DEV Community: Emi

The amusing contrast and fond alignment between nature's & human work

Emi — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 16:17:42 +0000

Disclaimer: When I started writing this I did not intend for it to end suggesting a Singularity, but some readers might find some of it in this 🤷

This post, rather than opinion, is a minuscule meditation.

There's a certain amusing contrast between nature's and humankind's work.

When looking at them; they seem to flow in opposite directions.

The behavior of natural systems’ outer layers are simpler, or rather, more predictable than their inner layers. For example: A tree growing can be the outer layer of the photosynthesis process. Other examples of natural systems are any other living species.

Artificial systems on the other hand, start with basic & predictable principles which build complexity until they’re tangible. For example: Globally distributed computing can be the outer layer of binary state traveling over a network. Other examples or artificial systems are scissors and spoken language.

Nature's details are more complex than the phenomena it creates. Artifact details are simpler than the phenomena it creates. This contrast becomes amusing when realizing us humans are just yet another "predictable" outcome from nature's complexity:

It's as if nature's complexity is funneled through us, living beings, and we funnel our accumulated simplicity through artificial creations into complexity.

"Outer layer" in this context means the appreciable or evident side effect of a not-so-evident cause.

It's as if nature's complexity is funneled through us, living beings, and we funnel our accumulated simplicity through artificial creations into complexity. - Tweet this

Although amusing, fixing to this thinking is also rather naive; because 1.- The thesis holds only for simple machines, and:

2.- Further study of nature itself can also lead to simpler concepts. Note: I don't understand science the way a scientist does, but I know that, for what it's worth, it's possible to eventually arrive at simpler components such as elementary particles (i.e. bits of matter).

When thinking about it this way, it's possible to go from amusement to excitement and wonder:

Extrapolating the complexity of photosynthesis to the complexity of global compute opens the door to think about the emergence of something beyond compute. This nature/artifact comparison suggests the prospect of the emergence of simpler-looking yet more powerful (or rather, meaningful) phenomena. Much like going from photosynthesis to beautiful growing trees.

One can argue we already witnessed this with the advent of e-commerce, social networking and businesses technological transformation; but even now big commerce and social aggregators continue to find a way to reinvent their products. Internet is about the perpetual enmeshing and automation of processes which lead to optimization and novel phenomena.

This nature/artifact comparison suggests the prospect of the emergence of simpler-looking yet more powerful (or rather, meaningful) phenomena. - Tweet this

It goes without saying that this phenomena is yet to be discovered (or even emerge) and we take part in influencing and manifesting it into reality.

Anyways, perhaps I'm mixing things up, but can't help and appreciate the perspective; I hope it is to your entertainment as well.

'til next time

Published: 2022-02-02

Hey, about burnout...

Emi — Thu, 20 May 2021 14:30:32 +0000

^{Cover image: Photo by Kaboompics.com from Pexels}

I know, I know; we all have to go through this phase our own way; but that doesn't mean I'm not gonna try!

I want to let you know I think burnout is dumb.

Disclaimer:
This is rather personal btw; so you won't find any regurgitated charts and statistics. If you don't like that maybe you'd like to sit this article out...

We're not getting much done here. If anything, this is where I invite you to slow down and take a breath. And I will keep asking:

🌬️ 🍃 breathe 🍂

Except I actually want to suggest a thing: The Pomodoro Technique.

The Pomodoro (call me uncultured but I still don't know what's got to do with tomatoes; and it's fine! I just need the process anyways, could be avocados for all I care) Technique

Ever heard from your friend who does a lot of weight lifting that resting is as important as the actual workout? Yeah, same. That's how you solve it actually (lol); mind boggling innit?

If you don't know what this technique is, visit this.

If you're burning out, do it. Just try it and see how you feel. And reach for professional help!

On the other hand if you're not burning out, still do it! Just try it and see how you feel. You're already kicking it!

And finally, if you already do it, gimme a virtual high five 🙌

That's it. That's all the value this article has to offer, but If you're down I've got some babbling going on below 👇

Still reading? Awesome, strap in then.

🌬️ 🍃 breathe 🍂

Getting lost in the moment

You start your day, do some stuff and boom 🕛, lunch time -- "Wait what? I just started working... I must have been enjoying this!"--

After that, perhaps you did a little something and back from lunch: You start typing, do some other stuff and again, next thing you know; you see the light of the sunset dimming down.

Your productivity is up, and so are your responsibilities! because you're a performant employee now. You don't mind because it's part of growing and you're in the ~~~ groove ~~~. You're unstoppable, you're actually asking for more, yay! 🥳

This is where burnout, without noticing, can be a symptom.

Trust me, I googled it, they call it the Honeymoon Phase (I don't like the name but whatevs y'know 🤷‍♀️).

🌬️ 🍃 breathe 🍂

Diving into chaos

It's been a while since you started grinding and even though you appreciate having things to do; you also start noticing it's not slowing down. In fact, your backlog now looks like a white hole spitting out as much stuff as your space-time can possibly store.

