GreatReads - Blog Aggregator · Phoenix Framework

Friction is necessary for Growth

The title of this article says it all. Overcoming friction leads to growth. Comfort leads to stagnation. ChatGPT and by extension “AI” is likely the biggest “revolution” of my generation. It is likely also going to be the biggest killer of creativity in my generation. I always thought the creativity killer was going to be access to infinite entertainment. I think I was wrong. I’ve come to believe that with the rise of convenience and comfort, it becomes harder for us to reach our potential. Technology and Capitalism is taking us towards an extreme. A certain level of convenience can lead to efficiency gains. Automation is important for a reason. Too much convenience though, that's a killer. When friction was inherent in the system, applying ourselves led to growth as we overcame that friction. We simply didn’t have an alternative that was viable. And this principle applies to everything. When I was a child in Sri Lanka, I ended up memorizing the landline numbers of all my close relatives. To this day I remember them. The moment I got a phone where my contacts could be saved, I stopped remembering numbers. It may seem like a small thing but it illustrates the principle. The ease of access to information has geared us towards efficiently looking up information instead of remembering it. I won't argue the utility of having hundreds of numbers saved on your phone, I simply want to make a point. Overcoming friction leads to growth. Let's take another activity where creativity is important, writing. When it's easier to prompt ChatGPT to write your college essay, you'll never apply yourself. Afterall, when everyone is doing it, why not you? As everyone uses ChatGPT, the expectation of high quality writing will increase, making it harder for people to be vulnerable. You can’t become a master without making mistakes and learning from it. Humans are creatures of comfort. Just like so many things in this world, we follow the path of least resistance. With access to technology being ubiquitous, and ChatGPT being so widely available, to choose not to use it is very hard. You need to deliberately prioritize your growth and choose to go against the current. You need to deliberately introduce friction to the process. That said, total abstinence is not the solution. ChatGPT is here to stay. Just like most advancements in technology are. As a child of the 21st Century, you’ll need to learn to utilize this new tool in a manner that aids you, not hinders you. More importantly, not hinder the future you.

Culture

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Jameel Ur Rahman 4 months ago

Surviving Layoffs - Protecting Your Mental Health

Over the course of my career, I’ve survived three rounds of layoffs, all at the same company. Each time, I found myself among the so-called “survivors.” But surviving a layoff isn’t just about keeping your job. It’s about navigating a wave of complex emotions and instability that follows. It’s hard to describe the emotional toll of seeing colleagues, mentors, and friends let go, especially in a place where the biggest reason people stayed was because of the people. In the aftermath, I often caught myself wondering: Would it have been better to be laid off too? Would it be easier to leave than to stay in a place that suddenly felt like a sinking ship? Each time, practicality ultimately won out. I needed the income. But that didn’t make it emotionally easier. When a company lays off a significant portion of its workforce, especially if handled poorly, it creates a prolonged period of instability. During this time, emotions run high, and understandably so. I noticed that every conversation with colleagues became a cycle of negativity. Our regular catch-ups, which used to be fun, supportive, and energizing, turned into repetitive venting sessions. Layoffs were all we talked about. And while processing shared grief is necessary and important, unchecked negativity tends to spiral quickly. These conversations, while rooted in a shared experience, started to take a toll on my mental health. The negativity became a loop I couldn’t escape, and it began affecting my mood, my focus, and even my relationships outside of work. That’s when I realized something had to change. I began pointing out that our chats were no longer helping anyone. I acknowledged the hurt and frustration but suggested that maybe we start focusing on something else, even small, positive things. To my surprise, people were receptive. Nobody wanted to feel stuck in a constant state of frustration and sadness. This shift didn’t fix everything. It didn’t erase the loss or solve the problems that came with the layoffs. But it helped me, and it helped some of the people I talked to. And sometimes, that’s enough. If you’ve recently gone through layoffs and this feels familiar, here’s my advice: stop dwelling on what has already happened. Focus on the present. Look for purpose in other parts of your life, whether that’s in your relationships, hobbies, or personal growth. Putting your energy there can help you center yourself and feel better. I can promise you that.

Career

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Jameel Ur Rahman 2 years ago

