Roy Tang

Programmer, engineer, scientist, critic, gamer, dreamer, and kid-at-heart.

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Feb 2016

  • Someone on quora asked:

    Is being able to sell, one of the most useful skills in life? What other very useful skills are there besides selling?

    Selling is really just a form of communication, and it doesn’t apply only to selling products and services to other people for money. You’re selling whenever you’re applying for a job, or suggesting a place to eat, or trying to woo a girl.

    Engineers such as myself sometimes look upon selling and salesmanship with disdain - when I build/develop a good product, shouldn’t people just want to buy it because it’s good? Why do I have to spend effort to convince people to buy it?

    But the fact is there are far too many things in life competing for your limited resources - money, attention, and time, so you have to be able to decide which ones to pursue and which ones to set aside. And when making these evaluations, the options that sell themselves more or present themselves better will come out on top. So yes, the ability to sell is really quite a useful skill in life.

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  • Someone on quora asked:

    How does a senior developer deal with a poorly organized startup?

    Startups tend to have smaller dev teams, so as a senior developer in a start-up, you have a unique opportunity to influence the startup’s development culture and determine what kind of company it will be. I would suggest sitting down with whoever is your superior - maybe that’s the CEO or the CTO - and telling them your concerns and why improving the quality of the codebase should be a priority. You don’t have to convince them to do a full-scale refactoring or something like that. If you find it difficult to sell the idea because it would cost too much effort, feel free to suggest smaller-scale incremental changes to at least make sure new code is written up to better standards.

    Finally, your talk with the higher-ups should give you a good idea of what their priorities are for the startup and whether they value the same things you do. And if your values don’t align, it’s a good sign that you should consider looking for other opportunities

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  • Someone on quora asked:

    Is working on a startup IT company better than an established one here in the philippines?

    It’s more risk (i.e. the company might go under). You might have to do a lot of admin work yourself (managing your SSS, Philhealth, taxes, etc).

    Established companies will tend to have better benefits (HMO, vacation days, etc) too.

    On the upside, working for a startup generally means a looser culture, and a smaller company means you have greater influence over the culture there. Established companies will already have a lot of policies and rules in place.

    In general, the difference between startups and big companies is the same in the Philippines as it is elsewhere, but startups here seem to be focused more on bespoke work for other companies, as opposed to the startup scene in silicon valley which is focused on products and apps.

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  • Someone on quora asked:

    How can you tell how good a programmer is?

    Speaking as someone who’s had to evaluate the performance of developers in a project team of around 20-30: it’s not easy.

    If you want to evaluate programmers for recruitment purposes it’s particularly difficult. It’s hard to make an assessment from a couple of 30-minute interviews and code written for a toy problem. It’s best to observe them in an actual work environment, see how they interact with their peers, see how they react to crisis.

    If you’re evaluating a resume, you’ll want to look for signs of people who are passionate about programming - this might mean programming done outside of work/as a hobby (for example, open source projects, attending seminars, local programming group membership, etc). During an interview, ask them about best practices, refactoring, that kind of thing.

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  • Someone on quora asked:

    What are the most common life mistakes young people make?

    1. Loving too hard and too quickly

    2. Believing they are invincible

    3. Not learning to manage finances or debt

    4. Getting too attached to their ideas

    5. Believing they can control every situation

    6. Believing life is fair

    7. Not recognizing the wisdom of elders

    8. Not taking care of their teeth

    9. Limiting their social circle

    10. Not seeing more of the world

    11. Accepting everything without question

    12. Committing to a path before they are sure it’s right for them

    OK, I guess these are mistakes older people make too :)

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  • Someone on quora asked:

    [Tricks] How do you step out of the comfort zone?

    There are no tricks, there is only practice.

    Put yourself out there, even if only a little bit at a time. Do you have anxiety with public speaking? Try telling a short personal story to the cashier at the grocery or to your taxi driver. Do you want to be challenged at work? Ask for a little additional responsibility, or maybe commit to delivering your work a bit earlier than expected.

