Collect a minimum dataset, I urged. Final spec: a form with 135 data fields. And you ask why I’ve lost my mind. But fear not: here I am at 10pm on Friday evening, still plugging away. Indeed, I will be doing so all weekend to make up for the brain freeze in working hours. Even …
Still staring at that wall of code, egging it on to arrange itself. I gather some people call this a wall of awful. Sounds apt, for it towers above me. Every time I tell myself I’m going to focus now, it lasts about five minutes, and then I’m googling explanations for the state of my …
We can fix a broken window, broken furniture, broken crockery, broken tech. It’s not so easy to fix a broken heart. Who knows if that will ever now mend?
I think part of my problem is that I fall into a hole, forced to silently focus on tasks that are much beneath me. Every now and then, I’m consulted by others on what is my expertise, and suddenly I remember my worth. Listening to myself, I realise, actually, I do know my stuff, and …
Feels like Christmas: I’ve been gifted a brand-new box of teabags. Small pleasures.
I tend not to have spiritual dreams. But on the verge of nearly every major test, I have had perturbing dreams that seemed to foreshadow all that was to come. Alas, I had one of those dreams not long ago. To my horror, it seems it is all now coming to pass. Audhubillah.
I’m suffering from another mood crash today. Nothing serious. Just the standard, “I’m a failure.” I know what’s brought it on. A complete lack of productivity at work. The inability to deliver on my promises. An unfinished job hanging over me. But it led me to ponder on the career successes of all I knew …
Does kindness beget kindness? Not necessarily. Indeed, rarely so. I once thought that if I treated people with kindness, they would respond in kind. But life has taught me otherwise. Why persist in kindness then? A reasonable question. My view: because it’s the right thing to do. Because kindness beautifies an action. How others choose to …
No point forwarding me some controversy dominating Muslim social media. I don’t follow any of that stuff. Raising a family occupies me. Hard enough parenting two kids, let alone worrying about a diverse transnational community of two billion souls. I know that makes me a terribly compromised believer, but this was the lone diminishing sphere …
Everyone knows I’m a writer, not a speaker. Everyone. “If you can’t make yourself understood,” says my beloved, “write to him.” Yes, so even our kids get letters from me now. No great surprise. I even make my duas in writing.
One thing I’ve learned in life is that you should never judge another until you’ve walked in their shoes. Before we had children, I said many noble things about raising a family. But they were all founded on complete ignorance and informed by naïve idealism. I judged men in unimaginably hard situations for walking out …
Today, I set my status to Do not disturb. I set up an automatic reply to explain I am focusing on a delivery this week. I even announced my intentions on the team chat. But it didn’t make any difference. All day long, my colleagues still pinged me and flooded my inbox, seeking guidance on …
I never finish anything, impulsively jumping from one thing to another instead. It’s hard to deal with this head of mine. So much noise.
Somebody should talk to HR to see if “competence” can be made a mandatory prerequisite for employment.
I read back to myself some of what I’ve written and think to myself, “Actually, this is pretty good.” Then I turn a page and read another passage, and I’m shaking my head. “This is just crap.” On balance, the bad outweighs the good — but I no longer have the inclination to polish a …
