I quit my job at Google last week, and started a new blog called Laptop and a Rifle. Read the inaugural post for more.

Today was my first day at Google, and a full day too. Orientation started at 8am, and I just got home (it's a little past 8pm) because after orientation, I was in a couple of video conferences with a team in Japan.

I've joined what's called the Japanese Product Focus Team, which is a group of engineers based in Mountain View who work on various products to add features or address issues specific to the Japanese market (as the name would imply). My first specific task relates to geo/maps/search, and sounds quite challenging (ok, very challenging), but also has a pretty significant impact, so I'm pretty excited.

I can't say much after just a day, but it's very clear to me that Google is a very different company to the last one I worked for, and mostly in good ways. Suffice to say that I actually came out more excited to be there than when I walked in.

Tomorrow's my first day on my new job at Google, but before that, I'd like to share some lessons I learned during my 3 years at Yahoo!. The most important lessons I learned, in my opinion, weren't about specific products or features, or even about programming or technology, per se, but more about people and how they go about their business in an organization.

In the interest of time and brevity, I'll just put it in list form, even though this post has, at various times, been much more verbose. Also, standard disclaimer: my own personal opinion, I do not represent anyone else, etc.

• Primacy of great teams. Great products are built by great teams, comprised of great individuals, bonded by excellent teamwork and collaboration. You've probably heard that before, but let me phrase it a little differently: Without great individuals and excellent teamwork, you can't build a great product. I once pointed out to a manager how a couple of sub-par programmers on a team were dragging the rest of the team and the product down with them, but was told "nah, they can do it, they'll just take longer." It turned out they did take longer, which meant it took that much longer for people to realize that what they were building was useless and had to be rebuilt. I learned that talent isn't a sliding scale, but actually more binary; good people can do what bad people can't, and great people can do what good people can't. Teamwork, on the other hand, is less rigid. Sure, you occasionally have people who are asses or difficult to work with, but as long as you have good cultural norms, management, processes, guidelines, communication, etc, it's possible to create good collaboration (some of the later points will related to this).
• Be critical of structure. We live in a competitive world, and most of us want to win. Even if you don't want to win, your investors, shareholders, or bosses will demand that you do better than before, and do better by larger margins. To do better (either than yourself or others), you usually have to do things differently. Of course, we can't do everything differently all the time because that'd be too chaotic, so we impose structure everywhere: named software development processes, organizational structures, guidelines, standard interview questions, where you go for drinks. But structure leads to sameness, so to be different and do better, examine your structures. Do we really need a meeting every morning? Do we really need six product managers? Do we really need 3 layers of VPs? Be critical, and change things until things get better.
• Risk aversion is death. This is closely related to my previous point, so I won't say too much. I said you have to change to do better, but change also incurs risk. People usually are afraid of risk because they fear they might end up worse off. But risk aversion leads to stagnation, or inability to react, change, do better, and you end up doing worse. Ironic isn't it? In a world where staying still isn't an option, you can't be afraid of taking risks.
• Cheerleading isn't leading. And I'm not talking about George W Bush. I've seen plenty of leaders who applauded and congratulated unimpressive feats -- like shipping a crappy product two months late. What are they saying? Are they saying that we've accomplished our task if we ship something, even if it sucks? Are they saying it's good we're only two months behind schedule instead of nine? Maybe they're afraid of demoralizing employees, but all the demoralized employees I saw weren't demoralized because they weren't getting enough pats on their backs from execs. They were demoralized because they weren't building products they could be proud of, or because they spent too much time in meetings, or because there was too much bureaucracy to get anything done, or because execs changed their minds and prematurely shut down the product... again. Maybe it's because I grew up to parents who made me the best person I can be by making me feel like dirt for the first 25 years of my life, but I like it when my leaders say "this is bullshit, we need to do better." I believe good leaders lead people to a better place, and you can't go to a better place if you don't recognize you're in a bad place.

It's been a while since I've posted on this blog. Since I feel like it, here are some disorganized thoughts.

As is being widely reported, Rojo got bought by Six Apart. It seems like SA isn't interested in Rojo as a feed aggregation service, but as a platform. My immediate thought is: It's starting... I need to get FeedMuncher out there NOW!.

It's only a matter of time before someone (else) realizes that feed aggregation today is like email circa 1994, and that we all need standards that can be implemented by open platforms. I created FeedMuncher sort of as a proof of concept, to show that you can have a feed aggregation platform that provides a known set of APIs to interoperate with various clients.

