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Flashback… Year 2013…Class XVenue- Classroom.Scene- Practice for a drama going on.Now the drama had a scene where I meet a European and we greet each other by Cheek Kissing. Now this was new to me. I didn't know that there is a specific sequence in how you kiss. Apparently you first lean to the left and join the right cheeks followed by left and then right again.Director says Action! We walk towards each other. Greet each other. Now the girl started going towards her left and to my right. Unaware of the protocol, i went to the right too.Smack!A peck on the lips. We both backed off almost immediately. My face turned red and it was very embarrassing. I had an incessant urge to wipe my lips but couldn't infront of everyone. We did that scene tens of times after that and i never made the same mistake. Ya i know, I'm an idiot.Remember…Right Left Right.T n JTapesh Jain

In year 2000, the group that is responsible for the JPEG file format, called the JPEG group, decided to come up with a new version of the JPEG format. It was called JPEG2000. It had some really cool ideas. One of them was that it supported streaming of images. One JP2 image contained multiple resolutions of the same image, and the lower resolutions were kept upfront. So, when you are downloading the image, you will get a lower resolution immediately. The advantage was that on low speed connections, the browser could show a low-res image pretty quickly. Also, devices that were low-res could simply stop downloading the image when they had the resolution they wantedAt the time, JPEG2000 was hoping that the JP2 standard would make its way into browsers (spoiler: it still hasn’t). We wanted to use it to build mapping applications. We had encoded aerial photos into the JP2 format, and we had a server that returned SVG maps. Since there was no browser support, I built an ActiveX control that would stream the JP2 image and overlay it with the SVG maps. It was very cool. Our resolution was like 10 times better than Google Maps (at the time).I was using a library called Kakadu library. It was an open-source library that could stream and parse JP2 images. Kakadu performed really really well. It was fast! Except that once in a while it would get stuck. Randomly. No pattern. So, they pulled me in and I suspected a problem that arises because of thread contention. So, I got to debugging it. At the time, I was young, and I understood multi-threading pretty well, but hadn’t really fixed a thread-contention problem. I was excited.So, I dug into their code and started debugging it. The first thing I figured is when I debug, the problem goes away. Crap! Essentially, the debugger itself acts as a synchronization mechanism, and it changes the timing of how the instructions in the thread execute.So, I started adding logs. The next thing I figured out is that when I add logs, the problem goes away! Crap again! Again, since the logging goes to the file system, the file system acts as a synchronization mechanism and throws the timing off.So, I can’t debug, and I can’t log. It’s a fairly complicated piece of engineering, that I haven’t written. So, before I solve the real problem, I need to figure out how to troubleshoot in a multi-threaded environment. Crap!So, I started thinking that it’s the synchronization by things outside the code that throws the timing off, right? So, as long as I keep the code inside of the external synchronization very tight, I might prevent the timing from going off. So, I started minimizing my log statements. Eventually, I figured out that if I put one character logs, I am fine. And I can’t put too many 1-character logs.So, the first thing I had to figure out was if the code takes a path that is different when the problem occurs versus when the problem doesn’t occur. Remember, I could put only single character logs, and not too many of them. So, I started reading through the code without trying to understand it. Whenever I reached a decision point, I would put 2 logs in the 2 branches. One branch logged “\”, the other branch logged “/”. When I saw a loop, I logged “|” inside the loops. When I would see the logs, I would see the log as\|||//|||||||||\/\/\\\ I would run the app and note down these strings of characters when the code ran fine, then note down the characters when it didn’t. Next I compared the strings of characters to find the deviation. Finally, I would trace back through the code to find the spot at which the log message deviated.Since I couldn’t put too many logs, I had to be judicious. Luckily, the Kakadu code was structured very very nicely. I want to kiss the Kakadu developers (even though they caused the bug). All their code was layered very nicely. They had high-level functions that called lower-level functions, that called even-lower-level functions. So, I picked the topmost layer and put my magic single-character logs there. When I found the deviation, I would understand the code to figure out why the deviation happened. Usually, it was because a lower-level routine behaved differently. So, I had to remove all my logs, and then add similar logs in a lower-level routine. I did this layer by layer till I found the bug.This entire process took about three weeks. It was a one character fix. There was a busy-wait loop in the rendering thread that waited for data to be loaded by a producer thread. It checked a counter using < instead of <=. Usually, the counter would go from counter < expected to counter > expected, and it would work fine. In the rare condition that the = condition was satisfied, the rendering thread would prematurely parse the data, get an exception and cleanly exit. This would stop all rendering.Three weeks, one character. I should get a T-shirt that says that.Fixing this bug really showed me the value of building your code in layers.

