The strikingly clear case for remote work

There is a plethora of weak CEOs, who abjectly surrendered on DEI, tariffs, and Executive Orders, but are happy to bully their employees under the guise of corporate culture.

Culture comes from values.

If the country is run by yes-men, there's no reason to believe that companies aren't. If values are driven by politics, then they become mere comments, not metrics for execution. Change in an organization is de facto driven from the top down, so it's imperative for the boardroom whisperers, the agents of change, the provocateurs and really anyone who feels the need to impact workplace policies as a proxy for directly changing society, to pose the following questions to decision-makers:

• Can you create a culture of innovation if you espouse conformity?
• Are "Human Rights" policies merely wall decor or is every contract evaluated based on the policy?
• What is truly of long term value to the shareholders - short term government contracts or being able to operate in a society run by laws?
• Do you want to leave behind a legacy or exit ignominiously?

But these are big questions. The obsequious industry titans masquerading as leaders will likely be too involved in the next quarterly update to find time to think about them. So here's a small step they can take that will trigger bigger changes:

Remote work.

• Remove all obstacles to remote work.
• Limit it within the country - this enables the company to follow all local laws around employment. An employee in Idaho must be able to work for a company in California. A contractor in Maryland should be able to work for a company in Mississippi.
• Commit to enabling remote work based long-term contracts / employment, just like one would commit to a local employee.
• Host regular in-person meetings for the remote employee to come meet with the team, even if it is at employee cost.

Here are the motivations behind it:

• Spread "knowledge work" beyond the coasts and cities
• Enable employees to buy a house and raise a family without getting into debt that comes from high home prices in dense cities

Employees can do their part to ensure that the employer not only gains value but is comfortable enabling the remote work:

• Instant availability during work hours
• Meetings on? Cameras on!
• Weekly reports on goals and accomplishments

I'd like to close with a salute to San Diego's very own Esperanza Gomez.

 

The Go language creator mindset

1. Let's take C and move the argument type to the back, because pointers to pointers are cumbersome to read. This makes the syntax of a defined array: var primes := [6] int {2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13}
2. While we're moving things to the back, let's also move the function's return arguments to the back too. That way, all those C programmers start to appreciate their dyslexia.
3. Let's have pointers, but we're all about safety, so no pointer arithmetic.
4. Since we don't have pointers to arrays, let's create slices. You update one slice and it updates all the slices of that array! But hey, no pointer arithmetic, so we're preventing programmer created bugs.
5. And we want all the goodies from a Python list, so let's make slices dynamically sized. For some reason, we still need arrays.
6. And we love Python so much, we'll add the ability to iterate over a range and have a dictionary type called map.
7. Let's rename typedef as type, because we save 3 characters and we're all about efficiency. But let's leave struct in, we're not just changing keywords for the sake of it are we? And struct members are accessed  with a dot even when the variable is a pointer to a structure. Let's add arbitrary syntax since we're just making things up a this point.
8. And let's get rid of breaks in case blocks, because we're all about efficiency.
9. While we're at it, let's introduce a "naked" return that magically returns all the named arguments. Readability guy took the day off when this was added.
10. And let's start time 0 on the day Go went open source - acknowledging the momentous day that must take precedence over UNIX's, Python's and every other major language's well established start time.
11. Let's import "import" from Python, but let's add the option to import multiple modules using a parenthesis, because ... efficiency.
12. Let's take the package concept from npm, but let's add our nifty touch to it by having a "tidy" keyword to updated dependencies.
13. Let's solve those pesky multiple returns in a function by adding a defer keyword, because readability is important, but not that important. And did the readability dude resign or something?
14. The parenthesis around for need to be DOGE'ed too - programmers can save a whole of 3 seconds per day skipping the typing. It's OK to spend a few minutes deciphering the for intent - makes you understand the code better. And while was such a burden on C programmers - let's just get rid of it. After all, what could while do that for couldn't?
15. C++ is admittedly a complex language. Let's avoid classes in Go and instead add a receiver that lets one add a method to a type. And let's make the syntax: func <pointer to receiver> <method> (<method arguments>) <return type>. See, the syntax in #1 now makes total sense. 
16. Let's have a standard function called len to get the length of an array but let's not have another standard function to convert an array to a string be called str - we'll call it string.
17. And breaking with the random logic that drives the rest of the syntax, let's constrain the receiver restricted to the same file as the method. The "pointer to receiver" part is important, without which the method behaves as a function that operates on a value and not the reference.

