Getting a Thai massage has been at the top of my TO-DO list every day, but for some reason or another, I’ve been unable to succeed in this seemingly simple task. I mean, all it takes is an hour of interrupted time while I lay in silence, but alas, I’ve failed. Blame it on Chiang Mai. I seem to have fallen into the black hole that is Chiang Mai, where people are kind, food is cheap, activities are plenty, and fascinating travelers are the rule rather than the exception.

If I had five cents for every time I heard the phrase “digital nomad” in the past week, I could probably upgrade to a penthouse suite in my hotel.  Unbeknownst to me, all the cool work-from-home kids have been living here, and I’ve been stuck in an RV traveling around the U.S.  That’s about to change!
Continue reading No massage for you! →

I’ve been backpacking around the world since 1994, and having all this free time with my aforementioned leave of absence, has made me realize that there’s this wealth of traveling information I have unconsciously accumulated over the years. I’ll try distilling a few fragments over the next few months, but I’d like to comment on what seems like intuitive knowledge for me but is somewhat lost on most guys from the looks of it.
Continue reading A guy’s guide to traveling women →

My 5th grade report card came back with the phrase “consistently uses time wisely” plastered on the behavior section of the card addressed to the parents of Aldy Hernandez. I knew I was in trouble. I didn’t know what “consistently” meant, but judging from what was usually scribbled in the behavior section, I was sure it involved being grounded. I didn’t know what “consistently” meant, but I sure knew what “potential” meant, as my reports cards usually had some variant of “Aldy has the potential to become a top student if only…[he would stop talking during class, not get into fights, refrain from pulling girls’ hairs, etc etc]”.
Continue reading So long and thanks for all the fish. →

Over the years, I’ve noticed that regardless of the work I’m thrown at, I usually get my work done, and more often than not, I get it done on time. However, there are a plethora of engineers that are wayyyy better than me. After all, I get to work with some of the brightest engineers I’ve ever met. Interestingly, however, not all of them get their patches in, or their work done in a timely fashion, which has got me thinking… call it old age, reminiscing, or too many beers.  What makes it easier to ship things on time when you need to appease so many people in an open source project?

I’m actually quite happy to be surrounded by very smart people. That in part, has been part of my secret. Surround yourself with people much smarter than you, and entice or coerce them to review your work. Everyone’s better in the process.

A colleague once told me, “in our industry, smart is a dime a dozen, but people you actually want to work with… that’s a very small subset”. I really hope he meant me. Then he added, “and people that also ship stuff on time– that’s very rare”. And that has been my goal at work for a long time: be that guy– be the guy that ships stuff on time, and is a joy to work with (well, mostly ;-)).

Continue reading Play nice and bait the nerds →

The last time I got into a real fight was in 6th grade. I can’t remember what caused it, but I’m pretty sure I started it. It was a new student named Tien and he pushed all the wrong buttons in me. I just couldn’t stand him– and for no reason at all. After one of many fights with him, I came home looking like I’d been dragged through the mud (I was), and he went home with the mark of my tennis shoe stamped on his face. The next day, they found the culprit by examining everyone’s shoes, and I was dumb enough to wear the same shoes.
Continue reading The day my dad and I got into a fight →