philippines anyway – even US excluding Silicon Valley/New York/Austin/other tech hubs has the same problem with internal brain drain. So it may be futile to talk about a “Silicon Valley in the Philippines” and let's just keep on doing what we can.
Q: Alleo Indong: Did you ever had a completely failure project before? How was it? and what did you learn most on that experience?
A: Technical? No. Only political/business problems, being kicked out of the company, falling out with other founders in another startup... which taught me, I am not meant to be a startup founder and I should stay on the technical side!
Q: Johan Sten: BASIC and assembly.. what computer system did you get started on? I’m guessing IBM PC since you mentioned x86 books
A: I first started programming in school, on a “Genie Computer” - a TRS-80 clone. So I didn't experience being a user and not a programmer – which has shaped by world view and programming skills (like not understanding UX well). My first computer at home was a PC XT clone, 4.77 Mhz 8086, 640K RAM (like what Bill Gates supposedly said was enough), 2 x 5.25” 360K floppy drives. I started with IBM BASICA (which needed the original IBM ROM to be cloned to run), and then Borland Turbo BASIC and Microsoft QuickBASIC. For assembly, I started with Microsoft Assembler, though I think I was also entering machine code in debug.com at some point. Then, Borland Turbo Assembler.
Q: Charo Nuguid: Do you talk to yourself when you're in the (programming) zone?
A: I do talk and think aloud, yes. And make hand movements to match. But I don't talk to you myself as in “Miguel, it's like this...” Now at work since I can't do this that well, I make up by writing out my thoughts. I have a journal-type document which is a running commentary of what I'm doing. Also helps me remember stuff.
Q: Raymund Enso: what activities are you doing to be mentally fit at work?
A: Referring to “my encouragement to myself is kaya mo yan tinatamad kalang!" - I look at work as an opportunity to learn new things and take on new challenges. But I can't say I'm a good example – I don't have a problem with motivation because I'm an obsessive-compulsive workaholic. So “mentally fit” for me is more of stopping myself from working too much and burning out.
Q: Raymund Enso: as a follow up, do you do some physical exercise to be mentally fit also? I guess you are right about being burnt out wala nang pumapasok sa utak kahit mag-isip at isip pa... wahehhehe
A: I took up walking here in Australia for general health reasons, not to be mentally fit, but it also helps. Walking home from work (until recently – it's too cold now!) helps me clear my mind and think of nothing before going home. I've never been into sports or exercise in my life – it's only now that I'm older that I realize its importance.
Q: John Jullies: what did you do for your 21st birthday?
A: It was May 1995, so I was probably working on my ISP startup.
Q: Alleo Indong: What is your favorite past time when you find yourself having a lot of extra free time?
A: Most of free time meaning not work goes to studying tech stuff... but non-tech related – spending time on Quora, reading non-fiction articles, watching TV with my wife... very simple life here in Australia.
Q: Rico: top 5 languages (in order of your own personal preference/familiarity)?
A: I like studying languages and reviewing them even if I don't need them because who knows, as a generalist I might need to use them.
Java – has been my bread and butter for 10 years on and off, boring but I can take it since I need it for work. Haskell – The next important language to learn, but it's still eluding (or taunting) me. Even if it might be too theoretical for most uses, it is influencing other languages and will help me in thoroughly reasoning about programming. Scala – difficult like Haskell, but has some more practical uses such as Reactive Programming which is very important. Might displace Java for enterprise apps on the JVM. JavaScript – While I'm poor in UX and front-end tech, it's still useful to know JS to work with front-end, to understand the build tools. I know a little Node but don't like it too much. Python and Ruby – I know them a little, but I'm planning to get more into DevOps so I plan to get more experience.
Honorable mention: C# - I'm planning to learn the .NET stack at some point so I could be a more well-rounded enterprise dev. C – I'm no longer interested in C or low-level programming, but it's significant because I've built some interesting ISP stuff in C in the 90s/early 2000s. Clojure and other Lisps – theoretically interesting but I haven't found a use for them yet.
