Hi! I'm Ahsan.

Anyone who’s ever worked in an agile environment knows the drill: the daily standup huddle. Originally conceived as a quick and efficient way to keep teams aligned, standups can sometimes morph into productivity vampires, sucking the energy out of your morning with lengthy discussions and tangential rabbit holes. I recently found myself on the receiving end of this phenomenon. A series of scheduling conflicts forced me to miss several standups in a row.

Let’s face it, meetings often suck. They can be a black hole that swallows productivity, especially in large corporations. While the intent behind meetings is usually good —facilitating decision-making and team coordination — poorly executed meetings can become a vortex of wasted time and resources. So, how can we make meetings suck less? Making Meetings Suck Less Ditch the Crowd: Large meetings often turn into a spectator sport with only a few active participants.

There is a huge, yet often overlooked benefit to working as a freelance software engineer: the opportunity to engage with diverse teams across various sectors. This unique vantage point can offer invaluable insights into team dynamics, project management, and engineering best practices. Each new project serves as a fresh canvas to observe, learn, and refine the approach of tackling challenges effectively. Below are my tried-and-true guidelines that have been shaped by real-world experiences; these are not merely theoretical ideals.

I recently discovered that Oracle Cloud offers an Always Free tier that includes two virtual machines with 1GB of RAM and 50GB of storage each. I decided to use this to create a VPN server that I can use to access my home network from anywhere. My brother, based in Qatar, relies on a Private Internet Access subscription for VPN. However, the service has proven to be a letdown for VoIP calls, plagued by frequent disconnections.