Then you have to put a little more effort. Because... it's fun... right?
...
And when your manager asks about how you're doing you say it's fine... Because you're... performant... right?
Yeah, I figured.

And then you find yourself having lunch meanwhile you're responding an email and streaming youtube or something (idk your shenanigans, mine sure are simple and even there I still struggle!).

You stop noticing the sunset dimming down. You stop looking after yourself or others as work keeps getting a greater hold of your time, and therefore, your life.

Your productivity is still up but you've reached a ceiling: Some aspects of work are not fun anymore. You stop looking forward to jumping back into work because, well, you stopped working only 8ish hours ago (lol?).

It starts to become a burden. You no longer focus as well. You're no longer learning as fast, or worse, at all. Your solutions are not as creative and you feel like you need to put more, and more, and more effort in order to keep the same, and the same, ~~and the same~~ throughput.

🌬️ 🍃 breathe 🍂

If you've ever been there, or if you're there; I feel you.

Structuring approach and back to square one

You've acknowledged you have a problem. A problem you don't even know how to trace back. You just know it was fun first, and then, it wasn't.

You need a way out; and if you're lucky enough chances are the company you're at will back you up (bless you Software Community <3).

Cycles

CPUs do it and they are the most efficient computing instrument available; why not learn from them?

The Pomodoro (call me uncultured again but I just don't see the appeal, I like citrus fruits better) Technique

This is how my schedule looks like with Pomodoro (kind of...):

I now get the same work done and even spend time babbling about things!

So yeah, really, maybe give it a try. It's for your wellbeing.

"But Emi! You didn't tell me how burnout is dum-"

Stop it.

Cycles! Back to square one!

Alright I accept it, burnout is not dumb. Dumb the decision to be subject to it. Go back to basics: Remember how you got here in the first place? Sure it wasn't by repeated and relentlessly wearing yourself out. No! (I think?).

Most likely you learned a skill which you liked so much you wanted to keep learning. A skill you mastered so well you could earn a living out of it. This skill, in software, is the ability to give time back to people.

It's all automation from here on. Always. It's about manifesting a business process into predictable (unless machine learning and all that jazz) instructions that run in a fraction of a second. Relentlessly; the machine, not you.

Burnout is not dumb. It's a serious phenomenon. And it's taking lives away from people.

🌬️ 🍃 breathe 🍂

Dum

What's dumb is not realizing the fact sacrificing time in order to save time becomes a zero sum game when burning out.

It's also dumb that we're not honest to ourselves and don't reach out for help.

And it's specially dumb that our education systems and social safety nets are not preventing us from crashing into it.

That's what I mean when I write the equation burnout = dum.

Do you feel like I'm oversimplifying it? You're right, I am. This is how it sticks in your mind: By being fun and simple. You go from there.

This is not a draft to wipe burnout from the face of earth. It's just a (hopefully) entertaining and honest piece of text that will help you see it from a different light.

🌬️ 🍃 breathe 🍂

P.S. If you really didn't learn anything here, let's be friends?

See you next time

Authenticating GitOps with U2F keys

Emi — Sat, 15 May 2021 16:50:55 +0000

Alright let's clock in, it's 9:23 am.

I was excited last week to find out Github now supports SSH keys with FIDO or, err, Yubikeys (was it U2F keys?), anyways, here's the official post.

I can't say I am a huge advocate, however I do use the keys quite a bit for my most critical stuff.

I was introduced first to the standard by finding out about Google's Advanced Protection Program (more on that here). On the other hand and from experience, I can say it's a very promising authentication factor.

Back to business

According to Github, I just need to:

ssh-keygen -t ecdsa-sk -C <email address>

(note on the -sk there: that seems to instruct OpenSSH we're using an external key; which is cool and seamless).

Finish set up by plugging and touching the key thingie
Add my public key to github
Profit

Let's see if it's as easy as that!
Also by the way, I'm on MacOS 🤠

...

Word or warning: You need OpenSSH 8.2 or newer to do this...

Got an error: Key enrollment failed: invalid format. Gonna try plugging the key... Works!

Exporting the key to github is easy too; just follow this.

And then finally just trying to clone a random repo would confirm if that worked...

It worked!

This is so easy I am astounded. Gonna tell my friends at work.

P.S.

This can be a big deal for security

Imagine for example a company wanting to enforce SSH security protocols for users accessing their corporate networks, but then an engineer uses a weak passphrase or none at all for their key.

Compromising that single private key can turn out into a raging fire inside the company. With this, your private key never exits the physical USB drive, that's the reason it's so cool!

Anyways, clocking out; it's 10:21am and I even got a chance to take a snap of my FIDO key for the cover image. Sweet. Now back to Kingdom Hearts.

P.S. 2
^ Re Cover Picture: Bet most your friends would be scared to share a pic of their private key, hah.

See you next time.