Habits

Yesterday I accepted an offer to be a software engineer at Netflix. Rather than write up a story of my whole “incredible journey”, I’d like to share a few habits that I think helped me. This is written for my future self more than anyone else. For context, I had decided to go back to being a software engineer after failing at founding a startup. I was unemployed while preparing. My completion rate of these habits was 10-80% (yes, a huge range). ### Go for a short walk very first thing in the morning I read some hacker news comment (that I haven’t been able to find) about someone else who would go for a short walk first thing in the morning. They didn’t want the first thing they did to be sitting and the first thing they looked at to be a screen. For some reason, I tried it and I found it to be a great way to start the day. Use the bathroom, throw on yesterdays clothes, walk out the door. I’d say some important things out loud (more on that later) then walk and think, then maybe listen to a Ram Das lecture. Walks ranged from 2 minutes to 40 minutes. I found this habit a really low effort way to make the start of my day better. Mostly it’s nice to get anything in before getting sucked into a computer. I was in Mexico and weather was almost never an issue. ### Say important things out loud each morning Most days (I’m bad at being perfect) I’d say how I intended to meet the day, my goal, three things I was grateful for, and how I want to be with my partner. Only the gratitude list changed, everything else is constant. I think mantras like these are more powerful when you live them instead of share them, so I won’t go into details except on the goal. I’d say “My goal is to get a job as a software engineer making $250k by June 30th.” I had the last interview on June 30th and got the offer on July 8th. I exceeded the salary goal. Wouldn’t be software engineering if I didn’t miss the delivery date! ### Do 2 hours of core work after the walk If there’s any habit I want to be sure to keep, it’s this one. My idea of “core work” is the most basic, distinguishing function of your job. It’s also important that it’s creating instead of consuming. I’m a software engineer, so that’s writing code. From about 7am to 9am I’d write code. It’s really nice to start the day with a few hours of the real thing before a bunch of bullshit creeps in. It’s amazing how much nonwork creeps into working life even when you’re unemployed. If you’re wondering what your core work is, there’s a good chance it’s some form of writing. ### Use more single-purpose electronics to reduce phone usage Specifically, I made better use of my Apple Watch (audiobooks in the morning) and Kindle (reading at night). Computers and phones are attention sucking black holes. Maybe more neutrally, they’re incredibly powerful machines. It is not a good thing to have a box of endless novelty in my hands when trying to read a book. ### Read important things many times I think I have above-average reading comprehension. I scored very well as a kid on standardized tests and it hasn’t gotten any worse. I’m not trying to brag, just make it clear I’m not trying to make up for a reading deficiency. I’ve started reading import things many times. I read it a few times immediately, then revisit it again over time. It is amazing the new things I find in things I’ve already read. A coding problem description I might read 2-4 times. The ad for the job I ended up getting I read around 10 times. The five point summary of the Netflix culture deck I read at least 50 times. ### Think of how you’ll win, think of how you’ll not lose My two step strategy for passing the interview: 1. Win. 2. Don’t lose. It’s sounds obvious, but the split was very helpful. I’d imagine “Where can I blow them away? Where can I really win?” For me, that was coding in Python. So I wanted to make sure to create and exploit situations to show that off. I wanted them to have some really positive things to say in the debrief. Then the other side was “How would I blow it?” There are some mistakes that can really outweigh the positives and sink you. I knew for Netflix that was not knowing the culture. Some others for me were sucking at SQL and not having good answers for some work history questions. So, I strengthened in these areas and didn’t lose. These things aren’t going to be yours, but just some examples to find your own. ### Rehearse Let’s say that you get a description of your interview schedule. One of the interview topics is “how you handle interpersonal conflict”. You could just read that and go “uh-huh” but another move is to like actually prepare. How about answering the question out loud “How do you handle interpersonal conflict?” then answer it again a different way. Then again the same way. Then think of more questions. “What’s a time you handled interpersonal conflict and it went well? And it didn’t go well?” There are really only so many questions about interpersonal conflict that an interviewer is going to ask you. Maybe like 8. And if you’ve practiced 8 and they ask you a 9th, you’ll probably be fine. I did this for a few dozen topics. It’s a lot of work, but I found it to be easy work. Another version (related to not-losing) is to think of all the questions I’d feel dumb not knowing the answer to, and then get an answer ready. I also practiced out loud with my girlfriend and using interview.io. I think many people believe that you need to interview with a few companies to get warmed up before going for the companies you really want. Maybe if you’re a new grad and you really don’t know what’s going on. Otherwise, that is a very inefficient way to rehearse. ### Meet with a project manager weekly Life coaches are expensive and creep me out. I found meeting with a project manager to talk about all the ongoing to projects in my life for just 30 minutes is extremely helpful. I found someone on Upwork who lives in Colombia, speaks perfect English and is very affordable. ### Spend 30 minutes each day doing my oldest tasks I use Todoist, and wrote a script that grabs my oldest tasks one a time. At the same time each day, I’d spend 30 minutes just taking the tasks in order of oldest first. If I couldn’t do it in that moment (maybe it’s taking something somewhere) I’d try to move it forward somehow (put the object near the door). The oldest task isn’t usually the most important. But by the time a task is the oldest, it means I’m avoiding it. ### Focus My job application funnel was one cold email, one interview loop, one offer. I’d rather come in first place for one job than second place for a hundred. I couldn’t have done the prep I did for Netflix for even five companies at the same time. Some companies lowball and you need competing offers. ### Do a shutdown ritual Look at all the tasks I completed today. Look at all open tasks. Look at my schedule for the next two weeks. Say “that’s enough for today” out loud. Then do something besides work or study the rest of the day. ### Put my phone and laptop away Each day (ok probably like half or less) I’d have a notification go off to put my phone and laptop away. I left them charging in a closet. It made getting them out in the morning more purposeful, too. I still had my kindle for books. ### Actually try some of the things I read about Sort of a meta comment, but it’s so easy to just consume productivity porn. There’s a bunch of things on this list and they’re pretty different from each other. The odds that none of them would be helpful to you seem pretty low. So maybe read it again (ha!) and see if there’s anything you should try for a bit.