enough c# mileage accummulated@@

Your mileage will show in IV and in projects, but IV is way, way more important than real project performance -- You only need to be barely competent to get your job done, solving common problems at your pace (though at Baml my own pace was slower than other team members). No need to be competent to solve all tricky problems, some are too tough for everyone. But you better ace the IV.

- - I still feel less familiar with some everyday tasks than my c# veteran colleagues.
- - i did rather few complete projects like Guardian and many enhancement projects. In contrast, veteran c# guys did more big projects. The number of years isn't as important as complexity and variety of challenges. VARIETY -- for eg a web dev expert (or a DB-centric c# coder) isn't really a complete c# expert.

- - wpf is a specialized skillset, like swing, or web dev or sockets. I didn't get a lot of wpf hands-on mileage yet.

- - wcf is another specialized skillset. I lack mileage.
- - assembly, appdomain, GAC

= = people agree that I can get my job done and meet most technical challenges, even if non-trivial. ("tactical")
= = explaining, justifying my design choices - not always convincing. Not only c#, but java too.

= = excel integration is one of the most valuable among the specialized c# skills. I have some experience.

+ + When presented a new c# challenge, when pushed to the frontier of my c# know-how, I am competent to construct a basic "infrastructure" and then search on-line for the missing pieces to complete the loop meeting the challenge

+ + competent with most everyday troubleshooting.  Some troubleshooting is beyond my current skill but I feel many are hard for my veteran colleagues too. If my colleagues can solve 50% of the tech problems, then my level is close to that. This competence comes from mileage i.e. real world projects. The more projects one takes on, the more competent.

+ + like Venkat, I did practice with some hot c# features like threading, closure, remote debugging ...

+ + much more confident with MSVS than before. Perhaps comparable to my Eclipse confidence.
+ + on some of the hot but purely theoretical IV topics (fake mileage), I have read up quite a bit and appreciate their nuances. I can follow most discussions on these topics -
*GC, dtor, finalizer
*threading
*value/reference types
*dynamic type

I know more about c++ than c#

I blogged about exactly the same thing before ...

Here's a paradox -- i spent 2 years in a full time c# job, arguably longer than my full time c++ experience. However, sometimes I feel I understand dotnet less than C++. Reason? Many aspects of the languages are never used in-depth on work projects, so length of experience != depth of experience. We need spare time self-exploration to learn those aspects like:
- template meta programming
- custom operator new/delete
- memory tuning
- memory leak detection
- threading
- async communications
- pure virtual
- ++i vs i++

(... not a complete list by any measure.) Interviewers are notorious for testing these obscure or advanced, theoretical topics.

academic route as a long term career option (Sam)

A letter never sent out...

Hi Sam
(This is more like a personal blog, to record my thoughts and conversations.)

I never considered those options you posed today

Q: 2nd master's degree?
A: I liked the part time study experience so far. Will take a 2nd Masters if someone pays for me.

Q: I did think about teaching at polytechnic level, but teach what subject?
A: Either IT or financial math, or perhaps data science -- after I spoke to Bernie.

FW: grab a critical component (and make it unnatural for other developers:)

XR,

I now see more wisdom in such a "job protector".

I feel a critical component could be
- the release process like the one your colleague controls
- build process
- some scheduling tool like autosys. You can make it very complicated.
- some home-made diagnostic tool to troubleshoot a critical component.
- some wrapper component that everyone must go through to access messaging, or some critical library...
- some very important SQL query? Well, colleagues can copy it and figure out how it works. It's "more effective" if there are many such queries and these queries need a lot of tweaking each time. Then no one can become familiar with these queries and replace me!

a few ideas on how to manage the manager (OC

This is about a generic manager, not a particular person☺. I will use "she" or "he" interchangeably.

• Result or reason? Managers want results, not reasons. When she asks me for a reason, what she really wants is how she can help solve the problem and make progress towards the result.
• I don't disclose my actual implementation details. If managers ask, I try to avoid the details. I feel managers don't want to be bothered with implementation details, esp. when the codebase grows big and my module is outside the most critical 10% core modules.
• I seldom deviate from manager's technical direction. If I must deviate, I try to keep a low profile and get things to work quickly. If I miss a deadline and attracts his question, then I try to give a reason without disclosing my deviation.
• When things get unbearable, I tell myself I am not imprisoned for life here.
• When I receive a put-down remark, I remind myself I'm competent and I generally get things done, and I am respected by my colleagues.
• When asked about progress, I used to give a guarded response like "working but there are some questions about ….".

