Ebbs and Flows
Hey!
Welcome back to another week of musings.
Last day of June, and this week we have a short week in the US, as it's the Fourth of July this Friday.
I hope you had a restorative weekend!
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Things I discovered in the past week
- For a couple of weeks, I've been reading about MCP servers, and this post, although not specifically about them, discusses a more general idea of how MCP servers can be utilized for other communication problems.
- Also, OWASP released its AI Testing Guide, aimed at assisting organizations in the systematic testing and security of artificial intelligence systems
I've been walking daily for a few months now, it's a practice I've been forcing myself to do as a ritual to start and end the working day, as I work from home, and having something that signals the start and end of a working day helps with creating a separation of both.
While not exactly a high-intensity activity, it has helped me gain a deeper understanding of myself and make progress through my audiobook reading list.
One of the things I've become better at understanding is the ebbs and flows of work and life in general.
Shiny New Object
When I try to rush my walks because I want to end early, my body tells me to take it easy. At other times, I'm moving very slowly, but I'm going up a hill, and trying to increase my speed might cause me harm.
Recently, given the interest from peers and mentees, I have started watching the LLM space more closely. Sometimes it feels like a solution to a problem we don't have, and sometimes it feels like it would magically solve all of our problems.
While not exactly easy to start with, I suddenly felt a rush to try and deliver a solution, spending some afternoons trying to craft the perfect solution for business problems I found while consulting with product managers and the marketing team.
At the same time, I was trying to deliver all the other priorities I had and keep everything afloat. It was one of those situations where you have to keep all plates spinning.
Eventually, I felt drained and had to take a break.
Taking a Pause
After a break, we may be eager to return to the same task. But what I told myself was that nobody was expecting the solution, so delaying it by a couple of weeks would still work, while not burning myself out.
The other aspect was that once I had spent the initial days understanding why we needed a solution and what it looked like, I could delegate parts of the execution. So I had more people invested and helping out with delivering the solution.
Pauses can help re-center ourselves, clarify what we're trying to achieve, why, and determine our next steps without the tunnel vision of a shiny new object.
Going with the flow
At other times, you have to take the ride, letting it take you at its own pace.
There may be urgent issues that leadership wants to address, or "moon shots" that the company is interested in delivering. Other times, we're just fixing bugs and keeping the lights on.
Either way, you might be thrown into the flow, and you have to swim to keep up. Sadly, that's also one of the aspects of corporate life.
Your turn!
Have you ever felt the rush to deliver something novel while trying to keep up with all your existing responsibilities? Perhaps you're always good at prioritization. Let me know your thoughts by replying to this email!
Happy coding!
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