Before February ended, I wanted to make sure I committed to my one blog per month resolution.
As for family updates, my grand parents (Ethan and Dexter’s great grand parents) visited from Korea. Naturally we had to visit the happiest place on earth(Disneyland) and sure enough there were smiles all day. My grand parents are doing super well, but it does remind me that I should put forth the energy to learn Korean so that I could thank them for giving me the best mommy ever.
As for work life at Google, I can happily report that this company is truly incredible and well worth fighting so hard to get in. It has been tough going from a lead role to being focused on narrower scopes of work. However, I’m embracing the opportunity to enjoy how relaxing the work is. Code is generally very straight forward. It either works or it doesn’t and if it doesn’t you can go to the root cause of why. People on the other hand are very different. Sometimes we don’t even know in our own minds what the root causes of our actions are and thus it’s arguably more challenging to solve any issues that arise.
Recently I had a conversation with some team mates and it’s intriguing to me that no amount of perks makes everyone happy. Being on the other side of the fence trying to make people happy, I understand how difficult it is to raise morale, keep team members happy and excited about their roles. Sitting back on the receiving end, I am just soaking up how happy people are trying to make me. However, I see others who aren’t as excited about the off-sites, the free food, the massage chairs, the gym and other countless perks. Some people would just prefer more money or more time away. Even though Google already pays the top rates and offers great time-away packages, apparently it’s just not enough for some.
I often thought experience offered people answers of drive and motivation. Hearing many reasons of why peers still want more, I sometimes feel that if others experienced environments that weren’t as amazing then they’d be just as happy as I am. Only, I discover that others have had experiences similar to mine and are still not content as I am.
There appears to be no magical one-stop solution for motivating people and making them happy because we’re all so different. I hope that one day I do find a great strategy to make most people happy, but I’m a long ways from it. In the end, maybe I am the oddity, but I’m happy to be happy and I wish that for others.
Keep on keeping on!