What do the top 1% of software engineers do that the other 99% do not?

Ref: https://www.quora.com/What-do-the-top-1-of-software-engineers-do-that-the-other-99-do-not

1. Invest in learning and building tools. I've yet to meet a top engineer who didn't acquire mastery of their editor (EMACS, vi, etc), source control system, debuggers (though that's sadly going away), and programming environment. By contrast, mediocre programmers can (for example) edit code in EMACS but don't treat it like a development environment either to speed up the edit/compile/debug cycle or to reduce memory load (by off-loading knowledge of where a function is by using TAGS or some meta-search tool). Top engineers not only understand all the basic features, but usually make heavy use of the extension languages and customizability of their environment.
2. Give credit where credit is due. Again, if you're a top engineer, you don't need to hoard credit and can happily acknowledge other people's work. This makes other great people want to work with you, and it's a self-fulfilling cycle.
3. Impatience. Rather than wanting to spend time in meetings, top engineers write code, and spend time writing code rather than talking about it. Jeff Dean, Pengtoh, and Amit Singh have done major code changes to Google infrastructure without hesitancy. As Bill Coughran once said, "You come in one morning and discover that the universe has changed."
4. Total stack comprehension. Great software engineers don't stop at an abstraction or module boundaries. They penetrate those boundaries and attack problems or bugs until they solve them. I was once sitting down next to Pengtoh while he dug down into misbehaving code and discovered a bug in the assembly the compiler was generating. He then figured out a stable workaround for that bug. If you're intimidated by abstractions or have too much respect for module boundaries, you wouldn't have found that bug.

If you do all of those 4, there's zero chance you won't be one of the top 1%.

Increasing Employee Productivity: The Strategic Role That HR Essentially Ignores

Ref: http://www.eremedia.com/ere/increasing-employee-productivity-the-strategic-role-that-hr-essentially-ignores/

Increasing productivity is one of the most critical goals in business. Unfortunately, it’s an activity seldom accepted by HR professionals as a legitimate mandate. While most HR professionals acknowledge that their job entails establishing policy, procedures, and programs governing people management, few attempt to connect such elements to increasing employee output (volume, speed, and quality) per each dollar spent on labor costs (or as an easier to measure alternative, revenue per employee).

Bonus programs are typically enacted that keep total compensation in line with market trends, regardless of the value of work warranting incentive comp. Training tools are often secured via the lowest-cost provider method with minimal consideration given to which provider would be most effective. Recruiting practices too are more often managed with the primary goal of minimizing cost, not enabling business capability/capacity. Regardless of the function you look at, in the typical organization, HR is more concerned with executing transactions instead of delivering productivity solutions.

If you believe as most should that the combined efforts of the human resource function should positively influence the performance capability of the workforce instead of hindering it, you should understand the factors that influence performance.

22 Factors That Influence Individual/Team Performance

Based on more than 30 years of observational research into what drives high performance organizations, I’ve identified the following 22 factors, broken into six categories that significantly influence (positive/negative) individual/team productivity.

Foundations of Productivity

1. High-performing and innovative employees are the foundation of productivity — by far the most impactful factor in workforce and team productivity is hiring and retaining employees with exceptional capabilities and self-motivation. Working together, managers and HR can attract, hire, develop, and retain individual employees who are agile, high-performing continuous learners and innovators. Unfortunately, even the best employees cannot perform without great managers, proper direction, support, tools, and resources.
2. Effective managers and leaders set direction and execute — a great manager/leader is the second-most important productivity factor. Leaders and managers play a critical role in defining the direction, purpose, priorities, goals, and roles of the workforce. The capability of the manager (with the support of HR) to develop plans, hire effectively, coach, motivate, and develop employees is crucial to success. Unfortunately, many managers are the weak link in the productivity chain, so HR must accept the role of developing great leaders/managers and identifying/removing the ineffective ones.

