iván loire

Ya he votado

Sat, 25 Jun 2016 06:15:43 +0200

Ayer voté. Lo hice en la Embajada Española en Sydney.

Voté lo que voté principalmente por una razón: Mi hija quiere volver a España y creo que ella (y su generación) merecen un país que merezca más la pena, un país que esté a su altura.

1. Razones objetivas de mi voto:

Quiero que limpiemos la podredumbre de un sistema viejo que se ha demostrado desfasado, obsoleto y corrupto. Las consecuencias de la corrupción superan en magnitud y gravedad al “mero” dinero desviado (que sí, se podría haber invertido en educación, sanidad, innovación, etc..). Tienen también consecuencias gravísimas en cuanto afectan a nuestra evolución como país a medio y largo plazo: nuestra estrategia como país. Ejemplos: adopción de decisiones ruinosas para beneficiar intereses privados (léase acuerdos energéticos, ventas a fondos buitre, tratos preferentes a la banca, etc), falta de competencia real entre las empresas, frustración moral de la población, desinterés de inversión extranjera, deseo de abandonar el país por parte de la población joven más preparada, etc.

Si aspiramos a un MVP (minimum viable product) en materia de calidad política, quiero líderes en ministerios de industria, energía, educación, i+D que sepan al menos encender un iPad y que hagan algo más esperar a ver que pasa y encomendar a la virgen nuestro futuro.
Lo que vamos a vivir en los próximos años es una revolución sin precedentes en la industria del conocimiento (coches eléctricos que se conducen solos, la revolución de la “sharing economy”, herramientas que propician el tele-trabajo como normal general (con sus consecuencias en cuanto a la libre deslocalización de empresas y trabajadores), robots, bots, IA, “software everywhere”, “colonización de Marte WTF!!” y no estamos cogiendo posiciones. En realidad, parece que ni siquiera sabemos por donde nos da el aire.
Entiendo que España querrá competir en la liga de disruptores y no hacer competencia a China en precio de mano de obra, no?

Quiero que los argumentos de nuestros representantes en negociaciones internacionales transciendan el “que difficult es todo esto”. No quiero que los otros líderes vean nuestros representantes como mascotas simpáticas y dóciles en la mesa de negociaciones. No quiero que Obama negocie con el traductor del presidente de mi gobierno. Quiero que éste último se entere de lo que le dicen en las reuniones informales durante tratados internacionales, en los pasillos, donde también se establecen lazos y solidifican relaciones.

Quiero que se incentiven energías renovables. Quiero vivir en una casa pasiva sin hipoteca energética. No quiero tener que poseer un coche, pero si necesito uno quiero que sea un EV que balancee de manera inteligente acumulación de carga con la batería/paneles solares de mi vivienda, y con el grid con mis vecinos cuando ellos están fuera (todavía tardaremos un poco en llegar allí, pero algún día habrá que empezar a moverse). Si tan solo nuestro país tuviese bastante sol… WAIT!

Quiero eliminar todas las puertas giratorias, la gran herramienta velada de corrupción. Los partidos que no están a favor de erradicarlas completamente no es que digan algo… lo dicen TODO.

Quiero más inversiones en sanidad, educación y dependencia, especialmente para la gente que tuvo menos suerte y/o oportunidades que yo.

Quiero un equipo de gobierno que invierta su tiempo y energía en hacer que las cosas funcionen en lugar de en tapar sus chanchullos.
Cuando tienes tantas fugas de agua que tapar entiendo que no se puede a la vez centrarse en dirigir el barco. Quiero que se hagan auditorías. Hay que sentar claros precedentes para que robar dinero público no salga más a cuenta.

Quiero más herramientas de participación ciudadana.

Quiero partidos cuyos representantes hagan declaración de bienes y firmen compromisos de renuncia inmediata ante imputaciones o escándalos.

Quiero partidos que no tengan deudas millonarias con la banca ni le deban favores.

2. Razones más viscerales, que pueden estar condicionadas por mi “unconscious bias” y que pongo en menor peso relativo por esa razón:

Quiero líderes que no me den vergüenza ajena.

Quiero líderes y gobiernos que me recuerden los valores de mi empresa y compañeros de trabajo (”Open Company, no Bullshit”, “Be the Change you Seek, Play as a Team, etc), en lugar de recordarme las estructuras feudales y de vasallaje de la edad media, los años de Al Capone, o las películas españolas de los 60.

No quiero partidos que utilicen (chavacanamente además) el miedo como estrategia ante la falta de argumentos y hechos. Recordáis cómo había que temer a Manuela Carmena y Ada Colau por que iban a dejar Madrid y Barcelona cual descampados yermos tomado por soviets venezolanos o algo así?

En todo caso, mi apoyo al partido que he elegido es puntual y estratégico (no soy un hincha de fútbol) y estoy dispuesto no solamente a cambiarlo en el futuro, sino a ser vigilante y muy crítico durante toda la legislatura si acceden al gobierno.

Suerte mañana con tu elección cualquiera que sea, la vamos a necesitar!

