A peaceful place in Da Lat, Vietnam
This is an ever-changing document containing principles I follow. Some principles may not be universally true.
Mindset
Ethical
“Kindness is invincible”, Marcus Aureliu
Always uphold ethical standards. Straying from them has consequences that often come back to haunt you.
I like to apply Buddhist teachings such as Karma and the Noble Eightfold Path in my work. Everything comes and goes in a single breath.
First principles
First-principles thinking is one of the best ways to reverse-engineer complicated problems and unleash creative possibility.
(c) Ron Letkeman
Ownership
Ownership, leadership.
Be responsible for the outcome of your works, and be accountable for results, success or failures. Learn fast, adapt fast from the results.
Life-time learners
“Wisdom matures in silence, but character matures in storms”
The world is changing. It’s a good way to learn by finding silent time to think, to read, to see.
If I learn something interesting, I’ll try to tell related stories in blogs, presentations.
People
Mission
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea”, Antoine de Saint-Exupery
To keep people motivated & united, it’s crucial to align their work with meaningful missions that resonate with their values.
Trust
“Software design is an exercise in human relationships”, Kent Beck
Many of work conflicts are because people don’t know each other well. It’s critical to have human connections before getting works done.
Mastery
Follow the best and aim to be the best. Mastery leads to motivation.
Conflicts
Healthy conflicts are good to build a diversified team to solve real-world problems. How to create a psychologically safe environment where people can be listened is important.
No tolerance to unhealthy conflicts.
Business
Customer obsession
I like the Working Backward principle at Amazon focusing on starting with the customer’s needs and desired outcomes when developing new products or services. In addition to external customers using our software, we also have internal ones developing/operating/maintaining the software.
Strategy
“A strategy is a coherent set of analyses, concepts, policies, arguments, and actions that respond to a challenge”, Richard Rumelt.
Thinking strategically before doing work. Entire organizations must understand how a strategy is formulated and executed, how to respond if the reality changes. Wardley Mapping is a valuable tool to develop a strategy systematically and collaboratively.
Products
tbd
Technologies
tbd