Direction and Guidance Factors

1. A corporate strategy and plan that builds commitment — a competitive business strategy and strategic plan increases the chances that an organization will be successful and success builds commitment. In addition, if the plan and the strategy are clear and well communicated, not only will your employees be more motivated, but knowing the strategic direction will help them remain focused. Corporate values that are measured and rewarded can also align behavior and build commitment.
2. A defined purpose for teams make roles clear — every business unit and team needs to understand its role. Managers and leaders need to develop a clear and communicated purpose that is both compelling and that makes members feel important. Understand that employees are more likely to be committed to the purpose of the unit or team if they are involved in creating it. An unclear mission will result in a lack of focus and a low level of “engagement” and commitment toward achieving it.
3. Team and individual goals — having clear operational goals lets everyone know what is expected. If these goals are communicated and measurable, employees will understand precisely what is important and what is not. If stretch but reachable goals are set, employees are less likely to become complacent.
4. Prioritization for impactful resource allocation — setting clear priorities helps to ensure that time and resources are allocated to the most important and impactful tasks. Employees must be made aware of both high- and low-priority goals, tasks, processes, and customers. Processes must be developed to ensure that resources are allocated disproportionately to high priority tasks.
5. Performance metrics for continuous improvement — having effective metrics and reporting processes reinforces both team and individual goals.  Because whatever is measured and reported gets done, metrics provide focus, feedback and result in continuous improvement.
6. Effective rewards drive performance — when monetary rewards are tied directly to performance and the metrics for each goal, you doubly reinforce the message about what is important. Individual and team monetary rewards, coupled with nonmonetary excitement factors, can play a major role in ensuring focus and consistent performance.

Support Factors

1. Team member support increases individual performance — few tasks in this modern age can be completed by an individual employee working without support. Unless your employees are provided with complementary teammates, as well as the support of managers and employees outside the team, productivity is bound to suffer.
2. Best-practice sharing and collaboration improve productivity — learning by trial and error slows progress and leads to mass duplication of effort and higher error rates. Productivity improves dramatically when others who are outside the team freely collaborate and proactively share best practices and ideas. It is HR’s role to develop formal methods to increase cross-function collaboration and sharing.
3. Support for innovation can dramatically increase productivity — in most industries, the yearly increase in the level of productivity that is required to maintain a dominant position in the industry has increased dramatically. The new reality is that productivity increases of between 10 and 25% are now required each year. What is needed is a continuous level of innovation both in products and in business processes. Increased efficiency for continuous improvement processes are not sufficient to provide that level of double-digit gain, so HR must develop processes, training, measures. and incentives that result in continuous innovation workforce wide.
4. Control and authority can enhance or hinder decision-making — a lack of control and excessive freedom can result in waste, duplication, and a lack of focus. In direct contrast, micromanagement and excessive rules can slow decision-making and employee development. Productivity is maximized when there is enough balance so that employees have enough control, authority, and permissions to make most operational decisions.
5. Non-monetary factors can also excite employees — in addition to formal rewards, managers, leaders, and teammates can provide nonmonetary factors that increase employee excitement, energy, motivation, and loyalty. These factors can include praise, recognition, exposure, challenge, feedback, and learning opportunities. It is HR’s role to ensure that managers know how to effectively use these nonmonetary factors.
6. Not having the appropriate inputs can hinder productivity — in most cases, team and employee work is dependent on the inputs provided from other processes. It is the manager’s role to ensure that these inputs are provided on time and of the right quality. Make sure that the team’s output meets the standards set by the team responsible for the next step in the production process.
7. Barriers to productivity can limit success — often, even when every one of the positive productivity factors are present, productivity can be slowed or stopped by real or imagined barriers. These roadblocks can include individuals resistant to change, corporate politics, personal jealousies, corporate rivalries, as well as powerful people. In addition, there may be perceived or imaginative barriers that keep employees from even attempting any effort aimed at increasing productivity or innovation. In both cases, HR needs to work with managers in order to develop processes for identifying and eliminating any real or imagined barriers to productivity.

Skills, Communications, and Information Factors

1. Employee skills and knowledge must be continually updated to maintain productivity — global competition has created a rapid pace of change which means that current skill sets must be continually updated. It is the manager’s job to identify employees with less than optimal skills. HR’s role is to develop processes to continually increase employee learning, knowledge, and skill development, while minimizing the amount of time that employees are away from their work.
2. Effective communications and feedback reduce errors and frustration — a lack of communications can frustrate employees and make them feel unimportant. Failing to provide effective feedback can lead to wasted efforts, increased error rates, and lower productivity. Communications and feedback mechanisms need to be developed in conjunction with employees to ensure that they fit both the needs of the manager and the employees.
3. Providing the right information improves decision-making — managers and employees need access to all relevant information and data in order to be productive and to make effective decisions.