Q: Evan Dale: Given your experience, what is your definition of a great software engineer, in terms of attitude, skill, and knowledge?
A: This will sound cliché but a great engineer is a multiplier, they can get other engineers to work with them, by teaching and coaching, more than what they can do alone. So they need to have a good attitude where they can inspire people to follow them but also not spoon-feed them but give them a chance to do their own thing. The knowledge itself, it's really specific since software engineering is such a wide field, but it's necessary to always be seeking new knowledge, not be satisfied with the knowledge they have, but then also being critical and be ready to challenge the knowledge or be challenged themselves.
Q: Alex Sales: do you have a mentor?
A: No, I don't have a single mentor or even a group of them, in the sense of having a a teacher. I'd say I learned more by self-study and “just doing it”. In that sense, the mentors were the clients and colleagues I experimented on.
Q: Evan Dale: which one is better to have early on: breadth or depth of knowledge?
A: In my experience, breadth plus fundamentals. You can go deep into something when you need it – of course there's a risk that you need to “fake it until you make it”, but any programming or even work that is commercial has an element of that!
Q: Raymund Enso: In our culture of "crab mentality" what's your view about it? are you happy that other succeed under your wing?
A: To be honest I think crab mentality is yet another cliché. I haven't experienced it or seen it (or was not aware), and even then it's not unique to Filipinos.
Yes I'm happy that others succeed, tech is not a zero-sum game, I don't lose just because other people win. People can't copy or compete with you directly because there will be things that they are fundamentally better at, and things you are fundamentally better at, in terms of inherent aptitude. Even skills, which need aptitude and then are reinforced with practice, will differ because others have more/less time to practice and have different opportunities.
This goes back to my answer earlier about the local tech scene – I have personally given up on my own startup success, that's why I'm looking for others to succeed. Of course I'm human and feel jealous, but I don't act (or try not to) act negative abut that, but instead challenge myself to do better.
Q: Sam Keeley Ong: Do you think coding bootcamps will work in the ph since a cs degree here doesn't really prepare anyone for real life work? like 10weeks bootcamp in web dev or something.
A: I think they are technically OK but there's one thing lacking which makes bootcamps succeed – a big job market from companies who need those specific skills right away. (Let the experts on the ground correct me if I'm wrong!) And back to my answer about breadth vs depth of knowledge, these bootcamps (as I understand them) will go deep into the technology without an understanding of the fundamentals. So, the bootcamp graduate may have a problem if they need to work in another technology different from the one they studied.
Q: kneetaps: don't mean to pry into personal matters too much, but what made you give up doing startups? Is it the politics? The red tape starting a business in the Philippines? Just not a business type of person? Other reasons?
A: No personal matters I'm not a business person, in the sense that, even a technical co-founder should know or care about product development. I really don't. I just want to build stuff that product people develop. Unfortunately, I didn't see that the startup ecosystem in the Philippines has companies at this level – I think they would called be “mid-stage” startups. And, I can't work at founder level anymore (like 16 hours/day work), due to age and health reasons.
Q: Romeo Enso: Will you quit your job if you are a web developer and then you are transferred to the marketing department?
A: I'll probably perform so poorly that they will fire me... While I have respect for marketing people – and most of the successful startups are really marketing companies with tech – it's really a different discipline that needs a different mindset.
Q: JM Ibanez: What are your thoughts on programmers in the Philippines vis-a-vis mental health issues? Is it better now? My impression is there is still a stigma attached to psychological problems. As someone who struggles with my own personal demons, what would your advice be (aside from seeking professional help of course)? Do Filipinos have a better support structure for such kinds of problems?
A: I'm lucky that my psychiatric issues haven't bothered me in a long time... so I haven't had to deal with them and I can't offer any advice. That's another reason I can't go back to extreme startup work, it's also too risky for me, mental-health wise. I'll get carried away and I won't be able to control myself.
Unfortunately there's still a stigma, not only in the Philippines but everywhere, and I don't have any solutions for that.
