Steam (or the lack of it)

the ups and downs of the expat.

The trip has caught up with me. I am bickering with the product design team, we are in the middle of a tough feature, and I am pretty tired. I am worried about my house. I haven't flirted with any female really since I left Boulder and I frankly am starting to need the attention. My stomach is kind of achy and has been since I arrived here.

On the other hand, I had a great design session with the fairly difficult things that we have to do next week. Not a lot of work, but I want everyone to understand the theory and reason behind the design. The theory is abstract, it is different than what they are used to because it is nothing that you would come to if you spent your life in c++ or c#.

I tried to move from low level description of a single instance of the issue, to how this overall pattern is reflected throughout the system. From there I talked about different languages and how they implement various features around this area. Then the team lead from Singapore brought the discussions back down with specific implementation questions (most of which I couldn't answer with anything but very general statements).

Anyway, I then wandered around and spoke about various different things and tried to get a feel of how the team understood the bigger picture. I had about 65% success rate. Wandering around, I also got to explain two of my favorite concepts (closures and currying) to a team member who was struggling a bit with where we had used those concepts.

Justin and I then went to a hotel downtown and took part in a very intro Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class. We had a good time rolling around, and it felt good because we were by a long shot at the top of the class. I almost tapped the instructor; if my side control defense was better I certainly would have. In general, it is probably better that I did not; he needs more students and it would be more productive to go into his class pumped and really work with people. But it was the first class and I was rockin'.

Next day I start on the most abstract stuff and don't really say much, other than I continue a bickering session with the product design team. Its somewhat just frustration, but I really want them to think about simpler design so that I can make things a little easier for a bit.

I can't tell what progress I am making or what is going on. I need to work on teaching to fish a little more, because I need to get back to Boulder at some point.

Right now I just feel tired, frustrated, and I am not sure the direction things are going.
Chris