Resourcing Factors

1. Insufficient budget resources can hamper productivity — even a great team with a great manager will produce lower levels of productivity when with insufficient budget to complete the job.
2. Technology, tools, and equipment can limit or bolster productivity — even highly trained, motivated, and engaged employees can’t be very productive when they are provided with insufficient tools and equipment to do their job. In an era where technology dominates almost every function, a failure to provide the technology, updates, or sufficient training can dramatically slow productivity.

Miscellaneous Factors

1. Integration can increase productivity — when business processes operate independently and not in unison, it can inhibit the work flow and increase delays and error rates. Part of any productivity effort should include integrating interdependent processes, breaking down the silos and barriers, and making interconnected processes appear “seamless” to those involved.
2. Outside-the-workplace factors — although most factors that impact productivity are internal to the organization, on occasion, employee productivity is negatively impacted by things that happen outside of the firm. These factors could include changes in employee’s personal life and external economic, social, political, and even weather-related factors. Excellent productivity processes need to be flexible so that they can adjust when these external factors begin to impact individual or team productivity.

Final Thoughts

Managing workforce productivity involves accepting responsibility for optimizing the ROI (return on investment) for labor expense, just as other functions do for their activities. While some in HR would argue that it’s the manager’s role to increase productivity, it’s safe to assume that managers are not experts, nor are they knowledgeable about how to do so.

If you work in HR or talent management and you are looking for an opportunity to have a major strategic impact, consider setting up an internal productivity consultant team that provides the same kind of high-quality expert advice that a McKinsey or BCG might provide (only with better knowledge of the company problems, opportunities, and culture).

No one in any organization has complete control over these 22 factors, but the HR function can use its well-known relationship-building and persuasive skills to “influence” those outside their direct span of control. Since no one in the organization currently “owns” productivity improvement, you won’t have a lot of competition for the role, at least until you start to make progress!

22 Factors That Influence Individual/Team Performance

Ref: http://www.eremedia.com/ere/increasing-employee-productivity-the-strategic-role-that-hr-essentially-ignores/

22 Factors That Influence Individual/Team Performance

Based on more than 30 years of observational research into what drives high performance organizations, I’ve identified the following 22 factors, broken into six categories that significantly influence (positive/negative) individual/team productivity.

Foundations of Productivity

1. High-performing and innovative employees are the foundation of productivity — by far the most impactful factor in workforce and team productivity is hiring and retaining employees with exceptional capabilities and self-motivation. Working together, managers and HR can attract, hire, develop, and retain individual employees who are agile, high-performing continuous learners and innovators. Unfortunately, even the best employees cannot perform without great managers, proper direction, support, tools, and resources.
2. Effective managers and leaders set direction and execute — a great manager/leader is the second-most important productivity factor. Leaders and managers play a critical role in defining the direction, purpose, priorities, goals, and roles of the workforce. The capability of the manager (with the support of HR) to develop plans, hire effectively, coach, motivate, and develop employees is crucial to success. Unfortunately, many managers are the weak link in the productivity chain, so HR must accept the role of developing great leaders/managers and identifying/removing the ineffective ones.