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  • Someone on quora asked:

    How do professional programmers deal with ignorant/unskilled colleagues, who don’t care about improving?

    In my opinion, you shouldn’t force them to improve if they don’t want to. For some people, programming is just a job: they come in, they do what they’re told to do, and go home. They don’t want to think about process involvement or anything like that. And that’s fine, if that’s the life they want.

    This applies to companies too: there will be companies that just want to get their projects done and out the door, and don’t want to think about process improvements, etc.

    My suggestion to you, if you are interested in that kind of thing, is to start looking around for companies more to your liking. It’s not really about talented/experienced programmers and more of about the company culture - although that will be driven largely by the senior programmers in the company. I would also prioritize working in companies that are primarily programming shops, instead of say, a programming department in a bank or some other type of business. Programming shops will be more focused on the dev process as one of their priorities.

    Or if you like your job and don’t want to leave, you can also try to persist. Don’t be obnoxious, but every so often when some problem is encountered you can say “we could have avoided this if we have done X” or something like that. Get to know the senior software developers on your team and try to discuss programming practices with them. If you stick around, eventually you will become the senior software developer and will have more influence on the culture.

    Good luck!

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  • Someone on quora asked:

    Do you have to leave your friends behind if you want to achieve greatness?

    Not necessarily. But if they are preventing you from achieving your goals you should consider whether the goals are more important than your friends. You can also consider trying to get them interested in the things you do differently than them.

    Friendships are great, especially when they are a positive influence. But there are also friends who are toxic, negative people who can drag you down. You can try to change them or help them improve, but past a certain point you have to seriously consider just letting them go. It feels bad to give up on a friend, but ultimately you have to prioritize your own life goals.

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  • Someone on quora asked:

    I perform poorly on boring tasks at my software engineering job. Should I feel guilty?

    A lot of software developers deal with legacy code and horribly-designed systems, it’s hard to avoid. But the great thing with being a software developer is that we have a lot of avenues to apply creativity to boring tasks. Try to automate the boring parts, then you can get more work done. Or maybe build a tool to help map the horribly-designed system to make it easier to manage.

    If your job doesn’t allow you to do these sort of things, well I’d start looking for another job ;p

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  • Someone on quora asked:

    How can I change my attitude towards exercise?

    First of all, stop letting other people’s opinions affect you so much. If your family questions you working out at home, explain it to them. If there are people making fun of you at the gym, ignore them, they are not relevant to you. You should be exercising for yourself, not for other people.

    There are exercises you can do on your own, outside of the gym. Running is a good start.

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  • Someone on quora asked:

    How can I become less bored with life?

    Some things to try:

    1. Spend more time with your family, go out on trips or just hang out with them all day

    2. Find a hobby. What is something you always wanted to try?

    3. Start looking for a new job. Maybe finding a job will be hard for you, but simply looking around might expose you to opportunities you would never otherwise find

    4. Start an exercise program. I recommend running

    5. Meditate

    6. Find out what your friends do for fun and ask to be involved / more involved

    7. Don’t have friends? Find more friends :D

    8. Explore your neighborhood

    9. Start a side business to keep you occuped

    10. Chat up strangers everywhere you go

    11. Have an affair (just kidding, don’t do this)

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  • Someone on quora asked:

    What jobs can one get as a very junior, self-taught programmer?

    Since you don’t have the degree, try getting some experience first. Modern programmers have a lot of opportunity these days to earn experience without going through the traditional gatekeepers of HR and college degrees. Try working freelance (there are some websites that facilitate this, such as odesk or elance) or ask your friends if they have any small websites they need made. You can also try contributing to open-source projects, or create your own software project/tool that you can release online either for free or try to sell. You can try to develop an iOS or Android app too.

    Once you have a reasonable amount of experience, say you have an app or software with moderate following, or are a recognized contributor to an open source project, there will be companies willing to look past the lack of degree. The best software companies will know better than to be strict about the requirement for a relevant degree (I should know, my degree is in Electronics and Communications Engineering yet I’ve always worked as a software developer)

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  • Someone on quora asked:

    Motivation: What is one thing that I can do every day that can change my life?

