https://terenceponce.com/tags/musings/ Recent content in musings on Terence Ponce's Website Hugo -- gohugo.io Wed, 30 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000 https://terenceponce.com/posts/2018-05-30-premature-optimization-is-indeed-the-root-of-all-evil/ Wed, 30 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000 https://terenceponce.com/posts/2018-05-30-premature-optimization-is-indeed-the-root-of-all-evil/ This is a story of how I cycled through various technologies only to end up back where I started. I’m sure you’ve read a lot of stories about why people shouldn’t be always going for the latest and greatest technology when it comes to creating software. I did, but I realized recently that I didn’t actually learn from these stories. This whole thing started when I became part of a project that I had a stake in. https://terenceponce.com/posts/2015-06-10-things-i-learned-about-switching-jobs-frequently/ Wed, 10 Jun 2015 00:00:00 +0000 https://terenceponce.com/posts/2015-06-10-things-i-learned-about-switching-jobs-frequently/ I entered the professional world last November 2011. I’ve been working for more than 3 years already and I’ve had 4 jobs during that time span. While it looks pretty bad and intentional on paper, everything just happened coincidentally. I lasted a few months to almost a year in the jobs that I had previously, but I just got past the 2 year mark with my current job. I felt like collecting my thoughts here and make a couple of points about what I’ve learned after all that has happened: https://terenceponce.com/posts/2014-10-26-i-should-probably-listen-to-my-parents-more/ Sun, 26 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000 https://terenceponce.com/posts/2014-10-26-i-should-probably-listen-to-my-parents-more/ A few weeks ago, I applied for a variable life insurance through a friend who’s a financial agent. Well, I went through it despite my mother asking me to consult her first. She used to be an insurance agent, so she knows what’s up. I never realize how much of a mistake I was making until she pointed it out. She said I was basically screwing myself over because of my ignorance on the subject. https://terenceponce.com/posts/2012-10-05-thinking-outside-the-box/ Fri, 05 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000 https://terenceponce.com/posts/2012-10-05-thinking-outside-the-box/ One of the hardest things to do is to think outside the box. The fact that you have to completely disregard what you’ve already thought and think of something new and different than the previous one is one of the most frustrating experiences that happen frequently in a programmer’s life. Let me tell you about something that happened to me a few weeks ago. In one of my client projects, a Twitter application, the client asked me to have the application update the existing Twitter users' information every now and then, so we would have the latest info on them. https://terenceponce.com/posts/2012-05-07-doing-it-instead-of-talking-about-it/ Mon, 07 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000 https://terenceponce.com/posts/2012-05-07-doing-it-instead-of-talking-about-it/ I was browsing Reddit today when I saw this picture from this thread: This reminded me of something that has been bothering for a long time now: Almost everyone tends to talk about what they do instead of actually doing it. This is pretty common among my college friends who are also programmers on Facebook and Twitter. It’s kind of funny because even my friends are noticing this. One of them even mentioned that the first thing people do when they want to get busy is to tell other people on Facebook and Twitter that they are and then end up getting sucked in by the Internet instead. https://terenceponce.com/posts/2012-04-24-thoughts-on-being-a-501-developer/ Tue, 24 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000 https://terenceponce.com/posts/2012-04-24-thoughts-on-being-a-501-developer/ This is old news, but I’m unemployed at the moment. It’s kind of a big deal for other people since I look like I’m job-hopping, but the reasons are perfectly valid. Anyway, all I’ve been doing during the past few weeks are going to events, meeting people, and finding a job. During my quest in finding the perfect next job, I met the CEO of a local startup company here in the Philippines. https://terenceponce.com/posts/2010-09-26-it-all-makes-sense-now/ Sun, 26 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000 https://terenceponce.com/posts/2010-09-26-it-all-makes-sense-now/ I hate high school. When I was still in high school, I was always included in the list of students who got the lowest mark in almost every class that I have. I’m not saying it’s because I’m stupid. Well, maybe that reason applies to some of my classes but the main reason why I always get low grades is because I hate all most of my classes. I have a strong belief that a class should be fun first before the student will learn. https://terenceponce.com/posts/2010-09-13-dont-worry-youll-get-there-eventually/ Mon, 13 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000 https://terenceponce.com/posts/2010-09-13-dont-worry-youll-get-there-eventually/ The other day, I came across this thread on a forum that I’m lurking on. It reminded me of how I was literally asking the same question a few years ago. I’ve only been programming for a while (3 years isn’t considered long is it?). When I was still starting out, I have never been able to grasp programming for the first few months. Most of the time, I was even copying my classmate’s code just so I could have something to submit to my professor. https://terenceponce.com/posts/2010-08-24-the-more-you-know-the-less-smart-youll-think-you-are/ Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000 https://terenceponce.com/posts/2010-08-24-the-more-you-know-the-less-smart-youll-think-you-are/ A few months ago, I had a talk with my mentor. I mentioned to him how hard it is for me to learn the advanced stuff in programming. What he said made an impression on me: “Isn’t that good? Everyday, we realize that there’s still a lot of things we don’t know and we need to learn. It’s exciting!”. When he said that, I asked myself how he can be that modest even though I know that he already knows a lot when it comes to programming. https://terenceponce.com/posts/2010-08-01-why-mentors-are-important/ Sun, 01 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000 https://terenceponce.com/posts/2010-08-01-why-mentors-are-important/ If you’re enthusiastic when it comes to programming, you’ve probably taught yourself several programming languages, concepts and principles. You’re probably reading a book about programming right now. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing since exploring is a great habit when it comes to programming. I’m pretty sure no programmer will ever leave this stage in their programming endeavor since programming is a never-ending learning process. Let’s say you want to learn how to program in C++.