Can anything predict the market?

Sat, 10 May 2014 01:21:59 +0200

Let me tell you a story: two to the power of 10 is 1,024. One way to predict the market is to call up 1,024 trading places and tell half of them by week’s end the market will be up and the other half that the market will be down. At the end of the week, forget about the half that knows you were wrong. Keep doing that for 10 weeks and, at the end, you will have called the market correctly for one person who will think you are a genius.

source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-math-beat-financial-markets/

2013

Wed, 01 Jan 2014 14:38:00 +0100

While I am sitting in a bus stop waiting for the 610X (it is taking longer than expected), I’m thinking this is a good chance to start writing a 2013 retro blog post mainly for three reasons:

I want/need to practice my written English skills.
I want to try to write at least one blog post per year. :D
2013 was awesome, and it is a fantastic starting point for future retrospectives.

2013:

I moved to Australia in the end of 2012 (mid Oct), to work for Atlassian.

good:

working in one of the best companies in the world. One that has true, honest values and creates awesome products.
working in a product oriented environment.
winning 1st prize, founder prize and PM prize in three different Shipits during my first year in the company :-D
meeting awesome people.
office pushups
Australia is an amazing country. Australians make it so. There is plenty of nature and wild life. Excellent beaches and sunny weather almost the whole year.
watching my daughter becoming a native English speaker (starting with zero proficiency) in a few months.
not being self-employed anymore, so I can enjoy life after 5pm, on the weekends, and have a proper stress-free vacation period.
spending a lot of time working with maven (ops sorry, I think this might be in the wrong category)
discovering bikram
pair programming FTW

bad:

travelling back home sucks (in terms of time, money and energy).
Australia is really expensive.
dealing with homesick.
watching remotely Spain going down the toilet.
missing a bit working in different projects and building/prototyping with nodejs.
my triathlon wet suit and bike clothes are buried at the bottom of the drawer.

what I’ve learned (or confirmed):

in our profession, it is difficult to spot good professionals until you have the chance to work with them for a while. It gets more and more clear to me that common sense(*) and ability to solve (the right) problems is far much more important than knowing programming languages, frameworks, how hoisting works in try/catch statements in different browsers or JVM memory management specifics.
Agile is not that much about Scrum, Kanban or manifestos as it is about that common sense applied to the fast paced, changing environment as it is software development: Set your business goals (those with highest ROI come first) and start working towards reaching them maintaining frequent communication to detect new risks and opportunities, and then quickly change to adapt to the new scenario.
in our industry, we have not clue of what we are doing
it is amazing to work in a humble team with no egos to have to worry about :D
que en todas partes cuecen habas, co.

what is still puzzling me:

delivering fast and good enough.
decreasing opportunity cost by picking the right battles.
improving my english skills to feel more comfortable debating with smart people who are English native speakers.

2014 resolutions:

haha… I don’t want to lie to you man.

(*) Common sense: Common sense is a basic ability to perceive, understand, and judge things which is shared by nearly all people, and can be reasonably expected of nearly all people without any need for debate - wikipedia

Edited:

2/01/2014: added pair programming FTW to good things

What I learned about computer ergonomics..

Tue, 07 May 2013 15:32:00 +0200

.. that I wish someone would have told me before.

I have been working with a desk for many years, probably like you.

I am quite concerned about my health - you are probably too, since you are reading this - and I can say I have read a lot about ergonomics and tried many things to run away from death.

(well, I haven’t tried this one yet)

This is what I have learned:

Your body can take a lot, until it can’t.

Sitting in front of a computer for 8-12h per day is one of the worst things you can do to yourself. Enjoy the reading.
Practising sports regularly helps, but it is not enough.
Software development requires such degree of focus, that you don’t actually realize of how much time you have been sitting.. or how much your body is yelling for a break.
You are not going to be in your twenties or thirties forever (sorry I’m the one telling you this)
Your back probably hurts sometimes doesn’t it? It is going to get worse.

No excuses for not investing in ergonomics

An adjustable desk (let’s not talk about standing yet) is about 500-700 USD (cheaper if you get a manual one)
If you take good care of it, it is going to last for 5-10 years (or almost your entire life, if you get a manual one)
That’s about 70 USD/year. That’s about 6 USD/month. Around 0.3 USD/day. If you also invest in a good chair, it is another 0.3 USD/day.
If you are a computer professional and you can not afford a 0.6 USD/day investment in an environment that will make your life much better, make you much more productive, and prevent long term injuries [ .. .. .. ] (fill in the blanks)

Get a standing desk even if you don’t like standing

We people are unique
Don’t you adjust the seat and wheel when you get into your friend’s car that is just 10cm taller than you?
Would you drive for 8 hours a day, everyday, with that car without adjusting it to your size first? Can you imagine taxi drivers driving one-size-fits-all cars all day?
Seen people 165cm tall working in the same desk as 200cm tall people really hurts my soul.

Would you put these three guys to work on the same desk?

This is actually a picture of two desks belonging to two different programmers in sitting position. Again, in sitting position!