    Almost any new habit that you manage to pick up and do on a daily basis will change your life in one way or another. I assume you’re looking for positive changes so I wouldn’t recommend say, smoking

    Some ideas of things you can do on a daily basis:

    1. Learn something new, or improve on something you already know

    2. Challenge yourself

    3. Step outside your comfort zone

    4. Reach out to a friend you haven’t talked to in a while and try to reconnect

    5. Reach out to a stranger you find interesting and see if you can connect (it might be someone famous even, it’s ok if she fails to respond!)

    6. Read a book in your area of interest

    7. Some form of exercise, even if it’s light

    8. Meditate

    9. Get a proper amount of sleep and drink eight glasses of water

    10. Look for a way to help someone else

    Good luck!

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  • Someone on quora asked:

    Software Engineers: How often do you code on the job?

    The hours you work in a week will vary wildly depending on where you work. But it is true that there are many companies where working extra hours is the norm.

    When you are starting out, most of your time will be spent coding; some will be spent reading specifications or requirements to figure out what you will be coding, and also clarifying the requirements to make sure your understanding is correct. A good amount of your time will be spent debugging (do you count that as coding).

    As you become more involved or more senior, you may start having to pick up more responsibilities that extend past simply coding. Examples would be code reviews, trying out tools or libraries for use by the team (though this involves coding as well), mentoring or teaching of junior developers (will involve coding as well), consultation with business analysts about technical requirements and feasibility, etc

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  • Someone on quora asked:

    Is it too late for me to be a software engineer?

    It’s never too late to become who you want to be. Also, you are still pretty young.

    It might be a bit difficult to get work starting out if you follow traditional channels  (many HR departments look for the degree), but the great thing about this industry is that there are a lot of ways to get software development work without going through HR hoops. You can work freelance/online easily and there are a number of websites that can help you do this. The industry is one that is more meritocratic than most; as long as you do good work, you will be able to find more work.

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  • Someone on quora asked:

    I am not a detail-oriented person but I like how software development can change people’s lives, would I enjoy coding?

    Coding is very much a detail-oriented task. The syntax of most programming languages makes that obvious - forget a semicolon somewhere and your entire program may fall apart. Even non-coding roles in a software development team such as business analysts require some degree of attention to detail as otherwise they would be doing substandard work.

    However, your question is whether you would enjoy coding. It is possible you may enjoy coding even though your attention to detail is low. If you love things such as problem-solving or learning how things work, there’s a good chance. The only way to be sure is to try it!

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  • Someone on quora asked:

    I am a software developer, working on dot net. I am fresher and 24 years old. I remain very nervous during work and during talking to my leads. How can I be more confident and bold?

    First of all, do good work. If you do good work and are aware of it, it’s easier to be confident when talking to other people.

    Sometimes, confidence can only come with time and experience.

    Since you are new, you may not be sure about certain things, whether you are doing them the right way or not. Don’t be afraid to clarify things you are uncertain about, it is a good quality of software developers to try to flesh out details. “Is this how the output is expected to look like?”, etc

    Don’t worry too much about making mistakes - everyone makes mistakes at some point. But be sure to show a willingness to learn where you made mistakes and how to avoid it in the future.

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  • Someone on quora asked:

    Being a minor, what can I learn to help me become economically independent?

    It’s hard to answer unless you have specific goals, but here are some tips:

    1. Learn to save. Some say 10 or maybe 20% of your income, but I’d say “as much as you can”

    2. Understand how credit card debt works and how to avoid it

    3. Get a job, if you are legally allowed to. Even part-time is fine. Online freelancing could be great too

    4. Learn to control impulse purchases. Take some time before buying something big.

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  • Someone on quora asked:

    What do you do to motivate yourself when you are about to give up?

    Some things to try:

    1. Try to remember your goals - why are you doing this thing in the first place? Imagine yourself achieving that goal. Is it worth it to power through the difficulty and get there?