Direction and Guidance Factors

1. A corporate strategy and plan that builds commitment — a competitive business strategy and strategic plan increases the chances that an organization will be successful and success builds commitment. In addition, if the plan and the strategy are clear and well communicated, not only will your employees be more motivated, but knowing the strategic direction will help them remain focused. Corporate values that are measured and rewarded can also align behavior and build commitment.
2. A defined purpose for teams make roles clear — every business unit and team needs to understand its role. Managers and leaders need to develop a clear and communicated purpose that is both compelling and that makes members feel important. Understand that employees are more likely to be committed to the purpose of the unit or team if they are involved in creating it. An unclear mission will result in a lack of focus and a low level of “engagement” and commitment toward achieving it.
3. Team and individual goals — having clear operational goals lets everyone know what is expected. If these goals are communicated and measurable, employees will understand precisely what is important and what is not. If stretch but reachable goals are set, employees are less likely to become complacent.
4. Prioritization for impactful resource allocation — setting clear priorities helps to ensure that time and resources are allocated to the most important and impactful tasks. Employees must be made aware of both high- and low-priority goals, tasks, processes, and customers. Processes must be developed to ensure that resources are allocated disproportionately to high priority tasks.
5. Performance metrics for continuous improvement — having effective metrics and reporting processes reinforces both team and individual goals.  Because whatever is measured and reported gets done, metrics provide focus, feedback and result in continuous improvement.
6. Effective rewards drive performance — when monetary rewards are tied directly to performance and the metrics for each goal, you doubly reinforce the message about what is important. Individual and team monetary rewards, coupled with nonmonetary excitement factors, can play a major role in ensuring focus and consistent performance.

Support Factors

1. Team member support increases individual performance — few tasks in this modern age can be completed by an individual employee working without support. Unless your employees are provided with complementary teammates, as well as the support of managers and employees outside the team, productivity is bound to suffer.
2. Best-practice sharing and collaboration improve productivity — learning by trial and error slows progress and leads to mass duplication of effort and higher error rates. Productivity improves dramatically when others who are outside the team freely collaborate and proactively share best practices and ideas. It is HR’s role to develop formal methods to increase cross-function collaboration and sharing.
3. Support for innovation can dramatically increase productivity — in most industries, the yearly increase in the level of productivity that is required to maintain a dominant position in the industry has increased dramatically. The new reality is that productivity increases of between 10 and 25% are now required each year. What is needed is a continuous level of innovation both in products and in business processes. Increased efficiency for continuous improvement processes are not sufficient to provide that level of double-digit gain, so HR must develop processes, training, measures. and incentives that result in continuous innovation workforce wide.
4. Control and authority can enhance or hinder decision-making — a lack of control and excessive freedom can result in waste, duplication, and a lack of focus. In direct contrast, micromanagement and excessive rules can slow decision-making and employee development. Productivity is maximized when there is enough balance so that employees have enough control, authority, and permissions to make most operational decisions.
5. Non-monetary factors can also excite employees — in addition to formal rewards, managers, leaders, and teammates can provide nonmonetary factors that increase employee excitement, energy, motivation, and loyalty. These factors can include praise, recognition, exposure, challenge, feedback, and learning opportunities. It is HR’s role to ensure that managers know how to effectively use these nonmonetary factors.
6. Not having the appropriate inputs can hinder productivity — in most cases, team and employee work is dependent on the inputs provided from other processes. It is the manager’s role to ensure that these inputs are provided on time and of the right quality. Make sure that the team’s output meets the standards set by the team responsible for the next step in the production process.
7. Barriers to productivity can limit success — often, even when every one of the positive productivity factors are present, productivity can be slowed or stopped by real or imagined barriers. These roadblocks can include individuals resistant to change, corporate politics, personal jealousies, corporate rivalries, as well as powerful people. In addition, there may be perceived or imaginative barriers that keep employees from even attempting any effort aimed at increasing productivity or innovation. In both cases, HR needs to work with managers in order to develop processes for identifying and eliminating any real or imagined barriers to productivity.

Skills, Communications, and Information Factors

1. Employee skills and knowledge must be continually updated to maintain productivity — global competition has created a rapid pace of change which means that current skill sets must be continually updated. It is the manager’s job to identify employees with less than optimal skills. HR’s role is to develop processes to continually increase employee learning, knowledge, and skill development, while minimizing the amount of time that employees are away from their work.
2. Effective communications and feedback reduce errors and frustration — a lack of communications can frustrate employees and make them feel unimportant. Failing to provide effective feedback can lead to wasted efforts, increased error rates, and lower productivity. Communications and feedback mechanisms need to be developed in conjunction with employees to ensure that they fit both the needs of the manager and the employees.
3. Providing the right information improves decision-making — managers and employees need access to all relevant information and data in order to be productive and to make effective decisions.

