Grit is bad?

Grit is bad?

This is in response to an article from Aeon titled “Teaching ‘grit’ is bad for children, and bad for democracy“. After reading it, I asked myself, “Is grit really bad?”.

The article discussed the ideas behind the book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth. Citing several examples in the book, it discussed the darker side of grit. It says that grit results to people doing mean, stupid things or doing things that they should not have done. One particular example is from a football team’s chant: Continue Reading

Where did my money go?

Where did my money go?

You just received your regular paycheck. Finally, after all those weeks of hard work and not having enough sleep, you finally reaped the fruits of your labor. After a few days, you checked your bank account and most of your fresh money just disappeared. You ask yourself, “Where did my salary go?“.

This is a common occurrence nowadays. People sometimes feel like they don’t see any rewards from their work as most of their paycheck just seems to vanish every month. While we need to pay our dues and bills and our costs of living, do you honestly know where your salary is going? Continue Reading

Would your future self thank you?

Would your future self thank you?

One day I was listening to a podcast where the host interviews a businessman. At the end of the interview the host asked, “What are the things you do that make you successful?“. The businessman answered: “The reason I am successful is not because of what I do today. I owe everything to 2011 me. All his hard work, his grit, and his networking efforts paid off.“

That got me thinking: am I thankful for past me? Do my actions decades ago produce something good today? Continue Reading

Rubyist’s intro to Python web development

I have been using Ruby professionally for more than a decade now. Until recently, I haven’t explored much outside of the Ruby and Rails community. That changed however after I completed a course in Foundations of Data Science. This made me curious about Python and how to build applications using it.

Python and Ruby have many similarities. Both are interpreted, high-level programming languages. Python also has support for Object-Oriented Programming and Functional Programming. In terms of syntax, they have a similar look and feel, aside from some fundamental differences such as Python being indent-driven. Continue Reading