Jameel's personal blog
A few months ago I faced an annoying problem. I wanted to redeem my Cathay Pacific Miles but I was unable to log into my account. The SMS OTP never arrived. My account was tied to my Sri Lankan number, which I’ve had for many years, yet I never received their OTP. After wasting an inordinate amount of time, first with their chat support, then with the call support, I was told this was a “known…
A month ago I bought a box of Jenga. I played it the way it was intended a grand total of two times. You can have a lot of fun with solid, uniformly weight distributed identical blocks. 😁 Life is like Jenga. You start off thinking there's a right way to do things. Then you realize that's not true, there's no one right way. There's just your way. Your unique way. That changes every single time you…
I’ve had the opportunity and privilege of leading teams for 8+ years. When I first became a manager, I was told that “my output is the output of the team” and I really took it to heart. As my team grew I soon realized that I was becoming a blocker. I was taking on more things than I should, my team was waiting on tickets that I had taken on, they were waiting for me to make a decision, or for me…
The title of this article says it all. Overcoming friction leads to growth. Comfort leads to stagnation. ChatGPT and by extension “AI” is likely the biggest “revolution” of my generation. It is likely also going to be the biggest killer of creativity in my generation. I always thought the creativity killer was going to be access to infinite entertainment. I think I was wrong. I’ve come to believe…
I survived three rounds of layoffs… Over the course of my career, I’ve survived three rounds of layoffs, all at the same company. Each time, I found myself among the so-called “survivors.” But surviving a layoff isn’t just about keeping your job. It’s about navigating a wave of complex emotions and instability that follows. It’s hard to describe the emotional toll of seeing colleagues, mentors,…
Till the late 90s, information was a scarce resource. It was a resource sought after but not widely available. It was valued and respected. Access was difficult and sometimes required tremendous commitment to gain. Scholars would travel hundreds of kilometres to learn from others. The age of the internet changed many things. It eliminated the barrier of access to information. It gave us access to…
For a long time now, I've been a feeling a sense of mounting doom. A fear that I'm no longer keeping abreast of all the change that's occuring around me. That I'm no longer keeping pace with others who are learning faster than me, who are growing faster than me, or just plain doing more than me. "Do not go gentle into that good night" - Dylan Thomas Fear is a powerful emotion. A bit of fear can…