But Go isn't alone in creating garbage syntax. Here's some incomprehensible JS code:

net.createServer(stream => {
  stream = toPull.duplex(stream) //turn into a pull-stream
  //connect the output of the net stream to the muxrpc stream
  //and then output of the muxrpc stream to the net stream
  pull(stream, server.stream, stream)
}).listen(8080)
//connect a pair of duplex streams together.

const stream = toPull.duplex(net.connect(8080))

pull(stream, client.stream, stream)

Let's deconstruct:

First, the problems as seen by a C programmer

1. stream is used before it's defined
2. The anonymous arrow function takes one argument stream and returns a closure that uses and initializes the same argument, stream.
3. The function pull has 3 arguments out of which 2 are the same. This is reasonable - if stream is input at one spot and output at another. 

Here's why it works:

1. The function call inside createServer is a CALLBACK. It is not immediately called.
2. The listen on port 8080 starts immediately.
3. Once the client connects using toPull.duplex, the server calls the function inside createServer with stream being initialized to the server side of the connected stream.

Callbacks are the bane of programming. ISRs are perhaps the only legitimate usage for callback constructs. For all other purposes, I would recommend using OS IPC primitives for asynchronous code.

Well, we started with Go and ended up with callbacks. Clearly, I got into the Go spirit of things too deeply.

My Uncle's Magical Printer

My uncle's health and happiness was the envy of the extended family and neighbors. Growing up, I would wonder how one man could be clever, strong, funny and creative! The kids would sing the songs he'd write, the grown ups would watch the movies he was in, and on and on.

It turns out, the reason he was so happy, all the time, is that he had a magical printer at home. It printed crisp color photos and laser sharp documents like any other printer, but the real magic was when it printed green. Whenever he needed to buy something, he'd simply make up a number, print the number in green and that's it - he could use that printed sheet to buy anything in the world!

Over time, I could see that age was catching up with my uncle. He had become less dashing, his steps appeared unsure, his machismo was lost. He was softer, kinder and sadly weaker.  But now, he's passed on and I have inherited the printer. I start to examine it closely. From external appearances, the printer doesn't seem magical. It's designed by regular Americans - not just coastal elites. It needs an electrical motor, that's made in Germany. It needs ink that I get from Japan. The paper itself comes from Canada. The software is written in India. And the whole thing is assembled in China. Pretty much like any other printer I can buy from BestBuy. The exceptional thing about my printer is that I pay for all that it needs, and all that I need, with the same printed sheet that comes from my printer! That's some real magic right there.

Now you might say that such perpetual machines always turn out to be fake in the mechanical world. But this is different in a very subtle way. This printer is powered by a source that's endless. Well, it's lasted for approximately 250 years already! Sure, the printer has been abused by past generations and its power source has dimmed and flared, but so far it has all held up reasonably well.

Now you might say, "What's the catch? Why let the world on to this secret? Just let the good times roll."

Well, here's the problem, I don't feel good. People don't laugh at my jokes like they used to when my uncle cracked them, they don't ask my opinion on any movie they're making, I'm mocked and ignored all the time, ... I think that if I fix the printer, I'll restore myself to my uncle's past glory. 

Today, every time I print, I need to follow the user manual. This 4,543 word-long manual doesn't have simple steps like "insert paper in tray and hit the print button." Instead, it has complex instructions that amount to getting permission from regular people. Not directly - I talk to their reps, who're already in my pocket, but still... I have to write down exactly why I need to print, provide details of how the money will get spent, blah, blah, blah... All this due process really slows me down. Without that permission slip, somehow the magical green sheet stops working. It's as if the entire world needs to know that this pesky crowd, albeit 300 million strong, has endorsed this sheet. It's time to make changes, big changes.

First, I'm going to buy Bitcoin with the green sheets that still work. Since I don't understand money and a whole lot of people think Bitcoin is going up, it seems like a good way to diversify my holdings. Then, and this is my most genius idea, I'm going to stop swapping my magical green sheets for finished goods and material from countries around the world. I'll force them to buy goods that I make, because I make the best stuff. As for all those pesky rules about getting permission - I'm going to ignore them and let my friends take over the printer while I own it. Let's see how it goes. See you in 2028, or 2032, or never. Heh, heh.

Intel on the brink?

 It is sad to see a technological stalwart like Intel reduced to the state that it is now - directionless and hiving off parts of itself to keep either the process or the processor at its core alive. Taking a look at its board of directors, 6 of its 12 directors have been on the board for less than 5 years. Of the 5 that have been with the company long enough to be responsible for its direction, one has antecedents from VC land, two are from the medical devices field, one is a dean at Berkeley and one is from Boeing. The last one is the CEO. While they all seem distinguished on paper, let's parse through them a little bit. 