I suck at New Year's resolutions.I usually make mine at the gym. I'm typically knocking down a few miles on the treadmill, feeling like I'm on top of the world and all of a sudden I'm inspired to crush it in my career in the upcoming year. "Let's make some New Year's resolutions!"The problem is that I usually forget my resolutions about a month later. #Fail.Seriously, if you asked me what my New Year's resolutions were last year, I would say, "I have no clue."That's why I've decided that this year is going to be different. I'm going to write my top 7 resolutions for the year and post it on the internet for the world to see.How's that for accountability?This year, I'm also going to create draw inspiration from a good friend of mine, Benny Hsu, the creator of the Get Busy Living blog - www.getbusylivingblog.comAfter hearing his story, I was pumped to make some big changes this year to help launch my career into the next stratosphere.Here are 7 New Year's Resolutions that can help people better their careers in the upcoming year:Resolution #1: Start doingThis is your life. Don't wait for permission. Stop over planning and start doing.That's what Benny did.Benny Hsu had been working for his family's restaurant for the past five years and hated it. He never did anything to change the situation. Instead, he watched television a lot to forget about it.In October 2010, Benny had a breaking point after a horrible night at his job. On the drive home, he felt really upset and decided to do something about it.He wrote a note to himself and taped it to the bathroom mirror.Want to know what the note said?It reminded him to start finding out what he wanted to do with his life.Want to know what happened next? He created an iPhone app called Photo365 that hit the top 3 in the Photo category and earned him over $30,000 in just 30 days.He also began selling T-shirts through Teespring and in 5 months made a profit of $101,971.36.On top of that, he's built an incredible following on his blog and podcast series as well.Need another example? No problem.My friends Chris, Wes and Nate knew nothing about making sweatpants.But they were really motivated to make the best sweatpants for men. Why couldn't sweatpants be comfortable, fitted and stylish at the same time?So what did they do?They dove right in. They studied over 50 pairs of sweats from all different types of brands. After investing several thousands of dollars into working with a manufacturer, they found out the quality and design wasn't good enough. They had to fire him. This happened after a few months of hard work.They didn't give up though. After that, they visited dozens of manufacturers to find the right partner. Their hard work paid off. They've launched their new sweatpants and have raised $15,346 for their Saturday Sweatpants Kickstarter campaign in just a few days.Moral of the story: Stop waiting. Start doing.Resolution #2: Learn one skill deeply this yearWhen Benny first started building iPhone apps, he became hooked on learning how to build one effectively. He bought an eBook called “How to Create an iPhone App with No Experience” that Pat Flynn (a really famous online business blogger) had recommended. Seven months later, he had built his first iPhone app.A lot of times, it's easy to get distracted. After all, we live in a world of information overload. One minute you're excited to learn about iPhone apps and another minute you want to learn how to be a better cook. Can you learn all of these things? Sure, of course you can.But to be truly great at it, you need to stay focused. That happens by keeping things simple.So instead of trying to be amazing at three skills this year, try choosing just one. Don't try to boil the ocean.Resolution #3: Build one new habit by sticking to it for 66 daysPerseverance and practice are a beautiful combination. They lead to mastery.So how do you constantly practice that one skill you're trying to learn this year? You do it by creating strong habits.In 2009, Phillippa Lally, a psychologist from University College London, and her research team wrote a study on how long it would take to form a new habit.The study involved 96 people and each of them had to choose a healthy behavior such as eating, drinking or exercise that they wanted to turn into a habit.Want to guess what they learned in the study? It takes about 66 days on average to form a new habit.Here are some quick tips on how