Pearls of Umar ibn Al-Khattab (3)

“Go easy on yourself, for the outcome of all affairs is determined by Allah’s decree. If something is meant to go elsewhere, it will never come your way, but if it is yours by destiny, from you it cannot flee.”

“Sit with those who have sinned and repented for they have the softest of hearts.” 

“Learn dignity and tranquility.”

“No amount of guilt can change the past and no amount of worrying can change the future.”

“Sometimes the people with the worst past, create the best future."

-- Umar ibn Al-Khattab

ChatGPT - Tetris

How to play:

• Arrow Up: Rotate Tetromino
• Arrow Down: Move Tetromino down
• Arrow Left: Move Tetromino left
• Arrow Right: Move Tetromino right

The game will end after 5 minutes.

This game was developed using ChatGPT as my co-pilot.
Thank you, ChatGPT 23/05/08

How I scaled engineering ops excellence to ±10X with Mission Control

Continuing with me sharing my experiences as CTO, in this post I share the actions I took to help improve an engineering organisation's operational health in our journey of scaling an online video streaming platform from 1X to 10X, from May 2017 to October 2020. To get to 10X improvement takes a journey, which I achieved in under 3 years, and after reaching the goal, I decided I'd learnt enough of the CTO experience and exited, after having set up a strong succession leadership pipeline in place. 

To get an idea of some of the major themes that I tackled during this time, as a leader I had to lead from the front, back, left, right setting the direction of my managers to follow (as all of these interventions were new to them), whilst doing my best to respect what came before:

• Establishing the team despite constant re-orgs going on at parent company - getting the right people in the right roles at the right time
• Transforming a rag-tag undisciplined team to a disciplined, clear-headed, focused organised unit 
• Introducing laser focus on product engineering by unbundling non-core video apps to other businesses
• Being critical on the technology platform by establishing a baseline of the architecture, using third party auditors to rate the scalability of the platform
  
• Improving physical infrastructure: networking, compute, storage and data centres. Move away from self-hosted and self managed data centres to partnering, shutting down data centres as needed.
• Build an industrial grade networking stack and leveraging modern peering facilities and overhauling the server infrastructure
• Setting the roadmap for cloud by transitioning first from single region data centres, to multiple data centre deployments, to running multiple stacks simultaneously, introducing containers and microservices then finally getting ready for cloud and leaping first into serverless paradigms
• Embracing cloud partnerships with big players: Akamai, Microsoft, AWS, etc.
• Improving product and engineering delivery by revamping and overhauling the agile work processes and backlog management.
• Introducing communications mechanisms that helped remove doubt and earned trust across the many different business units and teams (we were known as the online pirates doing their own thing)
• Improving risk, governance and security - bringing it to the top, raising awareness
• Creating strategic partnerships internally and externally to leverage skills and expertise I couldn't get in-house or afford to build or manage ourselves
• 
  Introduced technical operations controls - Mission Control, more active management of operations daily, 24/7 with increased focus, planning and prep for peak times, like weekends and major events planning.
• Aggressively reducing costs on key platform components whilst capitalising on gains through economy of scale

In this post, I'm going to share some of the early context and interventions I introduced in my first 3 months on the job, that remain effective to this day, more than five years later: Mission Control Ops.

The dreaded 403 We're sorry, something went wrong

I took over a team that weren't prepared for the intense discipline needed to run and operate a highly available 24/7/365 platform. There were many reasons for this which I might touch on in another most. I recall coining the term "Bloody May" as the month of so many outages, that I wondered: 1\ What on earth have I taken on? 2\ Is my life going to be consumed by work from now on? 3\ Is there any hope for this platform? 4\ How am I going to turn this platform around? 5\ How much is the job worth to me?

It turned out there was going to be many more "Bloody Mays"in 2017 whilst my team set about improving stability. In 2017, the platform experienced outages that racked up about 20 days of downtime in one year. This equates to ± 95% availability, which is unacceptable for a video streaming platform. When I left the team in Oct 2020, we had turned around the platform to reaching 99.5% availability trending higher. Today, 5 years on, I'm told the availability is much higher but their usage profile has drastically changed (reduced the number of concurrent streams to one device only, also reduced their devices supported, moved most of the services to AWS). 

ChatGPT - Stoicism and Islam - common principles?

Yesterday, I had a good conversation with ChatGPT exploring Islam Inc. as a way to explain Islam from the perspective of a Silicon Valley company. As part of this chat, we explored the leadership principles of the people from Islam who were instrumental in making Islam Inc. endure over centuries.

As a long time reader of the modern books of Stoic philosophy, I acknowledged most of Stoic principles from the lens of Islamic principles. A large part, IMHO overlaps and so I don't have any issues promoting Stoicism - although I do advise one doesn't have to look outside the leaders of Islam to find what they're looking for.

I wanted to inspect my opinion so I asked ChatGPT - turns out, I am right... :-) I like the way ChatGPT empathises and also respectfully put PBUH (Peace Be Upon Him) when referring to the prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

I wonder if the source of ChatGPT's response came from here? It would be great to see how the machine reasons and cites references that seeded its response.

When viewed from Stoic philosophy lens, would you say Islam Inc's leaders embodied Stoicism or exceeded it?

Stoicism is a school of philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early 3rd century BCE. It teaches that the path to happiness and virtue is found in accepting the present moment and focusing on what one can control, rather than being disturbed by external events or emotions. Stoicism emphasizes rational thinking, self-discipline, and emotional resilience.