We're all navigators in an ocean of information

Till the late 90s, information was a scarce resource. It was a resource sought after but not widely available. It was valued and respected. Access was difficult and sometimes required tremendous commitment to gain. Scholars would travel hundreds of kilometres to learn from others. The age of the internet changed many things. It eliminated the barrier of access to information. It gave us access to the collective knowledge of humanity. “What you and I know is like a drop of water in an ocean.” — Farman Nizar Information is like water. A cup of it can quench your thirst and empower you. An ocean of it can drown you. The challenge we now face is not the lack of a resource, but the abundance of it. We are surrounded by it. We are blinded by it. We are drowning in it. Imagine for a moment, that we are a boat navigating the high seas. Everything we need and could ever want to know is in the water. If we blindly collect everything we see, we'll sink. In order to navigate the seas well and get what we need, we need to do two things. #1 Make a choice We need to choose what to collect. In this ever-changing world, there's a lot we need to keep on top of. We can spend every waking moment studying but we'll never learn everything there is to learn. Nor can we remember everything we study. If it's futile to collect everything we see up, and it's futile to try to keep everything we collect, what can we do? #2 Act on it We need to ponder what we learn. We need to act on it. Through action, we make what we learn, our own. We need to pick up what we need from the ocean around us, then incorporate the choicest parts into the ship that is us. We do this all the time in a passive way. Everything we consume shapes who we are. The extent of this shaping depends on how deliberate we are when we learn, and how we put what we learn, into practice. One way to make efficient use of our time is to choose to learn, what we need , when we need it, so that we may apply it, immediately , to great effect. For example, let's say you are having trouble working with your boss… Or having trouble with your coursework… Or having trouble with your child… By making the topic of your learning immediately relevant, you are narrowing your focus and maximising your drive. Since you have a pressing need, you naturally timebox your efforts and apply what you learn for immediate impact. I've had the privilege of being mentored by great managers. David was one of them. He gave me this advice when I asked him how I could learn faster. “Focus on consuming as much useful information as you can” — David Varvel If you choose the material well, you will begin to recognize patterns in the problems you're solving. You will start applying concepts you've read about, sometimes without being able to put a name to what you are doing. You turn information into intelligence. Just like our body incorporates the food we eat. Our mind does too. One of the dark consequences of the Internet age is the abundance of entertainment at our fingertips. It's become too easy to waste our time mindlessly consuming entertainment. We often come out of this consumption tired and numb. The currency we waste is our attention and time. Endless entertainment consumption can stifle creative thought. For how can we be creative if we never give our mind time to be bored? Entertainment makes for subpar material, and you really don't want to build your ship with it. What's worse than subpar material, is material that can poison its occupants. (Watch The Social Dilemma if you haven't, it's a real eye-opener). Just as you take care of what you feed your body, you need to take care of what you feed your mind. In this information overloaded world, we need to be deliberate in what we consume. We make effective use of our time by choosing to learn, just enough, to solve an immediate pressing need. And if we find it difficult to internalize everything we learn, remember, quantity is a quality of its own. We can build a ship unlike any other. One that gains wings and flies, or one that falls apart over time. So build the ship you want to be. For you'll only get one try.

Career

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Jameel Ur Rahman 2 years ago

Fear of Mediocrity

For a long time now, I've been a feeling a sense of mounting doom. A fear that I'm no longer keeping abreast of all the change that's occuring around me. That I'm no longer keeping pace with others who are learning faster than me, who are growing faster than me, or just plain doing more than me. Fear is a powerful emotion. A bit of fear can push you forward. A lot of it can overwhelm you. Now imagine feeling that fear mounting day by day, week by week, and no matter what you do, you still feel that mounting sense of doom. I can't imagine it being healthy. It definitely isn't for me. I'm a software engineer by trade and heart and in my industry you need to stay abreast of technology. I'm also fortunate to work with some brilliant minds in my workplace (ExpressVPN). You'll find a lot of software engineers fight against imposter syndrome, myself included, but being surrounded by brilliancy can mute your own brilliance. There's so much to learn and experience that it is overwhelming. Even more so when your attempts at self improvement aren't as consistent as others. A few days ago I became concious that my fear had become paralyzing and I was hitting a breaking point I didn't know existed. I realized that in those free moments my mind was not engaged, it became filled with thoughts of learning X or Y, doing side project A or B, or feelings of guilt because I was procrastinating or not doing enough. The enormity of all the things I had to do to "catch up" made it so that consistently doing a little every day never felt enough. In this way, what should have been a fulfilling journey of development and growth became an endless grind to be an ideal I had no hope of achieving. I write this advice for myself and others who may need to hear this. I recently watched a video on coping with uncertainty and a statement made right at the end was extremely thought provoking. We all need goals. We all have dreams that we want to pursue and actualize. But it's important that your dream does not become the weight of expectation that holds you back or the shroud that hides the present from your sight. Life is not about the dream job you want to get. Or that dream car you want to buy. Or that dream of building a business that allows you to retire by the time you're 35. Life is so much more than that. Don't let your goals make you lose sight of the things that matter such as looking after your physical and mental health, spending quality time with loved ones and fostering positive relationships with friends and family. A friend of mine recently messaged me about how he's been deliberately cultivating himself to be more optmistic. It made me realize that I was spending more time being negative than positive. The weight of our own expectations can lead us down a negative spiral. Afterall, if you always compare yourself to others, nothing you do will ever satisfy you and thus all your work will always be futile and will only serve to feed into your negativity. Be optimistic. I feel optimism comes hand in hand with gratefulness. There's a lot you've been blessed with. You can spend a few minutes a day writing it down and you'll never run out of things to be grateful for. Focus your mind on what you have, not what you don't, and with gratitude you'll find yourself feeling better. A pro tip to feel better. Smile even if you don't feel like it. The physical act of smiling actually makes you feel better even when you're not feeling too positive. "Engineering is about making good tradeoffs. Life isn't so different." We all have different priorities in life. Every decision we make comes with an opportunity cost associated with it. The decisions we make lead us down different paths. Our path is unique to us as we each have unique strengths, weaknesses and situations. There is no wrong path as long as we strive to be good, do good and better ourselves every step of the way. After all, all paths lead to a single destination. It's up to us to decide what we want to take with us, what we want to leave behind, and who we want to be when we get there. We all need goals and we all need to work towards it, whatever it may be. While doing so, it's important to accept our limitations, and not weigh ourselves down with expectations, our own or otherwise. Don't let life pass you by. Every moment is precious. So give it the treatment it deserves. Be mindful. Be deliberate.

Career

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