Resourcing Factors

1. Insufficient budget resources can hamper productivity — even a great team with a great manager will produce lower levels of productivity when with insufficient budget to complete the job.
2. Technology, tools, and equipment can limit or bolster productivity — even highly trained, motivated, and engaged employees can’t be very productive when they are provided with insufficient tools and equipment to do their job. In an era where technology dominates almost every function, a failure to provide the technology, updates, or sufficient training can dramatically slow productivity.

Miscellaneous Factors

1. Integration can increase productivity — when business processes operate independently and not in unison, it can inhibit the work flow and increase delays and error rates. Part of any productivity effort should include integrating interdependent processes, breaking down the silos and barriers, and making interconnected processes appear “seamless” to those involved.
2. Outside-the-workplace factors — although most factors that impact productivity are internal to the organization, on occasion, employee productivity is negatively impacted by things that happen outside of the firm. These factors could include changes in employee’s personal life and external economic, social, political, and even weather-related factors. Excellent productivity processes need to be flexible so that they can adjust when these external factors begin to impact individual or team productivity.

Levels of Warrior Excellence (Based on Indian mythology)

Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_mythological_wars

Levels of Warrior Excellence:

• Mahamaharathi (మహామహారధి ): A warrior capable of fighting 24 Atimaharathi warriors simultaneously. No warrior has attained this status, not least because there have never been 24 Athimaharathi warriors at the same time, but warriors who can be called Mahamaharathis are Shiva, Vishnu, Shakti, Brahma.

• Atimaharathi (అతిమహారధి ): A warrior capable of fighting 12 Maharathi warriors simultaneously.Only Ravana's son Indrajit(Meghnadha) is considered as an Atimaharathi warrior.He was an expert in magic or illusion and at a very young age, Meghanada became the possessor of almost all types of supreme celestial weapons,under the guidance ofShukra, the guru of the daitya(demons). He is considered as the most powerful and the only warrior ever had the three ultimate weapons of Trimurti i.e.Brahmanda astra,Vaishnava astra and Pashupatastra.^[10]

• Maharathi (మహారధి ): A warrior capable of fighting 12 Atirathi class warriors or 720,000 warriors simultaneously,circumspect in his mastery of all forms of weapons and combat skills.Narsimha, Rama, Lakshman, Bharat, Shatrughna, Vali, Kartavirya Arjuna,Parshurama,Atikaya,Sumbha,Nishumbha,Ahiravana,Mahiravana,Chanda,Munda,Raktavija,Khara, Dushan, Ravana, Kumbhakarna, Mahishasur, Narakasura,Lava,Kusha,Jambavan,Jalandhar, Hanuman, Bhisma, Drona, Ashwatthama, Karna, Arjuna, Abhimanyu,Drupada,Upapandavas,Virat, Krishna,Balram, Jarasandha and devas in heaven like Indra, Skanda were Maharathis.

• Atirathi (అతిరధి ):A warrior capable of contending with 12 Rathi class warriors or 60,000 warriors simultaneously.Sishupal,Kritavarma,Angad,Mainda,Dviwda,Nala,Nila,Satyaki,Dhristadyumna,Prahast,Akampan, Shalya,Dushashan,Vikarna,Kripa and Pradyumna were Atirathi's.

• Rathi ( రధి ): A warrior capable of attacking 5,000 warriors simultaneously.Uttar,Shikhandi,Jayadrath, Shakuni,Yuyutsu,Yudhisthir,Nakul,Sahadev were Rathis.Bhima andDuryodhana were 8 Rathi's.

25 Steve Jobs Quotes That Will Change the Way You Work—in the Best Way Possible

Ref: https://www.themuse.com/advice/25-steve-jobs-quotes-that-will-change-the-way-you-workin-the-best-way-possible?ref=carousel-slide-1

Fact: Steve Jobs didn’t become successful overnight.

It took years of hard work, determination, and perseverance to build Apple into the company that it is today. When you take a step back from your MacBook (and put down your iPhone), and really think about all that he accomplished, it’s beyond remarkable. He changed the way we live.

Thanks to his many lectures and speeches, we have a glimpse into his day-to-day work ethic and how he managed to do as much as he did. And, in order to help you reach your career goals, we’ve rounded up 25 of his best quotes. Read them, be inspired by them, and then get out there and make your dreams come true.