Medical devices are embedded systems - with microcontrollers, tiny memories and proprietary OSes. Such a market is best served by NXP / ST-Micro. Someone with that experience may not be the best to set the direction for high performance computing, ADAS or FPGAs. The VC guy seems to have led a tiny, nondescript SW company before joining Intel's board of directors. The Boeing guy is a finance guy and his experience should be valuable at these times, unless his time did not overlap with Alan Mullaly. The dean seems to be a great asset to provide direction to the process side of the business. Of all the directors, it seems only one - Barbara Novick appears to have exactly what the company needs. Her company (BlackRock) is one of the main investors and she's herself eminently qualified.

The rest of the board of directors' careers or income do not depend on the company's performance, so the headless meandering of Intel comes as no surprise to me. Others have written about this before [1, 2].  

I'm wondering how INTC's other institutional investor Goliaths like Vanguard, State Street Corp, etc. will handle this situation since there's no public evidence of a proxy fight. It appears as if institutional investors were hardly concerned about Intel's stock performance all these years. The HBR says [3] that only 17% of board changes happen with proxy fights (dated data), and that too when hedge funds are involved, so I think this slate of directors will be the ones driving the company aground.

One might say that a well functioning board needs to have independent directors. There's plenty of evidence available to counter that. And who has the time to make a well researched argument when all my searches will have algorithmic responses that strengthen my bias anyway.

I firmly believe that a new corporate structure for companies is needed. Here are my suggestions that still stay true to the legal requirement that the board acts in the best interests of the investors:

1. The board must be made of representatives of the key investors. Investors must commit to hold their shares for 5 years to discourage short-sales.
2. The 5 year period for major shareholders should be offset by 1 year, to emulate a bond-ladder kind of approach.
3. Market-wide events must also have repercussions in terms of a change of the board-of-directors.
4. The board must attend employee all-hands meetings and answer open-mic questions.
5. Layoffs must have consequences - at both the board of directors level and at the company executive management level. This will discourage hire-and-fire and encourage more investment in employee training.
6. An employee representative must be at every board of directors' meeting. This could be a rotating position at a certain title so that the board hears a diversity of voices.

I wish Intel all the best in its restructure efforts and hope it emerges stronger. A la https://x.com/michaelharriot, this post isn't about Intel.

 Further reading

1. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/go-hard-home-why-board-directors-need-have-skin-game-kylie-hammond/

2. https://www.reuters.com/breakingviews/european-boards-have-too-little-skin-game-2024-07-17/

3. https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2021/06/11/the-directors-guide-to-shareholder-activism

Protestors

 सलाम उन लोगों को, जिनहोने उठाई अपनी आवाज़

सड़क पर आए और नारे लगाए बिना कोई आराम

COP28 दुबई तक पहुँची लिसिप्रिय कंगूजाम

बोली बंध करो जीवाशम ईंधन, १२ वर्षीय जाँबाज ।

डरे हुए लोग

जो मूह नहीं खोल पाते, वह क्या चलाएँगे ज़बान

वह उखड़ेगा परचम, जिसने बेच दिया हो ईमान?

जो सीधे खड़े नहीं हो पाते, वह कैसे तानेंगे सीना

इन लोगों के लिए, झुकने का नाम ही है जीना

डरे हुए लोगों की आँखें मीची है मंदिर के बाहर

लड़ते रहो बे उम्र उमर, शीघ्र समाप्त हो यह ग्रीष्म लहर ।  

In my most ideal life, I'd

1. be a manager
• of a Premier League football team.
2. be a hooligan,
• a local at any one of the English football clubs, know all the songs, and travel with the team.
3. bat, chew gum and not wear a helmet,
• like Vivian Richards.
4. get cast as the youngest son. 
• Michael Corleone.
5. not be named Kuntal.
• Bond, James Bond.
6. like mushy tomatoes, 
• but only when avoiding bulls in La Tomatina in Buñol.
7. have a milk mustache
• and live on a quiet farm in the Italian Alps.
8. run
• and bike and swim like a triathlete.
9. work remotely
• on clever things on an Apple laptop.
10. fight injustice 
• by telling bullies over the phone "you'll hear from my lawyer."
11. have no quiet celebrations
• and do dandiya on every Indian festival.
12. say "kai po chhe" every Sankrant,
• when flying a kite strung with glass-covered manja.
13. be witty
• and get published in The New Yorker as a short story writer.
14. be a purveyor of fine writing instruments
• and write cursive as neatly as my dad would, with a smooth Hero fountain pen.