several key ingredients some nice cups
of unclear direction more than a single
dash of requirements that just aren’t
being met and piles of technical depth
which basically means and are not so
good good that we put in there because
it was faster than doing it the best way
now when I first started getting
immersed in programming a few years ago
in college I had this really big and
ridiculous worry I thought that at some
point I was going to become this
unfeeling machine like I could imagine
myself standing in front of these large
screens with hardly understandable text
on them like the hackers in the movies
so faced with problems on logic and cold
hard algorithms I was bound to become
completely out of touch with anything
that actually resembled actual life
concerns or feelings but if you look at
the list again you can probably see that
I wasn’t exactly right up those aren’t
problems that are just unique to
software development or to business you
know they’re not even really all that
technical in fact if you replace a few
words they look like the same bunch of
things that would leave you to declare a
crisis in life so still unclear
Direction a few goals that aren’t big
map and these temporary fixes or
basically like the things you settle for
for now because you think you don’t have
the time to do what you really want to
do now when I realized this I had two
initial reactions the first one was
pretty negative I mean I already had to
deal with these problems in real life
now apparently they were in my virtual
one too but then the second one was with
does that mean that the solutions that
applied to these technical problems the
ones that people have been trying to fix
over the years does that mean that they
could also apply to my own struggles of
existence so armed with this thought and
the things I learned about software
development from school and at the
startup I’ve been working up how could I
try and fix these problems like what
could I do and generally when you’re
brewing a mixture of this sort you know
familiar situations being things aren’t
working out you don’t know whether you
should shift another course or moved
another job or maybe you actually know
what you really want to do but you just
can’t seem to get there what can you do
option number one you can plan
everything out so that everything just
really nice and well organized and all
you have to do is just follow the steps
that you’ve made for yourself sounds
easy enough when I was around like
eight-year-old eight years old I
considered myself the ultimate master of
this option like I had this nice pink
Barbie notebook instead of putting my
secrets or stuff about my classmates I
just need schedules for every single day
like a really detailed schedule so like
that you know like really really fun
right really fun hours of just doing my
homework and studying and sleeping
before 8 p.m.
and of course I had some really
enjoyable break periods which I spent
you know not watching yugioh or playing
with my gameboy but studying in advance
you know just your typical super-fun
eight-year-old yeah and I was hell-bent
on making and following these schedules
like I threw serious shade at all of my
classmates who just wanted to run around
and kick dirt and grow up to be Pokemon
masters something that is actually
possible now with pokemon gold but no
one knew that then and even though I was
still secretly
weeping for my letter from what
the Filipino equivalent of Hogwarts like
I set myself apart from them I set
myself apart from them anyway I was
going to be practical I was going to get
the best grades in school I would become
the best programmer that ever lived then
I would make the one great thing to rule
them all and make a great speech was
sitting on what was previously Bill
Gates throne so it would be me there and
then you know at that point like my life
would be so awesome to handle right they
they’d have to make a movie out of like
a movie about me so this is how you know
that poster would look like and this was
all going to happen okay in just one
fantastic go super practical kid super
practical so that kind of really heavy
planning in software that’s
characterized in what’s called the
waterfall model so in the waterfall
model basically you take all of these
requirements so all of the things you
want and you list them all down when you
have that list you make a design that
allows you to achieve everything okay
you have your design then you go out and
implement it when you have your results
or your product you test it out a bit
and Barb suddenly you know we have a
product it’s out in the world sounds
like a great solution right but the
thing with this approach is that it only
really works well if your requirements
are extremely defined to begin with and
you’re building it in this environment
where there isn’t a lot of change so
example you know if you’re making your
product already
and suddenly Google releases the exact
same thing or even worse you make your
product and you realize that no one
actually cares about what you’re doing
like now what the approach doesn’t
really tell you how to deal with this
but just it’s not that easy to make
something and just scrap everything then
suddenly start the long process all over
again
and sometimes with this approach you
don’t even know that you have to scrap
everything because you don’t look at the
results until the very end until you’ve
followed through with everything in your
plan so in the same way we can set a lot
of goals for ourselves but many things
can derail us accidents you know health
issues people would just seem to want to
ruin our lives or sudden changes in
desire like just our own sudden changes
and desire like I think most if not all
of us here know that expectations don’t
really eke out the reality most of the
time so then what luckily there’s option
number two still plan but with constant
change both positive and negative in
mind so a long time ago in a land far
far away seventeen people met up in the
ski resort those seventeen people had
one thing in common
they were all really and really fed up
with how software development was being
done at the time they felt that those
processes like waterfall were just too
heavy you know and they were literally
bringing everything down so they felt
that they had to come up with an
alternative and when they got out of
that magical meeting they had one and
they had this 12-point manifesto this
moment would soon be known as a burst of
agile so agile is this big buzzword
that’s been making its rounds for years
and you can constantly hear it being