you can stick to your new habits over the course of 66 days:1. Use post it notes - When Benny needed the motivation to find direction in his life, he put a post it note on his mirror. I do this as well. If you looked at my bathroom mirror today, you would see a post-it note that outlines the top 3 things I need to do every day in order to reach my goals. For example, one of my goals is to get 10,000 subscribers for my motivational blog (CEO Lifestyle), so one of my weekly habits on that post it note is to write a great article every week.2. Have an accountability buddy - This year, you're my accountability buddy. Yup, the internet. That's only because I'm making my new year's resolutions public. But if you're not comfortable with that kind of approach, try this instead: share your New Years resolutions with a friend, family member or co-worker.That way, the next time you bump into them, you'll be reminded of what you need to focus on.If a coworker said to you,"Hey (Insert your name here), how's that new work project going?" Do you think that would motivate you?Maybe. Maybe not.What if 100 coworkers asked you the same question?Yeah, I think you'd be motivated. Just a hunch.Resolution #4: Say No.I get it. You want to be nice. You want to help everyone.But here's the thing: You can't always be the hero. Sometimes, the more you take on, typically the less effective you will be. Especially in work.Instead of breadth, focus on depth. Be awesome at a few things and learn to master them.Here's a great way you can say no: Start by saying something positive about the person's question or suggestion and then explain why you can't take it on.This way you don't give out negative vibes, the person doesn't feel like you're brushing them off, it gives them a chance to empathize and you didn't commit to that project or ask.Learn to say no.Resolution #5: Get EducatedFact: You don't have to spend $120,000 to get a great education. There are so many online resources to help you become an expert in a respected field that can further your career.Want to learn how to code? Take a course at Udemy or Treehouse.Want to learn how to build an online business? Follow amazing bloggers who have been successful already like Benny Hsu or Pat Flynn.Want to improve your grammar and punctuation? Check out Coursera.Want to learn a new language? Check out Duolingo - an awesome app that is free. Feel like a self serve language learning app isn't enough? Visit Italki and set up 1:1 private tutor sessions on Skype.Want to figure out the answer to a question from top experts with real life experience? Check out Quora. Or Google it.You've got a wealth of information sitting right in front of you. Use your fingertips and go make it happen!Resolution #6: Ask for that promotionAfter you've earned it, of course. If you haven't earned it, ask your boss what key objectives you'll need to hit to earn that promotion.This way, you can write that down on your list and work towards those goals.If you hit them, you can come back and say, "You had mentioned that if I hit these goals I would get a promotion. I'm excited to say that I've hit them and would love to figure out what the next steps are in getting promoted."Will your boss give you that promotion once this happens? I think your chances are pretty good. Just a hunch.If you don't ask, you'll never know.Resolution #7: Find a mentorDon't settle for any mentor though. Find the best one that can really help you grow.For example, when I was at Box, I reached out to the #1 channel salesperson on the team and would meet with him weekly to learn about how he approached the business. When I started my first iPhone app company, I had regular meetings with a good friend that had built and sold a successful iPhone app company before.Want to know what happened in both examples? At Box, I went from being an individual contributor to managing a team in less than one year. At the iPhone app company, I built 3 top 100 apps in different categories.In both cases, I did exponentially better after having mentors.A lot of people have already found out the recipe to success. You don't need to recreate the wheel.Open you mind. Learn from them.So now that you have 7 New Years Resolution ideas, the question is...What will you do next?You have the knowledge. You have the desire. You have the opportunity.Get started. Now.Because you owe it to yourself to live the best life possible.