My favorite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.

I’m as proud of many of the things we haven’t done as the things we have done. Innovation is saying no to a thousand things.

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.

Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow know what you truly want to become.

I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.

Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.

When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.

That’s been one of my mantras—focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex; you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.

Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.

Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful...that’s what matters to me.

The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

We’re just enthusiastic about what we do.

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.

For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

I'm convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.

What is Apple, after all? Apple is about people who think ‘outside the box,’ people who want to use computers to help them change the world, to help them create things that make a difference, and not just to get a job done.

Things don’t have to change the world to be important.

Technology is nothing. What’s important is that you have a faith in people, that they’re basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them.

I’ve always been attracted to the more revolutionary changes. I don’t know why. Because they’re harder. They’re much more stressful emotionally. And you usually go through a period where everybody tells you that you’ve completely failed.

Bottom line is, I didn’t return to Apple to make a fortune. I’ve been very lucky in my life and already have one. When I was 25, my net worth was $100 million or so. I decided then that I wasn’t going to let it ruin my life. There’s no way you could ever spend it all, and I don’t view wealth as something that validates my intelligence.

My model for business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each others’ negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts.

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

6 Secrets to Stop Worrying So Much, Brought to You by (the Incredibly Successful) Warren Buffett

Ref: https://www.themuse.com/advice/6-secrets-to-stop-worrying-so-much-brought-to-you-by-the-incredibly-successful-warren-buffett

We all know Warren Buffett is one of the most successful investors of all time. He has literally made billions of dollars through the savvy investments he’s made over the years through his firm, Berkshire Hathaway. But with all that money at risk, it makes you wonder how Mr. Buffett could ever get any sleep: Most of us would be worried sick.

Think about it. Mr. Buffett, for instance, has placed massive bets on the railroad industry. But what happens if a trail carrying some toxic waste derails? What will happen to his railroad stock? Similarly, what would happen to the significant investments he’s made in banks and financial services companies if another recession were to strike? It’s enough to drive you bonkers.

And yet, Mr. Buffett is as cool as a cucumber. Despite all that money on the line, he simply isn’t consumed about worrying about it. But why?

The answer is that he’s adopted the secrets of Dale Carnegie’s sometimes-overlooked gem of a book called How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. While Mr. Carnegie is probably better known for his other books about public speaking and gaining influence, Mr. Buffett has learned to adopt several of Mr. Carnegie’s tips for living a worry-free life.

1. Isolate the Problem

The first key in preventing worries from overtaking your life is to create “day-tight” departments around the different areas in your life. Just like you can seal off a damaged or leaky section in a ship to prevent it from sinking, you need to isolate the different parts of your life—your business, your relationships, or your finances—so that they don’t spill into each other. Even if you’ve had a hard day at work, for example, you need to find a way to be the best dad you can be once you get home.

2. Understand the Problem

If something has gone awry with some aspect in your life, don’t overreact to it before you get all the facts. It’s easy to fear the unknown, so make time to understand what’s caused the issue. The better you understand something, the less you’ll worry about it.

3. Prepare to Accept the Worst

After you know what kind of issue you’re facing, figure out what the worst possible outcome could be resulting from it. Then make peace with it. If you can accept the worst-case scenario, then you’ve simply eliminated any reason to continue worrying about it.

4. Make a Decision

Once you’ve accepted what the worst possible outcome of a situation could be, then you can actually start thinking about how you actually might create a better outcome. Weigh the facts you have available and make a decision about how you might do that. And rather than get stuck in some kind of worry-vortex, where you become paralyzed because you feel like you don’t have enough information,make a decision once you feel like you’ve got 75% of what you need.

5. Act

There’s an old saw that involves five frogs sitting on a log. One frog decides to jump off. So how many frogs are left on the log? The answer is five—because deciding and acting are very different things. After you’ve made a decision on what you could do to potentially improve the situation, act on it because taking action will immediately reduce your level of worry.

6. Let it Go

After you’ve done everything you can to deal with a worst-case scenario, then it’s time to simply accept what’s happened. There’s no use worrying about it once you can’t do anything about it. Make peace with the issue and move on to the next one.