Knowing what I know now, I might have lived my life differently.

I would have gone to US earlier.

I would have entered finance earlier.

I would have focused on my technical/quant edge earlier, and not worry about leadership track record -- not my core strength.

finmath - priorities, costs, projected benefit

(master copy? 610610)

Benefit: teaching job but may not be so relevant that far out

Benefit: zbs, practical insights, critical judgement of questionable comments
Benefit: jargon and math. At least follow the common conversations!

Benefit: job interviews. At least understand the questions!

My energy is really really limited. Some benefits I must forgo.

Priority: grades. In the short term, the grades tend to preoccupy, which is short-sighted. I feel grade and expectation thereof can create undue stress.

priority: zbs, solid understanding. Ask all the questions. Outside this course, you have no one to ask, and your understanding will be limited.

priority: do the homework by myself, so I can discuss with staff?

* start early to avoid stress

Priority: finish early? LG

-- reg --
similar to portfolio?

-- portfolio --

has the highest zbs benefit

-- 330 Option --

A lot of homework (or past exam) topics sound like only important to the grade

-- Fixed Income Derivative --

Bond math (without stoch) is more precise, more practical less academic, without assumptions.

stress, an long overview

(I don't know where this blog belongs... see also the folder in recoll...)

1) There is plenty of academic research on stress, each requiring a precise definition for what (doesn't) qualifies as stress.
2) There are also popular self-help materials on stress, which usually require a working definition. (Together with trainings, publication is probably a billion-dollar industry).

I'm not keen about what (doesn't) qualifies as stress. I think it's more useful to focus on stress management. However, as we try and uncover the common threads running through various stressors, we often come up with our own working definition. Given the rich literature and research on stress, this is my shot to get a relatively high-level (but not vague) view of common stressors.

A common category of stressor is a choice. No choice, no stress.

A category of stressor is the need to stay alert without enough opportunity to relax. These have a physiological dimension. Imagine a battle field general.... In software development, some coders frequently fail to cover the important edge cases, unless they put themselves on full alert -- stressful.

A common feature of stressors is a ticking clock. The best remedy is early preparation.

A common feature of stressors is the demand of self-discipline, self-restraint and self-control. Suppose you promise to wash up after every meal...

An reasonable definition of stress is "the negative feeling when you Think that the demands on you is more than what you can handle" but this would be a slighly narrow definition and disqualifies a lot of layman's stress.

Many stressors involve money in various forms. Many involve (potential) loss of money. I feel the damage of worry can be worse than the damage of actual loss.

An important aspect of most stressors is the physiological response and health effect. Anger, lost sleep, lost concentration, binge, drop in motivation to work out ...

-- Above are fundamental or common features of most stressors. Here are some interesting patterns in small subsets.--

Having many concurrent long-lasting tasks can be more stress than completing some to reduce multitasking. However at work multitasking is very common.

coaching skill - leadership

My strengths
* Monitor progress of the coaching
* Set a positive tone during the session
* I'm fully aware of the need to be a righteous role model. People must first respect the leader, otherwise sooner or later they will (subconsciously) feel reluctant to follow. I feel many of my managers are not that good overall as a person. They just happen to occupy that seat with that power. Same in the family.
** in fact, most of the time team members simply follow instruction without "respect"
* fairness
* I don't want to sound domineering. I want to be "equal". When we meet after the guy resigns, we are still equals.

My areas of improvement where I see good role models
* Build a supportive relationship
* Observe the behaviour and emotion of the person being coached. This is good leadership.
* Periodic on-going coaching sessions. I feel behaviour improvement can be very tough and take a huge effort.

Fwd: example of negative projection

I learnt long ago that if you do something unusual you need to assume everyone around you are lazy, selfish, insecure, unforgiving, fearful, over-protective of personal image... Here's one example.

Suppose boss gives you a task, and you suggest another team member as a better candidate for the task. This can easily invite criticism (from everyone) like "avoiding work", "pushback", or "acting like a boss".