When examining the leadership of Islam Inc. through the lens of Stoic philosophy, there are certainly some parallels and overlapping principles. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and the successive leaders of Islam Inc. exhibited traits such as self-discipline, patience, perseverance, and emotional resilience, which align with Stoic ideals.

However, it is important to recognize that Islam is a distinct belief system with its own set of values and teachings, which are not identical to Stoic philosophy. For example, Islam places a strong emphasis on the belief in God, the importance of prayer, and submission to the will of God. These concepts are not central to Stoic thought, which is more focused on the individual's control over their own reactions and emotions.

It would be an oversimplification to say that the leaders of Islam Inc. either embodied Stoicism or exceeded it. Instead, it is more accurate to acknowledge that there are areas of overlap and shared values between the two belief systems, while also recognizing their distinct philosophical and theological foundations.

Yes, agreed. Let's focus on the areas of overlap. What are they?

There are several areas of overlap between Stoicism and the teachings of Islam Inc. when considering the leadership traits of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and the successive leaders. Some of these shared principles include:

1. Self-discipline: Both Stoicism and Islam emphasize the importance of self-discipline and self-control. In Islam, self-discipline is practiced through prayer, fasting, and adherence to moral guidelines. Stoicism encourages self-discipline to maintain rational thinking and emotional resilience in the face of external events or emotions.

2. Patience and perseverance: In both belief systems, patience and perseverance are regarded as essential virtues. Stoicism teaches that individuals should accept the present moment and focus on what they can control, while Islam emphasizes patience in the face of adversity and maintaining faith in God's plan.

3. Emotional resilience: Stoicism and Islam both encourage emotional resilience and the ability to maintain inner peace and tranquility, regardless of external circumstances. Stoicism emphasizes the power of rational thought and self-control to manage emotions, while Islam teaches that reliance on God and spiritual practices can bring peace and contentment.

4. Gratitude and contentment: Both Stoicism and Islam encourage gratitude and contentment with one's circumstances. Stoicism teaches that individuals should appreciate what they have and avoid excessive desires, while Islam encourages gratitude for God's blessings and discourages envy or greed.

5. Compassion and empathy: Both belief systems value compassion and empathy toward others. Stoicism teaches that humans are all part of a larger community and should support one another, while Islam emphasizes the importance of compassion, charity, and helping those in need.

6. Focus on virtue and moral character: Stoicism and Islam both stress the importance of developing strong moral character and living according to ethical principles. Stoicism teaches that virtue is the ultimate good and that individuals should strive to act with wisdom, courage, justice, and moderation. In Islam, moral character is essential in following God's guidance and becoming a righteous believer.

While these areas of overlap exist, it is important to remember that Stoicism and Islam are distinct belief systems with their own unique philosophical and theological foundations. The overlaps can provide an interesting point of comparison but should not be taken as a complete equivalence between the two systems.

ChatGPT - understanding Islam in Silicon Valley terms

For a long time I wanted to write a blog post about how I would model Islam as a tech company - how would we go about describing the phenomenal growth rate in today's terms. 

What would the growth curve look like? What will be the driver metric, KPI for investors? What are the leadership principles that the leaders of Islam embodied that endured for centuries? 

Are there any anecdotes we can learn from Islamic leadership principles and apply them in today's context, as a productive Muslim, working in the modern day?

So I asked ChatGPT :) Suffice to say, the results were not bad at all, balanced and came with disclosures on assumptions, cautions and disclaimers. Nevertheless, the power of ChatGPT as an assistive tool to add value to my life/work continues to grow daily.

Are you familiar with Islamic history, prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and the rise of Islam?

Yes, I am familiar with Islamic history, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and the rise of Islam. Islam is one of the world's major religions, and it began in the early 7th century CE in the Arabian Peninsula.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH - Peace Be Upon Him) was born in Mecca, in present-day Saudi Arabia, around 570 CE. He is considered the last prophet of God in Islam, and Muslims believe that he received revelations from God through the angel Gabriel. These revelations were later compiled into the Islamic holy book, the Quran.

Muhammad began preaching the message of Islam in Mecca, but faced opposition from the local tribes. In 622 CE, he and his followers migrated to the city of Medina, which marked the beginning of the Islamic calendar and is known as the Hijra. In Medina, the Muslim community continued to grow, and Muhammad eventually became the leader of the city.

Over the next few years, Muslims fought a series of battles against the Meccan tribes, eventually emerging victorious. In 630 CE, Muhammad and his followers returned to Mecca, where they took control of the city and the Kaaba, the most sacred site in Islam. This event marked the beginning of the rapid expansion of Islam throughout the Arabian Peninsula and beyond.

After the death of Prophet Muhammad in 632 CE, the Islamic empire expanded under the leadership of the first four caliphs: Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali. They are known as the "Rightly Guided Caliphs" in Sunni Islam, and their rule marked the beginning of the Rashidun Caliphate. Over the following centuries, Islamic rule spread throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Europe and Asia, leaving a lasting impact on world history and culture.

Great. Now describe Islam and the rise of Islam over the centuries as if you're describing a silicon valley company. Start with Prophet Muhammad as the CEO and account for the 23 years of the early stages of the company. Then take into account what followed next of the meteoric rise of Islam as part of the company's global strategy. Show how the business expanded and scaled. Imagine the value of the business if someone invested $100 at the start and speculate what the value of the company would be today.