Home made standing desks are good for a standing test, but not permanently

Why?

You need to adjust your standing desk to the exact position where your upper body is relaxed…
… and that exact position changes whenever you work barefoot, with shoes, sport shoes, with or without your anti fatigue mat, etc..
One centimeter is the difference between a good position and neck/back pain.
Obviously, these desks don’t allow you to switch to sitting position quickly and easily.
Is money a problem? Are you going to be in one of those for the next 10 years to save 0.3 USD/day? Save one coffe or two per week instead.

Switch between standing and sitting positions often

Sedentary body == dead body (you have already checked the links haven’t you?)

There are several toys you can use to exercise while standing

Some people are using treadmills standing desks, but this may be too much :)

Get an anti fatigue mat.

It would reduce up to 50% your body fatigue and lower body pressure.
They are cheap.
They are completely worth it, specially if you have a hard floor at your office.

Get the best chair if you don’t like standing. Get a nice one if you do.

You can get an Aeron, and that’s definitely a really good chair.

You can as well alternate sitting short periods of time on things like this:

or this:

.. not for long sessions though.

Move! - yes, in the office!

When I was working in Brazil, the company I worked for had a health policy that included two series of daily exercises (a 5 minutes break in the morning and another one in the afternoon). It is amazing how you suddenly felt much better after that micro pause (I think it has to do with blood circulation and muscle stretch). Do it. It is FREE. It is QUICK, and you can do it ANYWHERE, ANYTIME.

In the awesome company I work for now, we also have two daily breaks. In the morning we do push ups. In the afternoon we do planks. This is one of the daily push ups sessions:

We are so serious about this that we even built a fitness widget (David did) for our wallboards that triggers a voice message and some random motivational music on both the pushups and planks sessions.

This “virtual sergeant”, also send us a hipchat message 1 minute before starting the push ups session.

Stretch!

Bikram Yoga is one of the best things that happen to me recently. It completely changed the way I work and feel daily - and I am not the only one in the office that feels the same (ask @albertodpl about it)

I know that you heard about this before, “I know yoga is good, bla bla bla..”. I was sceptic too, until I did the 10 day trial.

If you have a Bikram school near you, give it a try. Please share your experience if you like it :)

Other alternatives

Sitting while standing?

The concept is interesting.. check the video.

(thanks @SebaSj for the link)

Conclusions

This is the list of things I wish someone would have shared with me 10 years ago, so I wouldn’t have to learn them “the hard way”. Feel free to ignore them, or make good use of them. And if they work for you, please spread them.

This is the standing desk (plus anti fatigue mat) I bought 2 years ago, when I was working on my own business. One of the best investments I made.

If you own your own business, investing in ergonomics is up to you, and IMHO you definitely should.

If you work for a company, put attention to your employer when he gives you the reasons why he will or won’t provide this environment for you. He is giving you really accurate information about how much you and your health is worth for your company (more or less than 0.6USD/day?). And if you are really really lucky and work for an amazing company, it may provide you with those without you having to request them.

have a nice standing! namaste!

Brasil da vértigo

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 15:38:00 +0100

Contexto económico

Brasil ha aumentado en los últimos años su clase media en unos 30 millones de personas. 30 millones de personas que han pasado de de ser supervivientes a consumidores.

Brasil ha crecido en 2010 casi un 10% y tiene una expectativa de mantener ese crecimiento en los próximos años.

La moneda local (el Real) se ha valorizado tanto que esta nueva clase media ahora tiene la posibilidad de viajar al extranjero (un obrero que cobraba hace 4 años 500 EUR ahora puede llegar a cobrar 2000 EUR, debido a la revalorización de la moneda, a la inflacción acumulada y la explosión de crecimiento)

El valor de los inmuebles se ha duplicado en los últimos 4 años, recordando nuestra burbuja española.

El indicador de riesgo se ha reducido a la mitad, así como la morosidad. El país acoge mano de obra extranjera como nunca.

Brasil en este momento no tiene personal cualificado para mantener su nivel de crecimiento. El país necesita desesperadamente albañiles, conductores, ingenieros, ejecutivos…

Esta necesidad ha hecho que el mercado de trabajo se haya revolucionado, que profesionales brillantes salten de empresa en empresa por ofertas de multinacionales que simplemente doblan el salario anterior. Las empresas han tenido que despertar y lanzar atrevidas políticas de retención.

Traducido: Casa nueva, coche gratis, mayores salarios, bonus generosos, viajes a Disney, desayuno con el jefe. Vale todo para fidelizar a los empleados en la era del empleo

En algunos casos se ofrece hasta inmueble a los empleados que continuen en la empresa por un determinado período, en el que la empresa considera que su fidelidad habrá amortizado el mismo.

Se están pagando salarios que doblan los ofrecidos 3 años atrás.

Desempleados jóvenes titulados españoles.. no os gustaría pasar un par de años en el país del sol perpetuo, samba y caipiriña, cobrando el doble que en España, y mejorando vuestro CV?