Distillations About

7/25/2017

  • Three months since my last entry. Damn. Let’s unpack a bit.
  • Toeing the line with 6-7 workouts a week for months finally caught up to me. Learned about overtraining the hard way. Kind of hit a wall, where I would feel like a zombie outside of the gym (and when I wasn’t drinking coffee). Pulled back to three workouts a week and my energy has been through the roof. I’ve had time to be a “human” again, get back to writing, and better focus on dating. Moving forward, I’m structuring my week around key sessions and having ancillary workouts support them. For example, I might reserve Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for core lifts (Legs/Shoulders, Back/Biceps, and Chest/Triceps) and reserve Tuesday for a cardio slot (Peloton, Studio, or an outdoor run) and Sunday for yoga. This gives me two days of regimented rest.
    • On the note of outdoor runs, an experiment Ryan and I tried recently was playing the same mix on our respective phones (while wearing headphones). This allowed us to focus on pacing, yet maintain an ambient shared experience. I’d highly recommend doing this, even in non-fitness contexts (e.g. coworking)
  • Finally honing in why I’m so drawn to friends who love to goof around. Fun aside, it might stem from the fact that derping contrasts so well with the mental work I do at the office (i.e. I focus at Peloton, so I can enjoy being a dingus after hours). Reminded of this from Michael’s tweet on needing contrast to relax.
  • “You’re very deliberate about crafting an environment where everyone around you feels safe in being their true selves.” Quite possibly the best compliment I’ve received in a long time.
    • Ryan wanted some examples of this, so I figured I’d elaborate with some that are top-of-mind:
      • Asking questions publicly. At Peloton, I always err on the side of asking questions to my team in public channels, as opposed to DMs. This better normalizes asking for help, regardless of seniority (in addition to better sharing knowledge).
      • Being transparent about goofiness. This is one of the best definitions I’ve seen of a senior engineer. Just because we’re surrounded by skilled colleagues, doesn’t mean we have to be uptight (or “with it“) all the time. It’s okay to be open about the derpier moments. They remind us that we’re all human.
      • Accounting for future teammates. At Peloton, we’ve recently started having the client teams review OpenAPI docs, prior to server-side implementation. During these reviews, I’ve often found myself pushing to have the team write down our assumptions, avoid temporary codenames, and other hurdles that would make onboarding difficult for new hires. Similarly, even though our iOS team of three engineers and one manager is all-male at the moment (:/), I’ve made strides—albeit nuanced—to make sure our culture and code are welcoming to anyone.