A Linchpin's Journey

Below are my additional thoughts regarding  Seth Godin's recent post . Image from  https://wowpedia.fandom.com/ If you loved video games and were born in the 90s, you likely have come across the grunt from  Warcraft . Unless you're an orc or a warrior, you may not find this character relatable. But the term  grunt  is actually what a lot of people in the workplace are. Just look at the last definition below: Yup, low-ranking. This could define what some people can only do, or how far they could go. So some people go quiet quitting, or doing only what their paid to do -- the bare minimum. But believing that spells out their own doom. I am actually low-ranking too. I'm just a support rep, hence, I am expected to do  grunt work , or menial tasks -- calling customers, investigating cases or tickets, and so on. Neither have I ever been promoted in my entire career as well. But my low-rank doesn't prevent me from doing amazing things. In fact, if you're a gr...

When using NetSuite online forms with HTML templates, you can add standard dropdown fields. Sometimes standard dropdown fields can contain options that you don't want included. An easy workaround for this, is to use the script tag in the HTML of your template to remove those options. The following example shows how to remove some states from the state field. Since selectedIndex represents the rank or order number an option is from a dropdown, every line that deletes, changes the selectedIndex of the succeeding lines appropriately. <script>   document.getElementById("state").remove(document.getElementById("state").selectedIndex = "5");   document.getElementById("state").remove(document.getElementById("state").selectedIndex = "5");   document.getElementById("state").remove(document.getElementById("state").selectedIndex = "5");   document.getElementById("state").remove(document.ge...

This post is not going to be a wisdom post or a NetSuite post. Nor is it a post about data tables or spreadsheets. I don't usually publish posts like this, but this week I just wanted to share one of my interests. I've been into smart furniture for a while now: from smart mirrors to smart coffee tables (tables where you can play games with friends who come over). I've also been interested in how people DIY their own smart tables. If a simple and clean setup is all you need, check out this video from Linus Tech Tips. This is probably the most practical of the three. A very minimalist and futuristic design comes from Basically Homeless . It might not be very ergonomic, or practical (moving the mouse seems to be a struggle), but the effort to have the cleanest setup is laudable. Hacksmith Industries has a smart desk that's very gimmicky. It has a sensor and a unity program that makes use of leap motion (hand gesture technology). I first learned about leap motion back in c...

Before reading on, please watch this video: Here are my key takeaways: The most popular path is not always the best solution; better solutions can come from breaking the norm and creating/inventing your own path. Attacking a problem from multiple angles can provide valuable insight that can speed up processes. Angles can mean direction, or discipline. Taking diagonals is quite literally a different angle. Using vacuums is more of a physics problem than a logical one. So combine multiple disciplines when solving problems. Now how can you take these takeaways into the work? How can you make your very own Fosbury Flop in your particular field?

I never really got into telling the story of what happened after the rejection from that meeting that changed my life . I experienced not just rejection, but also mockery by a manager, after putting so much effort into a plan that makes sense. I reacted by reading Linchpin , and decided to be one. I devised another plan called Operation Hero. This would differ from the original plan, Operation Siphon (where other teams would gradually take some of our tasks weekly). Here's a brief summary of that plan: One team member would be dedicated in doing 50 solutions per week (or 10 a day), while the rest did 10 per week (or 2 per day). The number was calculated to finish everything by the end of the quarter. The assigned 'hero' is given some daily offline time, so they don't get distracted with cases and calls. The assigned 'hero' can change per week as an option. The plan was inspired from what another team did, as reported by the Knowledge Management (KM) team, and I ...