If Warren Buffett, who has billions of reasons to be worried, can use these six steps to free himself from worry, you can too.

4 Surprising Signs You Should Fix Your Current Job Instead of Quitting

Ref: https://www.themuse.com/advice/4-surprising-signs-you-should-fix-your-current-job-instead-of-quitting

You’ve surely seen the articles floating around the web that list signs that you should quit your job immediately (and if you haven’t, you can read them here, here, and here).

When you’re stuck in a job you hate, it’s easy to look to those articles, see truth in every sign listed, and finally find the validation you were looking for to turn in your resignation letter and start looking for a new job.

Now, there are certainly situations that warrant quitting, and plenty of people are stuck in jobs they hate, when they clearly should be looking for something better.

But, what feels like a terrible job may not be permanently terrible—in certain situations, it may be worth your while to try to fix your job, rather than jump ship.

How can you tell if you may be able to make your current job work? Look for the signs below. 

1. You’re Surrounding Yourself With Negativity

If you constantly feel frustrated with your boss, your responsibilities, your co-workers, and the company in general, look to the company you keep at work. Are you grumbling with your colleagues over lunch? Do you spend your breaks tracking down the latest gossip about who got the promotion you wanted and who got invited to lunch by the department manager?

By focusing on complaining, venting, and gossiping, you’re intentionally surrounding yourself with negativity—which may be tainting your perception of your job.

Instead, try focusing on what’s great about your job. Instead of complaining about a missed promotion, work on documenting your achievements so you can present a better case for yourself next time. Talk to your colleagues about an exciting project you’re working on, rather than venting about the menial task your boss asked you to do.

Can positive thinking solve everything? Not by a long shot. But by attempting to change your mindset, you’ll have a clearer idea of whether the problem is your job—or the way you think about your job. 

2. You Haven’t Created a Plan for Movement

There’s nothing worse than feeling stuck at a job with no foreseeable possibility of advancement. It seems pretty obvious that if there’s no room to grow, it’s time to move on to something different.

But is the issue really that there isn’t room to grow—or that you haven’t proactively collaborated with your boss or HR to determine how to get to the place you want to be?

Maybe, for example, you want to move into a management role within your department, but you keep getting bypassed for promotions. No room for movement, right? Well, probably not unless you work with your boss to identify what you need to do and what skills you need to develop in order to snag the next available promotion.

Or, maybe you need to work with HR to determine if there’s an internal move you could make that would help you better achieve your goals—like moving from the sales team to the sales training team, where you could start putting some management skills to use.

3. You Haven’t Taken a Vacation in Ages

You’ve seen the research, you’ve read it on The Muse, and you’ve even heard it on TV, via commercialsadvertising credit cards or Las Vegas: In the U.S., employees aren’t using their vacation days.

Let’s be honest: Working an endless stream of 40-plus hour weeks with no break could make anyone want to quit their job. And so, if it’s been a while since your last vacation, the problem may not be that you need to quit your job entirely—but that you need a break from the office to recharge.

Done right—meaning, with as little email-checking as possible—a vacation can help you feel less stressed and more effective at work. And could even give you an entirely new perspective of your current position.

Taking advantage of those unused vacation days to take a break from your job can help you come back with more clarity: Did you just need a few days off? Or do you need a permanent break from your job?

4. You Haven’t Voiced Your Concerns to Your Boss

Maybe some of the aspects of your job truly are unbearable—e.g., you don’t like your assigned responsibilities, you can’t stand working with your project team, and your workload is so heavy that you’re constantly staying late and working on the weekend.

But unless you’ve actually talked to your boss about these things, you have no idea whether they’re facets of your job that are set in stone, or whether you may actually be able to change your situation.

By simply voicing your concerns to your boss, you may be able to shift your workload, focus your time on different priorities or projects, or transition onto a different project team. Essentially, you may be able to make your current job a whole lot better—without having to polish up your resume. 

Before you brush off your resume and cover letter and delve into a job search, it’s worth it to see if your current job can be salvaged. Sometimes, changing your mindset and advocating for yourself can make all the difference.