Q: Sam Keeley Ong: what's it like when people who are not your senior call you by your first name, as opposed to calling you sir like here in the ph?
A: I think it's fine, because you also call people above you by their first name. Having people call me “sir” is not a big deal and I didn't have any culture shock about it.
Q: JM Ibanez: What would be the things culturally/sociologically you see in working in Australia that you think the Philippine tech industry should emulate?
A: I don't think you can transplant the good parts of working Australia out of context to the Philippines. For example, while work-life balance is a big deal here, it's because everyone has work-life balance and a relatively high salary, and not just tech people, because of small income disparity, unlike in the Philippines where there is a big gap between software engineers salary (well the good ones) and “ordinary” jobs. And then there's the social safety nets provided by the government.
So, the Philippines is actually better in the sense there's more pressure to work hard and succeed financially. Here, if you don't work hard, you can settle for a non-tech or lower-tech job, but it's harder to get rich because everything is expensive. This could be why many Aussies prefer to work overseas, even in the Philippines, but I don't know for sure.
Q: Aldren Terante: Current frontend stack in your company?
A: Angular but dumbed down for IE8. Enterprise yo!
Q: JM Ibanez: What do you use for task tracking, personally? Are you a GTD kind of person?
A: Sort of GTD. I obsessively write down to-do's. But, not a follower of any methodology. I'm using Wunderlist to track down personal todo's, and for work, I just write things down in a document. One good thing about GTD which I try to follow is deferring things for later. I find it hard since I feel compelled to do many things at once.
Q: Andre Marcelo-Tanner: So how do you avoid being kicked out of your own company or what did you learn from it?
A: It was complicated... and I don't think I could have avoided it at that stage. In retrospect, choose the company who acquires you more carefully! But I only had a minor part in that decision. I didn't know that the company who acquired us would also acquire a competitor, force us to merge and “integrate”, leading to political intrigue for two years.
I learned a lot, from that event and from things that followed, about human nature. I learned that I was too trusting and naïve – reinforcing my belief that I'm not meant for business.
Q: Eric Pareja: what pointers would you give to companies that want to get involved in open source development? how do you think they can engage the community?
A: I think the most pragmatic reason for a company to get involved today is to ensure the maintenance of code that is developed or improved in-house but is not a core part of their intellectual property. To do that, they still need to devote some engineering resources to it, and not just let it go out in the world and possibly make the company look bad for making a pure marketing play.
Q: Andre Marcelo-Tanner: do you believe in sweat equity or that founders should pay themselves first?
A: I don't really have an opinion for or against it now. That's the path I took 20 years ago, but the structure of the ISP startup was very different because it required some capital for equipment and very expensive operating costs of bandwidth. Now, you can start your startup in your bedroom... well, your home office, and build your MVP on free resources and your own time. But, because of the lack of investment activity in the Philippines, we can't expect (yet?) “Silicon Valley” unicorns that will yield high multiples.
So maybe a realistic goal for founders would be to have what they call a “lifestyle business” in other places. In that case, the founders should pay themselves enough to pursue it full-time and not be distracted by the reality of going to work at a day job. And then we will have a more realistic picture of what are startups in the Philippines are. Besides, we are already following a different definition – in the Silicon Valley context, “startups” refer to product companies, while in the Philippines consulting companies or development companies are also called startups.
Q: Andre-Marcelo-Tanner: IoT, VR, whats the next big thing in your opinion?
A: My focus on enterprise – and specifically, banking right now – has made me very interested in something unsexy but in the long run important. I'm interested in building high quality software, not only testable but also provable to be correct.
Thus, my interest in Haskell. While I'm struggling with it, I still continue to study it, and I encourage people – especially those with a strong computer science interest – to take it up. It probably won't be “big” for developers because it is hard stuff, but if more platforms and libraries use this at the core, then we could all benefit as developers and end-users.
This may be the opposite to the “move fast and break stuff” encouraged by dynamic languages, but they all have their place.