# The Engineer’s Logs - #1

> **Every engineer has two journeys:**  
> One is the work we ship.  
> The other is the growth we quietly build behind the scenes.

*The Engineer’s Logs* is my attempt to capture that second journey.

*These notes and logs are rough and candid, meant for me to revisit over time. But I figured—why not share them here too!*

# 🔎 **This Week’s (Tech and other) Musings**

## 🎧 **What I Consumed**

* [This Week In Tech](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/never-lick-a-badger-twice-selling-chrome-modular/id73329404?i=1000705217980) brought up something interesting about Mark - Is Zuckerberg bitter about Instagram’s success over Facebook, his own product?
    
* Is Google going to lose Chrome… to OpenAI??
    
* Do we *really* need a foldable iPhone? My battery still hasn’t forgiven Apple for killing the audio jack.
    
* [Eyeball scanning tech](https://www.cnbctv18.com/technology/sam-altman-backed-startup-rolls-out-eyeball-scanning-tech-across-us-19597393.htm) - are we really ready for this from a privacy standpoint? Not exactly fun to risk my biometric data ending up on the Dark Web.
    
* [Ben Kuhn from Anthropic](https://readwise.io/reader/shared/01jsxbn3rntd1wkvkaja7v2dgs) talks about intentional high **Agency** and good **Taste**, and how these two superpowers combined produce a big impact-per-hour multiplier.
    
* Jean Lee, Whatsapp’s 19th engineer talks about likeability and credibility being two underrated assets that can go a long way together. She also talks about finding fulfilment at work. Kinda boils down to understanding **why** you do what you do everyday.
    
* Bye bye, GPT-4. You had a good run.
    

## 🎧 **What I Learnt**

* Started understanding more about AWS cloud (coming from an Azure background).
    
* Started with **Alex Chiou’s** talks on maximising your productivity as a software engineer on Taro.
    
    * Learnt a lot of interesting things that I can practically use in my day to day work planning and prioritisation. One of the things he introduced is the **Impact Time matrix** where you assign the highest points to the work with the highest impact and the lowest time.
        
    * The other thing he mentioned is surrounding yourself with people that you do not want to let down. Essentially, he highlights the **effectiveness of social pressure over work pressure**. I am a huge believer in this and want to surround myself with good people that I enjoy working with. He also brought up going into office and virtual co-working as being effective methods of daily motivation and accountability.