    2. Try to figure out the next step to get there, don’t worry about how many other steps there are in front, just worry about the next step

    3. Take a break. Let your subconscious mind stew on the problem for a while

    4. Find something that pumps you up. Maybe have a confidence-boosting playlist

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  • Someone on quora asked:

    How do you manage to fit into a team of developers who cannot just understand how to code?

    The correct answer is to start looking for a better work environment.

    In the meantime, or if you can’t leave, or you prefer to stay and work things out, you have to be patient. Raise your concerns to your superior, and maybe to his superior if you have access. Do your work, don’t be obnoxious. Maybe start keeping a list of major problems you see with the code. When one of those problems does blow up later, point out how you could have prevented it, and suggest to incorporate preventive measures as a best practice. Point out how much less costly it would have been to prevent the problem instead of reacting to it.

    Changing an organization’s culture from within is a long, tough grind though, so I’d keep looking for greener pastures

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  • Someone on quora asked:

    Why did Filipino celebrate their independence day from Spain, not US on June 12?

    For a while, July 4 was the Philippine Independence Day, but in 1962, it was changed back to June 12. This is to recognize the date we as first declared independence as a nation as the first republic in Asia. Just because our independence was interrupted by a few decades of American and Japanese colonisation doesn’t change it :p

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  • Someone on quora asked:

    What is the best way to find a start-up job in the Philippines considering I am a rocket-internet employee from the Middle east?

    There are some events held for startups and entrepreneurs in Manila. One example is the Startup Weekend Manila. In these events there can be would-be entrepreneurs pitching their ideas and looking to assemble a team. Maybe you can attend one of these events and try to get to know the people there

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  • Someone on quora asked:

    Are you feeling lonely when you program?

    If you are feeling lonely when you program, it might be that you don’t really enjoy programming and you might consider transitioning to a different career later on.

    Or maybe you are in a company where you are the only software developer in a team, in which case yes you might feel lonely or out of place among other colleagues.

    I believe it is best for career software developers to be in a team with other software developers, evolving a code base together. When you’re working with other people’s code and their mistakes, you will never be lonely :D

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  • Someone on quora asked:

    I’ve been sitting at my desk doing nothing at a large tech company and am feeling incredibly uninspired. I feel like quitting. Is this normal?

    A friend recently moved to a new job and told me that they sent her home early because the work for the day has already been done. I told her my impression of that company was that people slack off a lot there and she said “Is that really a bad thing?” I said it can be, because for me if I’m bored or have nothing to do for extended periods of time I would be unhappy. Everyone has their own level of challenge that they need to face in their daily life and if you’re not getting that, it might lead to further unhappiness down the road. To keep yourself entertained, you can take the time to either do some self-improvement (learn a new language! etc) or talk to your manager and see if there is some work that you could be doing while waiting for your real work (warning: volunteering for work beyond your role may have rewards, but it often also leads to people assigning you even more work!)

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Jul 2014

Sep 2013

Jun 2013

May 2013

Aug 2010

May 2010

  • Someone on Tumblr asked:

    How do you translate "gigil" to English?

    Usually refers to an overwhelming urge to do something.

    The “something” is implied by the context, for example if the “gigil” is directed at something cute, the urge is usually to pinch, i.e.

    Tagalog: “Ang cute ng baby mo, nakakagigil!”

    English: “Your baby is so cute, I have an overwhelming urge to pinch him!”

    Can also be directed at something frustrating/annoying.

    ALSO: I’m not a translator, what’s up with these questions?

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  • Someone on Tumblr asked:

    How do you translate "nalipasan ng gutom" to English?

    “Hunger has passed [me/you] by”

    Sample usage:

    You guys took so long to deliver the pizza, my hunger has already passed me by!

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  • Someone on Tumblr asked:

    Why did you choose python over ruby?

    I ran into Python before Ruby on Rails became popular. Also, “Dive into Python” was easier to follow than “Why’s Poignant Guide to Ruby”

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