I still personally use FeedMuncher on a daily basis (couldn't live without it), but between a full-time job and a full-time side project (more on that soon), I'm hardly finding enough time to sleep, much less work on another project. Maybe some day...

(As a fun side-note, I visited Rojo a little over a year ago and showed Kevin Burton what I had of FeedMuncher. He seemed to like it, although I never really talked to him much about feed aggregation as a platform...)

On a completely unrelated note, the stop motion animation project I worked on at the UofC is now on YouTube.

• Trailer 1
  
• Trailer 2
  
• Ducky at the Reg (final version)
  

It's been a while since I've posted in this blog, so a quick update. I moved to Sunnyvale last week, and have moved into an apartment that I'm pretty pleased with. My phoneline isn't up yet, I don't have internet access at home (unless I mooch my upstairs neighbor's wireless connection), I still haven't unpacked my clothes or books (which is 80% of the stuff I own), but I feel pretty comfortable here anyway.

I started work this week, and so far, I'm pleased with that as well. There's a bit of a learning curve because I'm not used to structured development environments with large teams, and because 360 uses an advanced architecture that's different to what I've done in the past. Having said that, the people are just amazing, and they've been extremely helpful in getting me on my feet... although it'll be a while before my foosball skills are up to Yahoo standards (of course, the team's helping me with that as well :-).

All in all, things are pretty peachy out here. Once I settle in, I'll probably be able to post more regularly as well...

I'm excited to announce that earlier this week, I accepted an offer from Yahoo! for a Senior Web Developer position on the Yahoo! 360 team. I'll be starting at the Sunnyvale campus on June 27th.

I had also received an offer from what's probably one of the sexiest startups in the valley right now (at least in the area I'm interested in), but ultimately decided to take Yahoo's offer because:

• Yahoo 360 is/will be an awesome social networking/blogging/etc tool that'll be used by millions
• my past experiences would be highly relevant to the job, but I would also learn a lot and be challenged
• Yahoo seems more dedicated to their employees' well-being and development (for example, through internal training courses)
• I'll be in an environment where I'll have access to some of the industry's great minds and leaders, including people like Rasmus Lerdorf (creator of PHP) and several alpha-bloggers (and a large pool of smart Yahoos).
• the 360 team went to great lengths to pull me in, and convinced me that they were a team I'd want to be a part of
• as my first "real" job out of college, I think working at Yahoo maximizes my future options, both inside and outside of Yahoo

Graduation was today, and I'm happy to say that I now have a B.A. in Computer Science from the University of Chicago.




This marks the end of a journey that spanned literally 2/3rd of the way around the world, involving 4 colleges and universities over a span of 6 years. Yet, at the end, graduation itself was rather anti-climactic. If anything, I'm more excited about my new job (which I'll be able to officially announce sometime in the next week or so).

Got back from California yesterday after a very successful job interviewing trip. I'm not going to post details (I have detailed writeups in a secure location, ask me if you want to know how to access them), but I met a lot of really cool people, interviewed at or otherwise visited a number of hot companies, and generally had a great time. Thanks to all of those who made it happen (you know who you are).

As for the results, I've gotten a couple of really amazing offers from very very exciting companies. Once I've made a decision and everything's final, I'll be sure to write about it here.

Heading to the airport in a few minutes, then off to Silicon Valley for a whole week of interviews and meetings with cool people and sexy companies. It's going to be a lot of fun... Gotta run, but more later (maybe).

Scav Hunt ended on Sunday with judgment. Our team tied for 1st place with our rival team, despite a 39 point difference (somewhat controversial issue, but I understand the rationale behind the decision).

Now it's back to normal life, although many of us are still recovering from "scav withdrawal". For me, scav is like life concentrate. Take everything that's boring, mundane, or not memorable out of life, throw in everything that's good, exciting and awesome, pack it into 4 days, and you get scav hunt. What I really love about scav, and about my team in particular, though, isn't so much The Hunt itself but the human aspect. We had an alumn fly back from England, a girl worked on items while away in Italy, a sibling drove up from Mississippi, a guy drank a shot of sweat, another kept hammering a penny while spewing blood from a wounded finger, not to mention all the basics like sleep, food, sanitation, and sanity that get thrown out, all for the love of the team and the hunt. There's something fundamentally pure and beautiful about it...

Anyway, for those of you who weren't here for the fun:

• official website
• pictures, more pictures, even more pictures
• The List
• an article in the Chicago Sun Times (for the first time in years, it apparently wasn't on Slashdot)

Also, check out The Assbook, a fully functional Facebook parody that a friend of mine wrote in 4 days (by himself) for our team.