mentioned in places expressions
especially like hot startups and Silicon
Valley so what’s it really all about
like what’s agile and how can we use
them now agile actually has like I said
Bob points and different versions but
there are some key elements that I think
are particularly helpful to us first do
things little by little so instead of
having those big tasks you just break
them all down to smaller pieces accept
change as it comes
all that sometimes your requirements are
just going to change even halfway
through evaluate constantly just always
keep evaluating and if the need arises
then you have to adapt so this process
seems to really work well with software
development or places in tech like
breaking up large tasks and evaluating
the results constantly has led many
startups to success for example did you
know that Instagram actually started out
as a location up like Foursquare it’s
just that the creators realized that
people were doing less checking into
places and they were actually doing more
posting pictures of their mirror selfies
or of their dogs so they decided to
capitalize on this and they adapted and
became the hashtag and filter filled
Instagram that we know today and it’s
filled with dozens of these stories
YouTube used to be a video dating site
yeah surprised and then and then Twitter
this is even more shocking I put there
it wasn’t actually for expressing your
views in 140 characters or less it’s
just actually an audio sharing site yeah
so like really far off and the Facebook
well Facebook was just a place that
showed you two pictures and asked you
which one was hotter so it was basically
literally a face book literally a face
book so now yeah this seems to really
work my own decision to become a part of
this world after college actually
started out with a failure and a broken
plan I tell people that I got into the
startup world because I was interested
in the back the thought of making things
happen and also making a ton of money
but even though this is all really true
I think what really won me over in the
end
what’s this so fast-forward 10 years and
that girl the eight-year-old girl the
one with her whole life planned out
would find herself sitting in this
almost empty room say Majan you’re
sitting in this room you’re armed with a
dozen pencils and like lots of blank
sheets of paper and your task is to
solve a coding problem so you have to
write the entire solution basically the
entire working code one paper no as if
typing it on your computer wasn’t hard
enough but this was it like this was her
moment of truth like she was ready she
was going to kill it but then what twist
she didn’t so although this story of my
completely messing up my first real life
job interview certainly is not the worst
most the railing thing that could happen
to anyone
it’s tough it still felt like my
ultimate plan was shattered like what
happened to being the best programmer
ever right like one moment I was flying
you know in the speed of light in my
Millennium Falcon feeling super cool
then suddenly I was spiraling into a big
black hole of doubt so after months of
feeling like a Dementor was sucking away
at my soul yeah we know how this feels
and basically annoying my family and
friends with all of my whining I finally
you know to their Glee I finally got
over a thing I realized you know I have
to find a way out I can’t keep doing
this every time I fail so I decided to
join a startup why because I realized at
that point that the only way I could
ever really let go of my precious
structured mega plans was the constantly
exposed to them and myself to change
when we’re developing software we plan
out features we code them and sooner or
later we just have to recode them in the
same way we can make small plans in life
we can follow them the best that we can
and we see
they turn out but if things don’t work
out then we have to adapt we have to
change it’s basically the same kind of
process and eventually you know after
this constant evaluation and feedback
and what I just labeled upgrading to a
higher version I realized that you know
it became less about failure and just
more about constant upgrades and
improvements and you know what these
constant upgrades and improvements they
actually feel really great like they
don’t only leave us in awe when they
bring us or other people to having
successful lives or businesses or
hopefully millions of dollars there even
the same kinds of things that we love in
the stories that we read or watch Harry
Potter like Harry Potter wouldn’t have
been Harry Potter if Voldemort didn’t
come around kill his parents and give
him that scar and Sam Sam from The Lord
of the Rings he was just this ordinary
gardener who is assigned to accompany
Frodo and Frodo was supposed to be the
star of the adventure but then Frodo
gets knocked out so Sam actually steps
up reinvents himself and saves
everything he becomes the hero of the
story even after his head gets bashed
against a rock
basically we’re addicted to the thought
being able to adapt in the face of
change
so given adapted processors like agile
that we’ve learned how can we live out
these aspirations maybe we should go out
right now and try and climb a little
mountain of melting hot lava just to
pass it out or maybe we should find a
guy with no nose who’s dressed in all
black who’s trying to kill us not
necessarily in this other software
development process that basically has
its roots in the thought of agile
there’s this thing called the daily
stand-up it’s this meeting where the
members of a team literally stand up and
they ask and
for three questions these simple
questions are the same kinds of
questions that I’ve grown to ask myself
every day and they’re also the questions
that I want you to ask yourselves now
first what did I accomplish yesterday
second what will I do today and third
what obstacles are actually impeding my
progress and when you have your answers
to these questions suddenly things are a
little bit clearer and whether your
answers show that you’re on track or not
no matter what you do continue taking
these steps let’s all ask ourselves
these questions whether in school or at
work for our own lives or even for the
improvement of the entire country and in
the process
let’s meet agile let’s be flexible and
let’s learn a lot because after all
everything changes and even though
sometimes it really really sucks but it
also means that if we’re stuck in a rut
or we feel like we’re just failing
software projects definitely I can
relate to this then at least at the very
least it means that we don’t stay that
way forever thank you [Applause]