And finally, my favorite picture (you can just barely see me in between the vertical columns of the trebuchet):

[Tagged: scavhunt university+of+chicago ]

...does life hate me? I'm starting to get sick, and I totally don't get this latest discrete problem set (generating functions).

I had a pretty insane day today...

2am      - bed
7:30am   - up
8:00~10:30am - photography and film paper
10:30-12:00pm - photography and film
12:00-12:30pm - lunch
13:30-15:00pm - computer vision
15:00-15:30pm - meeting with cs advisor
17:00-18:40pm - discrete TA session
18:45-18:55pm - dinner
19:00-19:50pm - physics problem session
20:00-00:00am - discrete problem set

The good news is, as far as my CS work goes, I'm still on track to gradumacate at the end of the year (i.e. Spring 05). Bad news is, I'll be taking Algorithms and Operating Systems (i.e. writing a kernel) Winter Quarter, which has about a 50% probability of killing me. Of course, all this is assuming I pass discrete math...

Today was a bizarre day. I did a full write-up about my day, but after consulting with Eric, decided that it might be a bit much for some of you more sensitive folk out there. In general it was a good day, although maybe the fact that I went to bed at 8am and got up two hours later at 10am has something to do with the sort of low-level eurphora I felt all day. I'm sure the full reality of this day will hit me sometime in the near future...

BTW, my D-Link USB WiFi adapter arrived today. My review: it sucks ass. The signal strength might not be bad, but the software is so clunky it almost feels like using Windows. If you ask me, an AirPort card that simply works might almost be worth paying $120-150.

I spent most of the afternoon/evening in the MacLab working on the Ducky DVD (I spent most of yesterday cleaning up some shots, mostly by hand in GIMP). Really, I just had to slap on a modified version on a DVD to send as an entry for the Chicago International Film Festival, but once I started up iDVD, I figured I might as well do the whole shebang. It was the first time I'd ever used iDVD, but like most of the other iApps, it's delightfully easy to use. The UI's a bit clunky at times, but considering how complicated the process could otherwise be, I'm more than willing to turn a blind eye to the few minor blemishes. If anything, annoying glitches going from FinalCut Pro 3 (which I have on my PB) to FCP 4 (which the MacLab has) caused more headaches than anything else... That and my external drive running out of space (which was easily remedied by burning data onto DVDs).

Despite having a pile of stuff to do before I leave for Portland, I bowed down to temptation and watched Hero last night. The film is beautifully shot, and the production design is impeccable. On the other hand, I found the plot to be rather simplistic, and after Crouching Tiger and Matrix, the action sequences aren't quite as impressive as they once may have been (i.e. good, but not revolutionary). I could say more, but I can't think of a way to say it without spoiling it, so I'll stop now.

Right now, well, the last thing I'm supposed to be doing is writing in my blog. But I think that's usually the case. In any case, suffice to say, I have a pile of stuff to do in the next 12 hours or so. So maybe I'll just stop talking about it and get to it...

I went downtown today to cash my tax refund, then walked on down Michigan Ave on a wild shopping rampage (that continued on in Hyde Park).

So my first stop was the Apple Store to see if I can get one of those swanky Bluetooth keyboards. Alas, it turns out that to use a PB with the display shut, you need to have a USB keyboard. So I went around the block to CompUSA to check out 3rd party keyboards, and since they all sucked, I walked back to the Apple Store.

But then, I passed the Disney Store and realized that they had a sale going, so I sauntered in among the soccer moms and spoiled 4 year old brats, running wild and drooling with blood shot eyes full of consumer lust. But, lo and behold, what else did I see? A pile of Nemos did I see. Oh yes, the very same Nemos that I've always wanted that were sold out for the longest time.

So I got me a Nemo.

With Disney bag in hand (looking like a skanky consumer ho') I walked into the Apple Store, and bought me a USB keyboard. I felt so dirty...

Then, I came home and checked on marketplace like I do every now and then, and what did I see? A Sony Trinitron G400 "17-inch" monitor did I see. Yes, a "17-inch" monitor that happens to be a 19" monitor. For $30. So I bought it.

My name is Ryo, and I'm a dirty consumer whore.

(In defense of my honor and everything that is good in this world, today's purchases amounted to around 1/3 of my tax refund. I swear I'll put the rest of it to good use... And besides, this $30 19" monitor does 1344x1008 pixels at 100MHz! Tell me that's not a steal.)